Hausa Ajami script is an Arabic script derivative for writing the Hausa language.Dobronravine, N., Philips, J.E., 2004. Hausa ajami literature and script: colonial innovations and post-colonial myths in northern Nigeria. Lang. Africa 15, 85–110. Retrieved from. . (PDF Access) Ajami is a name commonly given to alphabets derived from Arabic script for the use of various African languages, from Swahili to Hausa, Fulfulde, and Wolof.
Hausa ajami is an alphabet where vowel sounds are written using a mixture of combining marks and letters. Unlike Semitic languages such as Arabic that build words on consonant patterns and so normally hide vowel diacritics in the Arabic script, it can be difficult to read Hausa text without the full vowel information, and therefore Hausa retains all vowel diacritics in the text.
In Niger and Nigeria, there exist two general orthographic traditions, each derived from two Quranic orthographic practices.A.Brockett, Studies in Two Transmission of the Qur'an, doctorate thesis, University of St. Andrews, Scotland, 1984, p.138 One of these is based on the Quran recitation and inscription of the 8th century religious scholar Hafs ibn Sulayman, the other based on the Quran recitation and inscription of another 8th Century scholar, Warsh. Hafs tradition is the most popular across the Muslim world, and especially in Egypt, the Levant, and the Arabian Peninsula. Warsh tradition is the second most popular tradition across the Muslim world, and has been especially popular in North Africa, West Africa, and Andalusia. In Niger and Nigeria, Warsh is the orthographic convention preferred by local Sufi schools and scholars (including Tijaniyyah and Qadiriyya schools), whereas Hafs is the orthographic convention preferred by Sunni schools and scholars, including the Salafi Izala Society. While technically such distinction between Sufis and Sunnis does not theologically exist, this is a good approximation of the sociolinguistic situation.Warren-Rothlin, Andy. 2012. Arabic script in modern Nigeria . In Roger M. Blench and Stuart McGill (eds.), Advances in minority language research in Nigeria, Vol. I. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, 105-121. Rüdiger Köppe. (PDF Access)
While Hafs is generally always written in Naskh, Warsh is written either in Naskh, or in Maghrebi script, following North African traditions, and in a local calligraphic tradition.Evans, Lorna Priest. Warren-Rothlin, Andy. (2018, 26 April) Proposal to encode additional Arabic script characters for Hausa to the UCS.
From Nigerian independence up until 2007, the Hausa text on Nigerian naira banknotes were written in Warsh script. Prior to independence, British West African pound banknotes included Hausa text written in Hafs script.
Name
The name 'Ajami' came to be used in such a way for the adoption of Arabic script to write a non-Arabic language in Africa. Originally, 'Ajami' referred to non-Arab language in Africa, as it did elsewhere in the Muslim world too, with Persian, Turkish, Malay, Spanish, etc. being referred to as 'Ajami'. Thus, in Northern Nigeria for example, languages such as Hausa and Fulfulde where referred to as 'Ajami languages'. Thus by extension, texts written in such languages were referred to as 'Ajami', simply meaning "foreign", and to be distinguished from texts written in Arabic. But, it was in colonial Northern Nigeria that the earlier notion of 'Ajami language' (Hausa, Fulfulde) was misinterpreted and transformed into 'Ajami script'.Uba Adamu, Aballa. (2023, September) The Gutenberg Principle: Hausa Digital Alàr̃ammà and Ajamīzation of Knowledge. Bayero University Kano, Nigeria. Published for Conference on Arabic in Africa: Historical and Sociolinguistic perspectives, University of Bayreuth, Germany.
It was within the context of this development that Mervyn Hiskett states that 'It [Hausa] is now written for official and scholastic purposes in the Roman script (with the addition of three special letters), but the older Arabic script (known as ajami) is still extensively used for private correspondence and religious tracts'.
Over time, this misrepresentation by European Christian missionaries, colonial officials, and Africologists, was adopted by native Hausa-speaking scholars as well. For example, famed Hausa linguist, Ibrahim Yaro Yahaya, uses 'Ajami' in such a way.
History
Hausa Ajamī, the use of Arabic alphabet for non-Arabic language writing, has been developed as a form of discourse by Islamic clerics in Hausa city states since the large-scale introduction of Islam in the region through Malian cleric merchants in the 14th century. Although not widely spread, it nevertheless provided those fluent in its script with a literacy device that enabled them to exchange written communication, without necessarily being fluent in the Arabic language. The etymology of the word itself denotes a non-native Arab.
The use of Arabic script to write local languages of West Africa, including Hausa, started by the Islamic clerics in Hausa city states since the large-scale arrival of Islam in the region through Malian cleric merchants in the 14th century. Although not initially widely used, it nevertheless provided those fluent in its script with a literacy device that enabled them to exchange written communication, without necessarily being fluent in the Arabic. However, for many centuries, Arabic was the literary language of Hausa city-states, as it was seen as the more prestigious means of communication. In fact, for centuries, it was the semi-nomadic Fulfulde community of Northern Nigeria that wrote its native language in 'Ajami script' than the urban-rural Hausa community.
