meaning of hypothesis in hausa

Linguistique et langues africaines

Accueil Numéros 9(1) Comptes rendus Paul Newman, A history of the Hau...

Paul Newman, A history of the Hausa language: Reconstruction and pathways to the present

Paul Newman, A history of the Hausa language: Reconstruction and pathways to the present , Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2022, xv + 234 p.

Texte intégral

1 As the title tells us, the present book offers a history of the Hausa language. The author wishes to “offer fresh and insightful observations, interpretations and hypotheses, ideally in a readable and accessible fashion” (p. ix), and has largely achieved what he set out to do. This is an important book for all who have an interest in the Hausa language and in related Chadic languages as well as for historical linguists.

2 Following the List of Tables, the Preface, Transcriptions and Symbols, and the List of Abbreviations, Chapter 1 offers an overview of The Hausa Language, followed by Phonology (Chapter 2), Morphology (Chapter 3), Syntax–Grammar (Chapter 4), Loanwords (Chapter 5), and Lexicon and Etymologies (Chapter 6); the Conclusion (Chapter 7) is followed by References and an Index.

3 The volume covers many themes and many details: in Chapters 2‑6 there are 29 sections and 78 sub-sections, some of which are further subdivided. Thus, the focus of this review is on specific details rather than on all possible themes.

4 In the Preface the author reminds us of just how long Hausa has been studied — the first studies were written by Schön (1843; 1862) — and that, although “more than 1,800 books and articles on Hausa linguistics” have been published, “[we] still lack systematic and in-depth investigations into the language’s past” (p. ix). Thus, the aim in writing this monograph is “to create a picture of what Hausa must have looked like at an earlier period, and the changes it subsequently underwent, by drawing on comparative evidence from related languages and teasing out what one can by means of internal reconstruction and dialect variation”. Given the fact that there are few written sources for Old Hausa, any investigation into its history must look at such evidence and will necessarily involve speculation and asking questions which may remain unanswered. Throughout the book Newman is clear about the strengths or weaknesses of his suppositions, clearly indicating when he is sure — or not — of his hypotheses.

5 The marking of Hausa consonants, vowel length and tones as well as the symbols designating reconstructions, ungrammatical forms, etc. are explained in Transcription and Symbols (p. xi‑xiii). This review uses the same abbreviations as in the book itself; they are given in brackets following the first use of the word they abbreviate. In addition, the review follows the same system of representing the so-called hooked letters (glottalized consonants) of Hausa: the implosives ɓ and ɗ , and the ejectives ƙ and ts ; the two Rs are written: r (flapped) and ř (trilled). Again, both high (H) tone and low (L) tone are marked here (e.g., bóokòo and ájàmíi , see below) as are the examples in the book under review.

6 Chapter 1 gives an overview of the areas in which Hausa is spoken and an estimate of the number of speakers. The origins and uses of the two writing systems — bóokòo and ájàmíi (the European and Arabic alphabets respectively) — are then briefly described. More pertinent to the history of the language is its membership of and place in the Chadic family, a theme which is central to the book. Here, Newman takes the position he has long defended, viz., that, “examined carefully, Hausa is really no more atypical than any other Chadic language chosen at random” (p. 3). Where Hausa differs from other Chadic languages is the “richness of its vocabulary” (due largely to loanwords) and the fact that, for such a large language, “dialect variation is relatively modest” (p. 3). The chapter concludes with a brief overview of the history of the study of Hausa.

7 Chapter 2 describes the phonology of Hausa and opens with both a current and a historical inventory of consonants. Following this, Klingenheben’s Law is described (§2.1.3) — “the systematic lenition of syllable-final consonants” first described by Klingenheben (1927‑1928) and revised by Newman (2004) who accepted much of what Klingenheben had originally proposed, but also identified a separate case of reduplicated words in which “syllable-final velar and labial obstruents become geminates”. He calls the new law the “Law of Codas in Reduplication” (§2.1.4).

8 The status of palatals is described in §2.1.5: in Old Hausa (OH) they were “distinct, contrastive phonemes”, whereas in modern, Standard Hausa (SH) they are both allophones and phonemes. In §2.1.6 the glides /w/ and /y/ are discussed; here, the “presumably [...] old inherited feature” (i.e., w does not occur before the front vowels i or e ) is still found in SH where it is a “regular, synchronically active palatalization rule w → y /___front vowel”.

9 In §2.1.7 the glottal stop (/’/) and /h/ are shown not to have been “part of the OH phonemic inventory” (p. 30). These two consonants — widely found in SH — take on a certain significance in §2.1.7.2 where body parts are discussed, many of which begin with /ha‑/. Here, Newman suggests a “working hypothesis” for the possible existence of “what looked like a ha ‑ prefix” (p. 33): in OH the body part prefix was * a ‑ , not x ha ‑ and not ’a ‑. The hypothesis rests on the idea that SH ha ‑ emerged after vowel-initial words — widely found in OH — began to add an initial glottal stop. Since a good number of body part terms included a glottalized consonant, this innovation clashed with the rule disallowing “two different glottalized consonants [...] in the same word” (p. 11). Thus, the OH * a‑ prefix was replaced by ha ‑ not ’a ‑. As he does on several occasions in the book, Newman acknowledges the hypothetical nature of this suggestion.

10 In §2.1.8 the history of the two Rs — the independent development of the /r/ ‘flap’ and the /ř/ ‘trill’ — is described. The former is still found extensively, although non-initial * r was lost in OH, changing to /y/ or /i/. In SH the trilled ř is widely found, often in Arabic and English loan words, but also in other contexts. The relationship between the two Rs is complex and depends on the position of the R in the word, intervocalic or preceding certain vowels. Newman concludes that “the co-existence of two Rs [...] is a feature of considerable time depth ... [and that there is] an interesting historical story hidden here: the problem is that at the moment we do not know what it is” (p. 40). The section on consonants ends with a discussion of Nasals, Metathesis, Geminates and the Morphologization of Gemination (§2.1.9 to 2.1.12).

11 The description of vowels (§2.2) begins with the OH vowel system describing how OH i and u were contrastive, a contrast which is being lost (§2.2.2). The discussion of the development of medial mid-vowels /ee/ and /oo/ (from /ii/ and /uu/) precedes a description of “non-systematic modifications”, for instance, the internal vowel shortening found in in some adverbs, e.g., bákà ‘in the mouth’ (< bàakíi ‘mouth’). Word-Initial Vowels in OH and the use of /’/ or /h/ in word initial position in SH are discussed in §2.2.5 (see the comment on §2.1.7.2 above). Word-Final Vowel Length and the Lowering of Word-Final *uu to /oo/ are treated in §2.2.6 and 2.2.7.

12 Diphthongs are described in §2.2.8. The diphthongs /ai/ and /au/ originated in OH as “a vowel plus glide sequence ... /ay/ and /aw/” (p. 64) and “by absorption of the coda glide into the nucleus”, they became the diphthongs still found in SH (p. 65) where they are treated as long vowels. A further historical source of the SH diphthong /ay/ is the OH “*r > y Rule” which gives words such as áikìi < *arki. This is followed by a well-argued case for the existence of two additional “ formerly existing ” diphthongs (p. 67, emphasis in the original) — *iu and *ui — both of which have undergone monophthongisation. Prior to the monophthongisation of *iu (> *uu) “palatal consonants only occurred preceding front vowels and a ( a )” (p. 68); subsequently palatal consonants also preceded back vowels, e.g., cúuràa ‘knead’ and shúukàa ‘sow, plant’. The monophthongisation of *iu > uu can be seen in the formation of the words ƙîiwáa / ƙyûuyáa ‘indolence’ (p. 46). Both words result from glide metathesis ( y.w = w.y ): ƙîiwáa < //ƙîywáa// and ƙyûuyáa < //ƙîwyáa//. In the latter the /w/ automatically became /u/ in syllable final position (//ƙyîuyáa//) and the *iu diphthong undergoes monophthongisation.

