Hausa grammar

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Hausa is probably the most widely-spoken language on the continent of Africa. The country inhabited by the Hausas, extending, roughly speaking, from lat. 8 N. to 14 N., and from long. 4 E. to 11 E., and including about half a million square miles, contains a population which is estimated at twenty-five millions. Of these, about fifteen millions are believed to speak the Hausa language, or, in other words, the Hausa-speaking people form one per Cent, of the whole population of the world. Hausa, moreover, acts as a sort of lingua franca and as the language of trade, far outside the actual limits of Hausaland. Settlements of Hausa-speaking people are to be found in places as far separated from one another as Suakim, Alexandria, Tripoli, Tunis, and Lagos; and Hausa Caravans are constantly passing to and fro between all these places and Hausaland proper.