Fulani (Fulfulde) Text to Speech

Fulfulde is written in three ways. The Latin alphabet, the most common in Nigeria, adds the hooked letters ɓ, ɗ and ƴ for implosive consonants, along with ŋ and ñ. Arabic-based Ajami has a long history in religious and scholarly writing. And Adlam, an alphabet invented for the language by two brothers in Guinea in the late 1980s, has spread quickly through phones and social media.

Grammatically Fulfulde is known for two things. It has an unusually large number of noun classes, marked by suffixes, and it uses consonant mutation, in which the first consonant of a word changes depending on its grammatical role, so related words can begin with different sounds. Long vowels and doubled consonants are written and matter for meaning. Fulfulde is generally not described as tonal, so length and stress carry the rhythm.

Varieties differ enough that speakers from distant regions can struggle to follow each other. In Nigeria, Fulfulde is spoken across the north, and in the north-east and northern Cameroon the Adamawa variety serves as a regional lingua franca around Yola and Garoua. In Guinea, Pular of the Futa Jallon highlands is the language in which Adlam was born.

Fulfulde has a deep literary heritage in Ajami, including religious poetry, and today it is used on regional radio, in religious teaching and increasingly in online video. Much of that audience listens more than it reads, which makes spoken content especially useful.

A good Fulfulde voice keeps implosives distinct from plain b, d and y, holds long vowels and doubled consonants for their full length, and reads mutated word forms naturally instead of stumbling on them. It should sound calm and measured, since Fulfulde speech values composure.

Notevibes voices are expressive from the first sentence. Say in plain words how a passage should be read, for instance slow and respectful for a sermon or warm for a family story, and Noty writes the direction while your text stays exactly as written. Long works can be generated overnight at a third of the price, and audio exports as MP3 or WAV.