Last updated: 2020-02-07
SLIGHTLY COMPROMISED: glottal stop not always represented; ambiguity concerning the transcription of the palatalized glottal stop
Background
Language Family: Niger-Congo / Atlantic-Congo / Atlantic / Northern / Senegambian / Fula-Wolof / Fulani / East Central
- Nigerian Fulfulde is spoken in Nigeria.
Phonology
Consonants
- Length is a contrastive feature for consonants intervocalically (Ahmad 2014, 5). Geminate consonants are indicated by duplicated graphemes.
- Fricatives, /ⁿdʒ/, and /ŋ/ do not geminate.
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Place of Articulation
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Manner of Articulation
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Labial
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Alveolar
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Postalveolar
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Palatal
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Velar
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Glottal
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Stops (plain)
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p b
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t d
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k ɡ
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ʔ ʔʲ
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Stops (implosives)
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ɓ
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ɗ
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Stops (prenasalized)
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ᵐb
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ⁿd
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ᵑɡ
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Affricates
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tʃ dʒ ⁿdʒ
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Fricatives
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f
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s
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h
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Nasals
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m
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n
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ɲ
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ŋ
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Trills
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r
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Approximants
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l
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j
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w
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Note: For phonemes that share a cell, those on the left are voiceless and those on the right are voiced. The postalveolar affricate on the right is prenasalized. The glottal stop on the right is palatalized.
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Vowels
- Vowel length is contrastive in Nigerian Fulfulde (Ahmad 2014, 8). Long vowels are indicated by duplicate graphemes.
- McIntosh (1982) explains diphthongs as phonetic realizations of vowel glide sequences (p. 22); thus, I have chosen not to include them below.
- Fulfulde is not a tonal language; rather, it exhibits pitch contours based off predictable intonational patterns (Ahmad 2014, 13).
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Front
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Central
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Back
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High
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i
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u
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Mid
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e
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o
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Low
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a
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Alphabet
- Glottal stops are not always represented word-initially, which compromises the language slightly (McIntosh 1982, 25).
- There is also some ambiguity related to how the palatalized glottal stop (including the geminate form) is represented. I’ve listed the different forms below. I have gone with the transcription represented in Ahmad (2014) (pp. 5, 7), given that such forms (non-geminate) appear in the Crúbadán corpus; the forms based on the transcription of McIntosh (1982) do not appear (p. 23).
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Grapheme
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Phoneme
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Comment
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a
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/a/
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b
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/b/
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ɓ
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/ɓ/
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c
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/tʃ/
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d
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/d/
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ɗ
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/ɗ/
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e
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/e/
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f
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/f/
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g
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/ɡ/
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h
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/h/
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i
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/i/
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j
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/dʒ/
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k
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/k/
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l
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/l/
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m
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/m/
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n
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/n/
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ŋ
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/ŋ/
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o
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/o/
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p
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/p/
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r
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/r/
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s
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/s/
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t
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/t/
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u
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/u/
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w
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/w/
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y
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/j/
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’
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/ʔ/
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ƴ; y’
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/ʔʲ/
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geminate form: ⟨’y’y⟩ or ⟨ƴƴ⟩ (Ahmad 2014, 5, 7)
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’y
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/ʔʲ/
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geminate form: ⟨’’y⟩ (McIntosh 1982, 23) - Not represented in the rules
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Digraph
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mb
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/ᵐb/
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nd
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/ⁿd/
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nj
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/ⁿdʒ/
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ny
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/ɲ/
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ng
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/ᵑɡ/
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Syllable Structure
- Syllables in Nigerian Fulfulde follow the order of CV(V)(C)(C) (Ahmad 2014, 11).
Misc. Rules
- Long vowels may undergo degemination when occurring in word-final unstressed syllables (i.e. the length distinction in this position is neutralized) (McIntosh 1982, 25).
References
Ahmad, Shehu. 2014. “STRESS Placement Rules in Fulfulde: A Review,” January, 169–86.
McIntosh, Mary Hollis. 1982. “Aspects of Fulfulde Syntax and Morphology.” PhD thesis, University of London.