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Table of Contents

11742 Neon Hausa Spelling Guidelines (HAU_ASR002)

URL:Date:Author: Bushra Zawaydeh

05-Sep-2015 08:29https://wiki.appen.com/pages/viewpage.action?pageId=40820266

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1 Introduction ______________________________________________________ 22 Alphabet _________________________________________________________ 23 Native Hausa Words _________________________________________________ 3

3.1 Usage of /p, b, f, h/ ____________________________________________ 53.2 Usage of /-n, -r, -ø / word-finally __________________________________ 63.3 Usage of glottalic sounds __________________________________________ 63.4 Variation in spelling /tʃ/ _________________________________________ 63.5 Variation in spelling geminates _____________________________________ 63.6 Variation in <ai> vs. <e> spelling _____________________________________ 73.7 Variation in <au> vs. <o> spelling ____________________________________ 73.8 Variation in <e> vs. <i> spelling word finally ____________________________ 73.9 Variation in <k> vs. <g> spelling _____________________________________ 73.10 Capitalization _________________________________________________ 83.11 Contractions _________________________________________________ 93.12 Hyphenation _________________________________________________ 93.13 Apostrophe <'> _______________________________________________ 103.14 Functio n words a nd particles ____________________________________ 10

3.14.1 Pronouns _____________________________________________ 103.14.2 Auxiliary verbs _________________________________________ 13

4 Foreign origin words _______________________________________________ 14

1 IntroductionPlease note, the rules below apply only to this project. We are not making any claims about how the Hausa language should be spelled in other contexts.For this project, we will consider the Nigerian Kano dialect to be the 'standard' dialect. You may hear people also speaking other Nigerian dialects, but for spelling purposes please spell words as they would be spelled using the Kano dialect and pronunciation. It is very important for us that . Even if someone each word is only spelled in one waypronounces a word a little differently, it should be spelled in a single standard way. It is for this reason that we ask for "St" and "Street" to both be written as "Street" ( we need

). These are the same word pronounced a little differently (an a Hausa example here abbreviation), so we have to pick one spelling. When in doubt it is best to spell words as they would be written and pronounced in careful speech.If you discover anything that should be added to these instructions please let the project supervisor (Bushra) know.

2 AlphabetHausa uses the Latin alphabet.

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The Boko alphabet augmented the Latin alphabet by adding special symbols. The “hooked” < ɓ >, < ɗ >, and < ƙ > represent the “b”, “d” an “k” respectively (known as implosives/ejectives). The hooked letter < ɗ > may also represent an dark /t/ in certain Arabic loanwords. Although the “hook” letters have symbols in the alphabet, they are not systematically used in websites or by native speakers. Instead, the plain version of the letters without the hook is used commonly in writing. In this database we will use the plain letters only for transcription. There are three other back (glottalic) consonants (implosives and ejectives) in Hausa which do not use a hooked letter in the traditional Boko alphabet. These are the ejective <ts'>, ejective <ch'> (does not occur in the Kano dialect), and the <'y>. Please see the table below which summarizes the correct symbols we want to use in this project.

Correct Incorrect

b ɓ

d ɗ

k ƙ

Other points about the Hausa writing system to note are below. These are what we will use in our standardized transcription sytem for Hausa:

an apostrophe <'> is used to mark the glottal stop as in the word "sa'a" sound known as which is borrowed from Arabic (i.e. time).<c> used to represent the /tʃ/ “ch” sound as in “church” .<g> used for the “hard g” as in “give”.<j> used to represent the English “j” as in “jello”.<sh> used to represent the the English “sh” sound as in “sheep”.

Another problem with the Hausa orthography is that although the phonology of the language uses long and short vowels, tone, and two different <r> sounds, the writing system does not represent those.In this project we will follow the Hausa spelling tradition and not indicate these in the spelling.

3 Native Hausa WordsHausa has two standard dialects: the Daura ( ) and Kano ( ) dialects. The dialect Dauranchi Kanancirepresented in this database is the one spoken in Kano. For clarity, below it the Boko alphabet and the way we will transcribe words with these letters in the database.

