Edited by Azizi Powell
This pancocojams post presents information from two online articles about the Hausa language.
This post also showcases an excerpt of a 1992 pdf entitled "Arabic Loan Words In Hausa" by Lawan Danladi Yalwa. This pdf is a chapter in the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA)'s Journal of African Studies (Ufahamu).
The content of this post is presented for historical, linguistic, educational and other cultural purposes.* All copyrights remain with their owners,
Thanks to all those who are quoted in this post. Special thanks to Lawan Danladi Yalwa for sharing this information with the world.
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INFORMATION ABOUT THE HAUSA LANGUAGE
Excerpt #1
From https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hausa-language
written by H. Ekkehard Wolff, University Professor Emeritus, chairman of African Studies,
Institute of African Studies, University of Leipzig, Leipzig, Germany…
“Hausa language, the most important indigenous lingua franca in West and Central Africa, spoken as a first or second language by about 40–50 million people. It belongs to the Western branch of the Chadic language superfamily within the Afro-Asiatic language phylum.
The home territories of the Hausa people lie on both sides of the border between Niger, where about one-half of the population speaks Hausa as a first language, and Nigeria, where about one-fifth of the population speaks it as a first language. The Hausa are predominantly Muslim. Their tradition of long-distance commerce and pilgrimages to the Holy Cities of Islam has carried their language to almost all major cities in West, North, Central, and Northeast Africa.”...
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Excerpt #2
From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausa_people
"The Hausa (endonym: Hausawa; also Ausa, Francophonic
spelling Haoussa) are a Chadic ethnic group based primarily in the Sahel and
sparse savanna areas of southern Niger and northern Nigeria. With a total
population of some 30 million (2019 estimate), they qualify as the single most
numerous African ethnic group.
[...]
Language
The Hausa language, a member of Afroasiatic family of
languages, has more first-language speakers than any other African language. It
has an estimated 67 million first-language speakers, and close to 50 million
second-language speakers.[61] The main Hausa-speaking area is northern Nigeria
and Niger. Hausa is also widely spoken in northern Ghana, Cameroon, Chad,
Sudanese Hausa in Sudan and the Ivory Coast as well as among Fulani, Tuareg,
Kanuri, Gur, Shuwa Arab, and other Afro-Asiatic speaking groups. There are also
large Hausa communities in every major African city in neighbourhoods called
zangos or zongos, meaning "caravan camp" in Hausa (denoting the
trading post origins of these communities). Most Hausa speakers, regardless of
ethnic affiliation, are Muslims; Hausa often serves as a lingua franca among
Muslims in non-Hausa areas.
[…]
Hausa is considered one of the world's major languages, and
it has widespread use in a number of countries of Africa. Hausa's rich poetry,
prose, and musical literature, is increasingly available in print and in audio
and video recordings. The study of Hausa provides an informative entry into the
culture of Islamic Africa. Throughout Africa, there is a strong connection
between Hausa and Islam.
The influence of the Hausa language on the languages of many
non-Hausa Muslim peoples in Africa is readily apparent. Likewise, many Hausa
cultural practices, including such overt features as dress and food, are shared
by other Muslim communities. Because of the dominant position which the Hausa
language and culture have long held, the study of Hausa provides crucial
background for other areas such as African history, politics (particularly in
Nigeria and Niger), gender studies, commerce, and the arts."...
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JOURNAL EXCERPT: "ARABIC LOAN WORDS IN HAUSA"
from https://escholarship.org/uc/item/3jm5n6pw
Ufahamu: A Journal of African Studies
title: Arabic Loan Words in Hausa
ISSN
0041-5715
Author
Yalwa, Lawan Danladi
Publication Date
1992
[page 101]
"Introduction
[…]
The history of Hausa shows that the language has been
exposed to a lot of external influences which have affected and
still affect both the language and the people. Such external influences
include Azben, the earliest language to affect Hausa, and Arabic (see
Ibrahim 1978 and Liman 1978). It has now reached a stage where most native
speakers of
Hausa can hardly differentiate between the native vocabulary
of their language and that borrowed from other languages. Arabic
influence now has a permanent effect on Hausa in all areas of life, as
evidenced in the Hausa language itself as spoken orally and as used in
written literature. It is, however, very difficult to explain the
moment of the flrst contact between the two languages, since we lack
written materials that would show us the trend of such contact. The speakers
of Hausa can only guess or speculate by making reference to
historical documentation transmitted orally from one generation to
another before the massive use of the AJAMI (Hau..sa written in Arabic
script) in the post-jihad period of Sheik Usman Ian Fodio (see Bivar er al.
