Historicizing the Semantic Relationship between Hausa and their Neighbours in Niger State

Abstract

Niger State, Nigeria, represents a complex linguistic mosaic, serving as a primary contact zone between the Afro-Asiatic and Niger-Congo language families. This study explores the semantic relationships and lexical exchanges between Hausa (a Chadic language) and the diverse indigenous languages of Niger State, including Nupe, Gbagyi, Kamuku, Kambari, and Dukawa. Historically, Hausa has functioned as a lingua franca across Northern Nigeria, leading to profound semantic convergence—a process where languages in close proximity begin to share meanings and conceptual structures despite different genetic origins. Using a comparative descriptive framework, this research analyzes a corpus of shared vocabulary and idiomatic expressions collected from multilingual speakers in the Bida, Minna, and Kontagora axis. However, preliminary findings indicate that Nupe and Hausa exhibit the highest degree of semantic mirroring due to long-standing political and religious ties. Gbagyi maintains a more distinct semantic core but shows heavy Hausa influence in the domains of modern technology and governance. The semantic relationship is asymmetrical; while Hausa influences the "prestige" vocabulary of local languages, the indigenous languages often influence the "substrate" semantics of the Hausa dialects spoken natively within Niger State (e.g. the Western Hausa dialect).