Grammar of the Hausa Language (Classic Reprint)

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Excerpt from Grammar of the Hausa Language The language, a Grammar of which is now presented to the public, is called the Hausa. The origin of the name itself I have not been able to ascertain, nor has Dr. Barth been more successful than myself in the endeavour to settle the question. It may be mentioned, however, that the word Hausa is explained by some as denoting the language rather than the people, and that my interpreters at Sierra Leone insisted on rendering the passages referring to the miraculous gift of tongues by " speaking another Hausa, " but as we must say " yi magana-n-Hausa" , or "yi magana-n-Hausawa, " that is, to speak the language of the Hausa country, or of the Hausa people, this individual assertion carries little weight. And the fact that a Hausa man is called "bahause, " which forms its plural regularly into "hausawa, " seems to deprive it of all appearance of probability. The extent of the territory in which the Hausa is the vernacular language, and the notoriety it has attained among other nations being of much greater importance than the origin of its name, I shall endeavour to exhibit these two subjects at some length, as it will be seen thereby that so much time, labour, and expense, bestowed upon the reduction of this language, have not been misapplied by the Committee of the Church Missionary Society, to whose perseverance and forethought the accomplishment of this present work is attributable. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.