Pre-colonial Hausa writings in Arabic script have been described as mostly Islamic literature, usually in verse as opposed to 'essentially un-Islamic' oral prose, as well as some historical chronicles, folktales, official and private correspondence. But nevertheless, the development of Hausa Ajami orthography was both successful and marginalized by the predominance of Arabic.Bondarev, Dmitry and Dobronravin, Nikolay and Bondarev, Dmitry and Gori, Alessandro and Souag, Lameen. Standardisation Tendencies in Kanuri and Hausa Ajami Writings. 2019. DOI: 10.1515/9783110639063-010 And thus, pre-colonial Hausa was never standardized, never diverged into a single set of conventions across different literatures. Another thing that can be concludied is that, geographically speaking, there were two poles of attraction in Hausa literature. One variety of Hausa Ajami may be described as Western or Sokoto-centred and close to the written traditions of the Central Niger region. Another variety, based in Kano, which looks like an offshoot of the venerable centuries-old tradition of Borno (Kanuri language) Ajami. Both were reflected not just in their specific conventions of transcription, but also in their respective styles of handwriting. This divergencep ersisted through the 19th and the 20th century, with the development of the two orthographic traditions, Warsh and Hafs.
British and German colonization of West Africa, and specifically encroachment of Christian missionaries, coinciding with the Fula jihads and the literary boom brought by the consolidation of the Sokoto Caliphate, resulted in the start of a 'golden age of Ajami', during which Arabic-script Hausa writings were 'flourishing in the 19th century and continuing into the 20th', prior to the decision of the British colonial authorities to romanize the Hausa language in 1930. On the one hand, Islamic scholars and local rulers relied ever so greatly on Arabic-script Hausa to communicate and to express literature. On the other, the bureaucratic needs of the time, compelled mid-level colonial administrators to rely on Ajami Hausa. And thirdly, missionaries thought that using Ajami to write and communicate in the local language would best facilitate the spread of their work and would best connect them with the Hausa populous.
Despite the disillusionment of bureaucrats, both colonial and post-independence natives, and despite the spread of Latin alphabet through secular education, Christian missionaries have remained interested in Ajami script as one of the ways to communicate in Hausa. Throughout the 20th and the 21st century, various translated Christian literature have been produced in Ajami, including a 2020 Bible translation into Ajami-script Hausa.Genesis 1. Ajami-script Hausa. Hausa Common Language Ajami Bible © The Bible Society of Nigeria, 2020 https://www.bible.com/bible/3307/GEN.1.HAUAS
Alphabet
As Hausa Ajami script was never recognized and regulated officially, there has never been a top down imposition of a unified convention. Standardization of letters in Ajami has happened over time and in various stages, in synch with neighbouring Ajami traditions, as well as external factors.
For example, vowels in Hausa Ajami script, including representation of vowel [e], and differentiation of short versus long vowels, were one of the first aspects to be unified and standardized. Consonants on the other hand, especially consonant letters for representing sounds that don't exist in Arabic, took longer to become standardized. Some new letters were even coined in the late 19th and early 20th century, and because of the direct influence of the Boko alphabet (Latin alphabet). For example, whereas previously in writing, sounds [b] and [ɓ] may have usually been written with a single character ba '', it was the innovation of introducing the separate letter in Latin alphabet that created an impetus for scholars writing in Ajami script, to innovate and introduce a separate Ajami letter for the distinct sound as well.
Letters Below is the list of letters of Hausa Ajami, in both Warsh and Hafs traditions. Beige highlight marks letters that are only used for writing of loan words of Arabic or European origin. Green highlight marks letters that are innovations of Hausa orthography and are not used in Arabic language.
+Hausa Ajami (Warsh Convention)Letter(Naskh)Letter(Hausawi/Kanuri)Latin EquivalentIPA Unicode - A a // U+0627 B b U+0628 Ɓ ɓ U+0751 T t U+062A C c U+062B J j U+062C H h U+062D H h(Kh kh) U+062E D d U+062F Z z U+0630 R r / U+0631 Z z U+0632 S s U+0633 Sh sh ()Ch ch() U+0634 S s U+0635 L l U+0636 Ɗ ɗ U+0637 Z z U+0638 Ts ts / U+069F ʼ / U+0639 G g U+063A Gw gwGy gy / U+08C3(U+06A0) F f / U+088B P p U+06A5 Ƙ ƙ U+08BC Ƙw ƙwƘy ƙy / U+08C4(U+06A8) K k U+06A9 Kw kwKy ky / U+0763 L l U+0644 M m U+0645 N n U+08BD H h U+0647 W wO oU u () U+0648 Y yI i () U+06CC E e U+0649plusU+0670 ˈy ()Ƴ ƴ() / U+063F+Hausa Ajami (Hafs Convention)Wali Naʼibi Sulaimanu and Haliru Binji. (1969). Mu Koyi Ajami Da Larabci / مُکُوْیِ أَجَمِ دَ لَارَبْثِی. Zaria: Northern Nigerian Pub. Letter(Naskh)Latin EquivalentIPA Unicode - A a // U+0627 B b U+0628 Ɓ ɓ U+067B T t U+062A C c U+062B J j U+062C H h U+062D H h(Kh kh) U+062E D d U+062F Z z U+0630 R r / U+0631 Z z U+0632 S s U+0633 Sh sh ()Ch ch() U+0634 S s U+0635 L l U+0636 Ɗ ɗ U+0637 Z z U+0638 Ts ts / U+069F ʼ / U+0639 G g U+063A Gw gwGy gy / U+06A0 F f / U+0641 P p U+06A5 Ƙ ƙ U+0642 Ƙw ƙwƘy ƙy / U+06A8 K k U+0643 Kw kwKy ky / U+06AD L l U+0644 M m U+0645 N n U+0646 H h U+0647 W wO oU u () U+0648 Y yI i () U+064A E e U+0649plusU+0670 ˈy ()Ƴ ƴ() / U+06D1
Vowels
Hausa has five basic vowels, each with a short and lengthened correspondence. There also two additional diphthongs. These are [a], [e], [i], [o], [u] and their lengthened counterparts. It does need to be noted that vowels [o] and [e] are almost always in the long form, and rarely in the short form.