The Middle Voice in Fula

Various writers on the language of the Fulani, or, have included in their accounts a description of the three Voices of the verbal system, and a brief statement of their role in the operation of the language. But no detailed analysis of Voice in Fula has yet been published. Such an analysis is attempted in this article, on the basis of the speech of two informants from Gombe Division in Northern Nigeria. 2. The term Voice is here applied to each of the three series of verbal affixes which are found in Fula. The tense affixes fall into three series, differing in distribution and behaviour, and to some extent in meaning. These series cut across the tenses, so that each tense (except for the Negative of Quality and the Imperative) has three different tense-signs associated with it, each belonging to a different series. Thus in the two sets of sentences.