13 The simple two-tone system of Hausa — (H)igh and (L)ow — is described in §2.3 along with the fact that SH has (F)alling tones; the latter result either from a disyllabic H‑L sequence in which a vowel is lost or after the addition of a suffix with a floating L tone to a word with a final H tone. Newman proposes a third possibility: “Tone bending”. This was found in OH beginning as an intonational change and affecting H tone single syllable nouns with a heavy syllable; this became “phonologized” (p. 74) and these nouns changed from H to F tone. This “preference for pronouncing monosyllabic nouns with Falling tone” is still found — in single syllable English loans with a H tone and a heavy syllable, e.g., bâs ‘bus’, tîi ‘tea’ (p. 75). In contrast, disyllabic L‑H sequences are reduced to a single H tone syllable, e.g., dòomín > dón ‘in order to’. In §2.3.4 tone polarity of the stabilizer (which marks identificational and equational sentences) is described with some guesswork about their origin. Direct object pronouns are also mentioned — formerly assumed to be polar in tone, but this has been disproved. In §2.3.5 floating tones are described; one example — on a type of Verbal Noun — is mentioned below. The section ends with a discussion of Low Tone Raising (§2.3.6), a function which changed OH L‑L nouns to L‑H. The final section (§2.3.7) describes Tone Integrating Suffixes, found in plurals, imperatives, deverbal adjectives, verbal grades and some verbal nouns.

14 The chapter ends with a description of syllables and syllable weight in Hausa (§2.4): SH has only three syllable types: CV, CVV and CVC, whereby the first is light and the other two are heavy. Newman argues that these three types existed in OH with the possibility that, in word-initial position, a syllable might start without the C onset. Syllable weight is important in both grammar (e.g., pronouns) and word formation (e.g., suffixes) and the section concludes with the assumption that “syllable weight functioned in OH more or less as it does today” (p. 87).

15 One very positive feature of Chapter 2 — indeed, of the book as a whole — is the way in which known facts are highlighted. For instance, in the introduction to palatals (§2.1.1.1), the reader is informed that, in Hausa, “palatals are separate phonemes and not separate phonemes” (emphasis in the original, p. 7). Such comments bring buoyancy to a text which might otherwise be quite dry. The seeming contradiction is explained in §2.1.5.

16 In Chapter 3 (Morphology), nouns, adjectives, and pronouns are discussed (§3.1. to 3.3). Here, I focus on ethnonyms (§3.1.6) and compounds (§3.1.7), and on the description of the verbal system (§3.4).

17 In the description of ethnonyms (§3.1.6) Newman argues that the formation of Hausa ethnonyms might be traced back to the designation ‘(our) language’ in other Chadic languages; he gives three examples: Kanakuru, Kwame and Tangale. In these languages the word ‘mouth’ ( bok , pogi / pok , pọk respectively) loses “the ending ‑ k (V)” and the reduced form precedes the name of the ethnic group ( bo Dera , po Kwaami , pọ Taŋle respectively) to name their language. The argument is that Hausa bàakíi ‘mouth’ was originally used in typical Chadic fashion to designate language; gradually, bàakíi lost the “the ending ‑ k (V)” to become a prefix bà ‑, but, with time, the suffix ‑ áncíi was used to designate languages (e.g., túuřáncíi ‘English’ ← Túuřáí ‘Europe’) leaving the prefix bà ‑ to designate ethnic groups (e.g., bàtúuřèe ‘European’ ← Túuřáí ‘Europe’). At the end of this description the author indicates the hypothetical nature of the argument, saying that “there are innumerable details to be worked out”. If the argument is hypothetical the logic — that Hausa uses the same strategy as other Chadic languages — is convincing.

18 In the first part of §3.1.7 (Compounds), verbal compounds formed with bán plus noun are analysed. Various authors have suggested that bán is a reduction of bàa ní ‘give me’ but here Newman makes a convincing case that ‑ n (in bán ) is a reduced form of the OH third person ni ‘him/it’ (common in Chadic) and not of the SH first person ni ‘me’. He points out that the SH demonstratives wátá and wású (the feminine singular and plural forms of the masculine singular wání ) contain the third person feminine and plural pronouns tá and sú and concludes that the ‑ ni in wání is the third person singular and not the first person.

19 The focus of §3.4 (Verbs) is the Grade System (§3.4.1) in which the histories of the individual grades — seven regular verb “classes” — are considered. Newman explains here that an analysis of “the system and [of] the individual grades in depth [...] would require a full monograph” and that he focusses “on essential issues where a historical perspective can throw light on the current situation” (p. 140). In the overview the syntactic forms of Hausa verbs are described: the A-form is the form used when no object is expressed immediately after the transitive verb; it is also the basic form of intransitive verbs and the citation form in dictionaries. The B-form is used when “personal pronoun direct objects” immediately follow the verb; the C-form is used “before direct objects other than personal pronouns” (p 139).

20 Much of the present description of the seven grades can be found in the historical notes of the author’s Encyclopedic Reference Grammar (Newman 2000: Chapter 74). In the present work, the focus on history is central, and any new evidence is offered. Parsons’ distinction (1960) between primary and secondary grades (Grades 1‑3 and 4‑7 respectively) is retained.

21 The fact that Grade 1 verbs (p. 140‑142) are basically transitive is given a certain prominence and the three sources of these verbs are described in a historical perspective: a) Verbs ending in ‑ a (“Basic a ‑Verbs [...] inherited from Proto-Chadic” where they contrasted with verbs which “for convenience [are] referred to as ‘schwa-verbs’”); b) Applicatives, which are commonly used preceding indirect objects or may “serve to change the orientation of an event”; and c) “Disyllabic Verbs with Frozen Cà Suffixes”. The Frozen Cà suffixes (‑ kà , ‑ nà and ‑ yà ) are interesting because the suffix has a built-in L tone, which means that disyllabic verbs will necessarily appear in Grade 1: H‑L. In other words, the suffix — not the semantics or some other grammatical reason — determines the grade in which the verb appears. Newman says it is: “an unusual situation by Hausa standards where ‘the tail is wagging the dog’” (p. 142).

22 Intransitive verbs in Grade 1 are the result of “secondary developments”, e.g., the LH > H tone simplification rule (described in §2.3). Three examples are given (p. 140): Grade 3 tàfásà ‘boil’ > Grade 1 táfsàa ; Grade 3 fàɗákà ‘wake up’ > Grade 1 fářkàa (< *fáɗ kàa); Grade 3 zàmánà ‘sit, be’ > Grade 1 záunàa (< *zámnàa). The syllable-final changes ( ř < ɗ and u < m ) illustrate Klingenheben’s Law (§2.1.3).

23 In the description of Grade 2 verbs (always transitive, e.g., with the A, B and C forms sàyáa , sàyée and sàyí ‘buy’) Newman recapitulates earlier information (2000; 1973): the ‑ í found in the C-form (e.g., sàyí ) — not the ‑ áa found in the modern A-form ( sàyáa ) — is the “original lexical final vowel” (p. 142), while the modern A-form was originally a “stem-derived verbal noun”. Here, he offers more recent evidence, viz., the fact that, in the case of polysyllabic A-forms, it is not only the final vowel of the two forms which differs, the tone pattern of the A-form also differs from that of the C-form, e.g., A-form (LHL) dàagúràa ‘gnaw at’, C-form (LLH) dàagùrí ; A-form (LLHL) tàntàmbáyàa ‘ask many or often’, C-form (LLLH) tàntàmbàyí . Like Grade 1 — which contains both basic ‑ a verbs and the Applicative extension — Grade 2 contains basic ‑ i verbs and a Partitive extension.

