Hausa language

Hausa is a language spoken by many people in West Africa. It is mainly used by the Hausa people who live in countries such as Niger, Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin, and Togo. In Niger, Hausa became the main official language in 2025, replacing another language that was used before.

Hausa belongs to a group of languages called Afroasiatic. It is the most spoken language in a part of this group called Chadic. One special thing about Hausa is that it uses tone, meaning the way a sound is said can change what a word means or how a sentence is used.

Many people speak Hausa. Experts think about 58 million people speak it as their first language, and another 36 million use it as a second language. This means around 94 million people can understand or speak Hausa. In Nigeria, movies made in the Hausa language are called Kannywood.

Classification

Main article: Afroasiatic languages

Hausa is part of the West Chadic languages group. This group belongs to the larger Afroasiatic language family.

Geographic distribution

The Hausa language is mainly spoken by the Hausa people in southern Niger and northern Nigeria. Many people who are not native speakers also use Hausa as a common language in northern Nigeria, southern Niger, northern Cameroon, northern Ghana, northern Benin, northern Togo, southern Chad, and parts of Sudan.

By country

Nigeria

In Nigeria, Hausa is most common in the northern areas, except in Kwara, Kogi, and Benue. Cities where Hausa is widely spoken include Kano, Kaduna, Katsina, Daura, Zaria, Sokoto, Birnin Kebbi, Gusau, Dutse, Hadejia, Bauchi, Misau, Zamfara, Gombe, Nafada, Maiduguri, Yobe, Yola, Jalingo, Jos, Lafia, Nasarawa, Minna, Kontagora, Keffi, and Abuja.

Niger

About 53% of people in Niger speak Hausa, and it became the official language of the country in 2025. It is commonly used in cities like Maradi, Diffa, Tahoua, Zinder, Tillaberi, Dosso, and Agadez.

Cameroon

In northern Cameroon, Hausa is spoken in places such as Ngaoundere, Garoua, and Maroua.

Ghana

Hausa is used as a common language in the Zongo communities across Ghana.

Benin

In northern Benin, Hausa is spoken in cities like Parakou, Kandi, Natitingou, and Djougou.

Togo

Hausa is spoken in northern Togo, including Sokode, Kara, and Dapaong.

Chad

In southern Chad, Hausa is spoken, especially in N'Djamena.

Sudan

In Sudan, Hausa is spoken in areas such as Jazirah, Darfur, Blue Nile, Kassala, Sennar, Gadaref, Kordofan, Red Sea State, White Nile State, and River Nile.

Speakers by country

Hausa is used by many people across West Africa as a common language. It is spoken by people from different backgrounds in Northern Nigeria and Niger.

Dialects

Hausa is quite uniform, but experts have found different areas where the language has small, special features.

Traditional dialects

Eastern Hausa dialects include Dauranci in Daura; Kananci in Kano; Bausanci in Bauchi; Gudduranci and Katagumci in Katagum, Misau, and part of Borno; Hadejanci in Hadejiya.

Western Hausa dialects include Sakkwatanci in Sokoto; Katsinanci in Katsina; Arewanci (also a Northern dialect) and Gobiranci in Dogondoutchi; Adaranci in Ader; Kabanci in Kebbi; Zanhwaranci in Zamfara; Kurfayanci in Kourfeye; Damagaranci in Damagaram; Tibiranci in Madari. Katsinanci is between Eastern and Western dialects. Sakkwatanci is used in classical Hausa literature, and is often called Classical Hausa.

Zazzaganci in Zazzau is the main Southern dialect.

The Daura (Dauranci) and Kano (Kananci) dialects are the standard. The BBC, Deutsche Welle, Radio France Internationale and Voice of America offer Hausa services on their international news websites using Dauranci and Kananci. In recent language development Zazzaganci took over the innovation of writing and speaking the current Hausa language use.

Northernmost dialects and loss of tonality

The western to eastern Hausa dialects of Kurhwayanci, Damagaranci and Adaranci, represent the traditional northernmost limit of native Hausa communities. These are spoken in the northernmost sahel and mid-Saharan regions in west and central Niger in the Tillaberi, Tahoua, Dosso, Maradi, Agadez and Zinder regions. While these dialects can be understood with other dialects (especially Sakkwatanci), they have small differences in grammar and words because of contact with the Zarma, Fula, and Tuareg groups.

Ghanaian Hausa dialect

The Ghanaian Hausa dialect (Gaananci), spoken in Ghana and Togo, is a distinct western native Hausa dialect. It is usually identified by the use of c for ky, and j for gy. This is because Ghana's Hausa population descend from Hausa-Fulani traders settled in the zongo districts of major trade-towns.

Other native dialects

Hausa is also spoken in various parts of Cameroon and Chad, which combined the mixed dialects of Northern Nigeria and Niger. In addition, Arabic has had a great influence in the way Hausa is spoken by the native Hausa speakers in these areas.

Non-native Hausa

In West Africa, Hausa's use as a lingua franca has given rise to a non-native pronunciation that differs from native pronunciation.

Hausa-based pidgins

There are several pidgin forms of Hausa. Barikanchi was formerly used in the colonial army of Nigeria. Gibanawa is currently in widespread use in Jega in northwestern Nigeria, south of the native Hausa area.

