Hausa (; Harshen/Halshen Hausa ; Hausa Ajami: هَرْشٜىٰن هَوْسَا) is a Chadic language spoken primarily by the Hausa people in the northern parts of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin and Togo, and the southern parts of Niger, and Chad, with significant minorities in Ivory Coast. A small number of speakers also exist in Sudan.
Hausa is a member of the Afroasiatic language family and is the most widely spoken language within the Chadic branch of that family. Despite originating from a non-tonal language family, Hausa utilizes differences in pitch to distinguish words and grammar. Ethnologue estimated that it was spoken as a first language by some 58 million people and as a second language by another 36 million, bringing the total number of Hausa speakers to an estimated 94 million.
In Nigeria, the Hausa film industry is known as Kannywood.
+ Hausa speakers, Ethnologue (2025) ! Country | Hausa speakers (L1+L2) |
million | |
million | |
million | |
million | |
Western Hausa dialects include Sakkwatanci in Sokoto, Katsinanci in Katsina, Arewanci in Gobir, Adar, Kebbi State, and Zanhwaranci in Zamfara, and Kurhwayanci in Kurfey in Niger. Katsina is transitional between Eastern and Western dialects. Sokoto is used in a variety of classical Hausa literature, and is often known as Classical Hausa.
Northern Hausa dialects include Arewa (meaning 'North') and Arewaci.
Zazzaganci in Zazzau is the major Southern dialect.
The Daura ( Dauranchi) and Kano ( Kananci) dialects are the standard. The BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale and Voice of America offer Hausa services on their international news web sites using Dauranci and Kananci. In recent language development Zazzaganci took over the innovation of writing and speaking the current Hausa language use.
This link between non-tonality and geographic location is not limited to Hausa alone, but is exhibited in other northern dialects of neighbouring languages; example includes differences within the Songhay language (between the non-tonal northernmost dialects of Koyra Chiini in Timbuktu and Koyraboro Senni in Gao; and the tonal southern Zarma language dialect, spoken from western Niger to northern Ghana), and within the Soninke language (between the non-tonal northernmost dialects of Imraguen and Nemadi spoken in east-central Mauritania; and the tonal southern dialects of Senegal, Mali and the Sahel).
Gaananci forms a separate group from other Western Hausa dialects, 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 Ashanti Empire, Gonja people and Dagomba people kingdoms stretching from the sahel to coastal regions, in particular the cities of Accra (Sabon Zango, Nima), Takoradi and Cape Coast
Gaananci exhibits noted inflected influences from Zarma language, Gur languages, Dyula language-Bambara language, Akan language, and Soninke language, as Ghana is the westernmost area in which the Hausa language is a major lingua-franca among sahelian/Muslim West Africans, including both Ghanaian and non-Ghanaian zango migrants primarily from the northern regions, or Mali and Burkina Faso. Ghana also marks the westernmost boundary in which the Hausa people inhabit in any considerable number. Immediately west and north of Ghana (in Côte d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso), Hausa is abruptly replaced with Dioula language–Bambara language as the main sahelian/Muslim lingua-franca of what become predominantly Manding areas, and native Hausa-speakers plummet to a very small urban minority.
Because of this, and the presence of surrounding Akan, Gbe languages, Gur languages 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.
Hausa is also widely spoken by non-native Gur languages, and Mandé Ghanaian Muslims, but differs from Gaananci, and rather has features consistent with non-native Hausa dialects.
Non-native speakers of Hausa numbered more than 25 million and, in some areas, live close to native Hausa. It has replaced many other languages especially in the north-central and north-eastern part of Nigeria and continues to gain popularity in other parts of Africa as a result of Hausa movies and music which spread out throughout the region.
+ !Word !Language | |
akwati - 'box', agogo - 'clock', ashana - 'matches' | Yoruba language |
dattijo - 'old man', inna - 'mother', kawu – 'uncle' | Fula language |
karatu – 'reading', rubutu – 'writing', birni – 'city' | Kanuri language |
+Consonant phonemes !colspan=2 rowspan=2 | !rowspan=2Bilabial !rowspan=2 | Alveolar !rowspan=2 | Post- alveolar !colspan=3 | Dorsal consonant !rowspan=2 | Glottal |
The three-way contrast between palatals , plain velars , and labialized velars is found only before long and short , e.g. ('grass'), ('to increase'), ('shea-nuts'). Before front vowels, only palatals and labialized velars occur, e.g. ('jealousy') vs. ('side of body'). Before rounded vowels, only labialized velars occur, e.g. ('ringworm').
