Hausa
The language
Hausa is of the Chadic family of the Afro-Asiatic language group. For centuries, Hausa has been a language of commercial importance throughout West Africa. Today Hausa has about 50 million first- and second-language speakers across West and West-Central Africa. Hausa native speakers are mainly concentrated in Nigeria, where it is one of three national languages, and in Niger, where Hausas are the majority ethnic group.
Hausa is also widely spoken in the northern regions of Benin, Togo, Ghana, Chad, Central African Republic, the Sudan (around Khartoum area) and Cameroon and is of broad use in research, commerce, and tourism across West Africa. There are regular Hausa broadcasts (3 times a day) from the Voice of America, the BBC, Radio Deutsche Welle, Radio Moscow, Radio Beijing, and Radio Libya.
The majority of Hausa people are Muslims, so the language is rich with words borrowed from Arabic, especially for subjects such as religion, education, science, law and administration. Arabic script is still used in literary and religious works, especially among Hausa speakers and people of limited Latin script literacy. Hausa also borrowed heavily from English (in Nigeria) and French (in Niger) during the colonial period. Modern Hausa orthography is in Latin script.
- Placement tests Arabic, Swahili, Hausa
- Learning African Languages Elsewhere, MSU African Studies Center
- Hausa Links for International Radios: BBC Hausa; Voice Of America; Radio China International; Deutsche Velle, Germany; Radio France International
- Specialization in African studies at MSU is available here
