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Hausa (; Harshen/Halshen Hausa ; : هَرْشٜىٰن هَوْسَا) is a that is spoken by the in the northern parts of , , , and , and the southern parts of , and , with significant minorities in . A small number of speakers also exist in .

Hausa is a member of the Afroasiatic language family and is the most widely spoken language within the branch of that family. Despite originating from a non-tonal language family, Hausa utilizes differences in pitch to distinguish words and grammar. estimated that it was spoken as a first language by some 54 million people and as a by another 34 million, bringing the total number of Hausa speakers to an estimated 88 million.

In Nigeria, the Hausa film industry is known as .


Classification
Hausa belongs to the West Chadic languages subgroup of the group, which in turn is part of the Afroasiatic language family.


Geographic distribution
Native speakers of Hausa, the , are mostly found in southern and northern .
(1999). 9789780305352, University Press. .
The language is used as a by non-native speakers in most of northern , southern , northern , northern , northern , northern , southern and parts of .


By country

Nigeria
In Nigeria, Hausa is dominant throughout the , but not dominant in the states of , and . States (or cities) in which Hausa is spoken predominantly include Kano, , Katsina, , Gobir, , Sokoto, , , , , Bauchi, , , Gombe, , Maiduguri, , Yola, , , , , Minna, , and Abuja.


Niger
In Niger, Hausa is spoken by up to 53% of the population. It is very popular in the cities of Maradi, , , , , Dosso, and .


Cameroon
In Cameroon, Hausa is spoken in the north, including the cities of , , and .


Ghana
In Ghana, Hausa is the lingua franca of the across the country.


Benin
In Benin, Hausa is spoken in the north. Cities where it is spoken include , Kandi, , and .


Togo
In Togo, Hausa is spoken in the north. Cities where it is spoken include , Kara, and .


Chad
In Chad, Hausa is spoken in the south. Cities where it is spoken include N'Djamena.


Sudan
In Sudan, Hausa is spoken in almost all the states of Jazirah, Blue Nile, and , Darfur States, Gadaref State ,Red Sea State, White Nile State, River Nile


Dialects
Hausa presents a wide uniformity wherever it is spoken. However, linguists have identified dialect areas with a cluster of features characteristic of each one.


Traditional dialects
Eastern Hausa include Dauranci in , Kananci in Kano, Bausanci in , Gudduranci in and part of , and Hadejanci in .

Western Hausa dialects include Sakkwatanci in , Katsinanci in , Arewanci in , , , and Zanhwaranci in , and Kurhwayanci in in Niger. is transitional between Eastern and Western dialects. is used in a variety of classical , and is often known as Classical Hausa.

Northern Hausa dialects include (meaning 'North') and Arewaci.

Zazzaganci in is the major Southern dialect.

The Daura ( Dauranchi) and Kano ( Kananci) dialect are the standard. The , , 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.


Northernmost dialects and loss of tonality
The western to eastern Hausa dialects of Kurhwayanci, Dam agaram and Adarawa, represent the traditional northernmost limit of native Hausa communities. These are spoken in the northernmost and mid- regions in west and central in the , , , , and 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 , , and groups and cultural changes owing to the geographical differences between the grassland and desert zones. These dialects also have the quality of bordering on non-tonal dialects.

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 (between the non-tonal northernmost dialects of in and in ; and the tonal southern dialect, spoken from western to northern ), and within the (between the non-tonal northernmost dialects of Imraguen and spoken in east-central ; and the tonal southern dialects of , and the ).


Ghanaian Hausa dialect
The Hausa dialect ( Gaananci), spoken in and , is a distinct western native Hausa dialect-bloc with adequate linguistic and media resources available. Separate smaller Hausa dialects are spoken by an unknown number of Hausa further west in parts of , and in the , Badji Haoussa, Guezou Haoussa, and districts of northeastern (where it is designated as a minority language by the Malian government), but there are very little linguistic resources and research done on these particular dialects at this time.

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 traders settled in the zongo districts of major trade-towns up and down the previous , and kingdoms stretching from the to coastal regions, in particular the cities of (, Nima), and

Gaananci exhibits noted inflected influences from , , -, , and , 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 and . Ghana also marks the westernmost boundary in which the inhabit in any considerable number. Immediately west and north of Ghana (in Côte d'Ivoire, and Burkina Faso), Hausa is abruptly replaced with 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, , and , 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 , and Mandé Ghanaian Muslims, but differs from Gaananci, and rather has features consistent with non-native Hausa dialects.


Other native dialects
Hausa is also spoken in various parts of Cameroon and Chad, which combined the mixed dialects of and Niger. In addition, Arabic has had a great influence in the way Hausa is spoken by the native Hausa speakers in these areas.


Non-native Hausa
In , Hausa's use as a has given rise to a non-native pronunciation that differs vastly 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 ("correct") and ("one-by-one"). Another difference between native and non-native Hausa is the omission of in words and change in the standard of native Hausa dialects (ranging from native and Hausa-speakers omitting tone altogether, to Hausa speakers with or 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 with non-native terms from local languages.

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.


