The Influence of Arabic on Fulfulde Vocabulary: Evidence from Adamawa State Communities

Fulfulde, the language of the Fulani people, has historically been in sustained contact with Arabic through Islamic religious practice, scholarship, and trade, resulting in significant lexical borrowing that has yet to be systematically documented in the Adamawa State context. This study investigates Arabic vocabulary influence on contemporary Fulfulde as spoken in selected communities in Adamawa State, with attention to the semantic domains most heavily affected by borrowing. The research employs a descriptive linguistic approach, using elicitation interviews and naturalistic speech recordings with 90 native Fulfulde speakers from three communities in Yola North, Mubi, and Ganye. A bilingual Arabic-Fulfulde word list covering religious, legal, temporal, and commercial domains is used as an elicitation tool, and all transcribed data are coded and analysed thematically. The study finds that Arabic loanwords are most concentrated in domains of religious practice, legal terminology, and social relations, reflecting the historical channels of language contact. Phonological adaptation strategies including vowel insertion and consonant substitution are documented and compared with broader patterns of Arabic loanword integration in West African languages. The findings contribute to the documentation of Fulfulde lexicography and illuminate the sociolinguistic dimensions of Fulani Islamic culture in northeastern Nigeria. Keywords: Arabic influence, Fulfulde vocabulary, lexical borrowing, Adamawa, language contact.