Hausa Language Guide

Official language in
Nigeria
Also spoken in
Niger
Script
Latin

Where it's spoken

A language-typology database records Hausa as spoken in Niger and Nigeria. Nigeria's constitution provides that the business of the National Assembly is conducted in English, and in Hausa, Ibo and Yoruba, once adequate arrangements have been made for it. In Niger, the constitution names French as the country's official language; it does not name Hausa individually, but it grants the languages of all of Niger's communities equal standing as national languages.

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Script & pronunciation

Hausa is written with the Latin alphabet. Hausa has both ejective and implosive consonants; by the usual convention of the International Phonetic Alphabet, implosives are written by adding a hook to the letter for the matching voiced stop, as in ɓ and ɗ. This app's cards use these hooked letters together with a similarly hooked ƙ, as in I-na bu-ƙa-tar ɗa-ki mai sau-ƙin shi-ga ga na-ƙa-sas-su for Ina buƙatar ɗaki mai sauƙin shiga ga naƙasassu ("I need a room with accessibility features"), where the romanization keeps the same hooked letters while marking syllable breaks with hyphens instead of giving a separate phonetic transcription. The same pattern appears in the card for Na ɓace ("I am lost"), romanized Na ɓa-ce.

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Grammar essentials

Hausa's basic word order is subject–verb–object. This app's card for Ina da ajiye wurin. Sunana Smith ne. ("I have a reservation. My name is Smith.") labels Hausa as SVO in its own grammar note and glosses "ina da" as "I have," built from a subject plus a verb of possession plus its object. Hausa negation can double the negative word "ba," placing it once before the verb phrase and, optionally, once again after it. This app's card for Gwiwata na ciwo, ba zan iya bugawa da ƙafa ba ("My knee hurts, so I cannot kick") shows the same bracket: "zan iya" ("I can") becomes "ba zan iya ... ba" ("I cannot"). Hausa's personal pronouns also distinguish gender in the second and third persons, as in "kai" ("you," masculine) versus "kē" ("you," feminine). This app's cards mark a comparable distinction in the second-person forms that combine with a verb: "ka" to address a man, "ki" to address a woman, and "ku" to address more than one person, as in the card for Don Allah ka yi a hankali ("Please take it gently"), whose grammar note explains that "ka" becomes "ki" for a woman and "ku" for several people.

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Politeness & etiquette

Hausa's pronouns are not coded as having a dedicated politeness distinction, unlike languages with a separate formal word for "you." This app's card for Kuna jin Turanci? ("Do you speak English?") nonetheless explains that its second-person plural form, "kuna," can be used toward a single person as a mark of respect, distinct from the familiar singular forms "ka" (to a man) and "ki" (to a woman). This app's card for Don Allah a jira ("Please wait") describes its impersonal "a" as a polite imperative that does not specify who is being addressed, calling it the safe form to use with strangers.

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