Written by the world's leading expert on Hausa, this book provides a lucid and comprehensive linguistic history of the language, highlighting changes in phonology, tonology, morphology, grammar, and lexicon. It is an invaluable resource for specialists in African and Afroasiatic languages, as well as general historical linguists and typologists.

"With over 60 million speakers across Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon, Hausa is one of the most widely spoken African languages, and is known for its rich phonology and complex morphological and verbal systems. Written by Paul Newman, the world's leading expert on Hausa, this ground-breaking book is a synthesis of his life's work, and provides a lucid and comprehensive history of the language. It describes Hausa as it existed in former times and sets out subsequent changes in phonology, including tonology, morphology, grammar, and lexicon. It also contains a large loanword inventory, which highlights the history of Hausa's interaction with other languages and peoples. It offers new insights not only on Hausa in the past, but also on the Hausa language as spoken today. It is an invaluable resource for specialists in Hausa, Chadic, Afroasiatic, and other African languages as well as general historical linguists and typologists"--