Georg Ziegelmeyer
Universität Wien, Austria

Identifying “Standard” Hausa and its non-dominant varieties

Keywords: African languages of wider communication, Hausa varieties, standardization of Hausa, codified norms and social identity

In terms of number of speakers, both as first (L1) and second language (L2), Hausa is the largest language in sub-Saharan Africa. L1 speakers are predominantly found in northern Nigeria, southern Niger, and in Ghana. Dialectally Hausa displays considerable variation. According to Wolff (1991:21): “Precise information on dialect boundaries and the extent of variation is still lacking, […] Most Hausaists agree, however, that there appears to be a major division between the northwestern dialects which are mainly spoken in Niger, and the eastern dialects which are predominantly spoken in Nigeria. The dialect of Kano on which the Standard Hausa is based, belongs to the eastern group”. In addition to this, communities of L1 and L2 Hausa speakers are also found in virtually all West African cities, in Cameroon, in Chad as well as Libya and the Central African Republic. Finally, a large Hausa community is found in the Sudan, where they settled down along the pilgrim’s route to Mecca.

Hausa has become the most important lingua franca used for inter-group communication in northern Nigeria, Niger and parts of Ghana. Thus Hausa functions as an international as well as a national language of wider communication which competes with the former colonial languages such as English and French.

With regard to standardization, the Hausa Language Board (HLB), founded in 1955 in Nigeria, played a role similar to that of the National Swahili Council in Tanzania. Later on the activities were taken over by the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Language (CSNL) in Kano. According to McIntyre (1991:11): “In Niger, the Hausa language came, so to speak, under the auspices of the Academie Française whose approbatory role did not extend to the languages of the colonized peoples. The French made no attempt to promote Hausa”. However, in 1974 in Niamey the Institut National de Documentation, de Recherche et d\'Animation Pédagogiques (I.N.D.R.A.P.) was created, which also published teaching materials in Niger’s national languages such as Hausa, Fulfulde, Kanuri, etc.

In my presentation I will first of all address the following questions: What exactly do we mean, when we use the term “Standard Hausa”? What non-dominant varieties of Hausa expressing identity and social uniqueness can be identified? To what extent do we find codified national norms which are relevant to social identity? Finally, I will discuss whether Hausa does meet enough criteria to constitute a pluricentric language?

References

McIntyre, Joe. 1991. Lexical innovation in Hausa (Niger, Nigeria). In: Utta Gleich & Ekkehard Wolff (eds.), Standardization of National Languages. Symposium on Language Standardization, 11-20. Hamburg: UNESCO-Institut für Pädagogik.

Wolff, Ekkehard. 1991. Standardization and varieties of written Hausa (West Africa) In: Utta Gleich & Ekkehard Wolff (eds.), Standardization of National Languages. Symposium on Language Standardization, 21-32. Hamburg: UNESCO-Institut für Pädagogik.