The most widely spoken Chadic language is Hausa, a lingua franca of much of inland West Africa.

In Africa there is no term for music in Tiv, Yoruba, Igbo, Efik, Birom, Hausa, Idoma, Eggon or Jarawa.

Hausa ( ه َ و ُ س َ, Yaren Hausa – language of the Hausa ) is the Chadic language with the largest number of speakers, spoken as a first language by about 25 million people, and as a second language by about 18 million more, an approximate total of 43 million people.

Hausa is one of Africa's largest spoken languages after Arabic, French, English, Portuguese and Swahili.

Hausa belongs to the West Chadic languages subgroup of the Chadic languages group, which in turn is part of the Afro-Asiatic language family.

Native speakers of Hausa, the Hausa people are mostly to be found in Niger and in the north of Nigeria, but the language is used as a trade language across a much larger swathe of West Africa ( Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Côte d ' Ivoire etc.

Eastern Hausa dialects include Kananci which is spoken in Kano, Bausanchi in Bauchi, Dauranchi in Daura, Gudduranci in Katagum Misau and part of Borno and Hadejanci in Hadejiya.

This link between non-tonality and geographic location is not limited to Hausa alone, but is exhibited in other northern dialects of neighbouring languages ; such as the difference within Songhay language ( between the northernmost Koyra Chiini and Koyraboro Senni dialects of Timbuktu and Gao, and the Zarma dialect, spoken from western Niger to northern Ghana ), and within the Soninke language ( between the northernmost dialects of Imraguen and Nemadi spoken in east-central Mauritania, and the southern dialects of Senegal, Mali and the sahel ).

The Ghanaian Hausa dialect ( Gaananci ), spoken in Ghana and western Ivory Coast, is a distinct western native Hausa dialect-bloc with adequate linguistic and media resources available.

Separate smaller Hausa dialects are spoken by an unknown number of Hausa further west in parts of Burkina Faso, and in the Haoussa Foulane, Badji Haoussa, Guezou Haoussa, and Ansongo districts of northeastern Mali ( where it is designated as a minority language by the Malian government ), but there are very little linguistic resources and research done on these particular dialects at this time.

Gaananci forms a separate group from other Western Hausa dialects, as it now falls outside the contiguous Hausa-dominant area, and is usually identified by the use of c for ky, and j for gy.

This is attributed to the fact that Ghana's Hausa population descend from Hausa-Fulani traders settled in the zongo districts of major trade-towns up and down the previous Asante, Gonja and Dagomba kingdoms stretching from the sahel to coastal regions, in particular the cities of Tamale, Salaga, Bawku, Bolgatanga, Achimota, Nima and Kumasi.

Gaananci exhibits noted inflected influences from Zarma, Gur, Dyula and Soninke, as Ghana is the westernmost area in which the Hausa language is a major lingua-franca ; as well as it being the westernmost area both the Hausa and Djerma ethnic groups inhabit in large numbers.

Immediately west from Ghana ( in Ivory Coast and Burkina Faso ), Hausa is abruptly replaced by Dioula – Bambara as the main lingua-franca of what become predominantly Manding areas, and native Hausa populations plummet to a very small urban minority.

Hausa is also widely spoken by non-native Gur and Mande Ghanaian Muslims, but differs from Gaananci, and rather has features consistent with non-native Hausa dialects.

Links to the Hausa states were also established, providing horses and salt from Bilma for Akan gold.

The Hausa people of Sudan have a term equivalent to lesbian, kifi, that may also be applied to males to mean " neither party insists on a particular sexual role ".

The largest ethnic groups in Niger are the Hausa, who also constitute the major ethnic group in northern Nigeria, and the Zarma Songhay ( also spelled Djerma-Songhai ), who also are found in parts of Mali.

Albanian, Arabic, Assyrian ( VSO and VOS are also followed, depending on the person ), Berber, Bulgarian, Chinese, English, Estonian, Finnish, French, Italian, Ganda, Greek, Hausa, Hebrew, Javanese, Kashmiri, Khmer, Latvian, Macedonian, Polish, Portuguese, Quiche, Rotuman, Russian, Serbian, Spanish, Swahili, Thai, Vietnamese, Yoruba and Zulu are examples of languages that can follow an SVO pattern.