24 Grade 3 verbs are basic intransitives, e.g., fìtá (A form) ‘go out’, and were originally disyllabic with a light first syllable (still found in other Chadic languages). Polysyllabic Grade 3 verbs, e.g., fàɗákà (A form) ‘wake up’, were rare in OH; however, in SH, we find frozen reduplicated pluractionals and verbs with a ‑Cà suffix. Grade 3a verbs (all HH with a heavy first syllable, e.g., kwáaná ‘spend the night’) are “relatively recent”, probably “created by back formation from nouns” (p. 147). Regarding Grade 3b verbs (HL with a short final vowel ‑ i , ‑ a , or ‑ u ) it is suggested that they go back to “intransitive schwa-verbs [and are] the intransitive counterpart of gr[ade] 2” (p. 147).

25 Grade 4, e.g., sáyèe (A, B and C forms) ‘sell all of’, is the first of the secondary grades (4‑7) which are defined as basic verbs plus an extension. The differences in the nomenclature of the various extensions (compare, e.g., Newman 2000 and Jaggar 2001) are of no great significance. In a further development of his thinking, Newman suggests that the “three main meanings and functions” of Grade 4 (“totality”, “deprivative, separative or malefactive” and “intransitivizer”, p. 148) are a single “polysemous” extension, as found in other Chadic languages (p. 149). Furthermore, in recent times, Grade 4 — which Parsons (1960) classified as a secondary grade — now includes verbs not found in the primary grades (1‑3), i.e., it is taking on the function of a primary grade (p. 149).

26 The main function of Grade 5 is “to transitivize inherently intransitive verbs” (p. 150). In his description of Grade 5 (e.g., A-form sáyář , B-form sáyář dà or sáishée , C-form sáyář dà ‘sell’) Newman offers several innovations. Firstly, the underlying form of the suffix ‑ ař is * ‑ (a)si, not ‑ as , as was previously postulated (see Newman 2000); however, the final ‑ i is dropped resulting in the suffix ‑ as of which the SH ‑ ař suffix is a reflex. This hypothesis offers a different explanation for the origin of the B-form with the ‑ shee suffix: the ‑ shee is not simply palatalized ‑ s , rather, the short /a/ of the *‑(a)si suffix “is usually dropped” and /s/ is palatalised to give ‑ shee (which contains the same /ee/ as found in the B-form of Grade 2 verbs and takes the regular direct object pronoun). The /a/ in * ‑ (a)si is found in the ‑ shee form of a few verbs where the /sh/ is geminated “for metrical purposes” (p. 151), e.g., *sánáshée → sánásshée ‘inform’ (< sánìi ‘know’).

27 A further innovation relates to the so-called Grade 5 short forms, e.g., báa dà ‘give away’. Here, Newman offers “an alternative historical scenario” (p. 151‑152) to the established explanation that this form is simply a contraction of the long form (here, báayář dà ). He argues convincingly that the dà found with the long form is the sociative particle found with verbs such as Grade 1 túnàa dà ‘remember’, while the dà found with the short form is “an extensional suffix [...] that creates a distinct grade separate from (and should be numbered differently from) gr[ade] 5 as represented by the long form containing the extension ‑ as .” (p. 152).

28 Semantically, these verbs are Efferential (indicating “action directed away from the speaker”), not — as they were traditionally known — causative. Newman claims that “causative” is “an unfortunate misnomer for which the label Efferential was proposed some years ago” Neither here (§3.4.1.7) nor in §4.1.2 (“Causative”) is there any discussion of Jaggar (2017) who makes a good case for accepting that many Grade 5 verbs are causative.

29 The discussion of Grade 6 (e.g., sáyóo , A, B and C forms, ‘buy and come’) is short and uncomplicated. Many verbs add the Ventive extension — HH tone and the suffix ‑ oo (“originally possibly * ‑ (a)woo”, p. 153) to indicate action towards the speaker or for the benefit of the speaker. Grade 7 also receives only a brief description. These verbs with LH tone pattern and the final vowel ‑ u (e.g., sàyú ‘bought out’) are all intransitive and have been labelled “sustentative” or “resultative”. Newman says that Grade 7 “is the grade about which we have the least understanding when it comes to etymology and history”; however, he offers the possibility that this extension “does not reflect a traditional Chadic extension per se, but rather derives from a marker of perfectivity, perhaps related to *ko (a particle still found with that function in Bole)” (p. 153).

30 The section on the grades is well written, focussing on the history of the verbal grades and offering new information and/or interpretations. In the eyes of this reviewer, the one flaw is the lack of any discussion of the Grade 5 extension (efferential or causative); this is underscored by the fact that, while the phonology and syntax of the Grade 5 extension is given much space, no parallels are drawn with the verbal semantics of any other Chadic language; this contrasts strongly with, e.g., Grade 6 where we are told that “[v]erbal extensions with this function are widespread in Chadic” (p. 152).

31 Section 3.4 ends with discussions of transitivity (§3.4.2), frozen suffixes (§3.4.3) and pluractionals (§3.4.4). The history of these themes is prominent in all three sections. The chapter ends with short discussions of adverbs (§3.5) and ideophones (§3.6).

32 Chapter 4 (Syntax–Grammar) treats Gender, Demonstratives, and Adjectives (§4.1‑4.3). The themes Tense–Aspect–Mood (§4.4) and Negation (§4.5) are handled well; however, two important themes receive only minimal attention; this is commented on below. The chapter then covers Questions and Focus, Conditionals, Prepositional Phrases, Numerals, Reflexives and Reciprocals, Indirect Objects and Causative (§4.6‑4.12). The history of these themes is highlighted throughout.

33 Chapter 5 offers an overview of loanwords and their sources — Arabic, Kanuri, Tuareg Fulani, Yoruba and other Southern Nigerian Languages (§5.1‑5.3 respectively) and English (§5.4). In §5.5 the influence loanwords have had on Hausa phonology is discussed.

34 The final chapter (6: Lexicon and Etymologies) opens with an account of Chadic Lexical Retentions in Hausa (§6.1), a further historical theme. In §6.2 (Individual Etymologies) individual words and their various origins are described. Perhaps the most interesting is the etymology of the Hausa word bóokòo (as in boko haram , the radical Muslim organisation known since ca. 2008). Here, Newman points out that bóokòo is a “native Hausa word indicating deceit, trickery, underhandedness, etc.” and is not derived from English book , a false interpretation endorsed by scholars for many years. Phonologically, the English pronunciation of book would not give bóokòo : the Hausa words kúukùu and ’úulùu are borrowed from English cook and wool respectively; the English word book would have been pronounced */búukùu/. Thus, the term máka ř ántá ř bóokòo ‘western (as opposed to Koranic) school’ has no connection with book , rather, bóokòo was used “as a subtle means of disparaging British colonial policies and Western culture in general” (p. 215).

35 The descriptions and discussions of the various themes in the present volume are first rate. Nevertheless, two important themes — verbal nouns and the continuative aspect — are not discussed. Verbal nouns — and their history — is an important theme in any discussion of the history of the Hausa verbal system, but they are not considered either in §3.1 (Nouns) or §3.4 (Verbs). However, references to the various kinds of verbal noun (VN) are found, e.g., to VNs which add a ‑ `waa suffix, traditionally referred to as “weak” VNs. Newman refers to this suffix either as “the ‘ing’ marker” (p. 73), “the ‘‑ing’ suffix ‑`waa ” (p. 79) or “the present participial ‘‑ing’ formative” (p. 85).

