1996
XXXII, 339 pp.
Text language: English
This work has approximately 400 pages: Introduction and Bibliography, 36; Hausa-English and comparative data, 300; English-Hausa Index, 40 pages. Its purpose is to make suggestions about the etymology of a large number of frequently used words, ranging from those where it is 99 percent certain – e.g. some loans from Arabic or English – to others which have intriguing possibilities, forming a basis for further research.
Comparative evidence is taken from between two and three hundred other languages from all major African language groups except Khoisan. Where relevant, reconstructions already suggested by other scholars are quoted, including those of the recent Hamito-Semitic Dictionary of Orel and Stolbova.