Hausa vowels sounds

In the standard Romanized Hausa writing system, there are just five alphabetic symbols representing vowels: a, e, i, o, u. However, in pronunciation, each of these symbols can represent either the short or the long variant of that vowel. That is, it makes a difference in Hausa whether one pronounces a vowel as relatively long or short. Compare the following pairs of words which differ in meaning depending on whether, in pronunciation, the final vowel has longer or shorter duration. On this web page, we mark long vowels with a macron over the vowel and leave short vowels unmarked. (See Hausa writing–vowels and vowel length for the various ways that Hausa vowel length is marked in both the Romanized and the Arabic systems of writing Hausa. The grave accent (`) in the examples here indicates low tone, which is independent of vowel length.)

For more discussion of the short/long distinction for specific vowels, see short and long a, short and long i and u, and short and long e and o below.

Short and long a

Hausa has many pairs of words which differ in pronunciation only by the fact that one of the words contains a short a and the other contains a long a. Click on the words below to hear the distinction.

You will probably notice there is a difference in pronunciation between the short and long a‘s in addition to the difference in duration. The short a sounds more like “uh” whereas the long a has a “broader” sound like “ah”.

Short and long i and u

Unlike the difference between short and long a, which distinguishes numerous pairs of words in Hausa, there are few pairs of words which are distinguished only by short i vs. long i or by short u vs. long u. Nonetheless, the differences between the short and long variants of these vowels are clear, as pairs of words such as the following show:

You will probably notice there is a difference in pronunciation between the short and long variants of the vowels in addition to duration. The short i sounds something like the “i” in English ‘it’ whereas the long i sounds like the “ea” in ‘eat’; the short u sounds something like the “oo” in English ‘good’ whereas the long u sounds something like the “oo” in English ‘goose’.

Although the pronunciations of LONG i and u are pretty much the same for all Hausa speakers, the pronunciations of SHORT i and u in many words vary considerably from speaker to speaker and dialect to dialect. Indeed, in many words, where one dialect has a “i-like” sound, another dialect may have a “u-like” sound. An example would be the word jima ‘to spend time’, which appears in the common leave-taking formula, Sai an jima! “See you later!” (literally, “Until one spends time!”). In different parts of Hausa country, one may hear this pronounced

(the preceding j draws the tongue toward the palate for an i-like vowel)
OR
(the closure of the lips for m causes the lips to be drawn to a u-like sound)

Short and long e and o

In the middle of words e and o are found only as LONG, i.e. these vowels do not have a short/long distinction except at the end of a word. Click on the following words to hear long e and o in the middle of a word.

At the end of a word, there is a distinction between short and long e and o. Click on the following pairs of words. The distinction between long and short vowels at the end of a word is subtle, having to do with the way the vowel is cut off.

When a long e or o at the end of a word get shortened, for example when a consonant is added resulting in a “closed” syllable, these vowels tend to be pronounced as short a. Listen to the difference in the pronunciation of the vowels in red on the left column and the right column.

In normal speech, the three phrases at the right would be distinct only in tone because the vowel differences are leveled to short a!

Some words are WRITTEN as if they have a short e (written short o is rare), for example fensir ‘pencil’ or Bayero (as in Bayero University, Kano). In pronunciation these words have short a, but the spelling is influenced by English spelling (as for ‘pencil’) or the pronunciation of the a is influenced by a preceding or following y, which gives the a an “e-like” sound.

Hearing the vowel length distinction at the end of a word

The difference in pronuciation between long and short vowels at the ends of words is rather subtle.

• Short vowels at the end of a word are abruptly cut off by a glottal stop.
• Long vowels at the end of a word are NOT abruptly cut off.

Click on the words in the table below (repeated from the general discussion on Hausa vowels and vowel length) to hear the distinction at the ends of words:

If you put words ending in a short vowel into a phrase with something following, the distinction in duration between the long and short vowels is easier to hear, e.g.

Vowel shortening in “closed” syllables

In Hausa, syllables can end in a vowel OR in a single consonant (no syllable can end in more than one consonant). We can refer to open or closed syllables:

Long vowels can appear only in open syllables. If a consonant is added to the end of a syllable, the vowel of that syllable becomes short. One of the most common cases of adding a consonant arises in “possessive” or “genitive” phrases, which add -n to masculine or plural nouns and -r to feminine nouns to mean “of”. Here are some examples:

Some more examples of vowel shortening in closed syllables are in the section discussing e and o.

Some grammatical distinctions shown by vowel length differences

Correct pronunciation of words in Hausa requires that one give the proper long or short duration to vowels, and there are pairs of words where short vs. long vowels are the only distinguishing feature. Hausa also distinguishes some aspects of grammar by differences in vowel length. Here are a few examples of such distinctions:

	LONG VOWEL	SHORT VOWEL
Verb “tense”	‘I have to buy (it).’	‘Then I bought (it).’
Action Noun vs. State	‘buying’	‘bought’
Action Noun vs. Verb	‘entering’	‘(he) entered’
Common Noun vs. Proper Name	‘guest, stranger’	a man’s name

Vowel length and the rhythm of spoken Hausa

The distinctive rhythm of spoken Hausa depends almost completely on the interplay of short and long vowels (or, more correctly, short and long syllables). In speech, one may prolong the long vowels but not the short vowels, making it possible to exaggerate the difference for rhetorical effect. This is a common technique used by orators, professional praise criers, and story tellers, and all Hausas do this in everyday speech to emphasize a point.

We can illustrate the fundamental nature of the short/long vowel distinction by looking at Hausa poetry. Importantly, Hausa poets create their poetry with the intention that it be sung or chanted orally–reading poetry silently to oneself is foreign to the Hausa tradition. The meters of Hausa poetry (corresponding to meters such as “iambic pentameter”, “dactylic tetrameter”, etc. in English poetry) make use of the interplay of short and long syllables, and this distinction is clear in the performance of poetry, where short syllables usually have half the duration of long syllables. A poetic meter is distinguished by the regular arrangement of short and long syllables in a line. We can define “short” and “long” syllables as follows:

Below are examples from poems in two meters, composed and performed by a famous modern poet, Alhaji Ak’ilu Aliyu. Note the following conventions Click on the box with the green background to hear the performed rhythm. (The recording quality is rather poor, but the rhythm is clear!)

Alhaji Ak’ilu Aliyu

	Answer to “A Letter on Poetry”	Hausa The Vexing One
M E T E R
T E X T
S C A N N E DT E X T
T R A N S	Generous One give me your gift, Give me your help, Cause me to follow your discipline, Forgive me my sins, Cause me to always be repentent.	Get used to seeking truth no matter how far, In the open and hidden if you want to improve.Here’s an admonition directed at my kinsmen, Children of the north and all in Hausaland.