Hausa language
Encyclopedia
Hausa is the Chadic language
with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language
by about 25 million people
, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people. Hausa is one of Africa's largest spoken languages after Arabic, French
, English
, Portuguese
and Swahili
.
subgroup of the Chadic languages
group, which in turn is part of the Afro-Asiatic language
family.
Along with the Chadic language branch, the Afro-Asiatic language family also includes 4 other branches:
Native speakers of Hausa, the Hausa people
are mostly to be found in the Africa
n country of Niger
and in the north of Nigeria
, but the language is used as a trade language across a much larger swathe of West Africa
(Benin
, Ghana
, Cameroon
, Togo
, Cote d'Ivoire
etc.), Central Africa
and western Sudan
(Chad
, Central African Republic
, Sudan
, Equatorial Guinea
), particularly amongst Muslims
. Radio stations like BBC
, Radio France Internationale
, China Radio International
, Voice of Russia
, Voice of America
, Deutsche Welle
, and IRIB broadcast in Hausa. It is taught at universities in Africa and around the world.
s include Kananci which is spoken in Kano
, Bausanchi in Bauchi
, Dauranchi in Daura
, Gudduranci in Katagum
Misau
and part of Borno
and Hadejanci in Hadejiya.
Western Hausa dialects include Sakkwatanci in Sokoto
, Kutebanci in Taraba, Katsinanci in Katsina
, Arewanci in Gobir
, Adar
, Kebbi, and Zamfara, and Kurhwayanci in Kurfey in Niger. Katsina is transitional between Eastern and Western dialects.
Northern Hausa dialects include Arewa
and Arawa.
Zazzaganci in Zaria
is the major Southern dialect.
The Kano dialect (Kananci) is the standard. The BBC
, Deutsche Welle
and Voice of America
offer Hausa services on its international news web site using Kananci.
The western Hausa dialects of Kurhwayanci, Daragaram and Aderawa, represent the traditional northernmost limit of native Hausa communities. These are spoken in the arid zone bordering, and considerably within, the Sahara
desert of west and central Niger
in the Tillaberi
, Tahoua
, Dosso, Maradi, Agadez
and Zinder
regions. While mutually comprehensible with other dialects (especially Sakkwatanci, and to a lesser extent Gaananci), the northernmost dialects have slight grammatical and lexical differences owing to frequent contact with the Zarma and Tuareg groups and cultural changes owing to the geographical differences between the grassland and desert zones. These dialects also border on the pitch accents of non-Hausa speakers, owing to between Berber
and Arabic speakers.
This effect is not limited to Hausa alone, but other northern dialects of neighbouring languages; such as the difference within Songhay language (between the northernmost Koyra Chiini and Koyraboro Senni
dialects of Timbuktu
and Gao
, and the Zarma
dialect, spoken from western Niger
to northern Ghana
), and within the Soninke language
(between the northernmost dialects of Imraguen
and Nemadi spoken in east-central Mauritania
, and the southern dialects of Senegal
, Mali
and the sahel
).
and western Côte d'Ivoire
, represents the westernmost spoken Hausa dialect in geography. Gaananci forms a separate group, as it now falls outside the contiguous Hausa-dominant area, and is usually identified by the use of c for ky, and j for gy. This is attributed to the fact that Ghana's Hausa population descend from Hausa-Fulani
traders settled in the zongo
districts of major trade-towns up and down the previous Asante
, Gonja and Dagomba kingdoms stretching from the sahel
to coastal regions, in particular the cities of Tamale
, Salaga
, Bawku
, Bolgatanga
, Achimota
, Nima
and Kumasi
. Because of this, and the surrounding Akan, Gur
and Mande
languages, Gaananci was historically isolated from the other Hausa dialects. Despite this difference, grammatical similarities between Sakkwatanci and Ghanaian Hausa determine that the dialect, and the origin of the Ghanaian Hausa people themselves, are derived from the Northwestern Hausa area surrounding Sokoto.
There are inflected influences from Zarma
, Gur
and Soninke
in Gaananci, owing to the area being the linguistic boundary between the predominantly Mandinka
and Gur peoples, originating to the west in Mali
, and the Hausa
and Zarma, owing their origins to the east in the traditional Hausa lands in northern Nigeria and Niger.
Hausa is also widely spoken by non-native Gur
and Mande Ghanaian Muslims, but differs from Gaananci, and rather has features consistent with non-native Hausa dialects.
in West Africa. Non-native pronunciation vastly differs from native pronunciation by way of key omissions of implosive
and ejective
consonants present in native Hausa dialects, such as ɗ, ɓ and kʼ/ƙ, which are pronounced by non-native speakers as d, b and k respectively. This creates confusion among non-native and native Hausa speakers, as non-native pronunciation does not distinguish words like daidai ("correct") and ɗaiɗai ("one-by-one"). Another difference between native and non-native Hausa is the omission of vowel length
in words and change in the standard tone of native Hausa dialects (ranging from native Fulani and Tuareg Hausa-speakers omitting tone altogether, to Hausa speakers with Gur
or Yoruba
mother tongues using additional tonal structures similar to those used in their native languages). Use of masculine and feminine gender
nouns and sentence structure are usually omitted or interchanged, and many native Hausa nouns and verbs are substituted for non-native terms from local languages.
Non-native speakers of Hausa number around 25 million, and in some areas live close to native Hausa.Hausa has replaced many other languages especially in the North Central and North Eastern part of Nigeria, and continue gaining popularity in other parts of Africa as a result of Hausa movies and musics which spread out throughout the region.
