HAUSA NAMES FOR PLANTS AND TREES - Roger Blench

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Roger Blench Hausa plant names – Hausa-Latin Circulation version
Tones
Hausa has two level tones and a falling tone, marked as follows;
High
Falling
^
Low $
All tones are marked, to distinguish words where the tones are known from words that have been only
partially transcribed. In many sources, low tone is marked and high tone is left unmarked.
Plurals and other forms
The plurals of Hausa words are unpredictable for practical purposes, and it is also difficult to know whether
a word will have a plural at all, especially in the case of plant names. Where the plurals are known they are
given directly after the singular. In some cases, the plural is dialectal; for example Kano and Sokoto may
often have a different plural despite the singular being common to both lects.
Variability in Hausa forms
Hausa words have considerable variation, some dialectal and some free variation within a single lect. i/u
variation is particularly common. In the example below, it is likely that the /i/ is the original vowel and the
/u/ introduced to create harmony with C 1 of the second word.
Ipomoea aitonii bútà wútáá bítà wútáá
Other variations, especially of the initial consonant, are more puzzling. For the moment, these are all
recorded, since they may be encountered in the field.
3. Queries
The sources provide some names that cannot so far be identified by present-day Hausa speakers. There may
be several reasons for this;
a) the transcription is so garbled that speakers simply cannot recognise it as a word they know.
b) the word was recorded in a remote area where the plant exists but it is no longer present in the more
densely farmed areas
c) the word is in another language and is thus not recognised.
4. Terminology
Latin names are given for all the plants identified. The practice of botanists of constantly changing their
minds on the names of even quite common and well established economic plants makes this necessary. In
recent years, even the name of the shea tree, probably the single most important tree for farmers in northern
Nigeria, has been changed from Butyrospermum paradoxum to Vitellaria paradoxa. The authorities identify
the name given at a particular period so that in future, if the name changes again, or the taxonomists
reclassify it, the correct identification can be traced. The scientific names used here are adopted from Burkill
(1985 ff.) as the most recent authoritative source.
English names are those given in various sources. Some names, such as shea and locust are widely known
and used. Others are considerably more obscure but are anyway given here because it is valuable to have a
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