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Pan Afr Loc » Hausa
Hausa - Haoussa - هوس
On this page/Sur cette page... (hide)
1. Classification / Classification
2. Where Spoken / Localisation géographique
3. Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs
4. Dialect Survey / Enquête de dialecte
5. Usage / Utilisation
6. Orthography / Orthographe
6.1 Status / Statut
6.2 Sample Alphabet / Alphabet exemple
7. Use in ICT / Utilisation dans les TIC
7.1 Fonts / Polices
7.2 Keyboards / Claviers
7.3 Content on computers & internet / Contenu en informatique et sur l'Internet
7.4 Localized software / Logiciels localisés
7.5 Language codes / Codes de langue
7.6 Other / Autre
8. Localisation resources / Ressources pour localisation
8.1 Individuals (experts) / Individuelles (experts)
8.2 Institutions / Institutions
8.3 On the internet / Sur la toile
9. Comments / Remarques
10. References / Références
1. Classification / Classification
Hausa belongs to the Hausa-Gwandara subgroup of the Chadic branch of Afro-Asiatic. (Webbook)
Classification according to Ethnologue: Afro-Asiatic, Chadic, West, A, A.1
2. Where Spoken / Localisation géographique
Hausa is spoken in a very large portion of West Africa. It is a first language in the northern Nigerian states of Sokoto, Kaduna, Kano, and Bauchi, as well as in south central Niger. It is a universal lingua franca in the remainder of the northern states of Nigeria as well as in much of Niger. It is a second language for many people in Benin, Chad, Cameroon, and Togo, and it is also spoken in enclaves in Ghana, Côte d'Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Libya, southern Nigeria, Sudan (Blue Nile Province), Senegal, and Congo (Brazzaville). (Webbook, with modifications)
3. Number of Speakers / Nombre de locuteurs
According to Ethnologue: 18,525,000 in Nigeria (1991 SIL); 500 in Burkina Faso (1991 Vanderaa); 23,500 in Cameroon (1982 SIL); 5,000,000 in Niger (1998); 489,000 in Sudan (2001 Johnstone and Mandryk); Population total all countries: 24,162,000. Also 15,000,000 second-language speakers.
4. Dialect Survey / Enquête de dialecte
Gouffe (1981) notes the "remarkable unity" of Hausa, even though there are noticeable differences from west to east. (Webbook)
According to Ethnologue: Kano, Katagum, Hadejiya, Sokoto, Gobirawa, Adarawa, Kebbawa, Zamfarawa, Katsina, Arewa. Barikanchi is a Hausa pidgin used in military barracks. There is a pidgin or market Hausa. Subdialects of Eastern Hausa: Kano, Katagum, Hadejiya; of Western Hausa: Sokoto, Katsina, Gobirawa, Adarawa, Kebbawa, Zamfarawa; of North Hausa: Arewa, Arawa. Abakwariga is a subgroup.
Kano Hausa is taken as the standard for most publications. [verify]
5. Usage / Utilisation
Schuh reports that "Hausa is an official language in Nigeria. It is a main trade language in northern Nigeria and Niger and in common use throughout Nigeria. It is a subject in Nigerian secondary schools and universities and is the language of instruction for the elementary grades in Hausa-speaking areas. More than half of the broadcasting on northern Nigerian radio and television stations is in Hausa, and Nigeria boasts several Hausa language newspapers as well as an ever increasing number of publications of all types in Hausa. In addition to, Nigerian and Cameroonian radio stations, all international broadcasters with transmissions to West Africa have programs in Hausa. These include the BBC, Voice of America, Deutsche Welle, Radio Moscow, and Radio Peking." (Webbook)
There is popular literature in Hausa as well as a local Hausa film industry ("Kannywood" = Kano + Hollywood) in Nigeria. An association of Nigerian writers in Hausa is called Hausa Arts Writers Association (HAWA).