The three-way contrast between palatalized velars /c ɟ cʼ/, plain velars /k ɡ kʼ/, and labialized velars /kʷ ɡʷ kʷʼ/ is found only before long or short /a/, e.g. /cʼaːɽa/ ('grass'), /kʼaːɽaː/ ('to increase'), /kʷʼaːɽaː/ ('shea-nuts'). Before front vowels, only palatalized and labialized velars occur, e.g. /ciːʃiː/ ('jealousy') vs. /kʷiːɓiː/ ('side of body'). Before rounded vowels, only labialized velars occur, e.g. /kʷoːɽaː/ ('ringworm').
s (implosives and ejectives) at four or five places of articulation
(depending on the dialect). They require movement of the glottis during pronunciation
and have a staccato
sound.
They are written with modified versions of Latin letters. They can also be denoted with an apostrophe
, either before or after depending on the letter, as shown below.
b' / , an implosive consonant
, IPA [ɓ], or sometimes [ʔb];
d' / , an implosive [ɗ], sometimes [dʔ];
ts', an ejective consonant
, [tsʼ] or [sʼ] according to the dialect;
ch', an ejective [tʃʼ] (does not occur in Kano dialect)
k' / , an ejective [kʼ]; [kʲʼ] and [kʷʼ] are separate consonants;
'y is a palatalized
glottal stop, found in only a small number of high frequency words. Historically it developed from palatalized [ɗ].
Monophthongs are:
Single Vowels :/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/.
Long Vowels:/aa/, /ee/, /ii/, /oo/, and /uu/.
Diphthongs are:
/ai/, /au/, /iu/ and /ui/.
s a, e, i, o and u may have low tone, high tone and falling tone.
For representing tones accented vowels may be used:
à è ì ò ù (low tone)
á é í ó ú (high tone)
â ê î ô û (falling tone)
In standard written Hausa, tone is not marked. However it is needed for disambiguation and thus it is marked in dictionaries and other scientific works.
is a Latin-based alphabet
called boko
, which was imposed in the 1930s by the British colonial administration.
The letter is used only in Niger
; in Nigeria
it is written .
Tone, vowel length, and the distinction between /r/ and /ɽ/ (which does not exist for all speakers) are not marked in writing. So, for example, /daɡa/ "from" and /daːɡaː/ "battle" are both written daga.
, a variant of the Arabic script
, since the early 17th century. There is no standard system of using ajami, and different writers may use letters with different values. Short vowels are written regularly with the help of vowel marks, which are seldom used in Arabic texts other than the Quran. Many medieval Hausa Manuscripts similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts written in the Ajami script, have been discovered recently some of them even describe constellation
s and calendars.
In the following table, vowels are shown with the Arabic letter for t as an example.
Chadic languages
The Chadic languages constitute a language family of perhaps 200 languages spoken across northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Cameroon, belonging to the Afroasiatic phylum...
with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
by about 25 million people
Hausa people
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people. Hausa is one of Africa's largest spoken languages after Arabic, French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
, English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
, Portuguese
Portuguese language
Portuguese is a Romance language that arose in the medieval Kingdom of Galicia, nowadays Galicia and Northern Portugal. The southern part of the Kingdom of Galicia became independent as the County of Portugal in 1095...
and Swahili
Swahili language
Swahili or Kiswahili is a Bantu language spoken by various ethnic groups that inhabit several large stretches of the Mozambique Channel coastline from northern Kenya to northern Mozambique, including the Comoro Islands. It is also spoken by ethnic minority groups in Somalia...
.
Classification
Hausa belongs to the West Chadic languagesWest Chadic languages
The West Chadic languages of the Afro-Asiatic family are spoken principally in Niger and Nigeria. They include Hausa, the most populous Chadic language and the major language of West Africa.-Languages:...
subgroup of the Chadic languages
Chadic languages
The Chadic languages constitute a language family of perhaps 200 languages spoken across northern Nigeria, Niger, Chad, Central African Republic and Cameroon, belonging to the Afroasiatic phylum...
group, which in turn is part of the Afro-Asiatic language
Afro-Asiatic languages
The Afroasiatic languages , also known as Hamito-Semitic, constitute one of the world's largest language families, with about 375 living languages...
family.
Along with the Chadic language branch, the Afro-Asiatic language family also includes 4 other branches:
- Semitic languagesSemitic languagesThe Semitic languages are a group of related languages whose living representatives are spoken by more than 270 million people across much of the Middle East, North Africa and the Horn of Africa...
(Hebrew, Arabic, Aramaic, Amharic, etc.) - Cushitic languagesCushitic languagesThe Cushitic languages are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family spoken in the Horn of Africa, Tanzania, Kenya, Sudan and Egypt. They are named after the Biblical character Cush, who was identified as an ancestor of the speakers of these specific languages as early as AD 947...
(SomaliSomali languageThe Somali language is a member of the East Cushitic branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family. Its nearest relatives are Afar and Oromo. Somali is the best documented of the Cushitic languages, with academic studies beginning before 1900....
, OromoOromo languageOromo, also known as Afaan Oromo, Oromiffa, Afan Boran, Afan Orma, and sometimes in other languages by variant spellings of these names , is an Afro-Asiatic language, and the most widely spoken of the Cushitic family. Forms of Oromo are spoken as a first language by more than 25 million Oromo and...
