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Down to nitty details in completing locale data for Hausa, the group working on it has a question re the orthography or writing conventions in Ghana. (The locales privide information to computer systems for language choices, and the way the system is set up, they are defined by language and country [ha for Hausa, NG for Nigeria, NE for Niger, GH for Ghana and so on]). As a preface, I've heard that the implosive and ejective consonants (represented of course by hooked b, d, k, and either 'y [NG] or hooked y [NE]) are not pronounced as clearly in Ghana as in Hausaland, or not at all. Does this translate into non-use of the added letters or are they still used in writing/printing (to the extent that is done in Boko in northern Ghana)? If there is no such established local practice/literature, then I'm suggesting to go with the standard Boko of Nigeria. The following remarks concerning the ejective y ('y) from a Ghanaian involved in the discussion may be of interest: >I think I figured out the 'y sound. We really don't >have it in Ghana. We use plain d in it's place. It >looks like Nigeria uses the 'y instead of the "hooked >y". The only use I've seen for it is in the words for >child/offspring/mini. Like 'yar uchenna >(ghanaian:diyan uchenna) for the child of uchenna- >unchenna's child. > >If I have to choose, I'll go with 'y because it gives >you more insight into pronounciation. There is a >hidden "i" sound that the apostrophe hints at. You >don't get that when you use "hooked y" instead. -- Wannan wasik'ar i-mel ce daga H-Hausa, inda za'a cigaba da hira game da harshe da al'adu da tarihi da sauran lamura na Hausawa da mak'wabtansu.
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