ABSTRACT
The West Atlantic languages are spoken in the coastal area of West Africa from Senegal to River Loffa, with ADYUKRU far to the south-east on the Ivory Coast. In Nigeria the dialect of Kano and Katsina may be considered as the most widely understood. The name 'Western FULANI' is applied in Nigeria to dialects of FULANI other than that of Adamawa. The West Atlantic languages do not form nearly so close a unit as, for example, the GUR languages. There is great diversity in vocabulary and in the Noun Class system, also in many grammatical details. Only a limited number of languages has been sufficiently investigated, so that in most cases it is not possible to make definitive statements on the nature of their sounds or on grammatical structure. Further research is badly needed. In the Singular of most Nouns there is a definite relation between the initial consonant of the Noun and the Qualificative.