, etc.) - Berber languagesBerber languagesThe Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
(TuaregTuareg languagesTuareg is a Berber language or family of very closely related languages and dialects spoken by the Tuareg Berbers, in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the Kinnin, in Chad.- Description :Other Berber languages and Tamashaq are quite mutually...
, KabyleKabyle languageKabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people north and northeast of Algeria. Estimates about the number of speakers range from 5 million to about 7 million speakers worldwide, the majority in Algeria.-Classification:The classification of Kabyle is Afro-Asiatic, Berber and...
, etc.) - Egyptian languages (Ancient EgyptianEgyptian languageEgyptian is the oldest known indigenous language of Egypt and a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. Written records of the Egyptian language have been dated from about 3400 BC, making it one of the oldest recorded languages known. Egyptian was spoken until the late 17th century AD in the...
, CopticCoptic languageCoptic or Coptic Egyptian is the current stage of the Egyptian language, a northern Afro-Asiatic language spoken in Egypt until at least the 17th century. Egyptian began to be written using the Greek alphabet in the 1st century...
, etc.)
Geographic distribution
Hausa people
The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
are mostly to be found in the Africa
Africa
Africa is the world's second largest and second most populous continent, after Asia. At about 30.2 million km² including adjacent islands, it covers 6% of the Earth's total surface area and 20.4% of the total land area...
n country of Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
and in the north of Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
, but the language is used as a trade language across a much larger swathe of West Africa
West Africa
West Africa or Western Africa is the westernmost region of the African continent. Geopolitically, the UN definition of Western Africa includes the following 16 countries and an area of approximately 5 million square km:-Flags of West Africa:...
(Benin
Benin
Benin , officially the Republic of Benin, is a country in West Africa. It borders Togo to the west, Nigeria to the east and Burkina Faso and Niger to the north. Its small southern coastline on the Bight of Benin is where a majority of the population is located...
, Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
, Cameroon
Cameroon
Cameroon, officially the Republic of Cameroon , is a country in west Central Africa. It is bordered by Nigeria to the west; Chad to the northeast; the Central African Republic to the east; and Equatorial Guinea, Gabon, and the Republic of the Congo to the south. Cameroon's coastline lies on the...
, Togo
Togo
Togo, officially the Togolese Republic , is a country in West Africa bordered by Ghana to the west, Benin to the east and Burkina Faso to the north. It extends south to the Gulf of Guinea, on which the capital Lomé is located. Togo covers an area of approximately with a population of approximately...
, Cote d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
etc.), Central Africa
Central Africa
Central Africa is a core region of the African continent which includes Burundi, the Central African Republic, Chad, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Rwanda....
and western Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
(Chad
Chad
Chad , officially known as the Republic of Chad, is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic to the south, Cameroon and Nigeria to the southwest, and Niger to the west...
, Central African Republic
Central African Republic
The Central African Republic , is a landlocked country in Central Africa. It borders Chad in the north, Sudan in the north east, South Sudan in the east, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and the Republic of the Congo in the south, and Cameroon in the west. The CAR covers a land area of about ,...
, Sudan
Sudan
Sudan , officially the Republic of the Sudan , is a country in North Africa, sometimes considered part of the Middle East politically. It is bordered by Egypt to the north, the Red Sea to the northeast, Eritrea and Ethiopia to the east, South Sudan to the south, the Central African Republic to the...
, Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea
Equatorial Guinea, officially the Republic of Equatorial Guinea where the capital Malabo is situated.Annobón is the southernmost island of Equatorial Guinea and is situated just south of the equator. Bioko island is the northernmost point of Equatorial Guinea. Between the two islands and to the...
), particularly amongst Muslims
Islam
Islam . The most common are and . : Arabic pronunciation varies regionally. The first vowel ranges from ~~. The second vowel ranges from ~~~...
. Radio stations like BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale
Radio France Internationale was created in 1975 as part of Radio France by the Government of France, and replaced the Poste Colonial , Paris Mondial , Radio Paris , RTF Radio Paris and ORTF Radio Paris...
, China Radio International
China Radio International
China Radio International , the former Radio Beijing and originally Radio Peking, founded on December 3 of 1941, is one of the three state-owned media in China along with China National Radio and China Central Television in the People's Republic of China .As the PRC's external radio station, CRI...
, Voice of Russia
Voice of Russia
Voice of Russia is the Russian government's international radio broadcasting service owned by the All-Russia State Television and Radio Company. Its predecessor Radio Moscow was the official international broadcasting station of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.-Early years:Radio Moscow...
, Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
, Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...
, and IRIB broadcast in Hausa. It is taught at universities in Africa and around the world.
Traditional dialects
Eastern Hausa dialectDialect
The term dialect is used in two distinct ways, even by linguists. One usage refers to a variety of a language that is a characteristic of a particular group of the language's speakers. The term is applied most often to regional speech patterns, but a dialect may also be defined by other factors,...
s include Kananci which is spoken in Kano
Kano
Kano is a city in Nigeria and the capital of Kano State in Northern Nigeria. Its metropolitan population is the second largest in Nigeria after Lagos. The Kano Urban area covers 137 sq.km and comprises six Local Government Area - Kano Municipal, Fagge, Dala, Gwale, Tarauni and Nassarawa - with a...
, Bausanchi in Bauchi
Bauchi
Bauchi is a city in northeast Nigeria, the capital of Bauchi State, of the Bauchi Local Government Area within that State, and of the traditional Bauchi Emirate. The city has a population of 316,173...
