HAUSA LANGUAGE VARIATION AND DIALECTS Throughout the areas where Hausa is spoken, it is remarkably uniform in pronunciation, vocabulary, and structure. Indeed, the varieties of Hausa are at least as mutually comprehensible as the varieties of English. Based on examples of linguistic variation and uniformity available from other parts of Africa and the world, one can surmise that the Hausa language has spread rather rapidly and rather recently in order for it to have covered such a large area with such a large number of speakers. Despite the basic uniformity of Hausa wherever it is spoken, one can identify a number of dialect areas. Below are some of the main dialects of Hausa.As would be expected in a dynamic language with a large number of speakers,these dialects themselves show internal variation, but each has a feature or cluster of features which are characteristic of that variety. Kano Hausa Major city: Kano The Hausa spoken in Kano, the largest city in the contiguous Hausa-speaking area, and the surrounding regions is usually referred to as StandardHausa. This variety of Hausa is the one used in nearly all printed materials in Hausa, including the Hausa language newspapers of Nigeria. It is also the variety of Hausa most heard in broadcast media, including both Nigerian radio and television and international Hausa broadcasting, such as the BBC,Deutsche Welle, The Voice of America, and others. Pronunciation: A major feature of pronunciation characterizing this dialect is seen in words such as sauka descend or zauna sit down, where a u appears before another consonant rather than a b, an f, or an m in other dialects (see comments on Western Hausa). Grammar: The Kano dialect consistently distinguishes between masculine and feminine gender of all nouns, for example, suna ne its a name (where ne its... marks masculine) vs. giwa ce its an elephant (where ce its... marks feminine). Western Hausa Major cities: Sokoto (Sakkwato), Tahoua (Tawa) The Hausa spoken roughly between Sokoto (Sakkwato in Hausa) and Gusau in Nigeria, and north to Birnin Konni (Birnin Kwanni) and Tahoua (Tawa) in Niger comprises Western Hausa. One might consider this variety Classical Hausa for several reasons. First,it has proved quite conservative in terms of retaining features which canbe identified as belonging to more ancient stages of the language. Second,this was the variety of Hausa spoken by Shehu Usman Dan Hodiyo and his followers, who carried out a jihad of Islamic reform in the early 19th Century.Part of this reform movement involved the composition of Islamic poetry,which comprises the oldest extensive written documentation of Hausa and nearly all of which is in the Western dialect. Finally, the majority of traditional Hausa praise singers, who might be considered purveyors of ClassicalHausa music, are from the Western dialect area, and their music remains popular among all Hausa speakers. Pronunciation: Speakers of Western Hausa still pronounce b, f, and m when they come before other consonants. Thus, Western Hausa speakers say sabka descend and zamna sit down. Compare the pronunciations of these words in Kano Hausa. Grammar: Western Hausa consistently distinguishes between masculine and feminine nouns, as does the Kano dialect, but instead of masculine ne its..., feminine ce its..., as in most of the rest of the Hausa-speaking area, Western Hausa uses na and ta respectively, e.g. suna na its a name (masculine noun), giwa ta its an elephant (feminine noun). Northern Hausa Major cities: Katsina, Maradi, Zinder The Hausa spoken along the Nigeria-Niger border and into Niger comprisesNorthern Hausa. Some major cities in this area are Katsina in Nigeria and Maradi and Zinder in Niger. Pronunciation: In pronunciation, Northern dialects have in common with the Western dialects the fact that they still pronounce b, f, and m when they come before other consonants. Thus, Northern Hausa speakers say sabka descend and zamna sit down. Compare the pronunciations of these words in Kano Hausa. Grammar: In marking gender of nouns, Northern Hausa has in common with Kano Hausa the words ne its... for masculine nouns (suna ne its a name) and ce its... for feminine nouns (giwa ce its an elephant). In a sense, Northern Hausa is an intermediate dialect between the more conservative