Hausa, a language spoken primarily in Niger and Nigeria, is one of the largest languages in Africa by the number of speakers. Hausa belongs to the Afroasiatic language family, so it shares notable similarities with other languages across North Africa. According to the eLinguistics.net analysis using specific software modules to assess linguistic relationships, the five languages most similar to Hausa are Tashelhit, Tamazight, Kabylian, Afar, and Tigrigna.
- Tashelhit (36.7)
Tashelhit is a Berber language spoken in the southwestern part of Morocco. Like Hausa, it belongs to the Afroasiatic family. Both languages share certain phonetic characteristics, such as the use of emphatic consonants and a similar set of vowels. These phonetic resemblances might be attributed to the broader Afroasiatic linguistic framework, despite the fact that they belong to different sub-branches of the family. - Tamazight (31.0)
Tamazight is another Berber language spoken across various parts of North Africa, particularly in Algeria. The two languages share some common structural traits, such as the use of gendered nouns and the influence of Arabic vocabulary. This similarity can be traced back to the shared Afroasiatic roots and the historical spread of Arabic culture and language across North Africa and the Sahel. - Kabylian (30.8)
Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people in the northern regions of Algeria. It bears similarities to Hausa, primarily due to its Afroasiatic roots and the historical interactions between the Berber and Hausa-speaking peoples. Both languages exhibit similar consonant-vowel structures and possess a significant number of loanwords from Arabic, a consequence of centuries of Arab influence. - Tigrigna (78.2)
Spoken in Eritrea and northern Ethiopia, Tigrigna is a Semitic language. It is part of the Afroasiatic family. Although they belong to different branches within the family, Tigrigna and Hausa have similarities in certain grammatical structures and shared vocabulary. The historical spread of Semitic languages and the migration of peoples in the ancient past likely contributed to the convergence of certain linguistic features. - Afar (77.3)
The Afar language is spoken in the Horn of Africa, particularly in Djibouti, Eritrea, and Ethiopia. It belongs to the Cushitic branch of the Afroasiatic family, so it is only a distant relative of Hausa. The similarities between Hausa and Afar are in grammatical structures and vocabulary. The historical movement of cultures across the Sahel and the Horn of Africa has facilitated the exchange of linguistic elements between these languages.
(to be considered for the list, the language must be spoken by at least one million people)
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