, Dauranchi in Daura
Daura
Daura is a city, emirate, and Local Government Area in Katsina State, northern Nigeria. It is the spiritual home of the Hausa people.The University of California's African American Studies Department refers to Daura, as well as Katsina, as having been "ancient seats of Islamic culture and...
, Gudduranci in Katagum
Katagum
Katagum is a town, a local government area and a traditional emirate in Bauchi State of northern Nigeria. The town is located on the northern bank of the Jama'are River, which is a tributary of the Hadejia. Most of the inhabitants are Muslim, along with people from the Fulani, Kanuri, Hausa,...
Misau
Misau
Misau is a Local Government Area of Bauchi State, Nigeria. Its headquarters are in the town of Misau.It has an area of 1,226 km² and a population of 263,487 at the 2006 census.The postal code of the area is 750....
and part of Borno
Borno State
Borno State is a state in north-eastern Nigeria. Its capital is Maiduguri. The state was formed in 1976 from the split of the North-Eastern State...
and Hadejanci in Hadejiya.
Western Hausa dialects include Sakkwatanci in Sokoto
Sokoto
Sokoto is a city located in the extreme northwest of Nigeria, near to the confluence of the Sokoto River and the Rima River. As of 2006 it has a population of 427,760...
, Kutebanci in Taraba, Katsinanci in Katsina
Katsina
Katsina is a city , and a Local Government Area in northern Nigeria, and is the capital of Katsina State. Katsina is located some 160 miles east of the city of Sokoto, and 84 miles northwest of Kano, close to the border with Niger. As of 2007, Katsina's estimated population was 459,022...
, Arewanci in Gobir
Gobir
Gobir was a city-state in what is now Nigeria. Founded by the Hausa in the eleventh century, Gobir was one of the seven original kingdoms of Hausaland, and continued under Hausa rule for nearly seven hundred years. Its capital was the city of Alkalawa...
, Adar
Adar
Adar is the sixth month of the civil year and the twelfth month of the ecclesiastical year on the Hebrew calendar. It is a winter month of 29 days...
, Kebbi, and Zamfara, and Kurhwayanci in Kurfey in Niger. Katsina is transitional between Eastern and Western dialects.
Northern Hausa dialects include Arewa
Arewa
Arewa is a Hausa language term meaning "northern" or "northerners". Its popular usage in contemporary Nigeria sometimes suggests a northern Nigerian regionalism or proto-nationalism...
and Arawa.
Zazzaganci in Zaria
Zaria
Zaria may refer to:*Zaria, a city in Kaduna State, Nigeria*Zaria , or Zoria, the Slavic goddess of beauty*Countess Zaria of Orange-Nassau, Jonkvrouwe van Amsberg, a member of the Dutch royal family...
is the major Southern dialect.
The Kano dialect (Kananci) is the standard. The BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
, Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle
Deutsche Welle or DW, is Germany's international broadcaster. The service is aimed at the overseas market. It broadcasts news and information on shortwave, Internet and satellite radio on 98.7 DZFE in 30 languages . It has a satellite television service , that is available in four languages, and...
and Voice of America
Voice of America
Voice of America is the official external broadcast institution of the United States federal government. It is one of five civilian U.S. international broadcasters working under the umbrella of the Broadcasting Board of Governors . VOA provides a wide range of programming for broadcast on radio...
offer Hausa services on its international news web site using Kananci.
Northernmost Dialects
The western Hausa dialects of Kurhwayanci, Daragaram and Aderawa, represent the traditional northernmost limit of native Hausa communities. These are spoken in the arid zone bordering, and considerably within, the Sahara
Sahara
The Sahara is the world's second largest desert, after Antarctica. At over , it covers most of Northern Africa, making it almost as large as Europe or the United States. The Sahara stretches from the Red Sea, including parts of the Mediterranean coasts, to the outskirts of the Atlantic Ocean...
desert of west and central Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
in the Tillaberi
Tillabéri
Tillabéri is a town in northwest Niger. It is situated 120 km northwest of the capital Niamey on the River Niger. It is an important market town and administrative center, it is capital of the department of Tillabéri and Tillabéri Region. The town had a population of over 16000 at the 2001 census...
, Tahoua
Tahoua
Tahoua is a city in Niger and the administrative center of the Department of Tahoua and the larger Tahoua Region. It has a population of 99,900 . The city is primarily a market town for the surrounding agricultural area, and a meeting place for the Tuareg people from the north and the Fulani people...
, Dosso, Maradi, Agadez
Agadez
-Sources:* Aboubacar Adamou. "Agadez et sa région. Contribution à l'étude du Sahel et du Sahara nigériens", Études nigériennes, n°44, , 358 p.* Julien Brachet. Migrations transsahariennes. Vers un désert cosmopolite et morcelé . Paris: Le Croquant, , 324 p. ISBN : 978-2-91496865-2.*. Saudi Aaramco...
and Zinder
Zinder
Zinder is the second largest city in Niger, with a population of 170,574 by 2005 was estimated to be over 200,000...
regions. While mutually comprehensible with other dialects (especially Sakkwatanci, and to a lesser extent Gaananci), the northernmost dialects have slight grammatical and lexical differences owing to frequent contact with the Zarma and Tuareg groups and cultural changes owing to the geographical differences between the grassland and desert zones. These dialects also border on the pitch accents of non-Hausa speakers, owing to between Berber
Berber people
Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are continuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River. Historically they spoke the Berber language or varieties of it, which together form a branch...
and Arabic speakers.
