Hausa

Afro-Asiatic family · West Chadic branch · Africa

Hausa is an SVO language, like 488 of the 1,376 languages WALS codes for basic word order.

On Glottalized Consonants, WALS codes Hausa as “Ejectives and implosives”, a value held by 14 of the 567 languages coded, Oromo (Harar) and Iraqw among them.

On The Morphological Imperative, 30 of 35 other Afro-Asiatic languages coded have the value “Second singular and second plural”; Hausa has “Second singular”.

On Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives, WALS codes Hausa as “Four-way contrast”, a value held by 9 of the 234 languages coded, Iraqw and Somali among them.

The order Hausa uses in 9 pairings of a head word and its dependent. Bars: how all languages coded for each pairing split, before or after.

Contrast Hausa with Miya or with any other language

Uncommon values

Values that fewer than one in ten of the coded languages share with Hausa, rarest first.

Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content QuestionsMixed, some interrogative phrases obligatorily initial, some not23 of 902
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal PronounsGender distinctions in 3rd person plus 1st and/or 2nd person18 of 378
Order of Demonstrative and NounTwo or more of above types with none dominant67 of 1,225
Imperative-Hortative SystemsThe language has both a maximal and a minimal system21 of 375
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive SystemsMissing /p/33 of 567
Expression of Pronominal SubjectsSubject pronouns in different position67 of 711
Fusion of Selected Inflectional FormativesExclusively isolating16 of 165
Other Roles of Applied ObjectsLocative18 of 183

Inside the Afro-Asiatic family

Hausa matches the most frequent Afro-Asiatic value on 83 of the 131 features where at least three other members of the family are coded (63%). Among the 24 Afro-Asiatic languages profiled here, that rate ranks 15th from the top.

Where Hausa breaks with a clear majority of its relatives
Feature	Hausa	Most relatives
Case Syncretism	Inflectional case marking is never syncretic	Inflectional case marking is absent or minimal (6 of 7)

Closest profiles

Languages that share the most coded values with Hausa; the count is out of the features both languages are coded for.

Miya Afro-Asiatic34 of 46
Tera Afro-Asiatic33 of 47
Gbeya Bossangoa Niger-Congo35 of 52
Sango Niger-Congo67 of 110
Ngizim Afro-Asiatic30 of 46

The rest of the profile

WALS codes Hausa for 131 of the 144 profile features used on this site. The remaining 118 are listed here, grouped by topic; within each group the value Hausa shares with the fewest languages comes first.

Sounds 13

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Consonant Inventories	Moderately large	94 of 563
Consonant-Vowel Ratio	Moderately high	102 of 564
Tone	Simple tone system	132 of 527
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives	Voicing contrast in both plosives and fricatives	158 of 567
The Velar Nasal	No velar nasal	235 of 469
Vowel Quality Inventories	Average vowel inventory (5-6)	287 of 564
Syllable Structure	Moderately complex syllable structure	274 of 486
Lateral Consonants	/l/, no obstruent laterals	388 of 567
Vowel Nasalization	Contrastive nasal vowels absent	180 of 244
Presence of Uncommon Consonants	None	449 of 567
Uvular Consonants	No uvulars	470 of 567
Absence of Common Consonants	All present	503 of 567
Front Rounded Vowels	None	525 of 562

Word structure 10

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology	Little or no inflectional morphology	141 of 969
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb	6-7 categories per word	31 of 145
Locus of Marking in the Clause	P is double-marked	58 of 236
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking	No subject person/number marking	57 of 198
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases	Possessor is dependent-marked	98 of 236
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives	No case	75 of 162
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology	Inconsistent marking or other type	121 of 236
Reduplication	Productive full and partial reduplication	278 of 368
Exponence of Tense-Aspect-Mood Inflection	monoexponential TAM	127 of 160
Zero Marking of A and P Arguments	Non-zero marking	219 of 235

Nouns and pronouns 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns	Person-number stem with a pronominal plural affix	47 of 261
Indefinite Articles	Indefinite word distinct from numeral for 'one'	102 of 534
Number of Genders	Two	50 of 257
The Associative Plural	Special non-bound associative plural marker	47 of 236
Person Marking on Adpositions	Person marking for pronouns only	83 of 378
Systems of Gender Assignment	Semantic and formal assignment	59 of 257
Comitatives and Instrumentals	Identity	76 of 322
Indefinite Pronouns	Generic-noun-based indefinites	85 of 326
Asymmetrical Case-Marking	No morphological case-marking	81 of 261
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems	Sex-based gender system	84 of 257
Distributive Numerals	Marked by reduplication	85 of 251
Ordinal Numerals	First, two-th, three-th	110 of 321
Definite Articles	Definite word distinct from demonstrative	216 of 620
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection	No person marking at all	70 of 200
Position of Case Affixes	Neither case affixes nor adpositional clitics	379 of 1,031
Number of Cases	No morphological case-marking	100 of 261
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes	Possessive suffixes	355 of 902
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives	Unrelated	100 of 225
Occurrence of Nominal Plurality	Plural in all nouns, always obligatory	133 of 291
Coding of Nominal Plurality	Plural suffix	513 of 1,066
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns	No inclusive/exclusive opposition	120 of 200
Numeral Classifiers	Numeral classifiers are absent	260 of 400
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns	Second person pronouns encode no politeness distinction	136 of 207
Pronominal and Adnominal Demonstratives	Same forms	143 of 201

