A Variation Study of Kano, Katsina and Sokoto Dialects

This article is published in the Tasambo Journal of Language, Literature, and Culture – Volume 1, Issue 1.

Shehu Musa Ahmad
Department of English and Literature, Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State
shehumusads@gmail.com

&

Majeh Idris Mohammed
General Studies Unit , College of Nursing and Midwifery, Birnin Kudu, Jigawa State

Abstract

Our use of language, in whatever form or sense, is marked by grammatical, lexical and/or phonological variations. These variations are said to account for dialectal differences amongst users of the same or mutually the same language. However, several factors (regional, sociolectal, accentual, and ethnic) are responsible for these variations. Since, presumably, a speaker’s region is identified by the dialect he or she uses, this paper focuses on regional dialects to account for lexical variations in the dialects of Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto. For this research, one hundred and fifty (150) Hausa words, using Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto dialects are studied. The words are categorized into family/matrimony, rearing/naming animals, health and sickness, environmental/geographical areas, trading, and sewing/clothing. The analysis reveals that lexical variations occur less frequently between Kano and Katsina dialects than they do between Kano and Sokoto’s, a finding that suggests the importance of narrow (instead of broad) regional division and study in uncovering a speaker’s region or identity.

Keywords: Dialect, Word, Variation, Regional, Kananci, Katsinanci, Sakkwatanci

Introduction

Hausa is a language spoken in Nigeria, particularly northern Nigeria and, of course West African States of Niger, parts of Chad, Cameroun, Ghana and so forth. Unarguably, Hausa is the ‘major language of West Africa’, and ‘is the largest member of the Chadic language family, which in turn belongs to the Afroasiatic phylum (Newman,: 1980a, cited in Newman, 2001)’. ‘Hausa is spoken as a first language by scattered settlements throughout West Africa, and as a second language or lingua franca by millions of non-Hausas in northern Nigeria and in the northern parts of Benin, Togo, and Ghana’ (Newman & Newman, 2001: 263-264). ‘It is also used as a trade language in West African capital cities, in some parts of Chad and Sudan, and in the north and equatorial Africa. There are also significant Hausa-speaking diasporic communities in the Sudan and Saudi Arabia, and new ones are already in the making in the United States and Europe (NALRC/B/hausa, 2022)’.

Ogunsemore, in The Herald News of 18^th October, 2019 reports that ‘New research has found that the Hausa language is the world’s 11^th most spoken language’. ‘According to The Spectrum Index, there are 150 million speakers of Hausa language all over the world, two million more than speakers of Punjabi (mainly in India) and 21 million more than German speakers’ (The Herald News).

This paper is mainly focusing on the Hausa dialects of Kano, Katsina and Sokoto. The first book to be published on dialectal variation in Hausa is that of Ahmad and Bello (1970). The authors classified Hausa primarily into Classical and Modern Hausa. According to them, the word 'classical' refers to 'Hausa language and literary styles which have been greatly influenced by Arabic and Islamic tradition as opposed to modern Hausa, which connotes Hausa language and literary styles influenced by Western civilization and culture through the agency of the English language.

Another feature of ‘Classical Hausa is the fact that it is closer to Sakkwatanci or the Sakkwato dialect than to any of the major dialects’. One has to refer to 'Dare Dubu da Daya', 'Labaruna Da danaYanzu' and 'Hausawa da Makwabtansu, ' to appreciate this point' (Abubakar, A. 1982:16). In the above classification, dialectal variations overlap state or regional borders, giving dialect a kind of generic outlook. This study is skeptical about the applicability of the preceding broad classifications of Hausa into Western and Eastern dialects in uncovering the exact region or identity of an ideal Hausa speaker. Hence, a paradigm shift is set forth by being specific, focusing mainly on the three regions of Kano, Katsina and Sokoto. These are administratively called states, but our research prefers to use region(s), being the appropriate term for linguistic boundaries or isoglosses.