This effect is not limited to Hausa alone, but other northern dialects of neighbouring languages; such as the difference within Songhay language (between the northernmost Koyra Chiini and Koyraboro Senni
Koyraboro Senni
Koyraboro Senni is a variety of Songhai in Mali, spoken by some 400,000 people along Niger River from Gourma-Rharous, east of Timbuktu, through Bourem, Gao, and Ansongo to the Mali–Niger border.The expression “koyra-boro senn-i” literally denotes “the language of the town dwellers” as opposed to...
dialects of Timbuktu
Timbuktu
Timbuktu , formerly also spelled Timbuctoo, is a town in the West African nation of Mali situated north of the River Niger on the southern edge of the Sahara Desert. The town is the capital of the Timbuktu Region, one of the eight administrative regions of Mali...
and Gao
Gao
Gao is a town in eastern Mali on the River Niger lying ESE of Timbuktu. Situated on the left bank of the river at the junction with the Tilemsi valley, it is the capital of the Gao Region and had a population of 86,663 in 2009....
, and the Zarma
Zarma language
Zarma is a member of the Songhay languages...
dialect, spoken from western Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
to northern Ghana
Ghana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
), and within the Soninke language
Soninke language
The Soninke language is a Mande language spoken by the Soninke people of West Africa. The language has an estimated 1,096,795 speakers, primarily located in Mali, and also in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ghana...
(between the northernmost dialects of Imraguen
Imraguen language
The Imraguen or Imeraguen language is spoken by approximately one thousand members of an Imraguen fishing tribe in the Banc d'Arguin National Park on the Atlantic coast of Mauritania. According to Gerteiny , it is "a strange version of Hassaniyya restructured on an Azêr base"; Hassaniyya is an...
and Nemadi spoken in east-central Mauritania
Mauritania
Mauritania is a country in the Maghreb and West Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean in the west, by Western Sahara in the north, by Algeria in the northeast, by Mali in the east and southeast, and by Senegal in the southwest...
, and the southern dialects of Senegal
Senegal
Senegal , officially the Republic of Senegal , is a country in western Africa. It owes its name to the Sénégal River that borders it to the east and north...
, Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
and the sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
).
Ghanaian Hausa dialect
The Ghanaian Hausa dialect (Gaananci), spoken in GhanaGhana
Ghana , officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country located in West Africa. It is bordered by Côte d'Ivoire to the west, Burkina Faso to the north, Togo to the east, and the Gulf of Guinea to the south...
and western Côte d'Ivoire
Côte d'Ivoire
The Republic of Côte d'Ivoire or Ivory Coast is a country in West Africa. It has an area of , and borders the countries Liberia, Guinea, Mali, Burkina Faso and Ghana; its southern boundary is along the Gulf of Guinea. The country's population was 15,366,672 in 1998 and was estimated to be...
, represents the westernmost spoken Hausa dialect in geography. Gaananci forms a separate group, as it now falls outside the contiguous Hausa-dominant area, and is usually identified by the use of c for ky, and j for gy. This is attributed to the fact that Ghana's Hausa population descend from Hausa-Fulani
Hausa-Fulani
Hausa-Fulani is a term used to refer collectively to the Hausa and Fulani people of West Africa. The two are grouped together because since the Fulani War their histories have been largely intertwined...
traders settled in the zongo
Zongo
Zongo is a city in Sud-Ubangi Province in the northwestern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo, lying on the south bank of the Ubangi River, across from Bangui in the Central African Republic...
districts of major trade-towns up and down the previous Asante
Ashanti Empire
The Ashanti Empire , also Asanteman was a West Africa state of the Ashanti people, the Akan people of the Ashanti Region, now in Ghana. The Ashanti or Asante are a major ethnic group in Ghana, a powerful, militaristic and highly disciplined people of West Africa...
, Gonja and Dagomba kingdoms stretching from the sahel
Sahel
The Sahel is the ecoclimatic and biogeographic zone of transition between the Sahara desert in the North and the Sudanian Savannas in the south.It stretches across the North African continent between the Atlantic Ocean and the Red Sea....
to coastal regions, in particular the cities of Tamale
Tamale
A tamale — or more correctly tamal — is a traditional Latin American dish made of masa , which is steamed or boiled in a leaf wrapper. The wrapping is discarded before eating...
, Salaga
Salaga
Salaga is a city in Ghana's Northern Region and the capital of its East Gonja District.In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, Salaga served as a key market town of the Ashanti kingdom, particularly for the busy regional slave trade and kola trade controlling Salaga gave the Ashanti a monopoly...
, Bawku
Bawku
Bawku is a town in Ghana. It is the capital of the Bawku Municipal District. As of 2005, the town's population is estimated at 71,982 making it the fifteenth largest city in Ghana.-References:...
, Bolgatanga
Bolgatanga
Bolgatanga, colloquially known as Bolga, is the capital of both the Bolgatanga Municipal District and the Upper East Region of Ghana, and has a population of about 72,000...
, Achimota
Achimota
Achimota is a town in Greater Accra Region, Ghana just north of the capital Accra....
, Nima
NIMA
NIMA or Nima can refer to:* Nima * National Imagery and Mapping Agency, the former name of the U.S. National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency* Netherlands Institute of Marketing* Nima, a village in Mintiu Gherlii Commune, Cluj County, Romania...
and Kumasi
Kumasi
Kumasi is a city in southern central Ghana's Ashanti region. It is located near Lake Bosomtwe, in the Rain Forest Region about northwest of Accra. Kumasi is approximately north of the Equator and north of the Gulf of Guinea...