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:
+ ! !Front vowel !Central vowel !Back vowel |
In comparison with the long vowels, the short can be similar in quality to the long vowels, mid-centralized to or centralized to .
Medial can be neutralized to , with the rounding depending on the environment.
Medial are neutralized with .
The short can be either similar in quality to the long , or it can be as high as , with possible intermediate pronunciations ().
The 4 diphthongs in Hausa are .
An acute accent () may be used for high tone, but the usual practice is to leave high tone unmarked.
Hausa, like the rest of the Chadic languages in particular and Afro-Asiatic languages in general, is known for its complex, irregular pluralization of nouns. Noun plurals in Hausa are derived using a variety of morphological processes, such as suffixation, infixation, reduplication, or a combination of any of these processes. There are 20 plural classes proposed by Newman (2000).
+ Time, aspect, and moodBernard Caron. Hausa Grammatical Sketch. 2015. Hausa Grammatical Sketch – HAL-SHS |
Also note that Hausa has many that do not conform to the system above.
Tone and vowel length are not marked in writing. So, for example, "from" and "battle" are both written daga. The distinction between and (which does not exist for all speakers) is not marked in orthography, but may be indicated with R̃ r̃ for the trill in linguistic transcription.
As Hausa Ajami script was never recognized and regulated officially, there has never been a top down imposition of a unified convention. Standardization of letters in Ajami has happened over time and in various stages, in synch with neighbouring Ajami traditions, as well as external factors.Dobronravine, N., Philips, J.E., 2004. Hausa ajami literature and script: colonial innovations and post-colonial myths in northern Nigeria. Lang. Africa 15, 85–110. Retrieved from. [6]. ( PDF Access)
In Niger and Nigeria, there exists two general orthographic traditions, each derived from two Quranic orthographic practices.A.Brockett, Studies in Two Transmission of the Qur'an, doctorate thesis, University of St. Andrews,Scotland, 1984, p.138 One of these is based on the Quran recitation and inscription of the 8th century religious scholar Hafs, the other based on the Quran recitation and inscription of another 8th Century scholar, Warsh. Hafs tradition is the most popular across the Muslim world, and especially in Egypt, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. Warsh tradition is the second most popular tradition across the Muslim world, and has been especially popular in North Africa, West Africa, and Andalusia.
For example, vowels in Hausa Ajami script, including representation of vowel e, and differentiation of short versus long vowels, were one of the first aspects to be unified and standardized. Consonants on the other hand, especially consonant letters for representing sounds that don't exist in Arabic, took longer to become standardized. Some new letters were even coined in the late 19th and early 20th century, and because of the direct influence of the Boko alphabet (Latin alphabet). For example, whereas previously in writing, sounds b and ɓ may have usually been written with a singe letter ba '', it was the innovation of introducing the separate letter in Latin alphabet that created an impetus for scholars writing in Ajami script, to innovate and introduce a separate Ajami letter for the distinct sound as well.Bondarev, Dmitry and Dobronravin, Nikolay and Bondarev, Dmitry and Gori, Alessandro and Souag, Lameen. Standardisation Tendencies in Kanuri and Hausa Ajami Writings. 2019. DOI: 10.1515/9783110639063-010
Below is the list of letters of Hausa Ajami, in both Warsh and Hafs traditions. Beige highlight marks letters that are only used for writing of loan words of Arabic or European origin. Green highlight marks letters that are innovations of Hausa orthography and are not used in Arabic language.