The three chosen dialects are extracts of Ahmad and Bello’s (1970) major classification of Hausa dialects into seven: Kananci, Katsinanci, Sakkwatanci, Dauranci, Zazzaganci, Bausanci, and Haʠejanci. However, our study does not intend to dig into the parameters that informed the variations amongst the three chosen dialects, but primarily seeks to uncover the inherent lexical variations in them as a guide for revealing speaker’s specific regional identity.

Literature Review

Empirically, several studies have been conducted on Hausa dialects and the recent ones include Abbas (2000), Maru (2015), Salisu (2016), Bello (2016) and Shafi’u (2020) among others. Despite their contributions to knowledge, none of these works is devoid of gap(s) needed to be filled. Maru’s research, for instance, is confined within a single region and dialect of Zamfara, which is also regarded as Western dialect in Bargery’s (1934) broad classification. On the contrary, this study examines three different regional dialects.

Dialect and the Notion of Language Variation

Dialect is the study of variation in lexical and structural components of language. It is usually associated with the study of geographical variation especially in rural areas, but there is much dialectological work today which focuses principally on social variation and in urban areas, very often, to the exclusion of more holistic special consideration (Britain 2002). In common usage, a dialect is a substandard, low-status, often rustic form of language, generally associated with the peasantry, the working class, or other groups lacking in prestige. Dialect is also a term which is often applied to forms of language, particularly those spoken in more isolated parts of the world, which have no written form. And dialects are also often regarded as some kind of (often erroneous) deviation from a norm – as aberrations of a correct or standard language (Chambers and Trudgill, 2004:3).

Thus, “any variety of a language characterized by systematic differences in pronunciation, grammar, and vocabulary from other varieties of the same language is called a dialect. Everyone speaks a dialect – in fact, many dialects at different levels. The people who speak a certain dialect are called a speech community” (Oha, ENG355 2010,:56).The variety of a language according to the user is called Dialect. It is determined by a speaker’s (user’s) social and geographical background. Language may vary on the geographical plane from one region to another. This is why (for example) it is difficult to talk about a single entity called British English. In Britain, there are numerous dialects of English according to the area where these are spoken, e.g. the Lancashire dialect, the Scottish dialect, the Yorkshire dialect, and so on. The same is true of American English too (Jindal, 2013:102).

Similarly, and in line with the foregoing submissions, Nigerian Hausa is identified by numerous dialects: Kananci, Sakkwatanci, Katsinanci, Zamfarci, Zazzaganci etcetera. The same applies to every language, be it Arabic, Portuguese, Urdu, Yoruba, or Igbo. As such, one would say ‘a language is a collection of mutually intelligible dialects’ (Chambers & Trudgill, 2004:3).

According to Oha (2010, ENG355,:10), “A variety of a language is a form that differs from other forms of the language systematically and coherently”. It means then that ‘the total range of a language may be described in terms of its grammatical, phonological, and, sometimes, even graphological systems. Similarly, the language varieties of any given language have certain linguistic features in common. These common features of all the varieties of one language constitute the common core of that language” (Oha, 2010 ENG355:11).

The Regional Dialect

Regional Dialect refers to “populations that share a common core of linguistic characteristics that originate in a particular geographical locale” (Bowen, 2011: 1). For instance, the geographical locale for Sakkwatanci is Sokoto; for Katsinanci is Katsina; and Kano for Kananci. Thus, Akmajian, et al (2001:276), maintain that “the classic example of a dialect is the regional dialect: the distinct form of a language spoken in a certain geographical area”.

Yule (2006), posits that “the existence of different regional dialects is widely recognized and often the source of some humor for those living in different regions”. He further argues that “those involved in the serious investigation of regional dialects have devoted a lot of survey research to the identification of consistent features of speech found in one geographical area compared to another. These dialect surveys often involve painstaking attention to detail and tend to operate with very specific criteria in identifying acceptable informants. After all, it is important to know if the person whose speech you are recording really is a typical representative of the region’s dialect’ (Yule, 2006:196).