. Because of this, and the surrounding Akan, Gur
Gur languages
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...
and Mande
Mande languages
The Mande languages are spoken in several countries in West Africa by the Mandé people and include Mandinka, Soninke, Bambara, Bissa, Dioula, Kagoro, Bozo, Mende, Susu, Yacouba, Vai, and Ligbi...
languages, Gaananci was historically isolated from the other Hausa dialects. Despite this difference, grammatical similarities between Sakkwatanci and Ghanaian Hausa determine that the dialect, and the origin of the Ghanaian Hausa people themselves, are derived from the Northwestern Hausa area surrounding Sokoto.
There are inflected influences from Zarma
Zarma language
Zarma is a member of the Songhay languages...
, Gur
Gur languages
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...
and Soninke
Soninke language
The Soninke language is a Mande language spoken by the Soninke people of West Africa. The language has an estimated 1,096,795 speakers, primarily located in Mali, and also in Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, The Gambia, Mauritania, Guinea-Bissau, Guinea and Ghana...
in Gaananci, owing to the area being the linguistic boundary between the predominantly Mandinka
Mandinka people
The Mandinka, Malinke are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ....
and Gur peoples, originating to the west in Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
, and the Hausa
Hausa
Hausa may refer to:*the Hausa language*the Hausa people*the Hausa Kingdoms...
and Zarma, owing their origins to the east in the traditional Hausa lands in northern Nigeria and Niger.
Hausa is also widely spoken by non-native Gur
Gur languages
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...
and Mande Ghanaian Muslims, but differs from Gaananci, and rather has features consistent with non-native Hausa dialects.
Other native dialects
Hausa is also spoken various parts of Cameroun and Chad, which combined the mixed dialects of Northern Nigeria and Niger Republic, French has made a great influence in the way Hausa is spoken by the native Hausa speakers.Non-native Hausa
Non-native Hausa arises from Hausa's use as a lingua francaLingua franca
A lingua franca is a language systematically used to make communication possible between people not sharing a mother tongue, in particular when it is a third language, distinct from both mother tongues.-Characteristics:"Lingua franca" is a functionally defined term, independent of the linguistic...
in West Africa. Non-native pronunciation vastly differs from native pronunciation by way of key omissions of implosive
Implosive consonant
Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...
and ejective
Ejective consonant
In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants...
consonants present in native Hausa dialects, such as ɗ, ɓ and kʼ/ƙ, which are pronounced by non-native speakers as d, b and k respectively. This creates confusion among non-native and native Hausa speakers, as non-native pronunciation does not distinguish words like daidai ("correct") and ɗaiɗai ("one-by-one"). Another difference between native and non-native Hausa is the omission of vowel length
Vowel length
In linguistics, vowel length is the perceived duration of a vowel sound. Often the chroneme, or the "longness", acts like a consonant, and may etymologically be one, such as in Australian English. While not distinctive in most dialects of English, vowel length is an important phonemic factor in...
in words and change in the standard tone of native Hausa dialects (ranging from native Fulani and Tuareg Hausa-speakers omitting tone altogether, to Hausa speakers with Gur
Gur languages
The Gur languages, also known as Central Gur, belong to the Niger–Congo languages. There are about 70 languages belonging to this group. They are spoken in Burkina Faso, southern Mali, northeastern Côte d'Ivoire, northern Ghana, northern Togo, northwestern Benin, and southwestern Niger.Like most...
or Yoruba
Yoruba language
Yorùbá is a Niger–Congo language spoken in West Africa by approximately 20 million speakers. The native tongue of the Yoruba people, it is spoken, among other languages, in Nigeria, Benin, and Togo and in communities in other parts of Africa, Europe and the Americas...
mother tongues using additional tonal structures similar to those used in their native languages). Use of masculine and feminine gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
nouns and sentence structure are usually omitted or interchanged, and many native Hausa nouns and verbs are substituted for non-native terms from local languages.
Non-native speakers of Hausa number around 25 million, and in some areas live close to native Hausa.Hausa has replaced many other languages especially in the North Central and North Eastern part of Nigeria, and continue gaining popularity in other parts of Africa as a result of Hausa movies and musics which spread out throughout the region.
Consonants
Hausa has between 23 and 25 consonant phonemes depending on the speaker.| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Post- alveolar Postalveolar consonant Postalveolar consonants are consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the alveolar ridge, further back in the mouth than the alveolar consonants, which are at the ridge itself, but not as far back as the hard palate... |
Palatal Palatal consonant Palatal consonants are consonants articulated with the body of the tongue raised against the hard palate... |
Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| palatalized Palatalization In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate.... |
Plain | labialized Labialisation Labialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded.The most common... |
Plain | palatalized Palatalization In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate.... |
||||||
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ||||||||
| Stop Stop consonant In phonetics, a plosive, also known as an occlusive or an oral stop, is a stop consonant in which the vocal tract is blocked so that all airflow ceases. The occlusion may be done with the tongue , lips , and &... |
voiceless | t | t͡ʃ | c | k | kʷ | ʔ | ʔʲ | ||
| voiced | b | d | d͡ʒ | ɟ | ɡ | ɡʷ | ||||
| ejective Ejective consonant In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants... |
t͡sʼ | t͡ʃʼ | cʼ | kʼ | kʷʼ | |||||
| implosive Implosive consonant Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can... |
ɓ | ɗ | ||||||||
| Fricative Fricative consonant Fricatives are consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together. These may be the lower lip against the upper teeth, in the case of ; the back of the tongue against the soft palate, in the case of German , the final consonant of Bach; or... |
voiceless | ɸ | s | ʃ | h | |||||
| voiced | z | |||||||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r | |||||||||
| Flap Flap consonant In phonetics, a flap or tap is a type of consonantal sound, which is produced with a single contraction of the muscles so that one articulator is thrown against another.-Contrast with stops and trills:... |
ɽ | |||||||||
| Approximant Approximant consonant Approximants are speech sounds that involve the articulators approaching each other but not narrowly enough or with enough articulatory precision to create turbulent airflow. Therefore, approximants fall between fricatives, which do produce a turbulent airstream, and vowels, which produce no... |
l | j | w | |||||||
The three-way contrast between palatalized velars /c ɟ cʼ/, plain velars /k ɡ kʼ/, and labialized velars /kʷ ɡʷ kʷʼ/ is found only before long or short /a/, e.g. /cʼaːɽa/ ('grass'), /kʼaːɽaː/ ('to increase'), /kʷʼaːɽaː/ ('shea-nuts'). Before front vowels, only palatalized and labialized velars occur, e.g. /ciːʃiː/ ('jealousy') vs. /kʷiːɓiː/ ('side of body'). Before rounded vowels, only labialized velars occur, e.g. /kʷoːɽaː/ ('ringworm').