Western area and the more innovative Kano area. Southern Hausa Major cities: Zaria, Bauci Southern Hausa extends from the city of Zaria and environs(the region call Zazzau in Hausa) to the Bauci area. Southern Hausa(as well as Eastern Hausa)are really sub dialects of the larger Kano or StandardHausa dialect group. Pronunciation: Southern Hausa shares with Kano Hausa the pronunciation of u in words such as sauka descend or zauna sit down. Grammar: The distinctive feature of Southern Hausa is the loss of a grammatical gender distinction in basically all nouns except those referring to humans and some domestic animals. The feminine word ce its... is not used at all in Southern Hausa, e.g. Southern Hausa speakers would say yaro ne its a boy and yarinya ne its a girl. Compare this to Kano Hausa yarinya ce its a girl). For humans, a gender distinction for humans does show up in pronoun agreement, however, e.g. yaro ya zo the boy came (with ya showing masculine agreement) but yarinya ta zo the girl came (with ta showing feminine agreement). Eastern Hausa Major cities: Hadeja, Azare, Katagum The area of Eastern Hausa, also called GuddiriHausa, includes the cities of Hadeja, Katagum, Azare, Potiskum, and othertowns in the general vicinity. Like Southern Hausa, Eastern Hausa is really a sub-dialect of the larger Kanovariety of Hausa. Pronunciation: Eastern and Southern Hausa are alike in the features of pronunciation of u in words like sauka descend or zauna sit down. Grammar: Eastern Hausa has the same characteristics with respect to grammatical gender as Southern Hausa. Distinguishing features of Eastern Hausa: The features distinctive to Eastern Hausa involve somewhat technical aspects of grammar and morphology. One feature distinguishing this dialect from others is the placement of indirect objects after direct objects, e.g. na tura yaro a Sarki I sent a boy (yaro) to the Chief (Sarki). In all other dialects, the indirect object would come first, e.g. Kano Hausa na tura wa Sarki yaro. Ghanaian Hausa As the term implies, Ghanaian Hausa is the variety of Hausa typical of native Hausa speakers in Ghana. Because Ghana is outside the contiguous native speaking Hausa area, it may not be possible to separate specific features of native Hausa in Ghana from non-nativefeatures typical of Ghanaian Hausa speakers who speak other languages (seeNon-native Hausa below). One feature typical of Ghanaian Hausa but not of any native varieties in Niger and Nigeria is the the use of the sounds ch and j where Nigerien/Nigerian varieties would have ky and gy respectively, e.g. cau (chow) beauty (rather thankful) and jara repair (for gyara). Non-native Hausa Hausa is the main lingua franca throughout Niger and the northern two-thirdsof Nigeria. It is also widely used as a lingua franca by Muslim populations in other countries west of Nigeria, e.g. Benin, Togo, and Ghana. Thoughthere is not a unified non-native Hausa dialect, certain features typically distinguish non-native from native speakers of Hausa. No distinction between glottalized consonants and the non-glottalized counterparts: ALL native Hausa speakers would distinguish karu be protected (with a plain k) from karu be increased (with an ejective k) or daidai correct (with plain ds) from daidai one at a time (with implosive ds). Non-native speakers would typically pronounce both members of these pairs identically, i.e. using only the plain consonants. The reason for this is that most West African languages lack a set of glottalized sounds (exceptions being Hausas linguistic relatives in the Chadic family and Fula, which has implosiveb and d). Grammatical gender: ALL native speakers of Hausa would say yaro ya tafi the boy left (with masculine singular agreement ya) but yarinya ta tafi the girl left (with feminine singular agreement ta). Non-native speakers would typically use the masculine agreement ya for both of these. The reason for this is that most West African languages do not have grammatical gender (exceptions being some--but by no means all--Hausas linguistic relatives in the Chadic family and Tamazhaq, a Berber language to the north of Hausa). Source: aflang.humnet.ucla.edu/Hausa/Language/dialectframe.html
Posted on: Tue, 16 Dec 2014 03:14:39 +0000
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