Loan words

The Hausa language has a long history of borrowing words from other languages, usually from the languages being spoken around and near Hausaland.

Phonology

Hausa has between 23 and 25 consonant sounds, depending on who is speaking. These sounds change based on the vowel that follows them.

The language also includes special consonant sounds made with a quick burst from the throat. These sounds are written with special letters or an apostrophe.

Hausa has five basic vowel sounds, and each can be short or long, making 10 different vowel sounds. There are also four combinations of vowels called diphthongs, bringing the total to 14 vowel sounds.

Hausa is a tonal language, meaning the pitch of a vowel changes its meaning. Vowels can have a low, high, or falling pitch. In normal writing, these tones are not shown, but special marks can be used to show them in language learning materials.

Morphology

Hausa is a language spoken by many people, and it has special ways to change words. Most Hausa words have a gender, either masculine or feminine, except in some areas like Zaria and Bauchi near Kano.

Hausa has many ways to make words plural, or to show there is more than one. This can include adding endings, changing parts of words, or repeating sounds.

In Hausa, each verb needs a pronoun, like "I" or "you," even if it’s already clear from earlier sentences. Verbs in Hausa also change based on what comes after them, not just the time of the action. There are also some verbs that don’t follow the usual rules.

Writing systems

Boko (Latin)

Main article: Boko alphabet

Hausa uses a writing system called boko, which is based on the Latin alphabet. This system was introduced in the 1930s by British colonial leaders.

The letter ƴ (y with a right hook) is used only in Niger; in Nigeria it is written ʼy. In writing, tone and vowel length are not shown. So, for example, /dàɡà/ "from" and /dáːɡáː/ "battle" are both written daga. The difference between /r/ and /ɽ/ is not shown in writing.

Ajami (Arabic)

Main article: Hausa Ajami

Hausa has also been written using an Arabic-based writing system called ajami since the early 1600s. The first known work in Hausa was written by Abdullahi Suka in the 1600s.^{[these early texts were written in Arabic]} There is no standard way to use ajami, and different writers may use letters in different ways. Short vowels are often shown using special marks, which are not commonly used in other Arabic texts except for the Quran. Many old Hausa manuscripts in ajami, similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts, have been found recently; some of them even talk about constellations and calendars.

Because Hausa Ajami was never officially recognized, there has never been a single rule for how to write it. Over time, the writing system has changed and adapted, especially influenced by nearby traditions and outside factors.

In Niger and Nigeria, there are two main ways of writing in ajami, each based on different Quran reading styles from the 800s. One style is based on the work of Hafs ibn Sulayman, and the other on Warsh. The Hafs style is more common in places like Egypt, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. The Warsh style is more common in North Africa, West Africa, and Andalusia.

For example, how vowels are written in Hausa Ajami, including showing the sound [e] and telling short and long vowels apart, were some of the first things to be made standard. Letters for sounds, especially ones that do not exist in Arabic, took longer to standardize. Some new letters were created in the late 1800s and early 1900s, influenced by the Boko alphabet (Latin alphabet). For example, sounds [b] and [ɓ] used to be written with the same letter ba 'ب‎', but later a new letter was created in ajami to show the difference.

Below is the list of letters of Hausa Ajami, in both Warsh and Hafs traditions. Beige highlight marks letters that are only used for writing words borrowed from Arabic or European languages. Green highlight marks letters that are new creations in Hausa writing and are not used in Arabic language.

Other systems

Main article: Hausa Braille

Hausa is one of three native languages of Nigeria that have been written in braille.

At least three other writing systems for Hausa have been suggested or "found". None of these are used much, maybe only by a few people.

• A Hausa alphabet, named in some sources as Salifou or Gobiri, supposedly very old and used north of Maradi, Niger.^{[failed verification]}
• A writing system that started with the writing/publishing group Raina Kama in the 1980s.
• A writing system called "Tafi" suggested in the 1970s(?)

Oral literature

In 1905, a British officer named George Charleton Merrick published a book called Hausa Proverbs. It contained over 400 proverbs in the Hausa language with English translations. Some of these proverbs include:

• "Fawa biu tana bata hankali'n kuda." meaning "Two pieces of meat confuse the mind of the fly."
• "Da ayi jiranka ga abinchi, gara akayi ka jira'n abinchi." meaning "It is better to wait for food than to have food wait for you."

Another book from 1905, Hausa Grammar by Charles Henry Robinson, also shared many Hausa proverbs. For example:

• "Giwa awani gari zomo." meaning "An elephant is a hare in another town."
• "Idan ka rubuta ya tabbatta, idan ka kiyaye ya gudu." meaning "If you write, it stays; if you keep it in your mind, it goes away."

A collection of Hausa stories and proverbs was also published by R. S. Rattray. These include tales about Gizo, a trickster spider character in Hausa tradition. There are many other collections of Hausa tales available in both Hausa and English.

Example text

Here is Article 1 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Hausa and in English:

In Hausa: Duk ‘yan adam ana haihuwarsu ne a matsayin ‘yantattun ‘ya’ya, kuma mutuncinsu da haƙƙoƙinsu daidai yake da na kowa. Suna da tunani da cikakken hankali, saboda haka ake son duk mu’amalar da za su yi, ta kasance akwai ‘yan’uwantaka a tsakani.

In English: All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.