Etymological nature of verb- and noun-based phrasal compounds in Hausa

Abstract

This article is devoted to the issue of etymological nature of verb- and noun-based phrasal compounds in Hausa. The research was conducted as follows: collecting data, morphological and syntactical analysis, etymological analysis. An attempt was made to arrange a classification on etymological basis. The possible grouping presented in the article is: loan translations, adoptions and originally Hausa units. Consistent analyses has indicated that the most commonly used units are those having original Hausa words as both parts. That is true for both noun- and verb-based compounds. The second presented units are those with loan words as parts of compounds. Nowadays there seem to appear more phraseological units based on adoptions from other languages but they are not that numerous. Data for the research comes from the internet articles, fiction literature texts and Hausa chronicles. Refs 6.