Most countries in Africa use an imported language as their national lingua franca. In West Africa, it’s usually English or French (although Portuguese in Guinea-Bissau), with Arabic broadly dominating the linguistic landscape of North Africa. But don’t be fooled—that doesn’t mean the region isn’t teeming with languages, particularly in West Africa, where most people don’t speak the official language as their native tongue. Across a large swath of West Africa, you’ll find speakers of the Fula language, of which a prominent variety is Pulaar.
An estimated 5.9 million people speak Pulaar as their first language, making it a major language in the region, where many languages are spoken but usually by relatively small numbers of people. Pulaar is considered a dialect of Fula, which boasts more than 36 million native speakers across the Sahel, but Pulaar is not usually referenced as “Fula.” Additionally, there are many subdialects within Pulaar, but all are mutually intelligible. We at TranslationServices.com are proud to introduce our new Pulaar translation team, ready to take on your orders!
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A deeper exploration of Pulaar
Like Fula, the larger umbrella language of which Pulaar is considered a dialect, Pulaar is spoken across a number of countries in West Africa. Specifically, Pulaar-speaking communities can be found in Senegal, the Gambia, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Mali, and Mauritania, with the biggest concentration in Senegal. In fact, Pulaar is the second-biggest native language in Senegal—spoken natively by more than 23% of the country, it’s outpaced only by Wolof. The language belongs to the massive Niger–Congo language family, which comprises most languages in sub-Saharan Africa, but Pulaar is not from the Bantu branch, residing instead on the Senegambian branch.
Pulaar uses a subject-verb-object word order, like English and many other Niger–Congo languages. Inflection on nouns is minimal, with Pulaar lacking noun cases—but verbal inflection is complex. Pulaar verbs can take a number of suffixes that “extend” the meaning of the verb, adding nuance and depth to the action. There’s a reflexive extension to describe an action done to oneself, a comprehensive extension used for actions done completely or exhaustively, and even a simulative extension to denote that one is only pretending to perform the action. Others, like the locative or dative extensions, play the same role as nominal cases in other languages. Of course, these complex features of Pulaar can make the language hard to translate—which is why it’s best to work with native-speaking Pulaar translation experts like ours.
Let us help you with your Pulaar translation project—whatever it may be.
To ensure that you have access to a diverse team of Pulaar translators who can cater to your individual specifications, we’ve gone all across Senegal, the Gambia, Mali, Mauritania, Guinea, and Guinea-Bissau to recruit a range of Pulaar translators representing different regional dialects. All you have to do is tell us which variety of Pulaar you’re working with, and we’ll set you up with the right translator. Our team members work with texts both to Pulaar and from Pulaar, proudly offering their services to clients from all across West Africa and the world.
Our team is also populated with translation specialists who work with different types of texts, including academic texts, business texts, and literary texts. If you want to translate journal articles or research papers, work with our Pulaar academic translation team. If you’re coming to us with business plans or marketing materials, our Pulaar business translation team would be happy to help. Or if you’re looking to translate creative materials like books, poems, apps, games, and more, let our Pulaar literary translation team guide you.
Whatever you need for your Pulaar translation team, we’re here to help—just place an order now!