Re: Zuckerberg, Facebook and why Hausa is a “unique” language

 We may reject the idea of the ‘uniqueness’ of Hausa as a language, but can we fail to appreciate some of its fascinating or striking features? As a native Hausa speaker, I welcome readers to these features of the language, plus an additional eleven questions I expect readers to answer later in the text. Which […]

 We may reject the idea of the ‘uniqueness’ of Hausa as a language, but can we fail to appreciate some of its fascinating or striking features? As a native Hausa speaker, I welcome readers to these features of the language, plus an additional eleven questions I expect readers to answer later in the text.

Which other languages – African or other languages of the world – have all or nearly all of these features? Answers to the questions posed in this write-up, probably, may help confirm Hausa’s status as being either a ‘unique’, ‘striking’ or ‘fascinating’ tongue. Happy reading!

1.Looking at Hausa’s structure, a common suprasegmental feature it shares with many African (and other languages of the world) is tone. Certainly, lack of mastery of tone might pose some difficulties for many second learners of Hausa, especially those who have studied the language largely or merely from textbooks, and did not have direct contact with its native speakers.

In Hausa, a word (written orthographically in the same way) can have one, two, three or more meanings as a result of tonal variation. The point is having a good knowledge and command of Hausa tone can enable a speaker generate numerous words and sentences with varying meanings. I have tried to prove this fact using the word, orthographically represented as ‘f-a-r-i’ (or ‘fari’).

 I have repeated the word five or six times in the sentence I generated below. With each repetition, I haverealized a different meaning of the word ‘fari’ in the sentence. What matters isnot so much the presence of tone ortonemes, but the number of times an orthographically similarword could be made to recur in a single sentence and each time with a different meaning.

Try reading my sentence below to experience Hausa’s tonal play on words. A translation of the sentence in English with corresponding (equivalent) words highlighted is provided.

 “Da fari, fari ne ya fari mutuwar fari har suka kasance fari ko kuma dai fari-fari” (At first, it was drought which caused the locusts’ death and they turned white or whitish”). I should like to hear from readers of any language capable of achieving such morpho-semantic feat besides Hausa. An example similar to the one above will suffice.

2.The use of regular infix or plural marker “a” (pronounced as ‘aa’) associated with a closed set of Hausa words as part of the language’s morphological processes. When ‘a’ is used as infix, the process moves a word from its earlier (singular) grammatical class to that of plural, as in the examples below.

SINGULAR    PLURAL   GLOSS

gurgu             guragu   a lame person (male)

murhu          murahu   fireplace for cooking

turmi            turame     mortar

kurtu            kurata      recruit (Eglish loanword)

kwalba      kwalabe       bottle

Unlike prefixes and suffixes, not all language are endowed with infixes, as illustrated above with Hausa. English is notoriously known for its lack of infixes.

This, however, should not be considered as a deficiency in the language. That’s just the language’s morphological nomenclature or ‘uniqueness’. Hence, if a detailed explanation of this morphological phenomenon is required, particularly when discussing affixes in general,it is to languages like Hausa students and researchers would have to turn. In the above examples, the process of infixing ‘a’ is so regular and almost predictable in Hausa, given the bi-syllabic structure of this category of words. It is rare for a language to demonstrate such near-absolute regularity and consistency. Here are additional words for you to try by generating the plural form (left blank below) from the singular:

SINGULAR      PLURAL      GLOSS

kurma                                 a deaf person

barde                                  a general of sort in local military parlance

k’urji                                    an ulcer/a boil

3. Hausa’s ‘morpho-semantic binomials’. Like the two sides of a coin, the binomial possesses positive and negative meanings, at the same time. Similarly, a binomial can be noun and, at the same time, an adjective, depending on how it is used. The user merely exploits the preferred meaning of the binomial in order to construct a sentence. The following examples illustrate this point.

 i) Bala’iyafadawamotar, an ce ta kone. (The car has been hit by a calamity; reports have it that it got burnt). (Note, bala’i is an Arabic loanword meaning ‘calamity’).

 ii) Motarna da bala’in gudu. (The car is exceedingly fast).

iii) Wannan yaro shege ne, baya da uba. (This boy is a bastard he has no known biological father).

 iv) Wancanyaro da shegen wayo yake. (That boy is extremely clever).

 v) Matsiyaci, ya lashe gasar. (What an incredible person! he has won the race/game).

 vi) Matsiyaci ne, baya da kudin shiga gasar. (What a pauper he is! He lacks the money to participate in the competition).

If there is such a language that can easily have its (same) word, here used in a negative sense, there employed with a positive meaning, simply byoverturning the ‘lexical coin’, such a language might appear striking or unique. Even if this process is to be considered as an extension of meaning, then it is a rare, special lexical one.

 4. A pair of words possessing the same meaning, ‘rasu’ (die) and ‘mutu’ (die) butwhich, when used, help to create a distinction along ethnic and religious lines between individuals, as in the examples below.

 i) Amina ta rasu. (Amina is dead). [+female,+muslim,+ Hausa]

ii) Aminuyarasu. (Aminu is dead).[+male, +muslim,+ Hausa]

iii) Mary ta mutu. (Mary is dead). [+female, -Muslim,-/+ Hausa]

iv) John yamutu. (John is dea). [+male, -Muslim,-/+ Hausa]

It is however important to note that many Muslim Hausas make no distinction in applying ‘rasu’ or‘mutu’ as illustrated above; in other words, they seem to be oblivious of a person’s religious affiliation or ethnic status when using the two words.

5. The additional (connotative) meanings of the word ‘Hausa’, besides its denotative meaning as ‘language of the Hausa people’.

i) Hausabadabobane. (Hausa is not (a) magic language, i.e. you too can learn it).

ii) Nan ne iyakarhausa. (This is the boundary of Hausaspeaking area).

iii) Ba ya da hausakokadan. (He is not at all skilful, verbally or otherwise)

 iv) Ban ganehausarkiba. (I do not understand what you (female) are saying, i.e. your speech or language.

v) WannanhausanZariyane. (This is the dialect of Zariya). vi) Hausance minishi! (Challenge him to a (Hausa) verbal duel on my behalf)

Although the names of many languages in the world equally reflect or echo the names of their native speakers, rarely have such names carried additional meanings which could be used as nouns, verbs, etc., as to allow one construct sentences using such words, as demonstrated above with Hausa. Now I have some questions in relation to Hausa which I would like readers to answer as part of our search for the status of the language, as I earlier explained in the introduction to this write-up.

Here they are:

1. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, has the largest numbers of speakers both in Anglophone and Francophone Africa?

2. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, has more media contents or is substantially used in films, newspapers, radio, television and now the internet?

3. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, has historically contributed more to literacy in its written form in pre-colonial times?

4. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, has more womenfolk writing in the language, particularly with regard to novels and similar publications in their locality?

5. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, was the first to be used as the language of administration and even of parliamentary debate, on a regional scale in Africa?

6. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, was the first to have a comprehensive, standard dictionary written in it?

7. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, was the first to have a PhD written in its medium in a formal university?

8. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, has the largest numbers of its speakers in the African diaspora?

9. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, has more manuscripts written in it during the precolonial period?

10. Which African language, spoken south of the Sahara, is broadcast more in African and foreign media, particularly in radio stations?

 11. Finally, what makes a language unique?

Dr. Argungu wrote from the Department of Modern European Languages & Linguistics, UsmanuDanfodiyo University, Sokoto.