Regional dialect is based on the geographical isogloss. An isogloss is boundary line where one dialect area ends and another begins. Regional dialect is a variety of a language community which is spoken within a large geographical area. The study of dialect on the basis of the linguistic items and their variations is called dialectology (Prasad, 2009: 232).

The Dialects of Hausa Language

The dialectal classification of Hausa in this work is in line with lexical variations that set a linguistic regional boundary among the said Hausa speakers. Most often, though not part of our research aim, the phonological variations amongst these dialects are largely tonal as found in words like “tsoho (old man), gwaggo (father’s sister), garwashi (embers) etc”. In this case, the lexis are the same but pronounced differently. Instances of using different lexical items to refer to a single entity invariably signal the existing dialectal variations in the three Hausa dialects investigated by this study. For instance, the word sand is called yashi, ƙasa, and rairai in Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto dialect respectively. However, having or rather using different lexical items across the three dialects to refer to a single entity happens less frequently as it does in two dialects. The following few examples suffice:

 

Mutual intelligibility

The definition of mutual intelligibility which ‘has the benefit of characterizing dialects as subparts of a language and of providing a criterion for distinguishing between one language from another’ is given by Yule (2006: 196) that ‘a language is a collection of mutually intelligible dialects’. The term “Mutual Intelligibility” implies a situation where something is comprehensible or has the capacity to be understood by the parties involved. It refers to speech varieties that, despite the grammatical, lexical, and phonological differences, are understandable by the speakers of that language. For example, the Hausa speakers of Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Daura, and Zazzau communicate and understand one another very well, or fairly well. The variations they have, to a larger extent, account for the region where the speaker comes from, or those factors that distinguish speakers of the same language.

Theoretical Framework

The study adopts Ahmad and Bello’s (1970) major classification of Hausa dialects as its theoretical framework. Majorly, according to Ahmad and Bello, Hausa is classified into seven dialects as follows: Kananci, Katsinanci, Sakkwatanci, Dauranci, Zazzaganci, Bausanci, and Haʠejanci. They merged Sokoto and Katsina dialects together as having certain characteristics in common. For instance, both dialects use /h/ and /hw / in place of Kano /f/ and where Kano uses /ts/, Katsina and Sokoto use /tc/. The "two dialects share certain lexical items in common, where, for example, Sokoto/Katsina use ʠiya (daughter), Kano uses Ύa. Zazzaganci and Bausanci are merged together as having only one form of gender: the masculine gender ‘ne’. Altogether, the three major variations highlighted in their work are lexical and phonological’, but this study mainly dwells on the lexical aspect of Kano, Katsina and Sokoto dialects.

Methodology

The Hausa words (data) used for this research are translated in English. The English translations of the words are provided in the last column of each entry accordingly. The Hausa words under Kano are mostly sourced from the internet in www.hausawasite.com.ng>2019/09. With this development, it has become easier and safer to store and make readily available large corpora of digitized spoken dialect data which are not only proving to be a rich source of evidence for contemporary research on variation and change, but will also provide (and are already doing so in a few studies) extremely useful real-time evidence for future generations of dialectologists, for example, Sankoff and Blondeau (2007)’s work on real time change in Montreal French.

The Katsina and Sokoto variant words of the Kano dialect are sourced from informants through questionnaires distributed in Katsina and Sokoto metropolis by the Hausa Language Students of Federal University Gusau, Zamfara State, Nigeria, who the researchers used as field workers. “The use of trained fieldworkers had an auspicious beginning with the linguistic survey of France, which began in 1896. The Swiss director, Jules Gilliéron, quite consciously set out to improve upon the methods that Wenker had employed” (Chambers& Trudgill, 2004:16-17). Gilliéron actually “began by devising a questionnaire that isolated specific items for which responses could be elicited” (Chambers & Trudgill, 2004: 17).