Glottalic consonants
Hausa has glottalic consonantGlottalic consonant
A glottalic consonant is a consonant produced with some important contribution of the glottis ....
s (implosives and ejectives) at four or five places of articulation
Place of articulation
In articulatory phonetics, the place of articulation of a consonant is the point of contact where an obstruction occurs in the vocal tract between an articulatory gesture, an active articulator , and a passive location...
(depending on the dialect). They require movement of the glottis during pronunciation
Pronunciation
Pronunciation refers to the way a word or a language is spoken, or the manner in which someone utters a word. If one is said to have "correct pronunciation", then it refers to both within a particular dialect....
and have a staccato
Staccato
Staccato is a form of musical articulation. In modern notation it signifies a note of shortened duration and separated from the note that may follow by silence...
sound.
They are written with modified versions of Latin letters. They can also be denoted with an apostrophe
Apostrophe
The apostrophe is a punctuation mark, and sometimes a diacritic mark, in languages that use the Latin alphabet or certain other alphabets...
, either before or after depending on the letter, as shown below.
b' / , an implosive consonant
Implosive consonant
Implosive consonants are stops with a mixed glottalic ingressive and pulmonic egressive airstream mechanism. That is, the airstream is controlled by moving the glottis downward in addition to expelling air from the lungs. Therefore, unlike the purely glottalic ejective consonants, implosives can...
, IPA [ɓ], or sometimes [ʔb];
d' / , an implosive [ɗ], sometimes [dʔ];
ts', an ejective consonant
Ejective consonant
In phonetics, ejective consonants are voiceless consonants that are pronounced with simultaneous closure of the glottis. In the phonology of a particular language, ejectives may contrast with aspirated or tenuis consonants...
, [tsʼ] or [sʼ] according to the dialect;
ch', an ejective [tʃʼ] (does not occur in Kano dialect)
k' / , an ejective [kʼ]; [kʲʼ] and [kʷʼ] are separate consonants;
'y is a palatalized
Palatalization
In linguistics, palatalization , also palatization, may refer to two different processes by which a sound, usually a consonant, comes to be produced with the tongue in a position in the mouth near the palate....
glottal stop, found in only a small number of high frequency words. Historically it developed from palatalized [ɗ].
Vowels
Hausa has 5 phonemic vowel sounds which are both single and long, giving a total of 10 vowel phonemes which are called Monophthongs and 4 joint vowel sound that are called Diphthongs giving a total number of 14 vowel phonemes.Monophthongs are:
Single Vowels :/a/, /e/, /i/, /o/ and /u/.
Long Vowels:/aa/, /ee/, /ii/, /oo/, and /uu/.
Diphthongs are:
/ai/, /au/, /iu/ and /ui/.
Tones
Hausa is a tone language. Each of its five vowelVowel
In phonetics, a vowel is a sound in spoken language, such as English ah! or oh! , pronounced with an open vocal tract so that there is no build-up of air pressure at any point above the glottis. This contrasts with consonants, such as English sh! , where there is a constriction or closure at some...
s a, e, i, o and u may have low tone, high tone and falling tone.
For representing tones accented vowels may be used:
à è ì ò ù (low tone)
á é í ó ú (high tone)
â ê î ô û (falling tone)
In standard written Hausa, tone is not marked. However it is needed for disambiguation and thus it is marked in dictionaries and other scientific works.
Boko (Latin)
Hausa's modern official orthographyOrthography
The orthography of a language specifies a standardized way of using a specific writing system to write the language. Where more than one writing system is used for a language, for example Kurdish, Uyghur, Serbian or Inuktitut, there can be more than one orthography...
is a Latin-based alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
called boko
Boko (alphabet)
Boko is a Latin alphabet devised by Europeans in the early 19th century for the Hausa language. It was developed and introduced in the early 20th century by the British and French colonial authorities and used as the official script of the Hausa language. It was made the official alphabet in 1930...
