Schuh R.G. (ed.) Duwai-English-Hausa Dictionary

Potiskum: Ajami Press; Yobe Languages Research Project, 2009. — XV, 40 p.Author: Alhaji Abba Daskum.This is the first published dictionary of the Duwai language,1 spoken in northern Yobe State, Nigeria. The original basis for the dictionary was a collection of words assembled in 1973-75 when the editor lived in Gashua and was working as a Senior Research Fellow with the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Languages (then a research branch of Ahmadu Bello University, now part of Bayero University Kano). The original vocabulary list came mainly from work with Tizinaba Ba’askare Gangawa, with some additional words from stories. The original list was expanded through work with the late Buba Kacalla in 2007 and by Abba Daskum in 2009.Duwai is spoken in Yobe State, Nigeria, in the area to the east and southeast of Gashua, the largest city in the northern part of Yobe State. It is one of seven languages of the Chadic family indigenous to Yobe State, the others being Bade, Bole, Karekare, Maka, Ngamo, and Ngizim. Duwai is a member of the West Branch of Chadic and is hence related to Hausa, the dominant language throughout northern Nigeria. Duwai's closest linguistic relatives are Bade, spoken to the west of Duwai in Bade (Bedde) Emirate, and Ngizim, well to the south, around Potiskum. Duwai is a geographical neighbor of Bade and has considerable linguistic interaction particularly with the Gashua dialect of Bade, but in terms of relatedness, the various dialects of Bade form a linguistic group with Ngizim, and Duwai forms its own branch of this linguistic subfamily.Not much is known about dialect variation in Duwai. There are indications that at one time Duwai covered a much larger area than it does now and that there was considerable dialect variation (for example, data collected in Dadigar in 1974 shows significant differences from the Duwai of Gangawa, which is the variety documented on this site). However, the Duwai speaking area is shrinking and the language has been or is being replaced by Kanuri from the east, by Bade from the neighboring Gashua dialect, and, like all minority languages in northern Nigeria, by Hausa. The language is widely known in Yobe State as Tafirifiri (apparently a term of Bade origin describing how the language sounds to speakers of Bade), but this term is considered derogatory by speakers of Duwai.