By Dr. Muhammad Sulaiman Abdullahi
I have recently seen the proliferation of the use of some letters which are clearly not part of the mainstream Hausa writing system. These letters are now getting ground and are even trying to push away the real and bonafide owners of the place. These are no other than the new Ƙ and Ƴ and some of their other dependants.
You see, in the field of Hausa orthography, we are already battling with various challenges that defy simple logic and reasoning and lack uniformity amongst the Hausa scholars. However, I find this recent one very shocking and disturbing. This is simply because, when you have a controversy about how to write a Hausa word, that may not be a big problem as perhaps each variant of the spellings may have some scholars backing it, and they may have a cogent and academic reason for that. But for these new entrants – Ƙ, Ƴ, ƴ – I don’t know who backs them. I don’t know who sent them. I don’t know who among the scholars promotes and propagates them. I feel like they are sent by some hidden forces of technology.
I can guess from where these recalcitrant intruders are coming. They are from our (newly) electronic gadgets and some Hausa keyboard applications, which are just sent into the market without any regard to the experts and knowledgeable professors in the field. Someone who has a company of smartphones will just employ those who think they know Hausa or, those who speak Hausa, or those who don’t even care about Hausa to do the Hausa technical dealings for him. This is where the problem probably came from. If you check our smartphones and some computer symbols, you find these deviant Ƙ and ƴ hanging around without any reason and without knowing who brought them. They are just like gatecrashers who are trying to feast more than the invited VIPs.
The affected legitimate Hausa consonants, which are the victims of this I-don’t-care mischief, are primarily the К and ‘Y. These are the correct ways in which these two are written: /К/- /ƙ/ and /’Y/- /’y/ respectively, and not as /Ƙ/ and /ƴ/. The main point of contention is the hook and where the hook should be. For the sake of knowledge, these are the only primary hooked and twin letters we have in Hausa, both small and capital, respectively /ɓ/,/ɗ/, /ƙ/,/’y/ and their capital Ɓ, Ɗ, К, ‘Y. The hooks you see on them have their specific and fixed position. It is not hooked anyhow and anywhere.
Phonologically speaking, /К/ is the capital letter of that Hausa voiceless velar ejective sound, while the /ƙ/ is the small letter. Equally, /’Y/ is that Hausa palatalized-glottal stop sound, and /’y/ is the small letter, but we don’t know of the newly emerged – /Ƙ/, /Ƴ/ and /ƴ/, from where are they and how are they phonologically represented? All we know is, that they are the illegitimate trying to push away the legitimate sons of the Hausa alphabet. And they are gradually gaining ground and getting momentum even among those who ought to have cared a lot and dismissed them for long.
Hausa orthography is one of the essential forms of knowledge, yet many people don’t bother to learn. Many writers don’t know how to write Hausa correctly or even know they don’t (know that). So sad! But very few are trying to learn. Good!
Generally, in the Hausa language, the hooked letters suffer a lot of trouble and total neglect by those who don’t care. But we are there for them as we surely care. I recently bought a smartphone and decided to return it when I realized it doesn’t contain Hausa in its language entry setting. I took it to someone who did something to it and the Hausa is back. Later, I formatted the phone and lost the Hausa again. I feel like throwing the phone away because I always feel embarrassed when I have to type something or respond to someone while the hooks are not properly represented. This is something serious to us that many others see as nothing.
I don’t have any problem with them if they are accepted, authorized, and certified by respected members and our professors in the field, but I have problems when they keep popping up and occupying the legal orthographical space of others.
Whatever someone says about them, one thing is certain: They are not in the books or from the books. Who can clarify this for us? Please help and save me or save them. If we accept them, fine; they are welcome. If not, please jail them. They are real intruders and disrupters of peaceful and correct writing.
Muhammad Sulaiman Abdullahi is a Hausa Language lecturer with the Department of Nigerian Languages at Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. He can be reached via muhammadunfagge@gmail.com.