36 The so-called “strong verbal nouns”, and their histories, are found in §2.2.3.6 (“ablauted verbal nouns”), in §3.1.9 or §3.1.10 (VNs taking either a ‑ koo or ‑ makoo suffix or a ‑ naa suffix). Other historical details of VNs are mentioned in §3.4.1 concerning VNs in Grades 2 and 3; in §3.4.3.1 we find a list of old “strong” VNs from which verbs in various grades have been formed by the addition of suffixes. Indeed, here, a possible definition of VN is offered: “‘Verbal noun’ refers to verb-derived nominals comparable to English gerunds and present participles” (p. 160).

37 The absence of information on VNs conflates with the absence of a discussion of the affirmative and the so-called “relative continuative” TAMs. I use the term “conflates” because VNs are typically used with continuative aspects. And, as with the VNs, continuative aspects have not been entirely overlooked. In Chapters 3 and 4, examples — with VNs, verbal phrases, and adverbial statives — are given with the Continuative (§3.4). Examples with the Relative Continuative are given following question words and in focus sentences (§4.6). Furthermore, the Negative Continuative and its history is briefly described in §4.5 (Negation) and descriptions of other aspects are satisfactory: the Completive, the Future, Completive and Preterite TAMs are discussed along with the Subjunctive, the Aorist, and the Negative Continuative in §4.4 (Tense‑Aspect‑Mood); the Completive again in §3.3 (Morphology).

38 In the past, Newman has treated the history of both VNs and the continuative aspects. In his Reference Grammar (2000) he devotes a chapter to “Verbal Nouns” (Chapter 77), and several historical notes are included. The Continuative — affirmative, Negative and Relative — is also treated and commented on in historical notes (Chapter 70); furthermore, together with Russell Schuh, Newman (1974) published a historical review of Hausa TAMs.

39 The histories and functions of VNs and of the Continuative and Relative Continuative TAMs surely deserve a discussion in the present volume. Perhaps a clue as to what deterred a thorough discussion is found in the introduction to the verbal grades (§3.1.4) where Newman says, “[r]ather than analyse the system and the individual grades in depth, which would require a full monograph , we shall focus on essential issues where a historical perspective can throw light on the current situation” (p. 140, emphasis added). May I ask a propitious question? Are these themes the subject of a further monograph?

40 A “full monograph” on these themes would be more than welcome. They are probably more controversial than many other themes; certainly, various authors — including myself — have suggested that the semantics of the verbal grades relate to their initial tone. In the present volume, however, Newman (p. 142) adduces a good argument against an oversimple analysis: the fact that Frozen Cà suffixes ( ‑ kà , ‑ nà and ‑ yà ) determine the grade in which the verb appears (Grades 1, 2 or 3) means that the initial tone of these verbs is determined by phonology and has no semantic implications.

41 It is the sad duty of the reviewer to mention typos. There are quite a few typos in this volume, both in the text and in the marking and alphabetical listing of examples. However, they hardly detract from the content: the history of the Hausa language. The volume is well thought out and well written; the focus — the history of the Hausa language — is retained throughout, and, excepting the lacunae mentioned above, the author has achieved the aims he outlined in the introduction.

Bibliographie

Jaggar, Philip J. 2001. Hausa . Amsterdam: John Benjamins.

Jaggar, Philip J. 2017. The morphological-to-analytic causative continuum in Hausa: New insights and analyses in a typological perspective . Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Klingenheben, August. 1927. Die Silbenauslautgesetze des Hausa. Zeitschrift für Eingeborenen Sprachen 18. 272‑297.

Newman, Paul. 1973. Grades, vowel tone classes and extensions in the Hausa verbal system. Studies in African Linguistics 4. 297‑346.

Newman, Paul. 2000. The Hausa language: An encyclopedic reference grammar . New Haven: Yale University Press.

Newman, Paul. 2004. Klingenheben’s Law in Hausa . Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.

Newman, Paul & Russell G. Schuh. 1974. The Hausa aspect system. Afroasiatic Linguistics 1(1). 1‑39.

Schön, James Frederick. 1843. Vocabulary of the Haussa language: Phrases, and specimens of translations, to which are prefixed, the grammatical elements of the Haussa language . London: Church Missionary House.

Schön, James Frederick. 1862. Grammar of the Haussa language . London: Church Missionary House.

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Joseph McIntyre , « Paul Newman, A history of the Hausa language: Reconstruction and pathways to the present » , Linguistique et langues africaines [En ligne], 9(1) | 2023, mis en ligne le 30 juin 2023 , consulté le 14 août 2024 . URL : http://journals.openedition.org/lla/4959 ; DOI : https://doi.org/10.4000/lla.4959

Joseph McIntyre

Universität Hamburg

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First published in 1988, this book is a landmark in the study of one of the major African languages: Hausa. Hausa is spoken by 40-50 million people, mostly in northern Nigeria, but also in communities stretching from Senegal to the Red Sea. It is a language taught on an international basis at major universities in Nigeria, the USA, Western and Eastern Europe, the Middle and Far East, and is probably the best studied African language, boasting an impressive list of research publications. As Nigeria grows in importance, so Hausa becomes a language of international standing. The volume brings together contributions from the major contemporary figures in Hausa language studies from around the world. It contains work on the linguistic description of Hausa, various aspects of Hausa literature, both oral and written, and on the description of the relationship of Hausa to other Chadic languages.

Graham Furniss, Philip J. Jaggar

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Temporal interpretation in Hausa

Research Article
Published: 29 November 2013
Volume 36 , pages 371–415, ( 2013 )

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Anne Mucha 1

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This paper provides a formal analysis of the grammatical encoding of temporal information in Hausa (Chadic, Afro-Asiatic), thereby contributing to the recent debate on temporality in languages without overt tense morphology. By testing the hypothesis of covert tense against recently obtained empirical data, the study yields the result that Hausa is tenseless and that temporal reference is pragmatically inferred from aspectual, modal and contextual information. The second part of the paper addresses the coding of future in particular. It is shown that future time reference in Hausa is realized as a combination of a modal operator and a Prospective aspect marker, involving the modal meaning components of intention and prediction as well as event time shifting. The discussion relates directly to recent approaches to other seemingly tenseless languages such as St’át’imcets (Matthewson, Linguist Philos 29:673–713, 2006 ) or Paraguayan Guaraní (Tonhauser, Linguist Philos 34:257–303, 2011b ) and provides further evidence for the suggested analyses of the future markers in these languages.

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Assessing alternatives: the case of the presumptive future in Italian

Past time reference in a language with optional tense

No tense: temporality in the grammar of Paraguayan Guarani

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Mucha, A. Temporal interpretation in Hausa. Linguist and Philos 36 , 371–415 (2013). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10988-013-9140-6

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Published : 29 November 2013

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Hausa , people found chiefly in northwestern Nigeria and adjacent southern Niger . They constitute the largest ethnic group in the area, which also contains another large group, the Fulani , perhaps one-half of whom are settled among the Hausa as a ruling class, having adopted the Hausa language and culture . The language belongs to the Chadic group of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic) family and is infused with many Arabic words as a result of Islāmic influence, which spread during the latter part of the 14th century from the kingdom of Mali , profoundly influencing Hausa belief and customs. A small minority of Hausa, known as Maguzawa, or Bunjawa, remained pagan.

Hausa society was, and to a large extent continues to be, politically organized on a feudal basis. The ruler (emir) of one of the several Hausa states is surrounded by a number of titled officeholders who hold villages as fiefs, from which their agents collect taxes. Administration is aided by an extensive bureaucracy , often utilizing records written in Arabic.