, which was imposed in the 1930s by the British colonial administration.
| A a | B b | C c | D d | E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | J j | K k | L l | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| /a/ | /b/ | /ɓ/ | /tʃ/ | /d/ | /ɗ/ | /e/ | /ɸ/ | /ɡ/ | /h/ | /i/ | /(d)ʒ/ | /k/ | /kʼ/ | /l/ |
| M m | N n | O o | R r | S s | Sh sh Sh (digraph) Sh is a digraph of the Latin alphabet, a combination of S and H.-English:In English, sh usually represents . The exception is in compound words, where the s and h are not a digraph, but pronounced separately, e.g. hogshead is hogs-head , not *hog-shead... |
T t | Ts ts | U u | W w | Y y | Z z | |||
| /m/ | /n/ | /o/ | /r/, /ɽ/ | /s/ | /ʃ/ | /t/ | /(t)sʼ/ | /u/ | /w/ | /j/ | /ʔʲ/ | /z/ | /ʔ/ |
The letter is used only in Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
; in Nigeria
Nigeria
Nigeria , officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a federal constitutional republic comprising 36 states and its Federal Capital Territory, Abuja. The country is located in West Africa and shares land borders with the Republic of Benin in the west, Chad and Cameroon in the east, and Niger in...
it is written .
Tone, vowel length, and the distinction between /r/ and /ɽ/ (which does not exist for all speakers) are not marked in writing. So, for example, /daɡa/ "from" and /daːɡaː/ "battle" are both written daga.
Ajami (Arabic)
Hausa has also been written in ajamiAjami script
The term Ajami , or Ajamiyya , which comes from the Arabic root for "foreign" or "stranger," has been applied to Arabic alphabets used for writing African languages....
, a variant of the Arabic script
Arabic alphabet
The Arabic alphabet or Arabic abjad is the Arabic script as it is codified for writing the Arabic language. It is written from right to left, in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters. Because letters usually stand for consonants, it is classified as an abjad.-Consonants:The Arabic alphabet has...
, since the early 17th century. There is no standard system of using ajami, and different writers may use letters with different values. Short vowels are written regularly with the help of vowel marks, which are seldom used in Arabic texts other than the Quran. Many medieval Hausa Manuscripts similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts written in the Ajami script, have been discovered recently some of them even describe constellation
Constellation
In modern astronomy, a constellation is an internationally defined area of the celestial sphere. These areas are grouped around asterisms, patterns formed by prominent stars within apparent proximity to one another on Earth's night sky....
s and calendars.
In the following table, vowels are shown with the Arabic letter for t as an example.
| Latin | IPA | Arabic ajami |
|---|---|---|
| a | a | |
| a | aː | |
| b | b | |
| ɓ | (same as b), (not used in Arabic) | |
| c | tʃ | |
| d | d | |
| ɗ | (same as d), (also used for ts) | |
| e | e | (not used in Arabic) |
| e | eː | (not used in Arabic) |
| f | ɸ | |
| g | ɡ | |
| h | h | |
| i | i | |
| i | iː | |
| j | /(d)ʒ/ | |
| k | k | |
| kʼ | (same as k), | |
| l | l | |
| m | m | |
| n | n | |
| o | o | (same as u) |
| o | oː | (same as u) |
| r | r, ɽ | |
| s | s | |
| sh | ʃ | |
| t | t | |
| ts | /(t)sʼ/ | (also used for ), (not used in Arabic) |
| u | u | (same as o) |
| u | uː | (same as o) |
| w | w | |
| y | j | |
| z | z | |
| ʔ |
Other systems
At least three other writing systems for Hausa have been proposed or "discovered." None of these are in active use beyond perhaps some individuals.- A Hausa alphabet supposedly of ancient origin and in use in north of Maradi, Niger.
- A script that apparently originated with the writing/publishing group Raina Kama in the 1980s.
- A script called "Tafi" proposed in the 1970s(?)
See also
- Hausa peopleHausa peopleThe Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa. They are a Sahelian people chiefly located in northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger, but having significant numbers living in regions of Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, Chad and Sudan...
- History of NigerHistory of NigerThis is the history of Niger. See also the history of Africa and the history of West Africa.-Pre-historic Niger:Humans have lived in what is now Niger from the earliest times...
- History of NigeriaHistory of Nigeria-Early history:Archaeological research, pioneered by Thurstan Shaw and Steve Daniels, has shown that people were already living in southwestern Nigeria as early as 9000 BC and perhaps earlier at Ugwuelle-Uturu in southeastern Nigeria, where microliths were used...
- Kanem EmpireKanem EmpireThe Kanem Empire was located in the present countries of Chad, Nigeria and Libya. At its height it encompassed an area covering not only much of Chad, but also parts of southern Libya , eastern Niger and north-eastern Nigeria...
- Bornu EmpireBornu EmpireThe Bornu Empire was an African state of Nigeria from 1396 to 1893. It was a continuation of the great Kanem Empire founded centuries earlier by the Sayfawa Dynasty...
External links
- Map of Hausa language from the LL-Map Project
- Information on Hausa language from the MultiTree Project
- Hausa phrasebook on Wikitravel
- VOA Hausa - Based in Washington, D.C.
- Hausa Vocabulary List (from the World Loanword Database)
- Kasahorow Hausa Dictionary
- Ethnologue report on Hausa
- Hausa Swadesh list of basic vocabulary words (from Wiktionary's Swadesh-list appendix)
- Omniglot
- Hausa at UCLA
- Kofar Hausa dictionary at University of Vienna
- Bargery's Hausa Dictionary Online
- Learning Hausa Online
- Hausa Wiktionary
- PanAfriL10n page on Hausa
- BBC World Service Hausa - Based in London
- Zuria FM Kumasi Ghana - Radio broadcasting in Ghanaian and Standard Hausa
- USA Foreign Service Institute Hausa basic course