Hausa

Hausa is a language of the Chadic language family, spoken by the Hausa people in parts of Niger, Ghana, Sudan, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Senegal, Kenya and Chad. It is one of the largest languages in Africa, with over 50 million speakers. Hausa has a complex system of noun classes, with masculine and feminine classes, and a system of verbal agreement that is similar to that of French. There are three main dialects of Hausa: Kano, Sokoto and Katsina. The Hausa language has a rich oral tradition, and is also used extensively in the written form. Hausa is written in a form of the Latin alphabet, with some additional letters. Hausa is a tonal language, with two tones: high and low. Each syllable can have one of these tones. Hausa has a complex system of vowel harmony, in which vowels within a word must agree in quality with the vowel of the word's final syllable. Hausa has a rich vocabulary, with many loanwords from Arabic and other languages. Hausa is also notable for its use of proverbs, which are often used to make a point in a discussion.