Using the Hausa “hooked letters” (ɓ Ɓ ɗ Ɗ ƙ Ƙ) with my web browser (Firefox) is no longer a problem for me since I have installed abcTajpu. This addon, which was originally developed for the European Day of Languages 2005, offers a number of ways to enter the non-ASCII letters from various European (and some other) languages. In addition to that, you can define key sequences yourself, e.g. I have defined the following sequences:

b’=ɓ
B’=Ɓ
d’=ɗ
D’=Ɗ
k’=ƙ
K’=Ƙ

Now, whenever I need one of the hooked letters, all I have to do is type the sequence, followed by a function key (I have chosen F2) and — presto-chango — the hooked letter will appear. Pretty cool!

• Get the Firefox web browser here
• Get the abcTajpu extension here

I have come across another interesting project which may be helpful for Hausa learners in future. The owners of the project’s website write:

The Our Stories™ project helps people share the stories of their lives, no matter where they live or how their stories unfold. We’re providing resources to create and share personal stories from all over the world, starting with children in developing countries who are using One Laptop per Child (OLPC) computers or those who are working with UNICEF radio producers to record and share interviews. Children are asked to record the stories of elders, family members, and friends. You can listen to our growing collection of global voices on this site, which includes stories from Brazil’s Museum of the Person and stories from Ghana, Uganda, Tanzania, and Pakistan (through UNICEF). Soon, stories from other countries will also be available for listening here. And in the future, we’ll make it possible for people of all ages around the world to add their content to the Our Stories site.

Unfortunately there are no Hausa stories yet. But at least there is a Hausa version of the website, and who knows, maybe there will be some Hausa stories, too, in future.

Supported by Germany’s Federal Foreign Office, Radio Deutsche Welle has just launched “Learning by ear“, a new multimedia distance-learning programme:

The Learning by Ear program examines the challenges that young Africans face and engages listeners in an informative and entertaining way. The programming is a lively mix of in-depth reports, radio dramas and feature stories that will provide listeners with an opportunity to get the necessary skills to succeed in Africa today and to discover a whole new world of knowledge. The target audience is girls and boys from 12 to 20 years of age.

“Learning by Ear” is available in three European and three African languages: English, Kiswahili, French, Hausa, Portuguese and Amharic.

Recordings of Bible stories and christian songs in Hausa and other less commonly taught languages can be found at the website of Global Recordings Network (GRN), a Christian organisation that wants to “communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ, through audio recordings, to all peoples in their own language.”Here is a link to one of the Hausa recordings:

Can you recognize which story is told?

You can find more audio files at the website of Global Recordings Network

A great place to look for Hausa audio files — and other Hausa-related materials — is Dandali, a Hausa website run by some Hausa speakers, including Dr. Abdalla Uba Adamu, a Professor of Science Education and Curriculum Studies of Bayero University Kano (BUK).

Just to give you a small taste of what can be found there, click on the following:

Go and visit Dandali for more.

Today is international women’s day. On a website run by Groupe Alternative Niger in French and Hausa, I found the following Hausa text (published in 2005) on this topic:

Bukin zagayowar ranar mata ta duniya a kasar Nijar

Kamar dai ranar takwas ga watan Maris na kowace skekara, ko a bana mata a sassa daban daban na duniya sun gudanar da shagulgula a ranar ta takwas ga watan na Maris domin murnar zagayowar wannan rana da majalisar dinkin duniya ta kebe masu. A shekarar bana dai kamar sauran shekaru, kungiyoyin mata a kasashen duniya daban daban sun yi amfani da wannan rana, domin yin bitar irin matsaloli ko kuma cigaban da suka sama a cikin rayuwar su. (continue reading)

Happy women’s day to all the hard-working women in Africa and elsewhere!

(Picture: © Kunstzirkus/ PIXELIO)

I have just come across Ina Mafita, a new weblog for speakers and writers of Hausa and other languages spoken in Niger Republic. Its motto is: “Rubutu a cikin harsunan gida”. So far, there are only few posts, but it looks like there is more to come. I will subscribe to their RSS-Feed and hope to read more in future.

I just found out that this my Hausa learning blog is currently used as an example in a course for language teachers at Columbia University in New York State. As an assignment, the course participants were asked to examine three different language websites or software applications:

• one from the perspective of a LANGUAGE LEARNER (choose a language that you don’t know)
• one from the perspective of a LANGUAGE TEACHER (choose the target language of your students)
• one from the perspective of a LANGUAGE EXPERT (look for some behaviorist characteristics)

They were asked to post their reflections on the course’s online discussion board. Unfortunately, I do not have access to their reflections on this blog, if there are any.

Students, please post your comments about this blog and give me some input how I could improve it!

Would you like to write Hausa materials? Are you having difficulties with the Hausa special characters? On the website “Teaching and Learning with Technology" at Penn State University you can find some useful suggestions for writing Hausa and other less commonly taught languages. In addition, they provide many useful links to other websites where you can download special character fonts, keyboard utilities and other useful things.

Photo: © bikemen / PIXELIO

I wish a blessed, healthy, peaceful, and successful year 2008 to all the readers of Hausa Online.

Uwe Seibert