The northeastern sector of the country was also influenced by an influx of Hausa Muslim traders from the 16th Century onwards

The Hausa, also of West Africa, classify drummers into those who beat drums and those who beat ( pluck ) strings ( the other 4 player classes are blowers, singers, acclaimers, and talkers ), as reported by Ames and King in Glossary of Hausa Music and its Social Contexts, 1971, Northwestern U. Press.

Fulani in English is borrowed from the Hausa term, and it is also used by the Manding peoples, being the diminutive form of the word " Fula " in their language, essentially meaning " little Fula ".

It was also widely supported by the Hausa peasantry who felt over-taxed and oppressed by their rulers.

The call for jihad did not only reach other Hausa states such as Kano, Katsina and Zaria but also Borno, Gombe, Adamawa, Nupe and Ilorin.

Usman also criticized the heavy taxation and obstruction created in the business and trade of the Hausa states by the legal system.

A few languages utilise ejective fricatives: in some dialects of Hausa, the standard affricate is a fricative ; Ubykh ( Northwest Caucasian, now extinct ) had an ejective lateral fricative ; and the related Kabardian also has ejective labiodental and alveolopalatal fricatives,.

The Mandinka, Malinke ( also known as Mandinko or Mandingo ) are one of the largest ethnic groups in West Africa with an estimated population of eleven million ( the other 3 major ethnic groups in the region being the non-related Fula, Hausa and Songhai ).

A very unusual minimal contrast, and possibly unique to the Abdzakh dialect of Adyghe, is a three-way contrast between plain, labialized and palatalized glottal stops ( although a palatalized glottal stop is also found in Hausa ).

Tie-dye techniques have also been used for centuries in the Hausa region of West Africa, with renowned indigo dye pits located in and around Kano, Nigeria.

The xalam is commonly played in Mali, Gambia, Senegal, Niger, Northern Nigeria, Northern Ghana, Burkina Faso, Mauritania, and Western Sahara ; it is also known in other languages as bappe, diassare, hoddu ( Pulaar ), koliko ( Gurunsi ), kologo ( Frafra ), komsa, kontigi ( Hausa ), koni, konting ( Mandinka ), molo ( Songhay / Zarma ), ndere, ngoni ( Bambara ), and tidinit ( Hassaniyya Arabic ).

There are also a few thousand Hausa speakers in the south.

Its population is mainly from the Ga tribal group, but houses also members of Hausa, Ewe, and Akan.

Other widely spoken Afroasiatic languages are Amharic, the national language of Ethiopia, with 18 million native speakers ; Somali, spoken by around 19 million people in Greater Somalia ; and Hausa, the dominant language of northern Nigeria and southern Niger, spoken by 18. 5 million people and used as a lingua franca in large parts of the Sahel, with some 25 million speakers in total.

Within Africa, Oromo is the language with the fourth most speakers, after Arabic ( if one counts the mutually unintelligible spoken forms of Arabic as a single language and assumes the same for the varieties of Oromo ), Swahili, and Hausa.

It is the leading indigenous language of the southwestern lobe of the West African nation of Niger, where the Niger River flows and the capital city, Niamey, is located, and it is the second leading for that entire nation, after Hausa, which is spoken in south central Niger.

By the 11th century some Hausa states-such as Kano, Jigawa, Katsina, and Gobir-had developed into walled towns engaging in trade, servicing caravans, and the manufacture of various goods.

Morocco was unable to control the empire and the various provinces, including the Hausa states, became independent.

Non-native speakers of Hausa number around 25 million, and in some areas live close to native Hausa. Hausa has replaced many other languages especially in the North Central and North Eastern part of Nigeria, and continue gaining popularity in other parts of Africa as a result of Hausa movies and musics which spread out throughout the region.

In the northern parts of West Africa, human sacrifice had become rare early as Islam became more established in these areas such as the Hausa States.

Thus, all Hausa states, parts of Nupe, Ilorin and Fulani outposts in Bauchi and Adamawa were all ruled by a single politico-religious system.

As in most parts of Northern Nigeria, the Hausa Language is widely spoken in Kano.

In the eastern parts of the Middle East, it was generally applied to the Persians, while in al-Andalus it referred to speakers of Romance languages-becoming " Aljamiado " in Spanish in reference to Arabic-script writing of those languages-and in West Africa, Ajami similarly refers to Ajami script, or the writing of local languages such as Hausa and Fulani in the Arabic alphabet.

The socio-cultural situation in Jigawa State could be described as homogeneous: it is mostly populated by Hausa / Fulani, who can be found in all parts of the State.