The twitter account linked to this weblog and also to my weblog on Hausa Proverbs (Karin Magana) has now nearly 20.000 followers. Akwai murna! Hope you will enjoy what you find there!
Karin Magana: 15 Hausa Proverbs and their Meanings
The following guest article was written by Mr. Richard Juwah, who works at Hausa.ng, a Nigerian news blog in Hausa language. In it, he explains the meaning of 15 popular Hausa proverbs.
By the way: I have another blog – Karin Magana – which is all about Hausa proverbs. Have a look and find more than 1500 proverbs there – I keep adding to it.
Continue reading Karin Magana: 15 Hausa Proverbs and their Meanings
Greetings to the followers of this blog
I have started this blog more than 11 years ago. It was meant to share ideas on learning Hausa and other less commonly taught languages. Lately,I have been a bit lazy and haven’t posted any new ideas for a long time.
At the same time, the amount of online material that could be used for language learning keeps growing and also there are now more and better eLearning websites and smartphone apps than when I started Hausa Online. I don’t have enough time to keep track of all the new developments.
As the year 2017 comes to an end, I thought I should at least sent a short greeting to the followers of this blog, which has been visited more than two million times. I wish you all a happy and peaceful new year 2018, wherever you are and whatever you do.
And if you wonder who runs this blog (and also my other Hausa blog “Karin Magana“): I am German guy who studied Hausa in a German University and who spent some time in Nigeria. (More about me)
Hausa channels on YouTube
More and more videoclips in Hausa can be found on YouTube. Here are a few video channels:
News
Movies
Which other channels do you know?
Global glossary
I just came across Global glossary, a large internet resource which claims to be “Probably the biggest dictionary in the world.” You can search for translations from dozens of languages — including Hausa and a few other African languages — into English and other languages and also in the opposite direction. Try it out for yourself, e.g. the following pairs:
Press Release on Boko Haram
The Permanent Committee of Mega-Chad, an international network concerned with multidisciplinary research on the history and evolution of societies in the Lake Chad basin, has recently issued a public statement denouncing the violent activities of Boko Haram. The statement, with accompanying comments, can be found on the Méga-Tchad Blog.
The communiqué has also been translated into Hausa:
Bayani ga ’Yan Jaridu
Haɗakar rassan bincike ta ‘Mega-Tchad’ [www.megatchad.net] wata babbar mahaɗa ce ta manyan malamai daga ƙasashen duniya dabam-dabam da masana da masu bincike akan ɓangarorin rayuwar al’ummar da ke zaune a zagayen tafkin Chadi. An kafa wannan haɗaka shekaru 30 da suka gabata, kuma a halin yanzu tana da membobi kimanin 500.
Shugabannin wannan haɗakar suna Allah wadai da irin ayyukan ta’addancin da ’yan ƙungiyar Boko Haram ke gudanarwa tun ba a yankin Borno ba, wanda ya yi sanadiyyar tarwatsa matsugunai da hallakar mutane da dama tare da hasarar dukiyoyi, da kuma danne hakkin jama’ar yankin. Manufar waɗannan miyagun mutane, ’yan Boko Haram, shi ne amfani da addini domin cimma manufofin siyasa ta hanyar rusa tsarin doka da oda domin samun damar ci gaba da gudanar da munanan ayyukansu na ta’addanci a yankin arewa maso gabashin Najeriya.
Ayyukan ta’addanci da wannan ƙungiya ta Boko Haram ke aiwatarwa na bazuwa zuwa maƙwabtan ƙasashe kamar su Kamaru, Chadi da kuma Jamhuriyar Nijar. Ganin kuma damina na ƙaratowa, ana fargabar cewa wannan hargitsi na Boko Haram zai hana gudanar da ayyukan noma kamar yadda aka saba. Hakan kan iya jefa ɗaukacin yankin cikin matsananciyar yunwa. A yanzu haka dubban yara a yankin na zaune a gida babu zuwa makaranta, jami’o’in da ke cikin yankin ba sa iya gudanar da ayyukansu a cikin kwanciyar hankali, kazalika ayyukan masu nazarce-nazarce daga sassan duniya akan ci-gaban yankin sun tsaya. Haka kuma mata ba su da ikon fita waje saboda tsoron faɗa wa hannun ’yan ta’adda. Ɗaruruwan iyaye na cike da baƙin ciki da alhinin halin da ’ya’yansu mata ke ciki waɗanda ’yan ta’adda suka sace.
Akan haka, kwamitin ƙoli na Mega-Tchad na kira da babbar murya ga hukumomin addinin musulunci da su la’anci wannan mummunar aƙida wacce ta saɓa wa koyarwar addinin, la’anta mai tsanani. Haka kuma, kwamitin na roƙon mahukunta da su tashi tsaye wurin yaƙi da wannan ɗabi’ar ta’addanci, wadda ke faruwa a tsakanin iyakokin ƙasashen da ke cikin yankin tafkin Chadi, domin dawo da zaman lafiya da kwanciyar hankali a ɗaukacinyankin.
[The Hausa translation was prepared under the direction of Professor Paul Newman and Dr. Roxana Newman]
Discussing theological and political topics on this blog
Recently, I noticed a few comments on earlier blog posts related to Hausa Bibles. In these comments, people wanted to express their opinion on whether “Allah” is the same as the God in the Bible. In order to stop such discussions – which are really not appropriate on this blog, which is about learning Hausa and other LCTLs using the Internet – I had to block the comment function on these posts. I am sorry I had to take that measure.
I would like to ask the readers of this blog to refrain from posting theological and political statements on this blog, as well as business offers and whatever else may not really be related to language learning. Thank you!
One million visits
Today I noticed that this blog has already been visited more than one million times. Akwai farin ciki!
Google Translate now available in Hausa
Five new African languages – including Hausa – have just been launched on Google Translate! This has just been announced on Google Africa Blog. Of course one must not expect too much from an automatic translation tool. Especially translating sentences from or to Hausa is difficult, since there are many small words with multiple meanings.
I did a small test today. Translating simple greetings seemed to work: I tried “Ina kwana?” and the correct translation was given “Good morning”. But then the next sentence “Ina gajiya?” was translated as “Tired I?” and “Ina labari?” as “Article I?”
Try it out for yourself here: http://translate.google.com/#ha/en/ and share your experiences with translating Hausa using Google Translate.
Related articles
- Google Translate – now in 80 languages (googletranslate.blogspot.com)
Google Translate plans to add five more African Languages
(via Guardian Africa Network) Google is planning to add Somali, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba and Zulu to its list of language options on Google Translate. A post published on the Google Africa page on Google+ calls on users to evaluate the translation quality of the five languages. (Read more)
Hausa Online 