Abstract
The purpose of this paper is to prove that intercultural relationship and sufficient contact between Hausa and other languages result in linguistic diffusion or borrowing. The study adopts both the historical and descriptive survey research design, predicated on the need for a brief history of Hausa and the donor languages, and descriptive design to facilitate the use of secondary data generated from textbooks, theses, dissertations, seminar and conference papers. The study traces the location of Hausa people in order to vividly comprehend the nature of contact with the donor languages which effectively bears on the objective nature of the borrowed words. It is in this light that three types of language relationship emerged: genetic, typological and cultural. The intercultural relationship can be unidirectional (English and Hausa) or bi-directional (Hausa and Yoruba). The work provides concrete examples from Tuareg, Fulfulde, Kanuri, Yoruba, Nupe, Arabic and English languages to demonstrate the long contact with the Hausa language. The study finally observes suppressive interference on the structures of Hausa especially from Arabic and English, which have attained second language status in Hausa society, which, again, does not make the language lose its originality.
Highlights
BECAUSE OF THE CONFUSION SLAMMED ON borrowing, language engineering is today most favoured by linguists
The purpose of this paper is to prove that intercultural relationship and sufficient contact between Hausa and other languages result in linguistic diffusion or borrowing
What you borrow you return some day but borrowing between languages goes beyond temporary possession, as the loan words remain permanent in the recipient languages
Summary
BECAUSE OF THE CONFUSION SLAMMED ON borrowing, language engineering is today most favoured by linguists. Since language engineering is concerned with the adaptation of new lexical items from one language to another to express ideas, objects, emotions, concepts, places, and so on, to meet new challenges in ideological, scientific, and technological innovations, the most appropriate and socially convenient working definition to this paper is that provided by Sapir: Language is a purely human and non-instinctive method of communicating ideas, emotions and desires by means of a system of voluntarily produced symbols (1921:8). In English and in other languages, language is an act of using meaningful noise and it plays a vital role in human existence. It is as important as other basic requirements of life. Water, and food are essentials for natural survival so we need language for psychic survival and for social relationship. Since language is indispensable to human existence, it suffices to say that the process of borrowing between languages is natural
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