Fulfulde, A Verbal Language: A Semantic Analysis of Verbal and Nominal Relationship

Abstract

Fulfulde is the language of Fulɓe, an ethnic group of nomads spread across nations from Western to Eastern Africa (Senegal to Sudan and Ethiopia), as going back to their ancestry. When we put together, the nomads and the sedentary, the Fulɓe as a tribe count more than twenty million speakers, both natives and learners. Historically, Fulɓe came to Africa from the Middle East, but their origin is still subject to great speculations. For its particular trait, a great number of linguists agree that Fulfulde is a verb-based language. This is to say that most of the linguistic elements of Fulfulde language derive from a verbal root, and this phenomenon is more pronounced in nominal formation. It is clearly noticed that human, vegetal, animal and environmental traditional names in Fulfulde trace their origin from verbs. This paper aims at proving right or otherwise this hypothesis through an investigative base methodology. Fulfulde verbs have been collected at random, the names that derived from them traced and their derivational process investigated and explained. The main objective of this investigative paper is to bring out this specific particularity of Fulfulde, a language among the major African languages.