IPA Boko Other known variants

Appen Correct transcription

Incorrect transcription

Gloss

/a/ a a Abdul Proper name

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/b/ b b bara last year

/ /ɓ ɓ b', b b bara ɓara, b'ara To peel

/tʃ/ c ch c cara chara crowing

/d/ d d dara to laugh

/ /ɗ ɗ d', d d rada ɗara, d'ara water

/e/ e e tare together

/ /ɸ f f fara to begin

/ɡ/ g g gara wedding gifts

/h/ h h haja goods

/i/ i i kira calling

/(d)ʒ/

j j jari assets

/k/ k k kara stalk

/kʼ/ ƙ k', k k bakaken ƙara, k'ara

/kʲʼ/ ƙy ky ky kyara ƙyara grass

/kʲ/ ky ky kyawu goodness

/kʷ/ kw kw kwara to pour much

/gʷ/ gw gwano stink ant

/gʲ/ gy gyara to repair

/ʔʲ/ 'y 'ya'ya offspring

/l/ l l laka mud

/m/ m m mara belly

/n/ n n nama meat

/ŋ/ n n mutun person

/o/ o o goro kola nut

/r/ r r rada water

/ɽ/ r r rana sun

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/s/ s s sara to excavate

/ʃ/ sh sh shara sweeping

/t/ t t tare together

/(t)sʼ/

ts ts’, s’ ts tsara ts'ara, s'ara to arrange

/u/ u u kuru mother

/w/ w w wara

/j/ y y yara children

/ʔʲ/ ƴ 'y 'y 'ya'ya ƴa aƴ offspring

/z/ z z zana to draw

/ʔ/ ' ' sa'a time

3.1 Usage of /p, b, f, h/The sounds are often dialectal, phonological and word category variants of each other, /p,b,f,h/e.g. the dialectal variants vs . This variation may give rise to incorrect variations in dufu duhuspelling between <p>, <b>, <f> and <h> between and within dialects.

We will not capture variation in pronunciations between in the spelling, but will /p, b, f, h/spell words the way they are pronounced in the Kano dialect, where they are not confused as they are in other dialects. We will not use the letter <p> since this letter is not part of the Boko alphabet, and the norm is to use the <b> not the <p>.

Examples are:

Correct Incorrect Gloss

kipiyan kifiyan

kibiyan

the arrow

duhun dufun the darkness

rumpar rumfar the roof

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3.2 Usage of /-n, -r, -ø / word-finallyFinal , and (no sound) may be confused for dialectal and inflectional reasons . The –n -n -r -øand –r denote gender in a definite article. The –n is for male and the –r is for female. In some Hausa dialects there is some laxity in their usage, but in the Kano dialect they are used in the correct way. Thus the word given in the examples like abu, gyara are male words while cewa and kasa are female. Thus abun; gayaran; cewar; kasar etc.

Incorrect usage(??) Correct Masculine Correct Feminine Gloss

abu abun abur the thing

cewa cewan cewar that

gyara gyaran gyarar the repair

kasar kasan kasar the country

3.3 Usage of glottalic soundsGlottalic consonants (implosives and ejectives) are not consistently used by native speakers. Thus, these consonants are not distinguished in the orthography. In this project we will not use the hooked letters <ɓ, ɗ, ƙ, ƴ>, but rather use the plain version of them <b, d, k> and <'y>

3.4 Variation in spelling /tʃ//tʃ/ is written either <c> or <ch>, we will standardize the spelling by using <c> for this sound.

Correct Incorrect Gloss

binciken binchiken the

investigation

cewa chewa that

gwammace gwammache prefer

3.5 Variation in spelling geminatesGemination is used inconsistently by writers. Gemination is very important in Hausa and it distinguishes words. We will spell words according to their correct Kano pronunciation, whether it is with one consonant or double consonants.

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Correct Incorrect Gloss

tabbatar tabatar assured

mahaliccinsa mahalicinsa his creator

3.6 Variation in <ai> vs. <e> spellingSpelling variation may occur between <ai> and <e>. In such cases, we will use the <ai> spelling, which reflects the Kano pronunciation.