6. Orthography / Orthographe
6.1 Status / Statut
a) Background
Hausa has both a standardized Romanized/Latin orthography called "Boko" and a traditional Arabic orthography known as "Ajami." Until the 1950s ajami and boko were both used, though since then boko has been the main alphabet for most Hausa speakers. (Webbook & Omniglot)
Hausa is a tonal language, but tones are not generally marked (except, for example, in learning materials), and then only in Boko (verify!). There is no standard tone marking system in either orthography.
For more information see:
Hausa Writing (UCLA) http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/aflang/hausa/Pronunciation/writing.html
Omniglot page http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hausa.htm
b) Boko (Latin)
The Latin-based Boko orthography is based primarily on the Kano dialect and includes several extended characters. It was developed during the period of British colonial rule.
Boko is standardized in Nigeria and Niger and widely seen in publications.
c) Ajami (Arabic)
Hausa Ajami is not formally standardized, although it follows certain conventions.
"Since the beginning of the 17th century, Hausa has been written with a version of the Arabic script known as ajami. Most of the early writing in Hausa was Islamic poetry or on Islamic themes. Ajami is still used, mainly to write poetry, but also for at least one newpaper and some books. There is no standard spelling system for Hausa written with the Arabic script so there is some variation in spelling between different writers." (Omniglot)
6.2 Sample Alphabet / Alphabet exemple
a) Boko
Boko alphabet (listing only 2 digraphs, sh & ts), per the UCLA "Hausa Writing" page above, 6.1:
Nigeria: ʼ a b ɓ c d ɗ e f g h i j k ƙ l m n o r s sh t ts u w y 'y z
Niger: ʼ a b ɓ c d ɗ e f g h i j k ƙ l m n o r s sh t ts u w y ƴ z
Other alphabet descriptions also list these digraphs: gw kw ƙw ƙy
Alphabet (Boko, for Nigeria & Niger) as reported by Hartell (1993) (note, this differs a little from the above):
presented in Systèmes alphabétiques :
http://sumale.vjf.cnrs.fr/phono/AfficheTableauOrtho2N.php?choixLangue=hausa
page on Hausa of Niger on the Rosetta Project site http://www.rosettaproject.org/archive/hau/ortho-2?page_view=image_view
Alphabet hausa (arrété 212-99 de la République du Niger) http://www.sciences.univ-nantes.fr/info/perso/permanents/enguehard/recherche/Afrique/alphabet_hausa.htm
See also:
Omniglot page http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hausa.htm
Geonames "Unicode test page...: Hausa alphabet - baƙāƙē hausa" http://www.geonames.de/alphfj.html#hau
Mimer "Hausa Alphabet Collation Chart" http://developer.mimer.com/charts/hausa.htm
b) Ajami
See:
Hausa Writing (UCLA) http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/aflang/hausa/Pronunciation/writing.html
Omniglot page http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hausa.htm
The Wikipedia article on Hausa language (includes a table showing Ajami; reference with URL are below)
Geonames "Unicode test page...: Hausa Ajami alphabet - بَڧَاڧِيا حَوْسَ ٲجَمِ (baƙāƙiyā ḥausa ajami)" http://www.geonames.de/alphfj.html#hau
7. Use in ICT / Utilisation dans les TIC
7.1 Fonts / Polices
Most common Unicode fonts with the following extended Latin ranges should have the necessary characters for Hausa Boko (e.g., Lucida Sans Unicode, Code 2000, Gentium, Doulos SIL, Arial Unicode MS):
Latin Extended-B
IPA Extensions
Extended Arabic ranges might cover Ajami needs [need more info!]
7.2 Keyboards / Claviers
a) Keyboard Layouts / Dispositions de clavier
Some are discussed on the "Hausa charsets & keyboards" message board at http://www.quicktopic.com/8/H/JxKHyg9ccPUVB
Andrew Cunningham has developed several keyboard layouts for Hausa Boko using Tavultesoft Keyman 5&6. See http://www.openroad.net.au/languages/files/
The CNRS/LLACAN "AFRO" Tavultesoft Keyman keyboard (for AZERTY) is intended to support this language: http://www.tavultesoft.com/keyman/downloads/keyboards/details.php?KeyboardID=377&FromKeyman=0
Ramon Mathias Soares Pontes has developed a Hausa Ajami keyboard layout using MSKLC.