1962; Hiskett 1965, 1969, 1975; Liman 1978; and Ibrahim 1982).
Lexical borrowing:
A lot has been written on lexical borrowing from Arabic into Hausa. However, not much has been said about the causes of
this borrowing. Apan from Hiskett (1965; 1975) and Zarruk (
197R), most other works give only partial analyses of this issue. One
such imponant work is that of Greenberg (1947). In this paper he claims
that the influence of Arabic on Hausa was not directly from classical
Arabic, but rather through colloquial Arabic spoken in Nonh Africa,
Egypt and some pans of Sudan. He goes on to say that the loans are
divided into two phonologically distinct groups. The first group, which
he identifies as earlier loans, came through colloquial Arabic. These
words consist of terms of everyday life, trade, technology, and elementary
aspects of the Islamic religion which mark the period when the Hausa
community staned to embrace Islam. As for group two, he claims that
they came through classical Arabic and include words denoting personal
names of Qur'anic origin and technical terms of pseudo-sciences
mos!ly used by Hausa Islamic teachers. His claim is mainly based on the
phonological evidence observed from the borrowed words by referring to
the original
Arabic words. He claims that the definite article a/- was
borrowed from North African dialects as this is a common feature in those
dialects. Likewise the changing of 0 > t, El > d, g > d, ~
> s, aw > o: or u:, a > e; palatalization of alveolar consonants before front vowels;
and the
dropping of the anicle a/- ("the") were borrowed
from Nonh African dialects. These are all features observed in Egyptian, North
African and Sudanic dialects. These phonological changes came to Hausa
through colloquial dialects and, therefore, must be of words in
group I (see ibid. 1947). As for the second group, the words are constantly
borrowed with the ankle a/-, denoting the spread of Islam at a later
period. He also includes words on horsemanship in this group. Hiskett ( 1965) on the other hand gives a slightly different
view concerning determining the history of adopting Arabic words
into Hausa and the relative history of their coming, whether from
classical or colloquial varieties. He mentions that we should not
classify Arabic loans into Hausa only by phonological processes observed,
but rather we should also consider the history of the language as well.
The question one has to ask is: can one-sided generalizations
with respect to group I loanwords be made? That is, can we rely on
phonological processes alone as observed in the loans without referring
to the history of the people as done by Greenberg? I would certainly say
no. We have to refer to the history of the people and their literary
background as well.
Furthermore, I would not totally accept the view that all
the words in group I (i.e. earlier loans) came through colloquial Arabic.
There were some that really came through classical Ardbic, notably from
the Qur'an
[YALWA page103]
and Hadith (i.e. Prophet Muhammad's [SAW] Traditions as
observed by his companions).
At the historical level, observing some Arabic sources from
the Kano Chronicle (see footnote 2) and the writings of the Arab geographers, we see that Islam was in existence in Hausaland
earlier than what Greenberg assens (cf. Greenberg 1946; 1947). It
existed even before the massive arrival of Arabs into Hausaland
(Hiskett 1965 and the introduction of his 197 5 book). Arabs started to
come to Hausaland in the 12th century A.D. during the reign of King
Nagaji
cfan OariRu (1194-1247 A.D.) where they found a number of people practicing the Islam. Probably, as the history shows, the
Mandingoes (or Wangarawa) were the people who first brought the
religion to the Hausa people through trade and missionary activities. A
great number of them were in Kano during the reign of Yaji Oantsamiya
(1349-1385 A.D.), and were then followed by Fulanis of pre-jihad period
(Hiskett 1965, Zarruk 1978, and Liman 1978). The Fulanis found the
Hausa with the Qur'an and Hadith. This indicates that Islam was
there earlier than many historians claim. It was after the Fulanis of the
pre-Jihad period that the Arabs started to come to Hausaland in great
numbers.