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The Hausa have settled in cities (of pre-European origin, such as Kano), towns, and hamlets; but the great majority of the population is rural. A typical farm household consists of two or more men and their families grouped in a mud- or stalk-walled enclosure of some 1,000 square feet (93 square metres) containing small round or rectangular huts with thatched roofs and a larger rectangular hut in the centre for the headman of the compound .

Social structuring is markedly hierarchical; the ranking, both of offices and social classes, is expressed in an elaborate etiquette. Individuals may be ranked as commoners, administrators, or chiefs; and varying degrees of prestige attach to different professions and levels of prosperity. Slaves were formerly numerous, some of them holding important posts in the administration. Noble lineages dominated important official positions.

Descent is patrilineal ; and close kin, especially cousins, are preferred marriage partners. Divorce, regulated by Muslim law, is frequent.

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Hausa Kinship Terminologies: Insights Into Culture and Cognition

Kinship classification systems play a critical role in understanding human cognition because of their cross-cultural prevalence and paradigmatic completeness. In place of the historically used componential analysis method, this paper instead utilizes Optimality Theory, which argues that languages share constraints, but apply them differently to choose between linguistic efficiency and accurate communication. To negotiate the rigidity of OT and remember the humanity behind the structure, an extensive analysis of family and social structures among Hausa language speakers was applied to the formal method. The study engages with questions about the extent to which cognitive structures and cultural factors interact in kinship term production and presents evidence for how term use influences thought patterns of Hausa speakers and their conceptions of familial relationships. By applying cultural practice to theory, the model proposes a cognitive framework, particularly malleable to cultural values, that produces kinship terminologies in the Hausa language. Using a variety of ethnographic texts, language learning resources, and the author’s study of the Hausa language, this paper analyzes sets of kinship terms contextually, applying the linguistic and cultural data to Optimality Theory. The model proposed claims that speakers are equipped with a cognitive structure that creates a need for efficient communication and accuracy, resulting in linguistic variation in kinship terminology production when speakers must negotiate with the above constraints. Therefore, Hausa language speakers rank their most valued terminological distinctions based on cognitive constraints and cultural influences in order to produce the kinship terms found in the lexicon. Keywords: kinship, language and cognition, culture

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ABSTRACT OF MONOGRAPH Relatively Speaking: The Acquisition of Social Identity among the Mopan Maya 2001, Oxford Studies in Anthropological Linguistics. Eve Danziger Department of Anthropology University of Virginia http://pages.shanti.virginia.edu/evedanziger/ Aligning classic debates over kinship semantics with the recent renewal of interest in the measurable effects of language variation on thought (Lucy 1992, Gumperz and Levinson 1991), this study takes up the challenge of determining the "psychological reality" of semantic models; it carries out an investigation of children's language which integrates ethnographic and linguistic observations to discriminate between competing semantic models of kinship vocabulary in the Mopan Maya language of Central America. Fourteen months of ethnographic fieldwork in southern Belize provide the basis for an understanding of the Mopan kinship domain. According to informants, relationships in this domain are based upon parent-child links, and typical nuclear family referents exist within each named category. Use of the terms of the domain in obligatory greeting is consistently understood as an important instantiation of religious respect (Mopan tzik). A deep reverence for age as the vehicle of knowledge motivates a lexical distinction between "same age group" and "different age group" relationships within the set of those entitled to the respect greeting. In a deeply felt sense, however, the sameness and differentness of age group that is crucial to Mopan kin term semantics is not predicated upon essential factors such as biological generation or absolute chronology. Rather, the distinction turns on collective assessment of the various social and cultural criteria that, in the right combination, allow one person to play a nurturing role with respect to another. Although a feature-based analysis is applicable to the internal semantics of the Mopan domain therefore, the features to be applied are social and local rather than essential or natural. In illustration of this point, the study describes how certain tzik greeting relationships are conventionally established through performative speech acts in situations which allow for a considerable degree of prior negotiation as to outcome. On the basis of this description, three very different models of kinship semantics are proposed for the Mopan domain. One, a traditional kintype approach uses ethnogenealogical data to make an analysis in terms of combinations of biological primitives. The second, a prototype analysis made in terms of central category members, follows up linguistic and interview evidence which indicates the existence of familiar typical referents within the nuclear family for each term. A third, cryptotype, analysis proposes that the peculiarly Mopan feature of fitness for nurture by virtue of maturity functions in Mopan cognitive organization to define the category as a uniquely Mopan conceptual whole. This analysis proposes that category boundaries in the Mopan domain are well-defined and psychologically salient rather than fuzzy and peripheral. The study now takes up the challenge of establishing the cognitive status of these three possible analyses. Previous cross-linguistic investigations have indicated that the semantic complexity of family relationship terms conditions the order in which children process them through cross-culturally verified stages of cognitive acquisition (Haviland and Clark 1974, Piaget 1928). Acquisition of Mopan terms is predicted to proceed in three alternative sequences under the three competing semantic models (cf. Greenfield and Childs 1977). Data from one hundred Mopan children aged seven to fourteen years provide results which most strongly support the cryptotype analysis. The kintype analysis is not supported by the data. The prototype analysis is not disconfirmed but is only suggestively supported. A return to the Mopan ethnography and to general ethnology helps us to interpret these cognitive results. The requirements of the social situations to which tzik is relevant are such that mutually exclusive courses of linguistic action have alternative symbolic readings and alternative social consequences. The circumstances therefore do not allow for fuzzy boundaries to the tzik-greeting ("kinship") domain, nor for gradations of membership in tzik-related categories. The forces which define the Mopan kinship domain in cultural rather than in biological terms are symbolic ones. And within the tzik domain, the forces which emphasize category boundaries rather than the identification of central members are those of social practice. Mopan conceptual categories in the tzik domain are motivated by their relevance to culturally meaningful action in particular contexts, and they therefore reflect neither a disembodied and universal `objective reality' (kintype organization) nor a cross-culturally common and pan-contextual `human-sized experience' (prototype organization). Between thought and language, the study concludes, lies social action. Combining quantitative with qualitative methodology, the work draws out and examines the vital links between social purpose, lexical categorization, and cognitive organization. In the Mopan kinship case, it is clear that while genealogical or physiological reality may constitute a "fuzzy" continuum, it is contextualized speech itself which functions to create sharply bounded categories of social action. These categories in turn are demonstrated to have psychological reality in the minds of speakers. The study thus addresses the issue of language and thought from a standpoint that unites cognitive with practice interests in linguistic anthropology. It views linguistic and conceptual categories as fully integrated both into the particular context of their use, and also into the larger cultural context that makes it possible to use them at all. This multiplex context is seen to play a role both in shaping linguistic structure, and in bringing into being a culturally particular form of conceptual organization. References Cited Goodenough, Ward H. 1965. Yankee Kinship Terminology: A Problem in Componential Analysis American Anthropologist 67(5) part 2:259-87. Greenfield, Patricia, and Childs, Carla. 1977. Understanding Sibling Concepts: A Developmental Study of Kin Terms in Zinacantan Piagetian Psychology: Cross Cultural Contributions, ed. Pierre Dasen. New York, Gardner Press Inc. Gumperz, John J., and Levinson, Stephen C. 1991. Rethinking Linguistic Relativity Current Anthropology 32(5):613-623. Haviland, Susan, and Clark, Eve. 1974. This Man's Father is My Father's Son: A Study of the Acquisition of English Kin Terms Journal of Child Language 1:23-47. Kroeber Alfred L. 1909. Classificatory Systems of Relationship Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute 39:77-84. Lakoff, George. 1987. Women, Fire and Dangerous Things: What Categories Reveal About the Mind. University of Chicago Press, Chicago and London. Leach, Edmund. 1962. Concerning Trobriand Clans and the Kinship Category `Tabu' The Developmental Cycle in Domestic Groups, ed. Jack Goody. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Lounsbury, Floyd. 1964 [1969]. The Structural Analysis of Kinship Semantics. Proceedings of the Ninth International Congress of Linguistics. The Hague: Mouton and Co. Reprinted in Cognitive Anthropology, ed. Steven Tyler, 193-212. New York, Holt Rinehart and Winston. Lucy, John A. 1992. Grammatical Categories and Cognition: A Case Study of the Lingusitic Relativity Hypothesis. Studies in the Social and Cultural Foundations of Language No. 13. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press. Morgan, Lewis H. 1870 [1970]. Systems of Consanguinity and Affinity in the Human Family. Smithsonian Institution Contributions to Knowledge, Volume 17. Reprinted after 1871 edition by Anthropological Publications, Osterhout, Netherlands. Needham, Rodney. 1971. Remarks on the Analysis of Kinship and Marriage Rethinking Kinship and Marriage, ed. Rodney Needham. London, Tavistock Publications. Piaget, Jean. 1928. Judgment and Reasoning in the Child, tr. Marjorie Warden. New York, Harcourt, Brace and Company. Ruhl, Charles. 1989. On Monosemy: A Study in Linguistic Semantics. Albany, State University of New York Press. Schneider, David. 1984. A Critique of the Study of Kinship. Ann Arbor, University of Michigan Press. Schneider, David. 1965. American Kin Terms and Terms for Kinsmen: A Critique of Goodenough's Componential Analysis of Yankee Kinship Terminology American Anthropologist 67(5) part 2:288-308. Taylor, John R., 1989. Linguistic Categorization Oxford, Clarendon Press. Wierzbicka, Anna. 1992. Semantics, Culture and Cognition: Universal Human Concepts in Culture-Specific Configurations. New York and Oxford, Oxford University Press.

