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Hausa

Hausa, one of the Chadic languages, is one of West Africa’s most widely-spoken languages. In the eleventh century, seven African nations arose in the area known as Hausaland (now northern Nigeria and southern Niger). Today the Hausa people number 24 million living in Niger and Nigeria, with a further 15 million throughout West Africa speaking Hausa as a second language.1

Hausa is mainly spoken in northern Nigeria, the Republic of Niger, northern Cameroon, and Ghana. It is also used as a trade language in West African capital cities, in some parts of Chad and Sudan, and in north and equatorial Africa. There are also significant Hausa-speaking communities in the Sudan and Saudi Arabia, and new ones are already in the making in the United States and Europe.2

Hausa language and culture are wonderful examples of Africa’s triple heritage, namely the fusion of African, Arab-Islamic, and Euro-Christian traditions. The Hausa writing tradition goes back to the Middle Ages when the Ajami (Hausa in Arabic script) literacy was developed through the Arab-Islamic school. Hausa is also written in the Latin alphabet, which is mainly used today to teach the language.3

In the United States, Chadic languages, including Hausa, are spoken in 21 states and is the 120th most frequently-spoken language (out of the 322 identified in the 2000 Census), with 3,220 individuals -- using a Chadic language in the home. Speakers of Chadic languages tend to be bunched in New York and Maryland. Of the 20 counties with the highest percentage of the Chadic speakers, these two states are home to five apiece.4

Hausa is not currently classified by the Defense Language Institute (DLI) on its four-point difficulty scale.5 nor by the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) on its three-point language difficulty scale.6 However, linguists have identified Hausa as essentially a “category three” language on the DLI scale and a “category two” language on the FSI scale.

Hausa is one of the ten NLSC Pilot Program languages

Hausa is designated as one of the ten pilot languages that the NLSC is recruiting during its pilot year. The languages chosen were selected based upon the following:

  • They meet short- and long-term requirements with emphasis on high-level expertise in languages critical to our national security.
  • These languages generally meet the requirements for a pilot such as this based on the number of persons residing in the United States who are proficient in these languages.
  • The list of languages includes some whose populations are difficult to locate and recruit.
  • Each of these languages has multiple proficiency tests available.

Interesting Resources on Hausa

  1. Ethnologue.com
  2. National African Language Resource Center brochure
  3. Ibid.
  4. U.S. English Foundation Chadic (including Hausa) Data Sheet
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