b) Production Keyboards / Claviers de production
Lancor's "KỌNYIN" keyboard for Windows includes all needed characters for Hausa - http://www.konyin.com/
7.3 Content on computers & internet / Contenu en informatique et sur l'Internet
Universal Declaration of Human Rights http://www.unhchr.ch/udhr/lang/gej.htm (not in Hausa orthography)
Wikipedia in Hausa at http://ha.wikipedia.org/ (not much content as of 7-2006)
The websites of several international shortwave radio stations have pages in Hausa, but generally in an ASCII orthography:
BBC http://www.bbc.co.uk/hausa/
China Radio International http://hausa.cri.cn/
Deutsche-Welle http://www2.dw-world.de/hausa/
VOA http://www.voanews.com/hausa/
Some weblogs with content in Hausa:
Bahaushe Mai Ban Haushi! http://www.ibrahim-sheme.blogspot.com/
Sha'irai (Hausa Poets) http://www.shairai.blogspot.com/
Hausa Online (site with some content & links to content) http://hausaonline.wordpress.com/
The One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) program in Nigeria will include some Hausa content: Kwamfyutar Cinya Ɗaya ga Kowani Yaro - http://laptop.org/index.ha.html
7.4 Localized software / Logiciels localisés
There is one Hausa software that we have not been able to evaluate.
7.5 Language codes / Codes de langue
ISO 639-1: ha
ISO 639-2: hau
ISO/DIS 639-3: hau
7.6 Other / Autre
kasahorow Hausa dictionary online http://dictionary.kasahorow.com/all/ha
K´ofar Hausa "Hausa Database" (dictionary) http://www.univie.ac.at/Hausa/oracle/KofarHausa1.html
Motherland Nigeria (some items on Hausa) http://www.motherlandnigeria.com/languages.html
On-line Bargery's web site (Hausa-English Dictionary & English-Hausa) http://maguzawa.dyndns.ws/
Pan-African Glossary of Sports / Lexique panafricain des sports http://www.translationbureau.gc.ca/pwgsc_internet/fr/publications/gratuit_free/lex_panafricain/toc_h.htm
UCLA Hausa Home Page http://www.humnet.ucla.edu/humnet/aflang/hausa/hausa.html
8. Localisation resources / Ressources pour localisation
8.1 Individuals (experts) / Individuelles (experts)
8.2 Institutions / Institutions
Companies:
Lancor Technologies, Ikeja, Lagos State, Nigeria
8.3 On the internet / Sur la toile
"Computing with Hausa" (TLT, Penn State Univ.) http://tlt.its.psu.edu/suggestions/international/bylanguage/hausa.html
"Hausa charsets & keyboards" message board, http://www.quicktopic.com/8/H/JxKHyg9ccPUVB
Open-Tran.eu supports Hausa http://ha.open-tran.eu/
9. Comments / Remarques
Hausa would seem to be a high priority language for localisation, given its use in several countries.
10. References / Références
Chanard, Christian (2006), Systèmes alphabétiques des langues africaines, LLACAN, CNRS, http://sumale.vjf.cnrs.fr/phono/
Dwyer, David (1997), Webbook of African Languages, http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/hiermenu.html (page on "Hausa," http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Hausa_root.html )
Hartell, Rhonda L., ed. (1993), The Alphabets of Africa. Dakar: UNESCO and SIL. (The French edition, published the same year, is entitled Alphabets de Langues Africaines).
Omniglot, "Hausa (حَوْسَ)," http://www.omniglot.com/writing/hausa.htm
SIL International, Ethnologue: Languages of the World, "Hausa," http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=hau
SIL International, "ISO 639 Code Tables," http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/codes.asp
U.S. Library of Congress, "ISO 639.2: Codes for the Representation of Names of Languages: Alpha-3 codes arranged alphabetically by the English name of language," http://www.loc.gov/standards/iso639-2/php/English_list.php
Wikipedia, "Hausa language," http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hausa_language
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Page last modified on 2007-11-23 20:20

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