Hausa-based pidgins
There are several forms of Hausa. was formerly used in the colonial army of Nigeria. Gibanawa is currently in widespread use in Jega in northwestern Nigeria, south of the native Hausa area.


Loan words
The Hausa language has a long history of borrowing words from other languages, usually from the languages being spoken around and near .
+ !Word !Language
akwati - 'box', agogo - 'clock', ashana - 'matches'
dattijo - 'old man', inna - 'mother', kawu – 'uncle'
karatu – 'reading', rubutu – 'writing', birni – 'city'


Phonology

Consonants
Hausa has between 23 and 25 consonant phonemes depending on the speaker.

+Consonant phonemes !colspan=2 rowspan=2!rowspan=2Bilabial !rowspan=2Alveolar !rowspan=2Post-
alveolar !colspan=3
!rowspan=2Glottal

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').


Glottalic consonants
Hausa has glottalic consonants (implosives and ejectives) at four or five places of articulation (depending on the dialect). They require movement of the glottis during and have a sound.

They are written with modified versions of Latin letters. They can also be denoted with an , either before or after depending on the letter, as shown below:

  • ɓ / b', an implosive consonant, , sometimes ;
  • ɗ / d', an implosive , sometimes ;
  • ts', an ejective consonant, or , according to the dialect;
  • ch', an ejective (does not occur in Kano dialect)
  • ƙ / k', an ejective ; and are separate consonants;
  • ƴ / 'y is a palatal with , , Hausa ejectives and laryngealized consonants. Sound files hosted by the University of California at Los Angeles, from: Ladefoged, Peter: A Course in Phonetics. 5th ed. Thomson/Wadsworth. found in only a small number of high-frequency words (e.g. "children", "daughter"). Historically it developed from palatalized .Newman, Paul (1937/2000) The Hausa Language: an encyclopedic reference grammar. Yale University Press. p. 397.


Vowels
Hausa vowels occur in five different vowel qualities, all of which can be short or long, totaling 10 . In addition, there are four , giving a total number of 14 vocalic phonemes.
+ ! ! ! !

In comparison with the long vowels, the short can be similar in quality to the long vowels, 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 .


Tones
Hausa is a . Each of its five may have low tone, high tone or falling tone. In standard written Hausa, tone is not marked. In recent linguistic and pedagogical materials, tone is marked by means of diacritics.

 – low tone: ()

 – falling tone: ()

An () may be used for high tone, but the usual practice is to leave high tone unmarked.


Morphology
Except for the and dialects spoken south of Kano, Hausa distinguishes between masculine and feminine genders.

Hausa, like the rest of the , 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).


Pronouns
Hausa marks tense differences by different sets of subject pronouns, sometimes with the pronoun combined with some additional particle. For this reason, a subject pronoun must accompany every verb in Hausa, regardless of whether the subject is known from previous context or is expressed by a noun subject.

+ Time, aspect, and moodBernard Caron. Hausa Grammatical Sketch. 2015. Hausa Grammatical Sketch – HAL-SHS


Writing systems

Boko (Latin)
Hausa's modern official is a called boko, which was introduced in the 1930s by the British colonial administration.

The letter ƴ (y with a right hook) is used only in ; in it is written ʼy.

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.


Ajami (Arabic)
Hausa has also been written in , an , since the early 17th century. The first known work to be written in Hausa is Riwayar Nabi Musa by Abdullahi Suka in the 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 in ajami, similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts, have been discovered recently; some of them even describe and calendars.

As 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. [4]. ( PDF Access)

In and , 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 , the other based on the Quran recitation and inscription of another 8th Century scholar, . Hafs tradition is the most popular across the , and especially in , the , and the Arabian Peninsula. Warsh tradition is the second most popular tradition across the , and has been especially popular in , , and .

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 (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 and 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 .

{ class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;" +Hausa Ajami (Warsh Convention)
‌-
A a
//
‌B b
‌Ɓ ɓ
‌T t
‌C c
‌J j
‌H h
‌H h
(Kh kh)
‌D d
‌Z z
‌R r/
‌Z z
‌S s
‌Sh sh ()
Ch ch()
‌S s
‌L l
‌Ɗ ɗ
Z z
‌Ts ts/
‌ʼ/
‌G g
‌Gw gw
Gy gy
/
()
‌F f/
P p
‌Ƙ ƙ
‌Ƙw ƙw
Ƙy ƙy
/
()
‌K k
‌Kw kw
Ky ky
/
‌L l
‌M m
‌N n
‌H h
‌W w
O o
U u
()
‌Y y
I i
()
‌E e
plus
‌ˈy ()
Ƴ ƴ()
/
|
+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
//
‌B b
‌Ɓ ɓ
‌T t
‌C c
‌J j
‌H h
‌H h
(Kh kh)
‌D d
‌Z z
‌R r/
‌Z z
‌S s
‌Sh sh ()
Ch ch()
‌S s
‌L l
‌Ɗ ɗ
Z z
‌Ts ts/
‌ʼ/
‌G g
‌Gw gw
Gy gy
/
‌F f/
P p
‌Ƙ ƙ
‌Ƙw ƙw
Ƙy ƙy
/
‌K k
‌Ƙ ƙ
Ky ky
/
‌L l
‌M m
‌N n
‌H h
‌W w
O o
U u
()
‌Y y
I i
()
‌E e
plus
‌ˈy ()
Ƴ ƴ()
/
|}


Other systems
Hausa is one of three indigenous languages of Nigeria that have been rendered in .