Correct Incorrect Gloss

mai me Owner

iyalai iyale Families

kwarai kware genuine, real

3.7 Variation in <au> vs. <o> spellingThis particular variation may arise from spelling variations accepted in other languages.

Correct Incorrect Gloss

tsautsayi tsotsayi risk

3.8 Variation in <e> vs. <i> spelling word finally

Correct Incorrect Gloss

kowane kowani each and every

kome komi Every

3.9 Variation in <k> vs. <g> spelling

Correct Incorrect Gloss

gyara kyara Repair

bangaskiya bankagskiya wholehearted

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3.10 Capitalization

, Do NOT use capitalisation at the beginning of the sentence in the transcriptionPlease unless the first word is a proper noun. Names of people, locations and organizations, will be capitalized. For locations this includes countries, counties, cities, seas, streets, and so on.

Hausa Description

Blackberry name of a product

Beijing city

Khalid person's name

Days of the week start with an upper case letter, like in English. (Note: all these words are borrowed from Arabic so they need to be tagged as Arabic).

Hausa Meaning

Litinin Monday

Talata Tuesday

Laraba Wednesday

Alhamis Thursday

Juma'a Friday

Asabar Saturday

Lahadi Sunday

Months are written in uppercase like English.

Hausa Meaning

Janairu January

Faburairu February (etc)

titles of people such as doctor are not capitalized.

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title in Hausa gloss

ObamaXXX ObamaMister

ObamaXXX President Obama

3.11 Contractions

A contraction occurs when multiple words are pronounced together and shortened, for example in English when "should not" becomes "shouldn't". Please do not write contractions for this project. Use the expanded form of the words, except in proper names if this happens in Hausa. If you use a contraction for proper nouns in Hausa you can keep it. In the Dholuo project, we had an example of <K'Olali> which is a name. We do not want to exand it. DO YOU HAVE SUCH CASES IN HAUSA? IF YOU CAN THINK OF EXAMPLES PLEASE E-MAIL THEM TO ME. DO YOU USE CONTRACTIONS IN HAUSA similar to <shouldn't> in English? Please give me the examples.

3.12 Hyphenation

hyphens can only be used English words that are followed by a Hausa suffix. Examples are in the table below.

Correct Incorrect

customer-n PROVIDE THE WAY YOU WOULD PRONOUNCE IT/SPELL IT USUALLY

semester-nan PROVIDE THE WAY YOU WOULD PRONOUNCE IT/SPELL IT USUALLY

senator-ci PROVIDE THE WAY YOU WOULD PRONOUNCE IT/SPELL IT USUALLY

The below are examples from Hausa where the hyphen was used, but it shouldn't have been used:

Correct Incorrect Gloss

bugebugen buge-bugen beating

kashekashen kashe-kashen genocide

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3.13 Apostrophe <'>

The apostrophe <'> will be used in two cases, one is for the glottal stop sound, and the other is for the <'y> as in the examples below. IF YOU CAN THINK OF OTHER USES PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

Correct Incorrect Meaning

wa'azi waazi ???

sa'a saa time (word borrowed from Arabic- so it should be tagged as Arabic)

wa'yansu wayansu ???

ya'yan yayan ???

3.14 Functio n words a nd particlesIn Hausa and tend to be short words with just one syllable. conjunctions, prepositions particlesAll of these should be written as two separate words. separately THIS SECTION NEEDS TO BE ELABORATED ON. LET ME KNOW IF YOU AGREE WITH THIS STATEMENT, AND IF THERE ARE ANY SUCH CASES WHERE THEY ARE WRITTEN ATTACHED TO THE WORD.

3.14.1 Pronouns

These refer to people and things. There are different types of pronouns, as shown below with English examples as a reference.