This was during the reign of Muhammad Rumfa (1463-1499 A.D.). Muhammad b. Abdulkarim Al-Maghili (d. 1504; see Gwarzo 1972) is said to have written a treatise on Islamic law for Muhammad Rumfa. Another Arab called Sheik Tunis was also among the advisers of Muhammadu Kisoki (1509-1565 A.D.). A Maghribite, Sheik Abubakar was also an advisor to Muhammadu Zaki (1582-1618 A.D.).2 All of this information indicates that the coming of Islam really pre-dated the coming of the Arabs into Hausaland by at least 100 years.
Therefore, we can say that the small number of the Muslim
Hausa community (mostly the Malams or 'Muslim scholars') had the
Qur'an before the massive coming of the Arabs. Another fact is also
the order given by Yaji ( 1349-1385 A. D.) for the observance of the
five daily prayers in Kano. This could not have been possible without a knowledge of the Qur'an and Hadith (see also Liman 1978 for
such a view). Can we then establish the fact that not all words of
group 1 came from colloquial Arabic? The answer is yes. if we only accept
the fact
that the Muslim Hausa community had these two great books
before the massive coming of the Arabs into Hausaland. With this, we
can straight away dismiss the argument that they borrowed all the Arabic
loans from colloquial dialect(s), i.e. a kind of classical Arabic corrupted
by the Nonh Africans and Sudanic Arabs (cf. Goener et al. 1966;
Muhammad 1968).3 I therefore hold the view that all words in the
Qur'an denoting the basic teachings of Islam were transmitted to the Hausa
in their classical forms. These include terms of trade, cavalry, and
horsemanship which are found in the Qur'an. They were
borrowed into
[page 104 UFAHAMU]
Hausa in their Qur'anic and not in colloquial Arabic forms. If their forms changed, it was due to either direct or indirect innovation by the Hausa themselves in trying to pronounce the words by imitation of the existing patterns either consciously or unconsciously. This might have influenced the adaptation by which the Hausa speakers replaced Arabic sounds by Hausa phonemes that are phonetically closer to the borrowed ones (cf. Salim 1977 for similar adaptation processes with English loanwords and Sani 1986). In this process of earlier borrowings the innovation cannot be a one man's work but rather many people were involved. It is possible that what one person heard cannot be the same as what others might have heard due to physiological differences found among the hearers. This might have caused the differences found in the loans.
Although there are some loan words in group I which got into Hausa through colloquial Arabic, generalizations made by Greenberg on group I loans do not totally hold true.
Sources of Arabic Loans
There are five basic sources from which Hausa borrowed Arabic words:
Islam and Trade
It is to this source that most of the older words can be traced back, since the earlier people who had contact with the Hausa were both missionaries and traders (i.e. Wangarawa Islamic Missionaries; cf. footnote 2). Therefore all words denoting the fundamentals of Islam (including the concept of Belief) and some basic words on trade found in the Qur'an and Hadith were the first to be borrowed. These were immediately followed by words denoting items used for horse-riding and war because of the condition of Hausaland (insecurity for the kings) at that time. The Hausa borrowed these terms from the foreigners who imroduced new techniques of warfare to them.
Literature and Grammar
The second source is literature and grammar of (a) the
pre-Jihad period as in the works of Sufis like Wali oan Masani and
Wali oan Marina (see Ibrahim 1982; Sa'id 1977) and, (b) the Jihad
period ~here most Arabic words were borrowed and used in poetry written
in Ajami
writing system (cf. Hiskett 1975; Zarruk 1978). Most of the
words borrowed were those denoting praise to Allah (SWT) and
Prophet Muhammad (SAW), Islamic theology, warnings/admonitions to
[page YALWA 105]
Muslims about what they do and what the consequences for their activities will be , and words on Islamic law (cf. Bivar et al. 1962 and Zarruk 1978). Some of the borrowed words include the following:
(1) adabii literature darasii lesson
akasii opposite !haalli condition
baitli stanza/ jam'li plural
line of verse
balaagb eloquence 1cal.m.aa word
diiwaanli register lamiiru pronoun
fa.saahaa skill Aiaamaa indication/sign
ilia defect baabli chapter/category
~ sentence balagaa puberty
poem faa'Uii doer of action
aja.Iii fate/deadline hlkaayaa story
ba'aa joke/mockery jinsli gender
