HAUSA FACTS:

NATIVE: Yaren Hausa

NATIVE SPEAKERS: At least 41 million

OFFICIAL LANGUAGE IN: Niger and Nigeria

WRITING SYSTEMS: Latin (Boko alphabet) and Arabic (ajami)

REGULATED AND PROMOTED BY:

Language

Hausa has developed into a lingua franca across much of western Africa. Part of the Afroasiatic language family, Hausa belongs to the Chadic languages group. It is widely spoken as L1 throughout Niger, northern Nigeria and Chad. It serves as a trade language in Benin, Cameroon, Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo and northwestern Sudan. Hausa is also the most widely spoken language in Nigeria. Hausa features a strict SVO (Subject-Verb-Object) syntax and the word order is head-initial. There are two writing systems, but the official Hausa orthography is the Roman (Boko alphabet), and it is used in all forms of written media.

Economic Significance

An official language of northern Nigeria. Hausa also serves as the primary regional trade language of several west African nations. It is used in mass media and everyday conversation.

History

Little is attested to the evolution of the language. Within the past two hundred years, Hausa has spread quickly within Western and Northern Africa.

Dialects

Eastern and Western