Fula language in the context of "Fula people"

Niger–Congo is a proposed family of languages spoken over the majority of sub-Saharan Africa. It unites the Mande languages, the Atlantic–Congo languages (which share a characteristic noun class system), and possibly several smaller groups of languages that are difficult to classify. If valid, Niger–Congo would be the world's largest language family in terms of member languages, the third-largest in terms of speakers, and Africa's largest in terms of geographical area. The number of named Niger–Congo languages listed by Ethnologue is 1,540.

The proposed family would be the third-largest in the world by number of native speakers, with around 600 million people as of 2025. Within Niger–Congo, the Bantu languages alone account for 350 million people (2015), or half the total Niger–Congo speaking population. The most widely spoken Niger–Congo languages by number of native speakers are Yoruba, Igbo, Fula, Lingala, Ewe, Fon, Ga-Dangme, Shona, Sesotho, Xhosa, Zulu, Akan, and Mooré. The most widely spoken by the total number of speakers is Swahili, which is used as a lingua franca in parts of eastern and southeastern Africa.

Bi-quinary coded decimal is a numeral encoding scheme used in many abacuses and in some early computers, notably the Colossus. The term bi-quinary indicates that the code comprises both a two-state (bi) and a five-state (quinary) component. The encoding resembles that used by many abacuses, with four beads indicating the five values either from 0 through 4 or from 5 through 9 and another bead indicating which of those ranges (which can alternatively be thought of as +5).

Several human languages, most notably Fula and Wolof also use biquinary systems. For example, the Fula word for 6, jowi e go'o, literally means five [plus] one. Roman numerals use a symbolic, rather than positional, bi-quinary base, even though Latin is completely decimal.

Wolof (/ˈwoʊlɒf/ WOH-lof; Wolof làkk, وࣷلࣷفْ لࣵکّ) also known as Senegalese is a Niger–Congo language spoken by the Wolof people in much of the West African subregion of Senegambia that is split between the countries of Senegal, The Gambia and Mauritania. Like the neighbouring languages Serer and Fula, it belongs to the Senegambian branch of the Niger–Congo language family. Unlike most other languages of its family, Wolof is not a tonal language.

Wolof is the most widely spoken language in Senegal, spoken natively by the Wolof people (40% of the population) but also by most other Senegalese as a second language. Wolof dialects vary geographically and between rural and urban areas. The principal dialect of Dakar, for instance, is an urban mixture of Wolof, French, and Arabic.

The Fula, Fulani, or Fulɓe people are an ethnic group in the Sahara, Sahel, and West Africa, widely dispersed across the region. Inhabiting many countries, they live mainly in West Africa and northern parts of Central Africa, South Sudan, Darfur, and regions near the Red Sea coast in Sudan. The approximate number of Fula people is unknown, due to clashing definitions regarding Fula ethnicity. Various estimates put the figure between 25 and 40 million people worldwide.

A significant proportion of the Fula—a third, or an estimated 7 to 10 million—are pastoralists, and their ethnic group has the largest nomadic pastoral community in the world. The majority of the Fula ethnic group consist of semi-sedentary people, as well as sedentary settled farmers, scholars, artisans, merchants, and nobility. As an ethnic group, they are bound together by the Fula language, their history and their culture. The Fula are almost completely Muslims, with a small minority being Christians or animists.

Zamfara (Hausa: Jihar Zamfara; Fula: Leydi Zamfara; Adlam: 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤶𞤢𞤥𞤬𞤢𞤪𞤢) is a state in northwestern Nigeria. The capital of Zamfara state is Gusau and its current governor is Dauda Lawal. Until 1996, the area was part of Sokoto State.

Zamfara is a densely populated area with the Hausa. The Zamfarawa, a section of the Hausa ethnic nationality, cluster mainly in Anka, Gummi, Bukkuyum and Talata Mafara Local Governments areas. The Gobirawa, another Hausa sub-group, populate Shinkafi Local Government. The Gobirawa actually migrated from the Gobir Kingdom. The Burmawa sub-group are found in Bakura, while the Fulani are scattered all over the State, with significant concentrations in Bungudu, Maradun, and Gusau. Hausa sub-groups in Chafe, Bungudu and Maru, are mainly Katsinawa, Garewatawa and Hadejawa, while the Alibawa are located at Kaura Namoda and Zurmi. The Alawan Shehu Usmanu Fulani's are found in Birninmagaji.

Ajami (Arabic: عجمي, ʿajamī) or Ajamiyya (عجمية, ʿajamiyyah), is a variety of Arabic-derived scripts used for writing African languages such as Songhai, Mandé, Fula, Hausa and Swahili, although multiple other languages are also written using the script, including Mooré, Wolof, Kanuri, and Yoruba. They are adaptations of the Arabic script to write sounds not found in Standard Arabic. Rather than adding new letters, modifications usually consist of additional dots or lines added to pre-existing letters.

Kaduna (Hausa: Jihar Kaduna, جىِهَر كَدُنا; مدينة كدونا; Fula: Leydi Kaduna, 𞤤𞤫𞤴𞤣𞤭 𞤳𞤢𞤣𞤵𞤲𞤢; Tyap: Si̱tet Ka̱duna) is a state in the northwest geopolitical zone of Nigeria. The state capital is its namesake, the city of Kaduna, which was the 8th largest city in the country as of 2006. Created in 1967 as North-Central State, which also encompassed the modern Katsina State, Kaduna State achieved its current borders in 1987. Kaduna State is the fourth largest and third most populous state in the country, Kaduna State is nicknamed the Centre of Learning, owing to the presence of numerous educational institutions of importance within the state such as Ahmadu Bello University, Nigerian Defence Academy, Air Force Institute of Technology (AFIT), Kaduna Polytechnic, etc.

Modern Kaduna State is home to the sites of some of Africa's oldest civilizations, including the Nok civilization that prospered from c. 1500 BC to c. 500 AD. In the 9th century, geographer and historian Ya'qubi documented the existence of the Hausa Kingdoms, which existed until the region was incorporated into the Sokoto Caliphate in the early 1800s. During the colonial era, the city of Kaduna was made the capital of Northern Nigeria Protectorate by British leadership.

The Wodaabe (Fula: Woɗaaɓe, وٛطَاٻ‎ٜ, 𞤏𞤮𞤯𞤢𞥄𞤩𞤫) is a name that is used to designate a subgroup of the Fula ethnic group who are traditionally nomadic and found primarily in Niger and Chad. All Wodaabe people should not be mistaken as Mbororo as these are two separate subgroups of the Fulani people. It is translated into English as "Cattle Fulani", and meaning "those who dwell in cattle camps". The Wodaabe culture is one of the 186 cultures of the standard cross-cultural sample used by anthropologists to compare cultural traits. A Wodaabe woman, Hindou Oumarou Ibrahim, was also chosen to represent civil society of the world on the signing of Paris Protocol on 22 April 2016.

Nigeria is a very ethnically diverse country with 371 ethnic groups, the largest of which are the Hausa, Yoruba and the Igbo. Nigeria has one official language which is English, as a result of the British colonial rule over the nation. However, it is not spoken as a first language in much of the country because of the massive linguistic diversity in the country. Because of this, Nigeria stands out as one of the world's most linguistically diverse nations, with over 500 languages spoken among its 223 million people (2023 estimate), a testament to its rich ethnic heritage. Some of the popular languages spoken in Nigeria are listed as follows: Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, Ijaw, Ibibio, Edo, Fulfude, and Tiv to name a few.