Africa is a lot more linguistically diverse than you think—it’s just that most of the continent’s languages are hidden beneath colonial lingua francas used in the government, media, and education. Indeed, many African countries use English, French, Arabic, or Portuguese as their official languages, but most people in these countries only learn the official languages as second languages—their native languages are smaller, indigenous languages. For a large number of people in West Africa, for example, their mother tongue is Pular.
Across West Africa, you’ll find more than 4.8 million native speakers of Pular, making it one of the biggest and most influential languages in the region. Pular is actually considered a dialect of Fula, but Fula’s many dialects are often thought of as languages in their own right, especially as different dialects tend to be more centered in different countries. Pular can be considered Fula’s “Guinea dialect,” with the majority of speakers living in Guinea. However, resources remain scarce for Pular, which is why we here at TranslationServices.com are so proud to present our dedicated translation services for Pular.
Don’t hesitate to reach out and request a free quote for our Pular translation services today!
Pular: Guinea’s real native language
Like many other countries in West Africa, Guinea has instituted French as its official language, but the most-spoken native language in the country is Pular, accounting for around 4.3 million Guineans, or 55% of the population. More precisely, Pular speakers are concentrated in the Fouta Djallon highlands in central Guinea. Smaller populations of native Pular speakers also exist in neighboring countries, including Guinea-Bissau, Sierra Leone, Mali, and Senegal. Despite the similar names, Pular is not to be confused with the closely related Pulaar language, also spoken natively in Guinea but more concentrated in Senegal.
As with most other indigenous languages in West Africa, Pular comes from the Niger–Congo language family. Specifically, it’s from the Senegambian branch, like Wolof and Serer. The language can be written in three different scripts: the Arabic script, popular in some rural locales; the Latin alphabet, the so-called “UNESCO orthography”; and the Adlam script, an indigenous writing system that has gained rapid popularity. Grammatically, Pular exhibits many differences from English, including placing adjectives, possessives, numerals, and definite articles after the noun instead of before. Pronouns are also complicated—Pular uses different forms for subject and object pronouns and has two different words for “we” to distinguish when the listener is included and when they aren’t. If that all sounds difficult, don’t worry—that’s why we’ve hired native-speaking Pular translators for our team.
Our diverse Pular translation team is ready to help you.
To ensure you have access to high-quality Pular translation services that cater to the unique needs of your project, we’ve made sure to build as flexible a translation team as possible. We’ve hired translators from all across Guinea, as well as Guinea-Bissau, Mali, Sierra Leone, and Senegal, allowing you to receive translation services for whatever variety of Guinea’s biggest native language you want. Our translators are proud to help clients from around the world with their Pular translation needs, translating texts both to and from Pular.
If you’re looking for a specific type of Pular translation services, our diverse team has you covered. You can access academic translation services for everything from research papers to educational materials for kids, and we cater to business clients through our business translation service for financial reports, white papers, press releases, and more. In the literary realm, we’re pleased to provide translation services for Pular-language stories, and we can also translate content like books, poems, games, apps, and more into Pular for speakers in Guinea and beyond. We work with the Arabic, Adlam, and Latin scripts, so just tell us what you’re looking for!
Why not get started with your Pular translation project today? Contact us to place an order!