Data Presentation and Analysis

The Kano dialect is used as our controlled data for identifying the dialectal variations in the three Hausa dialects under study. All nonvariable words are listed in a row within the category they fall under, while variable words are presented in tables under each category for clarification and easy identification. A statistical table of each lexical category is drawn to show the frequency/percentage level of dialectal variation/nonvariation. Therefore, the analysis follows the categorization of words used in family/matrimony, rearing/naming animals, health and sickness, environmental/geographical areas, trading, and sewing/clothing as presented below:

Category (1): The Hausa words used in family/matrimonial affairs

In the thirty two (32) family and matrimonial affairs Hausa words studied, the analysis shows that there are no much dialectal variations in this lexical category (called kinship terms in Sociolinguistics). Where Kano dialect uses Ύa (daughter), Katsina and Sokoto use ʠiya. Equally, variations occur across the three dialects in words like elder sibling, wa (Kano), yaya (Katsina), magaji or (Sokoto, but occasionally use wa too); Ύa (Kano), is ʠiya in both (Katsina and Sokoto) et cetera. Variation between Kano and Katsina dialects in this word category is much less than between Kano and Sokoto: occurring 5 times (16%) and 9 times (28%) respectively. Kano/Katsina degree of nonvariation is 27, about 84% of the words studied, while Kano/Sokoto’s is 23, about 72% of the words category.

Nonvariation occurs in the following twenty three (23) words: ʠa (male child), miji (husband), mata (wife), ƙanwa (younger sister), ya (elder sister/sibling), auta (last child), kaka (grandfather/mother), dattijo (old responsible man), tsohuwa (old woman), kakan kaka (ancestor), siriki (father- in-law of a man), suruki (the son-in-law of a man), suruka (the daughter-in-law of a woman/man), agola (foster male/female child) but the suffix ‘ce’ is attached in Sokoto dialect when referring to a female, maraya (male orphan), marainiya (female orphan), bazawara (widow), and namiji (male). The table below presents the dialectal variations among the three dialects.

Table (1a): Dialectal Variation Table of Hausa Words Used in Family/Matrimonial Affairs

S/N	KANO	KATSINA	SOKOTO	ENGLISH
1	Ύa	Ɗiya	Ɗiya	Female child
2	Wa	Yaya	Magaji/Wa	Older sibling
3	Jariri	Jinjiri	Ɗanʠa/Jariri	Baby boy
4	Abokin wasa	Abokin Wasa	Tobashi/Taubashi	Cousin
5	Abokiyar wasa	Abokiyar wasa	Tobashi/Taubashi	Cousin
6	Abba	Baba	Baba	Father’s brothers
7	Ɗan wa	Ɗan wa	Ɗan magaji	Nephew
8	Ύar wa	Ύar wa	Ɗiyar magaji	Niece
9	Zuriya/Dangi	Zuriya	Zuri’a	Descendants

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Table (1b): Percentage Table of Dialectal Variations in Hausa Words Used in Family/Matrimonial Affairs

Dialect	Kano	Katsina	Sokoto	Frequency (Katsina)        (Sokoto)	Percentage (Katsina)         (Sokoto)
Variation	0	5	9	0.16                       0.28	16%                     28%
Nonvariation	32	27	23	0.84                       0.72	84%                     72%
Total	32	32	32	1                            1	100%                   100%

 

