Art. XIII.—Grammatical Sketch of the Haúsa Language

Extract

The word consists of three syllables, and must not be tortured into Housa as is frequently done. Ha-ou-sa conveys the correct pronunciation. The meaning of the word itself is not quite certain. From two expressions in the writer's collection it may be inferred that it means ‘language’. The first is, “He speaks another ha-u-sa,”that is, another language; and the second, in answer to the question, “Do many people speak Haúsa?” The reply given was, “How can they be Haúsa unless they speak Ha1sa?” Barth also admits that it means ‘language,’ although it is not confined to that meaning. The word itself was probably unknown to Leo Africanus, who says that Zāria Kano and Katsena speak the language of Gober, instead of Haúsa, Gober being at Leo's time the most prominent and noble among the provinces of the North. Whether the name, Aúsa given to the northern side of “the great river” in contrast to Gurma on the southern side, has anything to do with Haúsa, is left undecided by Barth. Sultan Bello derives the Haúsa from a Bornu slave, named Bāwu. This Bāwu has a real historical existence in the traditions of the Haúsa people, though not as a slave, the Haúsa word for ‘slave’ being Bāwa not Bāwa, a fact of which Sultan Bello could not have been ignorant; and besides this, it must be argued that, if the Haúsa derived their origin from the Bornu or Kanúri, there would exist a greater similarity between these two languages than is found to be the case. Both languages have a few words in common, but the grammars are most distinct.