{ class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" | +Hausa Ajami (Warsh Convention) | |||
- A a | // | U+0627 | ||
B b | U+0628 | |||
Ɓ ɓ | U+0751 | |||
T t | U+062A | |||
C c | U+062B | |||
J j | U+062C | |||
H h | U+062D | |||
H h (Kh kh) | U+062E | |||
D d | U+062F | |||
Z z | U+0630 | |||
R r | / | U+0631 | ||
Z z | U+0632 | |||
S s | U+0633 | |||
Sh sh () Ch ch() | U+0634 | |||
S s | U+0635 | |||
L l | U+0636 | |||
Ɗ ɗ | U+0637 | |||
Z z | U+0638 | |||
Ts ts | / | U+069F | ||
ʼ | / | U+0639 | ||
G g | U+063A | |||
Gw gw Gy gy | / | U+08C3 (U+06A0) | ||
F f | / | U+088B | ||
P p | U+06A5 | |||
Ƙ ƙ | U+08BC | |||
Ƙw ƙw Ƙy ƙy | / | U+08C4 (U+06A8) | ||
K k | U+06A9 | |||
Kw kw Ky ky | / | U+0763 | ||
L l | U+0644 | |||
M m | U+0645 | |||
N n | U+08BD | |||
H h | U+0647 | |||
W w O o U u | () | U+0648 | ||
Y y I i | () | U+06CC | ||
E e | U+0649 plus U+0670 | |||
ˈy () Ƴ ƴ() | / | U+063F |
+Hausa Ajami (Hafs Convention)Wali Naʼibi Sulaimanu and Haliru Binji. (1969). Mu Koyi Ajami Da Larabci / مُکُوْیِ أَجَمِ دَ لَارَبْثِی. Zaria: Northern Nigerian Pub. ISBN 978-978-169-120-0 | |||
- A a | // | U+0627 | |
B b | U+0628 | ||
Ɓ ɓ | U+067B | ||
T t | U+062A | ||
C c | U+062B | ||
J j | U+062C | ||
H h | U+062D | ||
H h (Kh kh) | U+062E | ||
D d | U+062F | ||
Z z | U+0630 | ||
R r | / | U+0631 | |
Z z | U+0632 | ||
S s | U+0633 | ||
Sh sh () Ch ch() | U+0634 | ||
S s | U+0635 | ||
L l | U+0636 | ||
Ɗ ɗ | U+0637 | ||
Z z | U+0638 | ||
Ts ts | / | U+069F | |
ʼ | / | U+0639 | |
G g | U+063A | ||
Gw gw Gy gy | / | U+06A0 | |
F f | / | U+0641 | |
P p | U+06A5 | ||
Ƙ ƙ | U+0642 | ||
Ƙw ƙw Ƙy ƙy | / | U+06A8 | |
K k | U+0643 | ||
Ƙ ƙ Ky ky | / | U+06AD | |
L l | U+0644 | ||
M m | U+0645 | ||
N n | U+0646 | ||
H h | U+0647 | ||
W w O o U u | () | U+0648 | |
Y y I i | () | U+064A | |
E e | U+0649 plus U+0670 | ||
ˈy () Ƴ ƴ() | / | U+06D1 |
At least three other writing systems for Hausa have been proposed or "discovered". None of these are in active use beyond perhaps some individuals.
There are several other collections of traditional Hausa tales available in both Hausa and English translation. J.F. Schon's Magana Hausa of 1885 includes the Hausa text of 83 tales with an English translation available in some, but not all, editions.Schön, James Frederick (1885). Magana Hausa, to Which Is Added a Translation in English. In 1914, A.J.N. Tremearne published the Hausa texts of over 170 Hausa stories in Hausa Folktales,Tremearne, Arthur John Newman (1914). Hausa Folktales: The Hausa Text of the Stories in Hausa Superstitions and Customs, in Folk-lore, and in Other Publications. which features Gizo the trickster spider on its cover, with English translations having appeared earlier in Tremearne's Hausa Superstitions and CustomsTremearne, Arthur John Newman (1913). Hausa Superstitions and Customs and other publications. More recently, Neil Skinner's Hausa Tales and TraditionsSkinner, Neil (1969). Hausa Tales and Traditions: An English Translation of Tatsuniyoyi na Hausa. provides English translations of the stories that first appeared in 1924 in Frank Edgar’s Tatsuniyoyi na Hausa.Edgar, Frank (1924). Tatsuniyoyi na Hausa.
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