d'abii'aa behavior/ kaamll complete
custom
Islamic School System
The third source is the establishment of Qur'anic Schools
(i.e. slate-schools) established all over Hausaland. In these
schools, malams (teachers) introduced many innovations including the
teaching of Arabic consonants. Some of these innovations included the teaching
of the
Arabic consonants some of which were given Hausa names as
diu = Arabic /a/if/; amlxlaldn woofii = Arabic l'aynl; haakurii
(borrowed from Kanuri) = the Arabic rounded /h/, etc. Some of the words
borrowed through Islamic schools include:
(2)
Ar: Allah >H: AllAh "God", Ar: Muslim >H:
Musulmii "Muslim", Ar: ai-Murnin >H: Muumlnii
"Believer," Ar: al-ima:m >H: llimaamli/Hman "Muslim leader," Ar: al-
na:'ib >H: naa'lbii "deputy leader," Ar: al-Nabiy >H:
Annabli "Prophet," Ar: al- Hadith >H: Hadiisli "Prophetic
tradition," Ar: Hajj >H: Hajji "Pilgrimage (to Mecca)," Ar: hala:l > H:
halil "lawful", Ar: hara:m >H: haram "unlawful", Ar: Sala:t >H:
Sallaa "prayer," ~r: siya:m >H: azumii "Fasting," Ar: al-Qur'an
> H:
Alkur'aanli "Quran," Ar: al-zaka:t >H: zakkaa
"Alms or religious tithe paid in the form of farm produce, livestock, jewelery, or money." etc.
[page 106 UFAHAMU]
Administration, Law, and Politics
Hausa terms used in administration, law, and politics also constitute a great number of Arabic words borrowed especially during the post-Jihad period. That was the time when the Fulani established an Islamic system of government and reforms over the Hausaland under the leadership of Sheik Usman ibn Fodio. This new system was channeled through sermons and writings using the Ajarni in Hausa, Fulani or Arabic. This is directly connected to the sources of Arabic loan words discussed in the next section. The following are a few of the loanwords on administration, law, and politics:
(3)
Ar: al-'adab >H: ladabii "punishment," Ar: bai'ah >H: bai'aa/mubaaya'aa "pay homage," Ar: baitu al-ma:l >H: baitulmaall "treasury," Ar: daulah >H: daulaa "kingdom," Ar: diyyah > H: diyyaa "ransom/compensation," Ar: ha:kim > H : haakimii "district head," Ar: huku:mah >H: hukuumaa "government," Ar: jamhu:riyyah: >H: jamhuuriyaa "republic," Ar: khara:j > H: haraajii "tax," Ar: majalis >H: majalisaa "council," Ar: mulk > H: mulldi "administration," etc.
Modem Writings:
Modem writings which include both poetry and prose have been used to correct the traditional behavior of a great number
of Hausa Muslims (including most of the Hausa kings) of mixing
Islamic practices and other traditional religious practices which
were in use before the introduction of Islam to Hausaland. Most of the
words borrowed through the methods outlined in this section and
the one before were adopted somewhat in a fixed form, in the sense
that the loans were used just as they were in the source language
without radical changes in their phonology or morphology. It seems to me
that this was possible due to the fact that the people were aware of the
foreign language, hence a correct version of Arabic was used. At the
present time some of the older forms (of the pre-Jihad period) are
used side by side with the ones corrected by the learned Hausa speakers.
Also some of the older forms are being replaced by other loans from
English, while some survive only in religious activities. For instance, the
word dubuu (one thousand) is sometimes replaced by the Arabic: a/fin
counting
years, while in general counting of things like money, the
Hausa Zamhar d'a'rii (million) is totally replaced by mj[iyan
(million). We also do not find people using the word goomiyaa + number as in
goomiyaa
[YALWA page107]
biyu (twenty), but rather they use the loanword ashlFin.
There are also instances where the loanwords acquired new meartings that
differ from their meanings in the original language with a semantic
shift (see Rufa'i 1979). For example, Arabic: maqbaJ (accepted) has two
meanings in Hausa. The first mearting is as in the source language,
while the second one is "master or observer of people involved in their
activities." These examples indicate that language change is gradual and
unpredictable. The history of Arabic loan words in Hausa shows that such words got into Hausa at different times. However, we do not
know what the form of these words was at the time of their
borrowing. An examination of the history of Hausa phonology and morphology
will help us to understand how the loan words adapted to Hausa
linguistic changes and in that way attempt to reconstruct their
original form."...
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