Metathesis and Its Statistical Analysis in Hausa

Abstract

Hausa, a Chadic language and belong to the Afro-Asiatic language family. It is spoken in the northern part of Nigeria and southern part of Niger Republic as a first language. This paper examine metathesis and its statistical occurrences in Hausa language. The presentation according to the findings boarders on contact and distant metathesis in between vowels and vowels, consonant and consonants, vowels and consonants, syllables and within sentences. Fifty related sample words/lexicons were identified in which Twenty-four (24) Hausa standard alphabets (vowels and consonants) were affected vix: /a/, /b/, /c/, /d/, /x/, /f/, /g/, /h/, /i/, /k/, /q/, /L/, /m/, /n/, /o/, /r/, /s/, /sh/, /t/, /u/, /w/, /y/, /z/, /’/. The paper used descriptive statistics to explain typical scores in a group as well as frequency showing the values of a variable together with the number of times each alphabet occur. Also, the paper used some
signs and abbreviation to indicate various Hausa dialects and alphabets.