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, named in some sources as Salifou or Gobiri, supposedly of ancient origin and in use north of , Niger. "Hausa alphabet"
  • A script that apparently originated with the writing/publishing group Raina Kama in the 1980s.
  • A script called "Tafi" proposed in the 1970s(?)


Oral literature
1905, George Charleton Merrick (a British army officer and Hausa interpreter)C. G. G. (1913). "The Upavon Incident." The Aeroplane: 408. published Hausa Proverbs, a collection of over 400 proverbs in Hausa (Roman script) with English translations.Merrick, George C. (1905). Hausa Proverbs. Here are some of those proverbs:
  • " Fawa biu tana bata hankali'n kuda." "Two pieces of meat confuse the mind of the fly (i.e to hesitate between two things)." (#18)
  • " Da ayi jiranka ga abinchi, gara akayi ka jira'n abinchi." "Better that you should be made to wait for food than that food should be made to wait for you." (#26)
  • " Kunkurru ya so dambe, ba shi da yasa." "The tortoise wishes to fight with his fists, but he has no fingers (i.e. impotent wrath)." (#45)
  • " Komi ya ke chikkin dan kaza, shafu ya deddi da sanninshi." "Whatever there is inside a chicken, the hawk has been familiar with it for a very long time (i.e. there is not much that you can teach me about that)." (#47)
  • " Kaffa'n woni ba ta wa woni taffia." "The legs of one man are no good to another for walking." (#61)
Charles Henry Robinson's Hausa Grammar, also published in 1905, contains a selection of proverbs in Hausa (Roman script) with English translations; here are a few of those proverbs:Robinson, Charles H. (1905). Hausa Grammar. pp. 91-106.
  • " Giwa awani gari zomo." "An elephant is a hare in another town (i.e. a great man is a nobody where no one knows him)."
  • " Idan ka rubuta ya tabbatta, idan ka kiyaye ya gudu." "If you write, the writing remains; if you keep a thing in your mind, it flees away."
  • " Alberkachin kaza kadangari shi kan sha ruan kasko." "Thanks to the fowl, the lizard finds water to drink in the pot (i.e. if there were no fowls, there would be no water put out; this is said when a man gains some benefit through no virtue of his own)."
  • " Karambanin akwai ta gaida kura." "It is no business of the goat to salute the hyena; i.e. if a man meddles with that which does not concern him, he has only himself to thank for his misfortune."
  • " Haukan kaza amren musuru." "It is madness for the fowl to marry a cat (i.e. the meaning is practically the same as the preceding)."
A collection of over 100 Hausa proverbs in both Hausa and English translation appears in Volume 2 of R. S. Rattray's Hausa Folklore, Customs, Proverbs, etc. by Malam Shaihu.Rattray, R. S. (1913). Hausa Folklore, Customs, Proverbs, etc. by Malam Shaihu: Volume 2. pp. 252-279. The Hausa text is printed both in Arabic script as provided by Malam Shaihu, a Kano-born Hausa teacher,Bivins, Mary Wren (1997). "Daura and Gender in the Creation of a Hausa National Epic." African Languages and Cultures. 10: 12. and in Roman transliteration provided by Rattray. Here are some of those proverbs:
  • " Hanchi bai san dadin gishiri ba." "The nose does not know the flavor of the salt." (#7)
  • " Kinwa che ba ta gida, domin hakanan bera ke gada." "The cat is not at home, because of that the mice are playing." (#15)
  • " Kaza mai-yaya, ita ke tsoro shirwa." "It is the hen with chicks that fears the hawk." (#21)
  • " Gingidin kunama, kowa ya taba, shi sha kashi." "The snoozing scorpion, whoever touches it (quickly) gets a blow." (#39)
  • " Harara bai mari ba." "A frown is not a slap (it does not hurt)." (#43)
also includes 30 stories told in Hausa by Malam Shaihu: 21 stories with human characters in volume 1,Rattray, R. S. (1913). Hausa Folklore, Customs, Proverbs, etc. by Malam Shaihu: Volume 1. and 9 animal stories in volume 2,Rattray, R. S. (1913). Hausa Folklore, Customs, Proverbs, etc. by Malam Shaihu: Volume 2. pp. 10-149. featuring a cycle of stories about Gizo, the trickster spider of Hausa tradition.

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.


See also


Bibliography
  • Philips, John Edward. “Hausa in the Twentieth Century: An Overview.” in Sudanic Africa, vol. 15, 2004, pp. 55–84. online, on Romanization of the language.
  • (2024). 9780748627585, Edinburgh University Press.
  • (1999). 9780521637510, Cambridge University Press.
  • (Now in the ).


External links

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