Category (2): The Hausa Words Used in Rearing and Naming Animals

Here, the lexis used in rearing profession and naming certain animals slightly differ across the three dialects. Under this category, dialectal variations are commonly found in words such as lamb, called Ύar tunkiya (Kano), kasganya (Katsina), tunkiya (Sokoto, without the prefix ‘Ύar’); eagle is called gaggafa (Kano), but shaho in (Katsina/Sokoto); and chameleon is called hawainiya (Kano), mahauniya (Katsina), but hanwawa (Sokoto). Going by the analysis, the forty (40) words used for rearing and naming animals, Kano/Katsina variation record 0.15 frequency, equivalent to 15% of the variation between Kano and Katsina dialects, which is still lower than the 23% (0.23 frequency) variation between Kano and Sokoto dialects. The twenty nine (29) nonvariable words across the three dialects include: makiyaya (pasture), makiyayi (herdsman), shanu (cattle), maraki (calf), rago (ram), ʠan rago (lamb), akuya (goat), bunsuru (he goat), doki (horse), zabo (fowl), zakara (cock), kaza (hen), tsuntsuwa (bird), zalɓe (heron), jemage (bat), aku (parrot), hankaka (crow), mujiya (owl), kare (dog), zomo (rabbit), zaki (lion), barewa (deer), biri (monkey), giwa (elephant), raƙumi (camel), ɓauna (buffalo), kada (crocodile), zuma (honey), and ƙudan zuma (bee).

Table (2a): Dialectal Variation Table of Hausa Words Used in Rearing and Naming Animals

S/N	KANO	KATSINA	SOKOTO	ENGLISH
1	Dabbobi	Dabbobi	Bisashe	Livestock
2	Ύar tunkiya	Kasganya	Tunkiya	Lamb
3	Ingarma	Namijin doki	Doki	Stallion
4	Goʠiya	Macen doki	Goʠiya	Mare
5	Agwagwa	Agwagwa	Kuti-kuti	Duck
6	Gaggafa	Shaho	Shaho	Eagle
7	Shaho	Mikiya	Shaho	Hawk
8	Ungulu	Angulu	Kolo	Vulture
9	Mage	Mage	Mussa	Cat
10	Ɓera	Ɓera	Kusu	Mouse
11	Hawainiya	Mahauniya	Hanwawa	Chameleon

 

Table (2b): Percentage Table of Dialectal Variations in Hausa Words Used in Rearing/Naming Animals

Dialect	Kano	Katsina	Sokoto	Frequency (Katsina)        (Sokoto)	Percentage (Katsina)        (Sokoto)
Variation	0	6	9	0.15                       0.23	15%                      23%
Nonvariation	40	34	31	0.85                       0.77	85%                      77%
Total	40	40	40	1                            1	100%                    100%

 

Category (3): The Hausa Words and Dialects Related to Health/Sickness

The dialectal variations under heath/sickness are relatively few. The analyzed data shows that the nonvariation across the three dialects is found in the following six (6) words: maƙoƙo (goiter), mura (cold), ƙurji (blister), maruru (boil), likita (medical doctor), and magani (medicine). A total of three (3) variations, accounting for 33% and 0.33 frequencies occur in Kano/Katsina dialects, whereas Kano/Sokoto dialects record two (2) variations, equivalent to 22%. The only three (3) lexical variations in the words studied are zazzaɓi (fever) Kano dialect and masassara Katsina/Sokoto dialects; rauni (Kano), ciwo (Katsina), miki (Sokoto); and kumburi (Kano/Sokoto), called malolo (Katsina).

Table (3a): Dialectal Variation Table of Hausa Words Related to Health/Sickness

S/N	KANO	KATSINA	SOKOTO	ENGLISH
1	Zazzabi	Masassara	Masassara	Fever
2	Rauni	Ciwo	Miki	Wound
3	Kumburi	Malolo	Kumburi	Swelling

 

Table (3b): Percentage of Dialectal Variations in Hausa Words Used in Health/Sickness

Dialect	Kano	Katsina	Sokoto	Frequency (Katsina)         (Sokoto)	Percentage (Katsina)             (Sokoto)
Variation	0	3	2	0.33                       0.22	33%                      22%
Nonvariation	9	6	7	0.67                       0.78	67%                      78%
Total	9	9	9	1                            1	100%                    100%

 

Category (4): The Hausa Words and Dialects Related to Environmental/Geographical Areas

