Emerging Patterns of Address Terms Among Hausa Youth in Kano

Citation: Bashir, S., Adamu, F.U. & Adamu, H.B. (2025). Emerging Patterns of Address Terms Among Hausa Youth in Kano. Tasambo Journal of Language, Literature, and Culture, 4(2), 135-142. www.doi.org/10.36349/tjllc.2025.v04i02.015.

EMERGING PATTERNS OF ADDRESS TERMS AMONG HAUSA YOUTH IN KANO

By

Dr. Sani Bashir
Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies (KASCEPS)
07031648284
sanibashir00010@gmail.com

And 

Dr. Fatima Uba Adamu
Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies (KASCEPS)
08064882159
zahraubaadamu@gmail.com

And 

Hadiza Balarabe Adamu
Kano State College of Education and Preliminary Studies (KASCEPS)
08023187478
hbadamu06@gmail.com

Abstract

Address term is a word or words used to address or call somebody in speech or writing (Richards and Schmidt, 2002). It is a word, phrase, name, or title, or some combination of these, used in addressing someone. Address terms are vital interactional resources in strengthening solidarity, expressing affiliation and various modes of belonging, as well as sustaining in-group cohesion and intimacy. They are used as interactional tools to manage interpersonal relationships. The study sets out to describe the modern forms of address terms used by Hausa youth setting. It is an attempt to unveil some modern Hausa address terms used among Hausa youth. The study also aims to articulate the creative potentials of address terms and show how Hausa youth use the modern system. Data for the study was sourced from participant observations, interviews, and conversations with the Hausa youth. The study shows that Hausa youth use modern address terms within the group setting; this is through manipulation of the old system of address terms, abbreviations, and coinages to create a modern address term.

Keywords: Address Terms, Naming in Hausa, Hausa Youth, Clipping, Blending, Abbreviation

Introduction

People use language to communicate in their daily life. The use of language in interaction is more than just exchanging information about thoughts and factual things from one person to another: it is an important circumstance in which the relationships among people are defined and negotiated. While engaging in conversations, people consciously or unconsciously show their identities, their belonging to a specific culture or social group, and their desire to come close to or distance themselves from others.

In daily conversation, people never speak in the same way all the time, including the use of address terms. They always vary their forms of address in different situations, even though the person being addressed remains the same.

Address terms are linguistic expressions used to indicate relationships among people, which include gender, age, class differences, social class, degree of intimacy, and respect, in a particular speech community (Chamo, 2022). Address terms are used to identify persons, and such address terms are tools used in addressing or referring to persons in any community. Naming individuals varies from one society or group to another.

Brown (2006) stated that something that the speakers have, like status and intimacy between them, affects the choice of address forms. As noted by Sani & Umar (2018), terms of address are important linguistic mechanisms by which a speaker's attitude and interpretation of his or her relationship with a speaker are reflected.

The importance of address forms cannot be overestimated in the use of language in any human society. They serve as an indicator of the social relationship between a speaker and a listener in terms of status and social distance.

Philipsen and Huspek (1985) argue that personal address is a sociolinguistic subject that systematically governs language behavior on how someone will be addressed. In addition, Qin (2008) states that there are some features which play important roles in selecting appropriate address terms, including interpersonal relationships and factors such as whom we are talking to, and when and where circumstances. Furthermore, the use of specific terms is also influenced by other factors such as sex, age, family relationship, occupational hierarchy, transactional status, or degree of intimacy (Yang, 2010).

In Hausa contexts, there are a number of address terms used in daily interaction such as religious terms, occupational terms, kinship terms, and so on, but not all of them are popular in everyday usage by Hausa people. Most of these address terms are used based on needs and circumstances. Some scholars have conducted investigations on the use of some address terms among Hausa people, and some of them are Chamo (2019), Kamal (1987), and Daba (1987). Their studies concentrated on the address terms used by Hausa traditionally by the generality of Hausa people, while the current study shifted significantly from traditional to current views of Hausa address terms specifically used by the Hausa youth generation. So, this article focuses on the modern address terms used by Hausa youth in Kano.

Hausa Language

Hausa as an ethnic and contact language Hausa is the name by which the people of the ethnic group call themselves and are understood as such by many other people. Hausa is also the name of the language of the people (Adamu, 1974). Hausa is used as a language of communication in northern Nigeria and some parts of the southern country; the users either belong to the Hausa ethnic group or use it as a second language. Most of the Fulani people use Hausa as their first language because of the long-existing relationship between the two ethnic groups in terms of religion, intermarriages, and other social activities, which lead some of them to lose their first language. A term, Hausa-Fulani, has reference to one language community. There are also people who use Hausa as their first language, although they belong to other ethnic groups. They use their native language as a second language because they cannot communicate effectively with it in some areas. In northern Nigeria, languages tend to lose their functional values because of the increasing preference for Hausa, whereas English, which is an official medium of communication in the whole country, is increasingly replacing the native languages in southern Nigeria (Igboanusi, Peter 2004).