Research in anthropology has shown that kin terminologies have a complex combinatorial structure and vary systematically across cultures. This article argues that universals and variation in kin terminology result from the interaction of (1) an innate conceptual structure of kinship, homologous with conceptual structure in other domains, and (2) principles of optimal, “grammatical” communication active in language in general. Kin terms from two languages, English and Seneca, show how terminologies that look very different on the surface may result from variation in the rankings of a universal set of constraints. Constraints on kin terms form a system: some are concerned with absolute features of kin (sex), others with the position (distance and direction) of kin in “kinship space,” others with groups and group boundaries (matrilines, patrilines, generations, etc.). Also, kin terms sometimes extend indefinitely via recursion, and recursion in kin terminology has parallels with recursion in other areas of language. Thus the study of kinship sheds light on two areas of cognition, and their phylogeny. The conceptual structure of kinship seems to borrow its organization from the conceptual structure of space, while being specialized for representing genealogy. And the grammar of kinship looks like the product of an evolved grammar faculty, opportunistically active across traditional domains of semantics, syntax, and phonology. Grammar is best understood as an offshoot of a uniquely human capacity for playing coordination games.

Kinship Systems: Change and Reconstruction Iedited by McConvell, P., I. Keen, and R. Hendery, pp. 59-91. Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press)

Dwight Read

In this chapter l consider the developmental aspect of kinship systems by focusing on a single region in which we can identify time-based structural changes in the formal aspects of kinship terminologies for the populations in that region. Terminologies from the Polynesian region will be used for this purpose since the broad pattern of prehistoric populations moving into this region, as well as the genetic relations among the Polynesian languages, have already been worked out from archaeological, genetic, and linguistic data. Methodologically, I first delineate the formal structure of Polynesian kinship terminologies in the ethnographic present. Then I identify an implied, temporal pattern of structural changes from the ethnographic past that accounts for the differences in present-day terminology structures. Next, I construct a kinship tree of genetic relations among these kinship terminologies in analogy with a language tree. To do this, I use methods analogous to those employed in historical linguistics for developing a language tree depicting genetic relations among related languages. I then compare the kinship tree with a language tree for the same populations so as to assess whether the cultural systems of language and kinship change in parallel. I find that this is not the case, so our understanding of kinship terminology structure cannot simply be subsumed under the study of linguistic structures as has been widely assumed. I conclude by comparing changes in the structural and linguistic aspects of the same terminologies so as to enrich our understanding of the factors influencing the development of kinship terminologies through time. This will increase our understanding of the time-based development of kinship systems.

Iranian Studies

amer gheitury

Language in Africa 2(1)

Nina Pawlak

The paper discusses phraseological units in Hausa as combinations of lexical units which have grammatical and cultural motivations. Its purpose is to identify language-specific types of structural phraseologisms and their culturespecific meanings. At the structural level, the most productive patterns of verbal phrases and nominal compounds are being presented. Special attention is devoted to various types of verb-based nominal phrases which refer to perceiving the surrounding world through instances of people's behavior. The structural phraseologisms are also seen as a means of abstract conceptualization and a source of grammaticalization processes. The cultural background of the Hausa phraseologisms is referred to culture keywords and the traces of cultural experience which determine the meaning of the whole phrase. This approach includes a comparative perspective in studies on phrasal expressions in the Hausa language. The examples are taken from lexicographic sources and from descriptive works, they are also extracted from literary texts, the text of "Magana Jari Ce" [Speech is an Asset] by Abubakar Imam in particular.

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Hausaland , sometimes referred to as the Hausa Kingdoms, was a group of small independent city -states in northern central Africa between the Niger River and Lake Chad which flourished from the 15th to 18th century CE. The origins of the Hausa are not known, but one hypothesis suggests they were a group of indigenous peoples joined by a common language - Hausa - while another theory explains their presence as a consequence of a migration of peoples from the southern Sahara Desert. The cities prospered thanks to local and interregional trade in such commodities as salt, precious metals, leather goods, and slaves. Islam was adopted by many of the rulers and elite of the city-states in the 14th and 15th century CE but was also one of the reasons for their loss of independence when the Muslim Fulani leader Usman dan Fodio (r. 1803-1815 CE) launched a holy war and conquered the region in the early 19th century CE.

Geography & Origins

The name Hausaland derives from the Hausa term Kasar hausa , meaning the 'country of the Hausa language', although the area also included other peoples such as the Tuareg, Fulbe, and Zabarma. The term 'Hausa' was in use only from the 16th century CE as the people called themselves according to which specific city-state or kingdom they belonged to.

Hausaland was located in the Sahel region between the Niger River and Lake Chad in north-central Africa in what is today northern Nigeria. The Sahel is the semi-arid strip of land running across Africa between the Sahara Desert in the north and the Savannah grassland to the south. Hausland, specifically, stretched from the Air mountains (north) to the Jos plateau (south) and from Borno (east) to the Niger Valley (west). This region saw the development of towns by the Hausa-speaking people from 1000 to 1300 CE.

The exact origins of the Hausa cities are not known, but theories include a migration of peoples from the southern Sahara who, abandoning their own lands following the increased desiccation of that area, established new settlements in what would become known as Hausaland. An alternative theory suggests that the Hausa people originally lived on the western shore of Lake Chad and when the lake shrank (as a consequence of the same climatic changes that affected the Sahara) they occupied this new and fertile land and then eventually spread to the immediate north and west. There is as yet, unfortunately, no archaeological evidence to support either of these two theories. As a consequence, there is a third hypothesis, which is that the Hausa had not migrated from anywhere but were indigenous to the region. Support for this theory lies in the fact that there is no tradition of migration in Hausa oral history.

