You can have two translations side by side, e.g. Hausa and English:

Two translations side by side (Screenshot by Uwe Seibert)

There is also an audio version of the New Testament, so you could listen to the text while reading it:

Written text and audio version side by side (Screenshot by Uwe Seibert)

There is also a mobile version, so you could have the bible in Hausa on your smartphone. Check it out for yourself and tell me how you like it!

Now I have come across HausaFilms.tv, “a collaborative wiki-based website and directory set out to disseminate organized and accurate information about Hausa films. Here you’ll find a sortable/filterable list of Hausa films, list of Hausa actors and actresses, directors, producers, musicians, etc., and also news and links relating to the industry. “

In  the meantime, I have come across another website where one can find a complete version of the Hausa Bible in Unicode, in common Catholic arrangement, together with some other Christian materials in Hausa and a paper on Hausa poetic meters. These materials have been put online by Dr. Joseph Kenny, O.P., a Dominican Friar, who has spent a large part of his life in Africa.

Check out Dr. Kenny’s Hausa Bible website.

• Kasuwar Dabbobi, Bauchi
• Rumfar Kasuwa a Damagaram
• Masu Hura

The following video explains the Hausa proverb ‘In ka iya ruwa, ka iya laka?‘

I have added this and all the other Hausa proverb videos to my Hausa video collection.

A large number of Hausa proverbs can be found in my Hausa proverbs blog.

More on Hausa proverbs can be found on Twitter and Facebook:

• Karin magana @ Facebook
• KARIN MAGANA @ Facebook
• Karin Magana @ Twitter

Check out SIM Nigeria Hausa Orientation

Five years ago, on May 20th 2006, I started this blog with a review of Philip J. Jaggar’s book Hausa. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. 2001. Since then, I have published posts on many different topics related to the Hausa language and other less commonly taught languages. You can find links to all the posts in the archive.

The original idea of this blog was to help people who want to learn Hausa. It was for them (and myself) that I started collecting links to Hausa texts, video, audio, blogs and other Hausa-related websites. In the meantime, I find that many — if not most — of the people who visit this blog seem to be Hausa speakers. At least, many of the comments to the posts indicate that.

I am happy about so many people visiting this blog — sometimes more than 400 per day. Also, some of my former colleagues (I was working at a German University before) have told me that they recommend my blog to their students.  That is why I try to keep it up and running, even if I don’t find too much time to come up with new language learning ideas.

Let me know if you find this blog useful for your Hausa learning. And if you have ideas you would like to share (something like this or this), you could even write a guest post yourself.  Hope to hear from you!

Prof. Dr. Herrmann Jungraithmayr talking to H. E. Mai Martaba Sale Muhammadu, First Class Chief of Kaltungo (Picture taken 2009)

My former Hausa teacher, Prof. em. Dr.  Herrmann Jungraithmayr, will celebrate his 80th birthday tomorrow. He was born in Eferding, Austria, on May 7th 1931. In Nigeria, where he has spent much time, people usually refer to him as “Doktor Herrmann” (it usually sounds more like “Dokta Haman”).

I owe Herrmann Jungraithmayr a lot: He first introduced me to Hausa, when I was a student of African Studies at the Unversity of Marburg from 1981 to 1986. Later, at the University of Frankfurt, he supervised my Ph.D. thesis on the Daffo variety of the Ron language, spoken in Bokkos L.G.A. of Plateau State, Nigeria. He helped me get an employment at the Department of of African Linguistics in Frankfurt, where I worked until 1997. He was always interested in my personal and scientific development. I wouldn’t be where I am now without his help. So I want to say with a sincere heart: “Thank you, and happy birthday, Doktor Herrmann!”

Besides being a well known Hausa scholar, Herrmann Jungraithmayr has done much research and published a lot on Chadic languages, other African languages, language typology, historical-comparative studies and reconstruction, and also on features of African oral literature. His list of publications is too long to mention it all. Here is at least some of what he has published on Hausa:

• Hausa, Ron, Angas – a comparative analysis of their ‘aspect’ systems.
  Afrika und Übersee 52 (1968/69). 15-22.
• On root augmentation in Hausa.
  Journal of African Languages 9/2. 83-88.
• (together with W. Möhlig) Einführung  in die Hausa-Sprache (Kursus für  Kolleg und Sprachlabor). Berlin: Reimer.
• Nigeria. Ein Lehrgedicht von A. Shehu Shagari. Aus dem Hausa ins Deutsche übertragen und kommentiert. Stuttgart: Institut für Auslandsbeziehungen.
• The Locative case in Hausa and in other Chadic languages (Paper read at the Intern. Conference on Hausa Language and Literature, Kano 7-10 July, 1978).
  In: I. Y. Yahaya; A. Rufa’i ; A. A. Abu-Manga (Ed.). Studies in Hausa Language, Literature and Culture. Kano: BEyaero University. 327-334.
• (together with M. Munkaila) On the sun-set in Hausa.
  Africana Marburgensia XVIII. 63-71.
• Hausa and Chadic – a reappraisal. In: G. Furniss &  P. J. Jaggar (Ed.). Studies in Hausa Language and Linguistics (Festschrift F. W. Parsons). London: Keagan Paul. 62-77.
• Is Hausa an early or late stage Chadic language? In: Z. Frajzyngier (Ed.). Current Progress in Chadic Linguistics. Amsterdam: Benjamins. 251-266.
• (together with M. Bross) Hausa cultural vocabulary – Origin and integration of loanwords. In:H. Jungraithmayr & G. Nagel (Eds.).West African Savannah. Culture, language and environment in an historical perspective. Preliminary Report 1989-1991. Frankfurt am Main: Johann-Wolfgang Goethe Universität. 19-30.
• Final Consonants in Old Hausa.
  Harsunan Nijeriya XVI. 18-28.
• (together with W. J. G. Möhlig & A. Storch) Lehrbuch der Hausa-Sprache. Köln: Köppe.

For Hausa speakers and students it may be interesting to know that he even translated some of Goethe’s poems into Hausa.

In 2009, Muryar Jamus had a report on him: Farfesa Hermann Jungraithmayr ɗan ƙasar Jamus ya wallafa littattafan a harshen Tangale.

There would be a lot more to write and say about “Dr. Herrmann”.  I will close with a Hausa proverb (Dr. Herrmann first introduced me to this type of literature): Babban arziki ga mai-hankali.

If you happen to know Herrmann Jungraithmayr and want to add something, or just send a birthday greeting to him, feel free to do so!