Pular.  It is difficult.

For the the past two months the majority of my time has been consumed learning Pulafuuta.  Considering my mastery of this language is going to be playing a major role in my life for the next couple of years, I thought I would write some information and observations about the language.  Especially since most of you have probably never even heard of Pular… Some observations are informative.  Others just amusing… Enjoy.

Pulafuuta is a regional variety of Pular/Fulfulde spoken in southern Senegal.  Pular/Fulfulde is spoken by 13-15 million people in West Africa. 

According to Wikipedia, Pular/Fulfulde is an official language in Niger, Nigeria and a National Language in   Guinea, Mali, Mauritania, Senegal. There are also Pular speaking communities in Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Central African republic, Chad, Gambia, Guinea-Bissau and Sierra Leone. 

As a fellow Volunteer put it, the Pulars are like the Jews of West Africa.  They are a few of them everywhere, but they aren’t really a majority anywhere.  And everyone seems to hate them—joking—sorta.

The first person singular in Pular is “Mi” (in English it is “I”).  This means that every time I speak about myself, to an English speaker is sounds like I am talking about myself in the third person.  ie: “Mi blah blah blah”.

There are no verb conjugations in Pular (I hated conjugating verbs in French—so this is a welcome relief).

However, there are 24 different articles.  English has one: “the”.  French has three: “la, le, les”.  Chances are I will never learn how to properly say “the” in this language.

Verbs in Pular are very specific.  For example the verb “doomugol” means “to go to a person’s house around dinner time in order to mooch a meal.”  Seriously.

Things that essentially sound the same to an English speaker can mean two very different things.  For example, “Hanki, mi tutii lekki” means “yesterday, I planted a tree” however “Hanki, mi tuutii lekki” means  “yesterday, I vomited medicine.”

The verb “whoppugol” means “to do laundry”.  “Mi whoppi” translates as “I did laundry”.  Sometimes I wash my clothes just so I can walk around the rest of the day saying “mi whoppi”.  Cracks me up.