Map of Ancient & Medieval Sub-Saharan African States

There is, though, a foundation legend, known as the Bayajida or Daura legend, although this probably dates to the 16th century CE and reflects the increased influence of Islam in the region at that time. According to this tradition, Bayajida, a prince from Baghdad, arrived at the court of the ruler of the Kingdom of Kanem (or the Bornu Empire as it became by the 16th century CE). Receiving an unfavourable reception, Bayajida headed eastwards until he came upon the city of Daura. There, the queen and her kingdom were being terrorized by a great snake. Bayajida stepped in and killed the troublesome serpent and promptly married the queen. Together they had a son called Bawogari who then went on to have six sons of his own, each of which became the king of a Hausa city-state. Meanwhile, Bayajida had another son, this time with one of his concubines. This illegitimate son, called Karbogari, had seven sons, and these went on to rule seven other Hausa cities. This story neatly explains how the various cities were established but not, of course, just where Daura and its queen came from.

Key Cities & Government

Wherever they had sprung from, by the early 15th century CE many small Hausa chiefdoms had come together to create several walled cities which controlled their respective surrounding countryside. Traditionally, there were seven city-states (the hausa bakwai ), but there were, in fact, many more. The most important were (the traditional seven are marked with an asterisk):

Daura (the ritual mother city of the group)*
Garun Gobas
Jukun (aka Kwararafa)
Zaria (aka Zazzau)*

Each city had its own king or ruler, the sarkin kasa , who was advised by a chief councillor or vizier, the galadima , and a small council of elders - typically consisting of nine members who also determined the next ruler in line. Various officials were appointed by the king to, for example, collect taxes and customs duties, lead the city's cavalry units or infantry, maintain security on roadways, and look after certain crops. The city ruled over various smaller chiefdoms or villages in its immediate vicinity, each ruled by a chief or sarkin gari . The third tier of this political pyramid was the family clan or gida , many of which made up an individual village.

Rural Hausa populations were farmers who worked the land which belonged to the community as a whole. Over time, as the city-states became more centralised, this system was corrupted by the kings giving out parcels of land as rewards to certain individuals. Hausa agriculture also became heavily reliant on slaves, too. Meanwhile, the society within the main city of each kingdom was cosmopolitan, although dominated by the Hausa. There were slaves, craftworkers, merchants, religious officials, scholars, eunuchs and aristocrats ( masu sarauta ) related to or favoured by the king.

The Hausa states traded gold , ivory, salt, iron, tin, weapons, horses, dyed cotton cloth, kola nuts, glassware, metalware, ostrich feathers, and hides. There was trade with the coastal region of West Africa, Oyo in the Bight of Benin, and the Songhai Empire (c. 1460 -1591 CE) to the east. Slaves were an important source of revenue for all the cities but Zaria, in particular, specialised in acquiring slaves via raids to the south.

Cities specialised in the manufacture or trade of certain goods, for example, dyes - especially indigo - at Katsina and Daura or silver jewellery at Kebbi and Zamfara. Hausaland became famous (and still is today) for its finely worked leather goods such as water bags, saddles, harnesses, and sacks to transport goods for the region's trade caravans. Various crafts were organised into guilds which ensured standards were maintained and prices were kept fair. Hausa agriculture, boosted by such techniques as crop rotation and the use of fertilizers, produced crops which included millet, sorghum, rice, maize, peanuts, beans, henna, tobacco, and onions. In addition, fishing and hunting were carried out and goats raised (important for ritual sacrifices) and donkeys bred (the principal form of transport). Each city had its own markets where both men and women sold their wares, and many cities also had international trade markets where merchants sold in bulk. Goods were exchanged in kind although salt, cloth, and slaves were often used as a standardised form of commodity-currency.

Architecture

Traditional Hausa houses are made from dried mud bricks which are pear-shaped and laid in rows using mortar and with the pointed end facing upwards. The walls are then faced with plaster and given either painted or incised decoration. Houses were further decorated with sculpted additions, again using mud, creating three-dimensional geometric designs such as interlaced patterns and spirals. A secure roofing is achieved by creating a mud vault which is strengthened by a frame of split palms and palm fronds, an architectural feature particular to Hausaland. Each house is enclosed in its own high wall which may have additional buildings set into it. The chief cities were protected by massive fortification walls - an indication of the frequent siege warfare that went on in Hausaland throughout its history.

Conversion to Islam

Unlike much of Sub-Saharan Africa, the area occupied by Hausaland was largely untouched by Islam until the 14th century CE. Finally, though, a form of Islam was adopted and adapted following contact with Muslim merchants, missionaries, and scholars, who came from the east, the Niger River bend area. Islam was typically blended with traditional animist rituals and so took on its own distinct character in the region. Not having any commercial incentive to gain favour with foreign merchants like the Hausa rulers and elite, rural populations proved as difficult as in other parts of Africa to fully convert to the new religion , despite (or perhaps because of) sometimes brutal methods such as the destruction of shrines and the burning of ancient sacred groves. Despite this resistance from some chiefs and much of the rural populace, Islam did eventually take a strong hold in the region. Mosques were built in the cities and one of the oldest surviving remnants of these early structures is the dried mud Gobarau minaret of the mosque at Katsina, which dates to the early 15th century CE.

Regional Rivalries & Decline

Relations with the neighbouring Songhai Empire were not always peaceful, as when - at least according to the historian Leo Africanus (c. 1494 - c. 1554 CE) - the Songhai king Askia Muhammad (r. 1494-1528 CE), managed to subdue the cities of Katsina, Kano, and Gobir, making them, albeit briefly, tributary states. It may be that this invasion was carried out by other smaller neighbouring states as the Songhai records and those from Timbuktu for the period are remarkably silent on the matter. Meanwhile, Hausa states made frequent raids to the south in the Benue Valley against various peoples including the Bauchi, Gongola, Jukun, and Yawuri.

The Fulani, nomadic cattle-herders from Senegal who migrated across Africa to Lake Chad in the mid-16th century CE, settled in Hausaland and brought with them another surge in interest in the Islamic religion and learning. In the last quarter of the 18th century CE, the Fulani abandoned their peaceful evangelism and launched a religious war in the region. In this, the Fulani were aided by the sometimes long-standing rivalries between Hausa cities, the internal disputes between the elites in several city-states, and a generally disaffected populace who had grown ever poorer while the Hausa trading aristocracy had grown richer. Thus, from 1804 CE, the Fulani leader Usman dan Fodio conquered all of the Hausa city-states, converting them to Islam. Usman dan Fodio, who was himself from the Hausa city-state of Gobir, then went on to expand his empire and establish his capital at Sokoto in 1817 CE which gave its name to the new state.

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Bibliography

Curtin, P. African History. Pearson, 1995.
Hrbek, I. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. III, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1992.
Ki-Zerbo, J. (ed). UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. IV, Abridged Edition. University of California Press, 1998.
McEvedy, C. The Penguin Atlas of African History. Penguin Books, 1996.
Ogot, B.A. (ed). General History of Africa volume 5. James Currey, 1999.
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de Villiers, M. Timbuktu. Walker Books, 2007.

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Kingdom of Kanem

The Spread of Islam in Ancient Africa

Metal Armlet, Hausaland

The Gold Trade of Ancient & Medieval West Africa

The Camel Caravans of the Ancient Sahara

The Salt Trade of Ancient West Africa

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Cartwright, Mark. " Hausaland ." World History Encyclopedia . Last modified May 09, 2019. https://www.worldhistory.org/Hausaland/.

