Playing With Languages

Although linguistics is an area of study we hardly understand, perusing the works of Claude Rilly on Meroitic and Nubian Languages, as well as the chapter by Murray Last in Becoming Hausa that includes the notion of a Coptic influence on Hausa suggestive of an early Copt presence or traders in that region, sparked our own amateurish attempts to find links between distant African languages. Using English or French bilingual dictionaries for Hausa, Coptic, Old Nubian, Kanuri, and the Zaghawa languages, we pretended we could discover possible links that connect the Middle Nile with the Central Sudanic regions of Hausaland and Kanem-Borno. Of course, since we don't really know what we're doing, most of this is difficult to say and rather difficult to prove without a much deeper understanding of Egyptian, Kanuri, Hausa, Meroitic and Zaghawa languages. 

First, the fascinating notion of Rilly that the Meroitic qore title for the king, being adopted by several other societies in Sudan. Well, this very title, sometimes presented as qere in other studies of the Meroitic language, bears a close resemblance to the archaic Zaghawa or Beria word for king, kire (or kireh) While we need further research on the Zaghawa and related Saharan languages of the the Nilo-Saharan family, the Zaghawa associated with the early state of Kanem called their kings KAKRH in the unvocalized Arabic rendering of al-Ya'qu'bi in the late 9th century. While several centuries separate early Kanem from the Napatan-Meroitic civilization, perhaps the Zaghawa, who were mobile and probably interacted in some fashion or another with the Nubian civilizations, borrowed the term from the Meroitic language because of the prestige and influence of Meroe on other Sudanic peoples. In addition, the etymology of the Meroitic word for king, according to Rilly's research, is traced to what he considers the Meroitic term for head. Well, the Zaghawa kire has no link to their word for head, although kire can be used for an older sibling. Ultimately, in our opinion, a possible Meroitic origin for the titles of early Kanem kings is suggestive, perhaps linking, in some fashion, the Meroitic civilization with the rise of other kingdoms in western Sudan and Chad. If early Kanem and its Zaghawa rulers adopted the Meroitic title, what else was possibly influenced by ancient Nubia in Kanem-Borno?

Besides the possible Meroitic origin of the early titles of Kanem rulers, Hausa and Coptic is another interesting relationship. While we failed to find, in our amateurish attempt, significant connections between Coptic and Hausa, it is a little easier to understand how Hausa (and Chadic) are classified as Afro-Asiatic languages. For instance, the Hausa word for palace, fada, is similar to the Egyptian pharaoh. We believe this connection is due to both words being rooted in the following two words: "big house."  The Hausa term for sin, zunubi, almost looks like the Coptic term for sin, too (ⲛⲟⲃⲉ). Indeed, the Hausa term for king, or sarki, which almost resembles the Egyptian špsj and srḫ or serekh. Other speculative and or possible links between Hausa and Egyptian or Coptic can be seen in their respective words for moon, weave, some numbers, and, perhaps, the Hausa and Egyptian words for towns (birni and dmj. It is likely that most of these similarities stretch back deeper in time to the Afroasiatic roots of Hausa and Ancient Egyptian, instead of influences from the Coptic on Hausa in medieval times. Who knows, perhaps the famous bori cult of the Hausa has a common origin with the term ba in Egyptian.  

It is also likely that the Kanuri influences on Hausa, which could be the origin of the term birni, included other words of Nilo-Saharan languages as well as Berber via the Sahara. Intriguingly, the Kanuri equivalent to write, borrowed by Hausa, may be of Berber origin instead of Egyptian or Nubian, yet not from the Tuareg Berbers. What this means is unclear, but we think it very likely that the Zaghawa were possibly influenced by or interacted with speakers of the ancient Meroitic language. Murray's theory of a Coptic influence on Hausa or a traceable Coptic linguistic presence in Hausaland seems unlikely, though. Indeed, most of the similarities were probably due to both languages sharing a common root as Afroasiatic tongues. Nonetheless, we are fascinated by a possible Meroitic linguistic influence in western Sudan and Chad, although far more work needs to be done on the various languages spoken in the region.