Pronoun Type Examples (English)

Personal pronouns

I, mine, me; you, yours; he, his, him; she, hers, her; it, its; we, ours, us; they, theirs, them

Interrogative pronouns

who, whose, whom, which, what

Relative pronouns

who, who, whose, which, that; whoever, whomever, whichever

Indefinite pronouns

all, another, any, anybody, anyone, anything, both, each, either, everybody, everyone, everything, many, neither, nobody, no one, none, one, others, some, somebody, someone, such

Demonstrative pronouns

this, that, these, those

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Pronoun Type Examples (English)

Reflexive pronouns

myself, yourself, himself, herself, itself, ourselves, themselves

Personal Pronouns

are written as a free / separate word with a space before and after.Free pronouns are written bound / attached to the verb. Bound pronouns

DO YOU HAVE THIS IN HAUSA? IF YES PLEASE GIVE ME EXAMPLES OF FREE PRONOUNS AND BOUND PRONOUNS>

English subject pronoun

Hausa free pronoun

written as a separate word

Hausa bound subject pronoun (prefix)

written attached to the following word

Dholuo bound object pronouns (suffix)

written attached to the preceding word

I

you

he/she/it

we

you (plural)

they

below are examples where the pronoun was written attached but it should have been written detached.

Relative pronouns

Example Meaning Comment

that girl who is going

the girl whom I gave money

the money that I gave you

i saw you i found youwhere

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Indefinite pronouns

Correct Incorrect Meaning

Anything is possible if you believe.

Demonstrative and possessive pronouns

possessive pronouns singular possessive pronouns plural

mine

yours (sing.)

his/hers/its

ours

yours (pl.)

theirs

demonstrative pronouns

this

that

these

those

Possessive and demonstrative adjectivesThese follow nouns and should be written to the word. or NOT JOINED? HOW TELL ME joined

possessive adjectives

are these joined or not

1 singular my

2 singular your

3 singular his, her, its

1 plural our

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2 plural your (pl)

3 plural their

invariable demonstrative adjectives

are these joined or not?

this

that

these

those

3.14.2 Auxiliary verbs

Hausa has commonly used HOW MANY auxiliary verbs.

Word Meaning

go

have

will / come

These are written separate from the other verb , but if there is a bound pronoun the bound See some examples below: pronoun needs to be attached.

Correct Incorrect Meaning

I am going there

I will start

you will cook

I will pay you

I have finished

she has

A couple of examples showing the difference in meaning are shown in the table below. In these examples, the pronouns need to be spelled detached not attached

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Correct Incorrect Gloss

ita ce itace She is the one

itace Ita ce Firewood

ba ya baya He does not

baya ba ya Back

4 Foreign origin wordsEnglish names and words will be written as they are in the English. Do not write English words the way you would pronounce them in Hausa in this project. Arabic origin names and words need to be spelled in Romanized Arabic. Also, remember that English words need to be tagged as

Please refer to the transcription guidelines English, Arabic words need to be tagged as Arabic. for more information about how to use tags on this project."

English word

Correct spelling

Do this

Usual Spelling in Hausa

Do not use this spelling

cancer kansa

school skul

If the English, or Arabic word is attached to a Hausa suffix, use the - marker to separate the or Arabic word from the Hausa suffix.English,

English word

Correct spelling

Do this

Usual Spelling in Hausa

Do not use this spelling

zero-n ???

quality-n ???

Another minor point is that an explosive <t> sound exists in the phonology of language. It occurs in many words that are of Arabic origin, where it would represent a dark emphatic / / tˤ. However, the sound is not indicated in writing. Examples where this can be heard is in words such as <shai an> (i.e. satan) and < abi'a> (i.e. custom). The <t> letters in bold are emphatic in t t

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Arabic and ejective in Hausa. However, the ejective <t> in Hausa is written with a hooked “d” < ɗ >. Since we will be using the plain <d> in place of the hooked letter, we get the spellings of <shaidan> and <dabia> .

Words of Arabic origin which have sounds back part of the mouth, not present in Hausa will be standardized as you see below.

Arabic Arabic sound Hausa

correct spelling

Arabic folk romanization

Correct Hausa spelling

Gloss

ح back "h" sound

h Hal hali condition

خ kh h kharaj haraji Poll tax

ص dark "s" sound

s saut sauti Sound

ض dark "d" sound

d

ط dark "t" sound

t talib talibi student

ظ dark "z" sound

d

ع back ayn letter

A or nothing

‘iyal iyali Family/ children

غ gh gh ghanima ganima Booty

ق q k Al-qalam alkalami Pen