Hausa/Lesson 3

Lesson 3 – Gender

Kanṑ , one of the most important Hausa-speaking cities, is a feminine noun.

Gender assignment

Like in many other languages, nouns in Hausa can be either masculine or feminine. While gender assignment is somewhat arbitrary, there are a few patterns:

• The grammatical gender of nouns always corresponds to natural sex. For example, mùtûm ("man") is masculine, while màcè ("woman") is feminine.
• Nouns ending in -a are often - but not always - feminine. Ruwā ("water") is an example of a masculine noun ending in -a.
• The names of countries, rivers and towns are tipically feminine.
• Some nouns may be either masculine or feminine. For example: kā̀kā ("grandfather" or "grandmother").
• Plural nouns are not marked for gender.

Forming the feminine from a masculine noun

The feminine form of most masculine nouns referring to people or animals is derived as follows:

• A final -ō or -ū is replaced with -uwā.

tsuntsū ("male bird") → tsuntsuwā ("female bird")

• A final -ē or -ī is replaced with -ìyā.

Bàhaushḕ ("Hausa man") → Bàhaushìyā ("Hausa woman")

• In some cases, -ī is replaced with -ā instead of -ìyā.

jā̀kī ("male donkey") → jā̀kā ("female donkey")