Main purpose of this paper is to investigate specific terms that are used by the youth generation in Kano and, more generally, by the youth in northern Nigeria in their day-to-day communication.

Social identity asserts that group membership creates in-group/self-categorization in ways that favour the in-group at the expense of the out-group.

Hausa Address System

Hausa constitutes different forms of address terms. Hausa people use different address terms apart from their real names, which are called nicknames. Chamo (2019) states that nicknames are familiar, invented address terms given to persons or things instead of their actual names. Also, Aliakbari and Toni (2008) point out that nicknames provide valuable sociolinguistic information about the interlocutors, their relationships, and their circumstances.

Almost every Hausa man or woman has a particular address term besides their real or first name. This can be an address derived from the real or first name, or an address derived from religion, status, occupation, relationship, date of birth, circumstance of birth, and so on. Some of the common traditional Hausa nicknames as cited in Sani (2021) and Bakura & Sani (2024) are:

Nicknames Derived from Personal Names

S/N	Nickname	Derived from
1.	Abdu/Audu	Abdullahi
2.	Abu/Habu	Abubakar/Habubakar
3.	Hami	Hamisu
4.	Iro	Ibrahim
5.	Haja	Hajara

 

Nicknames derived from date of birth:

S/N	Nickname	Born on
1.	Larai (female)	Laraba (Wednesday)
2.	Juma (female)	Jumu’a (Friday)
3.	Tala (female)	Talata (Tuesday)
4.	Bala (male)	Laraba (Wednesday)
5.	Lami (female)	Alhamis (Thursday)

 

Nicknames Derived from the Circumstance of Birth

S/N	Nickname	Circumstances of birth
1.	Audi	Male who was born after several female children
2.	Yalwa	Female who was born in abundance
3.	Juji	Male or female who was born after the death of many children
4.	Ana ruwa	Male or female orn during raining
5.	Gambo	Male or female born after twins

 

Nicknames Derived from the Physical Structure of a Person

S/N	Nickname	Physique
1.	Cindo	Having more than five fingers
2.	Gajere	Short in size
3.	Zabaya	Albino

 

Methodology

The study entails an approach of data collection by means of participant observations, interviews, and conversations with Hausa youth native speakers from within the circle of friends and relations in both nuclear and extended families. Twenty participants assisted in collecting the various forms of Hausa youth modern address terms from their friends and relations by means of audio recordings and notes of people's address behavior and terms.

Hausa Youth Address System

It is believed that the language of young people is distinguished from the language of other generations or groups through a series of shared practices common to the members of the group. These are mostly words, but also phrases and other grammatical means are used in communication between young people. Youth generation address terms include terms that function only within their group. The common practice of the address terms of young people in Hausa is the morphological process of clipping, blending, abbreviation/initialization, and coinage. This serves as a new addressing system among Hausa youth members, unlike the traditional nicknames which mostly employed the use of religion, status, occupation, relationship, date of birth, circumstance of birth, and so on to derive nicknames.

Clipping

Baun (1983) maintains that clipping denotes the process whereby a lexeme (simple or complex) is reduced, while still holding the same meaning and still being a member of the same class. It does not look to be expected how many syllables will be retained in the clipped form. Baun (1988) cited three main methods in which a lexeme is shortened to a clip. The most common one is for the beginning of the base to be retained, for example: advert (from advertisement), exam (from examination), gym (from gymnasium). The next category is when the clip preserves the final part of the lexeme, as in phone (from telephone) and roach (from cockroach). The least category is when the lexeme drops both its beginning and end, but holds the middle, as in fridge (from refrigerator).

According to Quirk and Greenbaum (1975), the term clipping denotes the subtraction of one or more syllables from a word. Aronoff and Fudeman (2005) assert that clipping is the creation of a new word from an existing one. There are three types of clipping in English: front clipping, back clipping, and front and back clipping.

a.      Front clipping: This is the process of trimming words in the front, in which the front syllable is taken to stand as a word. For example: airplane – plane, telephone – phone, etc.

b.      Back clipping: This is another process of clipping where the trimming takes place at the back; thus, the back syllable is trimmed. For instance: advertisement – advert, gasoline – gas, fanatic – fan, polytechnic – poly, etc.

c.       Front and back clipping: This is where the clipping process takes place at both the front and back of the word. An example of this process is influenza – flu.

However, Fagge (2004) posits that clipping in Hausa is of two types: back clipping and front clipping. So, the research is in line with Fagge (2004).