There are more frequent lexical variations in the environmental/geographical areas related words between Kano/Katsina dialects, totaling about 32% (15 words) and less between Kano/Sokoto which is 21% (10 words). Nonvariation occurs in thirty (30) words and they include: duniya (world), ƙasa (land), ƙasa (sand), gaɓa (shore), kogo (cave), ruwa (water), teku (sea), teku (ocean), guguwa (whirlpool), rijiya (well), girgizar ƙasa (earthquake), rana (sun), wata (moon), tsawa (thunder), hadari (storm), haske (light), duhu (darkness), raɓa (dew), iska (wind), iska (air), ruwan sama (rain), ƙanƙara (ice), yanayi (weather), wuta (fire), hayaƙi (smoke), fili with /f/ changed to /h/ in Katsina/Sokoto dialects: hili (plain), igiyar ruwa (wave), tauraro or tamraro in Sokoto (star), itace or icce in Katsina/Sokoto (wood) and garwashi (embers).

Table (4a): Dialectal Variation Table of Hausa Words Related to Environmental/Geographical Areas

S/N	KANO	KATSINA	SOKOTO	ENGLISH
1	Кasa	Yashi	Кasa	Soil
2	Tabo	Tabo	Laka	Mud
3	Yashi	Kasa	Rairayi	Sand
4	Tsauni	Tsibiri	Tudu	Mountain or hill
5	Hayi	Tudu	Tudu	Cliff or precipice
6	Kwari	Gangare	Kware	Valley
7	Tsibiri	Tsuani	Tsibiri	Island
8	Bakin ruwa	Gaba	Bakin ruwa	Shore
9	Tafki	Wutsiyar teku	Tabki	Lake
10	Kogi	Rahi	Kogi	River or stream
11	Sama	Sarari	Samaniya	Sky
12	Aradu	Tarnatsa	Aradu	Bolt of lightening
13	Bakan gizo	Gajimare	Masha ruwa	Rainbbbow
14	Gajimare	Girgije	Girgije	Cloud
15	Turiri	Suraci	Tafasa	Steam
16	Hazo	Buuji	Buda	Fog
17	Harshen wuta	Harshen wuta	Bela	Flame

 

Table (4b): Percentage of Dialectal Variations in Hausa Words Related to Environmental/Geographical Area

Dialect	Kano	Katsina	Sokoto	Frequency (Katsina)         (Sokoto)	Percentage (Katsina)        (Sokoto)
Variation	0	15	10	0.32                       0.21	32%                     21%
Nonvariation	47	32	37	0.68                       0.79	68%                     79%
Total	47	47	47	1                           1	100%                   100%

 

Category (5): The Hausa Words and Dialects Related to Trading

Out of the nine (9) trading related words studied, there are only three (3) variations and a total of six (6) nonvariable words: riba (profit), tsada (expensiveness), farashi, though /f/ is changed to /hw/ in Katsina/Sokoto dialects, it is still the same word (price); same applies to siya/saye (buying), arha (cheap), and haraji (tax).

Table (5a): Dialectal Variation Table of Words Related to Trading

S/N	KANO	KATSINA	SOKOTO	ENGLISH
1	Kanti	Shago	Shago	Shop or store
2	Awu	Awo/Gwaji	Awo	Weigh
3	Bashi	Bashi /Sagi	Bashi	Debt

 

 

Table (5b): Percentage of Dialectal Variations in Hausa Words Related toTrading

Dialect	Kano	Katsina	Sokoto	Frequency (Katsina)             (Sokoto)	Percentage (Katsina)             (Sokoto)
Variation	0	3	2	0.33                        0.22	33%                       22%
Nonvariation	9	6	7	0.67                        0.78	67%                      78%
Total	9	9	9	1                            1	100%                      100%

 

Category (6): The Words and Dialects Related to Sewing/Clothing

The lexical items under sewing are mostly the same across the three dialects except in words like buje (skirt) in Kano/Katsina dialects, which is called hwatari in Sokoto dialect; taguwa (Kano), riga (Katsina), taggo (Sokoto) etcetera. Out of the thirteen (13) words studied under sewing terminologies, seven (7) are nonvariable across the three dialects as follows: saƙa (weave), ʠinka (sew), allura (needle), kwat (coat), wando (trousers), masilla (awl) or basilla in Katsina dialect and almakashi (scissors). The level of dialectal variation between Kano and Katsina is 31%, which is higher than Sokoto’s 38%.

