Pulaar language
Pulaar speakers, known as Haalpulaar'en live in Senegal, Mauritania, the Gambia, and western Mali.
[5] The Pulaar dialects, as well as other West African languages, are usually referenced under the umbrella term ‘Fula’.
Pulaar is not to be confused with Pular, another variety of Fula spoken in Guinea (including the Fouta Djallon region).
It is then believed that the term Haalpulaar'en (which means 'speakers of the language of Pulaar') was created to apply to non-Fulɓe speakers of Fulɓe, of which the Toucouleur people are the largest demographic.
[9] Other languages that use this system in West Africa include Pular, Wolof, Sereer-Sine and East Limba.
These quinary-decimal counting languages can be found in the west African regions of Sierra Leone, Guinea and Gambia.
[6] The Toucouleur people (also referred to as Tukulor) are one of the largest Pulaar speaking demographics in West Africa.
They are an ethnic group of the Futa Tooro region encompassing the middle of the Senegal River.
The phrase jokkere endam' (literally translated to "following maternal milk") is used to talk about the responsibilities that one has to maintain their relationship with their family.
[12] The Fulɓe people are known for being a semi-nomadic pastoralist group who have a history of cattle-herding, justifying the bovine noun class.
[3] Pulaar today is primarily written in Latin alphabet, with orthographic conventions that are in common for all indigenous languages of Senegal.
The Arabic script is used today as well, albeit in a smaller scale, and only mostly limited to Islamic school teachers and students.
[17][18] A 1987–1988 study of bilingual North Senegalese communities found that the use of Pulaar was decreasing in the younger generation.
In Western Africa, Wolof language is often used in "major pop cultural and entertainment products and radio broadcast content".
[19] Fiona McLaughlin argues that this economic and cultural hegemony that the Wolof have is at the expense of the Pulaar language.
[3] John Hames claims that the prevalence of Wolof in Senegalese culture as well as the lack of government intervention to maintain Pulaar as a contemporary language has led to its decline.
[18] John Hames has argued that the regime of Mauritanian President Moktar Ould Daddah has helped decrease the prevalence of Pulaar.
[20] One of the more notable examples of this is when the Mauritanian government officially passed a law in 1965 that made it mandatory to teach Arabic during primary and secondary education.
[21] The Association pour la Renaissance du Pulaar- Republique Islamique de Mauritanie (ARP-RIM) was established to teach Pulaar literacy in Mauritania.
The organization received increased government funding after the coup d'état of the then President of Mauritania, Moktar Ould Daddah in the late 1970s.
[23] In response to the coup d'état, the Manifesto of the Oppressed Black Mauritanian was published in 1986 which criticized the perceived power and influence of the Arab "minority" in Mauritania.
[4] International development agencies have increasingly decided to focus on the use of local languages in West Africa to communicate ideas and governance.