Noun phrases 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Action Nominal Constructions	Not both A and P in the same construction	24 of 168
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction	Nominal and verbal conjunction are different	125 of 301
Noun Phrase Conjunction	WITH-languages: 'and' and 'with' are identical	103 of 234
Possessive Classification	No possessive classification	125 of 243
Obligatory Possessive Inflection	No obligatorily possessed nouns	201 of 244
Number of Possessive Nouns	None reported	233 of 243

Verbs: tense, mood, evidence 15

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes	No tense-aspect inflection	152 of 1,131
Epistemic Possibility	Verbal constructions	65 of 240
The Prohibitive	Special imperative + special negative	146 of 496
Overlap between Situational and Epistemic Modal Marking	Overlap for either possibility or necessity	66 of 207
The Past Tense	No grammatical marking of past/non-past distinction	88 of 222
Semantic Distinctions of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
Coding of Evidentiality	No grammatical evidentials	181 of 418
The Future Tense	No inflectional marking of future/non-future distinction	112 of 222
The Perfect	No perfect	114 of 222
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect	No grammatical marking of perfective/imperfective distinction	121 of 222
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect	No suppletion in tense or aspect	123 of 193
Situational Possibility	Verbal constructions	158 of 234
Suppletion in Imperatives and Hortatives	None (= no suppletive imperatives reported in the reference material)	153 of 193
Verbal Number and Suppletion	No singular-(dual)-plural pairs/triples	159 of 193
The Optative	Inflectional optative absent	271 of 319

Word order 11

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Order of Adjective and Noun	Modifying adjective precedes noun (AdjN)	373 of 1,367
Position of Polar Question Particles	Question particle at end of sentence	314 of 884
Order of Genitive and Noun	Noun-genitive (NGen)	468 of 1,249
Order of Degree Word and Adjective	Degree word follows adjective (AdjDeg)	192 of 481
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb	Verb-object-oblique (VOX)	210 of 500
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase	Prepositions	511 of 1,184
Order of Object and Verb	Object follows verb (VO)	705 of 1,518
Order of Numeral and Noun	Numeral follows noun (NNum)	608 of 1,154
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause	Initial subordinator word	398 of 659
Order of Relative Clause and Noun	Relative clause follows noun (NRel)	579 of 824
Order of Subject and Verb	Subject precedes verb (SV)	1,192 of 1,496

Simple clauses 24

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give'	Secondary-object construction	65 of 378
Comparative Constructions	Exceed Comparative	33 of 167
Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of any argument	82 of 378
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking	Neutral alignment (no verbal person marking)	84 of 380
Predicative Possession	Conjunctional Possessive	59 of 240
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking	No person marking of the S	96 of 380
Applicative Constructions	Benefactive and other; both bases	49 of 183
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation	In other grammatical categories: Subtype A/Cat	82 of 297
Periphrastic Causative Constructions	Sequential type but no purposive type	35 of 118
Predicative Adjectives	Predicative adjectives have nonverbal encoding	132 of 386
Negative Morphemes	Negative particle	502 of 1,157
Passive Constructions	There is a passive construction	162 of 373
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation	Symmetric and asymmetric standard negation: Type SymAsy	130 of 297
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns	Neutral	79 of 172
Order of Person Markers on the Verb	A and P do not or do not both occur on the verb	187 of 379
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases	Neutral	98 of 190
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals	Zero copula is impossible	211 of 386
Reciprocal Constructions	Distinct from reflexive	99 of 175
Polar Questions	Question particle	585 of 955
Nominal and Locational Predication	Different	269 of 386
Antipassive Constructions	No antipassive	146 of 194
Productivity of the Antipassive Construction	no antipassive	146 of 186
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions	Morphological type but no compound type	254 of 310
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation	Negative indefinites co-occur with predicate negation	170 of 206

Complex sentences 6

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Relativization on Obliques	Pronoun-Retention Strategy	20 of 112
'When' Clauses	Balanced/deranked	39 of 174
'Want' Complement Subjects	The complement subject is expressed overtly	72 of 283
Reason Clauses	Balanced	90 of 169
Purpose Clauses	Deranked	102 of 170
Relativization on Subjects	Gap	125 of 166

Vocabulary 8

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Hand and Arm	Identity: a single word denotes both 'hand' and 'arm'	228 of 617
Tea	Words derived from Sinitic cha	110 of 230
Numeral Bases	Decimal	125 of 196
M in Second Person Singular	No m in second person singular	152 of 230
M in First Person Singular	No m in first person singular	177 of 230
N-M Pronouns	No N-M pronouns	194 of 230
M-T Pronouns	No M-T pronouns	200 of 230
Finger and Hand	Different	521 of 593

Other 1

Feature	Value	Languages sharing it
Para-Linguistic Usages of Clicks	Clicks may express affective but not logical meanings	71 of 143