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English to Hausa Meaning of hypothesize - hypothesize

Meaning and definitions of hypothesize, translation in Hausa language for hypothesize with similar and opposite words. Also find spoken pronunciation of hypothesize in Hausa and in English language.

What hypothesize means in Hausa, hypothesize meaning in Hausa, hypothesize definition, examples and pronunciation of hypothesize in Hausa language.

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Translations from dictionary english - hausa, definitions, grammar.

In Glosbe you will find translations from English into Hausa coming from various sources. The translations are sorted from the most common to the less popular. We make every effort to ensure that each expression has definitions or information about the inflection.

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Paul Newman, A history of the Hausa language: Reconstruction and
As the title tells us, the present book offers a history of the Hausa language. The author wishes to "offer fresh and insightful observations, interpretations and hypotheses, ideally in a readable and accessible fashion" (p. ix), and has largely achieved what he set out to do. This is an important book for all who have an interest in the Hausa language and in related Chadic languages as ...
hypothesis
(countable) A hypothesis is a guess about what will happen, usually in scientific experiments. <> nazari, nazariyya, hasashe, nazarce-nazarce, misali. Their research supported their hypothesis; <> Wannan binciken ya tabbatar da nazariyyarsu cewa, but Goldbach agrees that it's a reasonable hypothesis. <> Duk da haka Goldbach na ganin hasashen ...
meaning of hypothesize in Hausa
Here is the meaning of hypothesize in Hausa along with example sentences, parts of speech, IPA and audio pronunciation, possibly with description images Definition of hypothesize in Hausa: hypothesize; verb /haɪˈpɒθəsaɪz/ yi tsammani, yi zato: Example of hypothesize in a sentence.
(PDF) Semantic Concepts of Hausa Language: An Analytical and
The paper dealt with the problem of semantic concepts in the Hausa language, describing and anal yzing some of its terms, and how to conce ive them in the. multiplicity of meaning, metaphor and ...
PDF Semantic Concepts of Hausa Language: An Analytical and Descriptive
means of obtaining meaning in the Hausa language, and studying the concepts and meanings of some words and their analysis. First, definition of: Concept, Semantics and Meaning. 1- Concept: The concept ( موهفم) is based on the triple root (م ـه ف): "understood" and its meaning in the language does not depart from the subjective ...
Studies in Hausa Language and Linguistics
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Hausa English Translations
Hello! <> Sannu! HausaDictionary.com is an online bilingual dictionary that aims to offer the most useful and accurate Hausa to English or English to Hausa translations and definitions. This site contains a wide range of Hausa and English language materials and resources to help you learn Hausa or English. Pick up some basic terms and phrases here, expand your vocabulary, or find a language ...
(PDF) An Introduction to the Hausa Language
The paper analyses Hausa and English greetings from a sociolinguistics point of view, which considers greetings as cultural phenomena that have functions and meanings. It examines the functions, situations and the major forms of Hausa and English greetings. It also compares and contrasts the greeting practices in the two languages.
(PDF) Word-based Hypothesis: Evidence from Hausa and ...
Hausa and Fulfulde languages, using word-based hypothesis. The aim of the paper is to p resent Hausa. and Fulfulde word formation to clarify the Aronoff's (19 76) notion on word-based hypothesis ...
(PDF) A Study of some Hausa Lexical Collocations: A Hypothetical
This paper attempts to identify some Hausa lexical collocations from phraseological continua. In achieving the aim of the study, a general overview of Hausa collocational ... being an American behaviourist, believed that in his distributional hypothesis sameness of meaning can lead to distributional equivalence. But British behaviourists like ...
Hausa language
Hausa is a tone language, a classification in which pitch differences add as much to the meaning of a word as do consonants and vowels. Tone is not marked in Hausa orthography. In scholarly transcriptions of Hausa, accent marks indicate tone, which may be high (acute), low (grave), or falling (circumflex). Hausa morphology is characterized by ...
Hausa and Its Linguistic Offspring: a Comparative Study of Hausa and
orthographies to arrive at the findings that Hausa and Gwandar a languages are indeed related in both. linguistic and historical lineages, mo re so that Hausa gav e birth to Gwandara language ...
Temporal interpretation in Hausa
This paper provides a formal analysis of the grammatical encoding of temporal information in Hausa (Chadic, Afro-Asiatic), thereby contributing to the recent debate on temporality in languages without overt tense morphology. By testing the hypothesis of covert tense against recently obtained empirical data, the study yields the result that Hausa is tenseless and that temporal reference is ...
Hausa Dictionary Online Translation LEXILOGOS
Hausa language. → Hausa keyboard to type a text with the special characters of the Boko script. • Teach yourself Hausa: Hausa course. • Hausa basic course, Foreign Service Institute (1963) (+ audio) • Hausa online Lehrbuch: Hausa course, by Franz Stoiber (2002) • Hausa by Al-Amin Abu-Manga, in Encyclopedia of Arabic language and ...
Hausa
Hausa, people found chiefly in northwestern Nigeria and adjacent southern Niger.They constitute the largest ethnic group in the area, which also contains another large group, the Fulani, perhaps one-half of whom are settled among the Hausa as a ruling class, having adopted the Hausa language and culture.The language belongs to the Chadic group of the Afro-Asiatic (formerly Hamito-Semitic ...
Hausa Kinship Terminologies: Insights Into Culture and Cognition
While there is not enough evidence to make a case for linguistic relativity, defined by Lucy (1996) as a hypothesis in which, "differences among languages in the grammatical structuring of meaning influence habitual thought," examining norms of Hausa kin relationships can lead to potential ways in which language can influence behavior and ...
Hausaland
Definition. Hausaland, sometimes referred to as the Hausa Kingdoms, was a group of small independent city -states in northern central Africa between the Niger River and Lake Chad which flourished from the 15th to 18th century CE. The origins of the Hausa are not known, but one hypothesis suggests they were a group of indigenous peoples joined ...
Lexical hypothesis and Hausa
Lexical hypothesis and Hausa. January 2010; Authors: ... The study of the relationship between a future marker and a verb meaning 'go' in many languages has played a key role in the ...
Word-Based Hypothesis: Evidence from Hausa and Fulfulde Word Formation
The aim of the paper is to present Hausa and Fulfulde word formation to clarify the Aronoff's (1976) notion on word-based hypothesis with the objectives of identifying the morphological typologies of each of the languages. The paper found out that language typology plays an important role on selection of morphological theory.
PDF 1. Theories on the Origin of the Hausa States
Theories on the Origin of the Hausa States. Current scholarship dates the origins of the Hausa Kingdoms to the middle ages. Arguments for this late emergence of the Hausa polities are based on textual and circumstantial evidence. Arab geographers mention Kanem and Ghana äs early. 216. Hausa History in ehe Context of the Ancient Near Eastern World.
English to Hausa Meaning of hypothesize
(1) it was reasonable to hypothesize a viral causality (2) they hypothesize that the naturally high insulin levels result from a ├ö├ç┬úthrifty gene.├ö├ç├ÿ (3) to be able to hypothesize is important (4) Based on the discussion above, we can hypothesize a link between a type of counterfactual thinking and learning. (5) They hypothesize that resistance is rational, motivated by ...
(PDF) Hausa Phraseologisms as a Structural Property of Language and
The cultural background of the Hausa phraseologisms is referred to culture keywords and the traces of cultural experience which determine the meaning of the whole phrase. ... Whorf hypothesis from ...
The English
Translations from dictionary English - Hausa, definitions, grammar. In Glosbe you will find translations from English into Hausa coming from various sources. The translations are sorted from the most common to the less popular. We make every effort to ensure that each expression has definitions or information about the inflection.