Table (6a): Dialectal Variation Table of Hausa Words and Dialects Related to Sewing/Clothing

S/N	KANO	KATSINA	SOKOTO	ENGLISH
1	Kaʠa	Burgawa	Kaʠa	Spin
2	Kwarkwaro	Kwararo	Lungu	Spindle
3	Rigar mata	Kayan mata	Tagguwar mata	Women’s dress
4	Taguwa	Riga	Taggo	Shirt
5	Buje	Buje	Hwatari	Skirt
6	Keken ʠinki	Keken ʠinki	Tela/ keken ʠumki	Sewing machine

 

Table (6b): Percentage of Dialectal Variations in Hausa Words Related toSewing/Clothing

Dialect	Kano	Katsina	Sokoto	Frequency (Katsina)      (Sokoto)	Percentage (Katsina)             (Sokoto)
Variation	0	4	5	0.31                  0.38	31%                      38%
Nonvariation	13	9	8	0.69                 0.62	69%                     62%
Total	13	13	13	1                     1	100%                   100%

 

 

Cumulative Table

Dialect	Kano	Katsina	Sokoto	Frequency (Katsina) (Sokoto)	Percentage (Katsina) (Sokoto)
Variation	0	36	37	0.24    0.25	24%    25%
Nonvariation	150	114	113	0.76    0.75	76%    75%
Total	150	150	150	1     1	100%   100%

 

Findings

Dialect study, according to Chambers & Trudgill (1998:15) provides ‘a central source for variation data’ and this largely signals the linguistic identity a particular region bears. Hence, the linguistic identity of Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto is revealed by this study. None of these dialects, from category 1 to 6, exist without certain lexical (morphological) variations. Cumulatively, in the one hundred and fifty (150) words studied, variation across the three dialects occurs in seventy three (73) words (i.e., Kano/Katsina 36 words and Kano/Sokoto 37 words).

Thus, the variation between Kano and Katsina is twenty four percent (24%), and it slightly tallies with the twenty five percent (25%) of the total lexical variations between Kano and Sokoto dialects. Since these variations do not exceed lexical equilibrium, their mutual intelligibility is assured. However, due to ‘Geographical Dialect Continuum’, speakers from Kano and Katsina would understand themselves very well, while speakers from Kano and Sokoto would do so quite well (with considerable difficulty). This can be deduced from the words lists and the percentages above.

Since each region demonstrates a certain degree of lexical variation, the finding suggests that each region be studied in its own right, in accordance with Ahmd and Bello, (1970); Malka (1978); and Wurma’s, (2005) classifications of dialects (cited in Amfani and Abbas, 2022).

Conclusion

The regional dialect is a sub variety of a language associated with a particular geographical area. The existence of dialectal variations amongst the three Hausa dialects of Kano, Katsina, and Sokoto have been clearly foregrounded and statistically enumerated. From the data collected, words like ’namiji (male), doki (horse), riba (profit), and many more are spelt and pronounced the same across the three dialects. Unarguably, none of these dialects is devoid of lexical variations linked to a particular region. But despite the variations, the three dialects are mutually intelligible and, as such, classified as the same language. The Kano dialect is used as the controlled dialect through which the Katsina and Sokoto words (dialects) are collected using questionnaires by field workers from the Hausa Department of Federal University Gusau. The informants are the speakers of either Katsina or Sokoto dialect, contacted in their respective regions.

References

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DOI: https://dx.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2022.v01i01.005