Hausa Study

Feb. 5, 2008

Tuesday, 1:05pm

Maradi, Niger

Day 2 of language study. We just had a 3-hr morning session and are meeting back up around 3pm to review and practice speaking more.

A long-time missionary named Mark Larson has come out to Maradi and will be teaching the Kraus family (a new short-term family who will be working in Galmi at the hospital) and I for the next two weeks. It’s great that we get to have him, and then he will try to hook us up with a local teacher to continue our study.

Hausa is different from English in many ways. The big ones I can think of are these: sounds, tones, and pronouns.

There are a few different sounds than we have in English. These are called “hooked” or “implosive” consonants, which kind of involve sucking in air as you say the sound. So they have “k” and hooked “k”, and the same with “d” and “b”. You could say the same word with a hook, and it could mean something totally different. They also have a “ts” sound, which I guess is also implosive, but is some combination of saying “t” and “s” at the same time.

Also, there are three basic tones: high, low, and falling. Same as above, if you say the wrong tone, but the same sounds, the word could mean something totally different. For example “ciki” (all high tone) means “inside”, while “ciki” (with a low tone on the last ‘i’) means “stomach”. And the thing is, there’s not really a rule on tone, so you just kind of need to memorize how words are said.

Pronouns carry most of the meaning in a sentence. If I said (in Hausa), “Becky went to school,” it would make no sense to a Hausa speaker. I would have to say, “Becky, she went to school.” Then that would make perfect sense. The verb “to go” stays the same, but the tense is attached to the pronoun. So “she,” depending on what was added to that root word, would tell me if it was past, present, future, or whatever. Pretty cool.

I would appreciate your continued prayer as I try to learn this new language. There is a lot to learn, so pray that I would use my time wisely and really absorb as much as I can. My supervisor at Danja Hospital said I could spend the first month or so focusing on language, so I am thankful for his flexibility. Thank you!

Ayouba (my language helper) and I hard at work!