There are nicknames used by the Hausa youth generation which were formed through the process of clipping. Examples of such nicknames are:

Table 1: Front Clipping

S/N	Nickname	Traditional Nickname	Derived from
1.	Khadi	Dije	Khadija
2.	Nazee	-	Nazeer
3.	Zee	Abu	Zainab
4.	Sumy	-	Sumayya
5.	Halee	Dubu	Haleema
6.	Hafsy	Hansai	Hafsat
7.	Moh	-	Muhammad/Mohammamed
8.	Fauzy	-	Fauziyya
9.	Muri	Tala	Murtala
10.	Luby	Luba	Lubabatu
11.	Ibro	Iro	Ibrahim
12.	Ruky	-	Rukayya
13.	Kasim	-	Kasimu
14.	Zeeky	-	Zakiyya
15.	Sadi/Sady	-	Sadiyya

 

The above nicknames as we can see are derived from the real or personal names, through the use of clipping as one of the morphological processes. Some are directly clipped like Khadija to have Khadi and this is against the traditional Hausa nickname of Khadija which is Dija, then Hafsat is clipped to Hafsy, against Hansai or Hansatu the Hausa traditional nickname of Hafsat/Hafsatu. Also, Lubabatu is clipped to derive Luby, against Luba, which is the traditional Hausa nickname of Lubabatu. The term Ibrahim is clipped to derived Ibro, as new address term as against Iro, the traditional Hausa nickname of Ibrahim. Some terms are slightly changed to suit the grammatical utterances and youth code like; Nazee derived from Nazir/Nazeer, Ruky derived from Rukayya and Fauzy derived from Fauziyya, is a new method employed by youth in their communication in order to suit their communication desire.  

Table 2: Back Clipping

S/N	Nickname	Personal name
1.	Biba	Habiba
2.	Meena	Ameena/Amina
3.	Deeni	Zaharaddeen
4.	Man	Usman
5.	Alhaji	Haj
6.	Fatima	Teema/Tima

 

The above modern nicknames are derived from personal names through back clipping but contrary to Hausa traditional nicknames, some are directly clipped while some are clipped with some modification to suit their communication codes. For example, Meena is derived from Amina, Man is derived from Usman, which is against Manu/Mani, the traditional nickname of Usmanu/Usman. Then the term Biba is derived from Habiba, which is traditionally nicknamed as Habi. Also, the term Teem/Tima is derived from Fatima, but the traditional nickname of Fatima is Fati.

Blending

This process deals with bringing together two or more lexemes to form a new word. Blending is a common process of word formation in English. Blends are formed by combining parts of more than one word to arrive at a new word. According to Fromkin and Rodman (1998) two words may be combined to produce blends. Blends are similar to compounds but parts of the words combined are deleted and so they are less than compounds. Examples of words formed through the blending process in English include: Brunch: from breakfast and lunch, Motel: from motor and hotel, Chunnel: from channel and tunnel, Spork: from spoon and fork, Urinalysis: from urine and analysis, etc.

Hausa youth generation employed the use of blending in forming new names or nicknames derived from the personnel's names. Examples of such nicknames are;

Table 3: Blending

S/N	Nickname	Derived from
1.	Zeebaby	Zainab + baby
2.	Jibson	Jibrin + son
3.	Yakson	Yakubu + son
4.	Bellnur	Bello + nura
5.	Sanbash	Sani + Bashir

 

The above nicknames in Table 4 are blended nicknames. Some are from two different names, like Belnur, which is from the name Bello (son) and Nura (father). Also, the nickname Zeebaby is a blended name from Zainab and baya, to show that Zainab is a young girl and also to suit the youth communication style. So, the youth sometimes blend the name of a person and his/her father if the blending can suit their communication style. While some blended nicknames are simply blended to create new names (like Jibrin + son to create Jibson). This is done to show that Jibrin is a son or young person and also to suit the communication style of the youth generation.

So, it has become a tradition of the Hausa youth generation in Kano to create nicknames through the combination of two names or parts of names, either the person’s name plus the name of the father or the name of the living partner (wife/husband/niece).

Abbreviation

An abbreviation in writing is representing a word or phrase with a shortened form. For example, a writer might write:

• Mal. instead of Malam

• BUK instead of Bayero University, Kano

Some abbreviations are standard, while some should only be used in informal writing.

When using an abbreviation, a word or phrase is shortened. Abbreviations can be formed from the first letters of the word or phrase. In such cases, we normally say them by spelling out each letter. Examples: PC means personal computer, while e.g. means example.

In the Hausa youth setting, personal names are abbreviated to form nicknames for the name bearer. Examples of abbreviated nicknames are:

Table 4: Abbreviation

S/N	Nickname	Derived from
1.	TJ	Tijjani
2.	JB	Jibrin
3.	TK	Tukur
4.	IB	Ibrahim
5.	KB	Kabiru

 

Conclusion

The Hausa youths’ language is marked by some special terms and phrases created or manipulated from existing words in the process of communication. The collected data show that the Hausa youth group in Kano creates a language of addressing to distinguish its members from other groups in society. The majority of the techniques involve the modification of already existing terms as well as the creation of new terms. Some of the terms are formed and used in the spoken language of day-to-day communication. These new terms have now become known to other groups of Hausa users through youth contacts and their daily activities with groups outside their domain. The form of interaction and the topics raised in communication show the ongoing interest of the youth generation in Kano towards modern culture. Finally, the study found that the common system of address terms among Hausa youth in Kano is modification and creation through the processes of clipping, blending, and abbreviation.

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