Hasiyatu Abubakari
Biographic Data
| ID | 312438 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Hasiyatu Abubakari |
| GIVEN NAMES | Hasiyatu |
| FAMILY NAME | Abubakari |
| SIGNATURE | ABUBAKARI H |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Ghana |
| ORCID | 0000-0002-2604-1009 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 20 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 14 |
| AUTHOR COUNT | 20 |
| EDITOR COUNT | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2020 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 2 |
Tone in Mabia Languages: Structure and Processes
The Mabia languages belong to the Niger–Congo family and are spoken primarily across the savannah and Sahelian regions of West Africa, including northern Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali. Tone plays a crucial role in these languages, shaping both lexical meaning and grammatical structure. This study is a synthesis or an overview of previously described facts about the tonal phenomena in six Mabia languages, …
Names as Archives: A Comparative Analysis of Lineage and Settlement Histories Through Dàgáárè and Yorùbá Anthroponymy
This study investigates the role of naming practices as cultural repositories that preserve family, lineage, and community identity. It explores how anthroponymy encodes histories of ancestry, migration, settlement, and sociopolitical organisation in two West African societies, Dàgáárè-speaking communities and Yorùbá communities. Adopting a comparative onomastic ethnographic approach, this research analyses names among the two selected cultures. …
African Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Environmental Stewardship Expressed through Folktales
This study focuses on African Indigenous Knowledge Systems in relation to environmental conservation. Using a qualitative research approach, the study explores the use of folktales for environmental education in three Mabia languages and cultures in West Africa. It shows that speakers of Kusaal, Buli, and Dagaare, through their cultural beliefs and philosophies expressed in folktales, have measures that ensure environmental protection and sanctio…
Folktales for Environmental Conservation: From Oral Traditions to Ecological Wisdom
Distinguishing Compounds from Phrases in Kusaal
This study examines how compounds can be distinguished from phrases in Kusaal, a Mabia language spoken in the Upper East region of Ghana as well as two neighbouring countries: Burkina Faso and Togo. Both compounds and phrases involve the combination of lexemes. It is, therefore, important to establish clear-cut criteria for distinguishing between them. However, due to individual language uniqueness, there are no universally acceptable criteria th…
Names of seasons as expressions of climatic conditions and agrarian practices
Current changes in climatic conditions pose a threat to historical anecdotes associated with names of seasons among the Kusaas (native speakers of the Kusaal language) of Ghana. Historically, the weather patterns during specific periods were used as names for those periods creating a direct relationship between language and climatic conditions. However, this relationship is threatened by the rapid effect of climate change, which is resulting in c…
A structural analysis of personal names in Kusaal
Kusaal Folktales: Communicative Tools for Preserving Indigenous Cultural Values in Ghanaian Marriages
Metaphorical Personal Names in Mabia Languages of West Africa
Cultural philosophies, belief systems and experiences serve as superordinate cultural concepts that are reconceptualised and expressed using metaphorical personal names in Mabia languages. Metaphorical personal names are 'vehicles' that transport the worldviews of speakers of Mabia languages to the target audiences. Every metaphorical personal name shares properties of a superordinate umbrella concept such that even newly created metaphorical nam…
Communication through popular culture: Analyzing a googi performance on early marriage among the Kusaas of Ghana
A serializing particle ń with discourse functions in Kusaal
This paper presents novel empirical data revealing a previously unidentified particle n in Serial Verb Constructions in Kusaal. The issue that requires attention is to find out the status of the said particle in SVCs in the language. The central question is whether the observed particle is an overt marker of coordination or subordination which is likely suppressed in other instances of SVCs in the language. The particle n has several functions in…
Mabia languages and cultures expressed through personal names
This paper is a comparative study of names and naming practices among speakers of Dagbani, Kusaal, Likpakpaanl and Sɩsaalɩ. We discuss in detail the ceremonies that accompany the naming of a newborn among speakers of these languages. By using the framework of ethnopragmatics, the study explores the culture-internal dynamics of personal names by comparing the typology of names in the four languages. It draws attention to the fact that personal nam…
Exploring Euphemisms as Taboo Avoidance Strategies in the Mabia Languages
This article investigates the use of euphemisms in mitigating prohibited expressions in three Mabia (Gur) languages: Dagbani, Farefare (also known as Gurenε) and Kusaal. In the daily interactions of the Mabia people, they avoid using certain expressions, which are unmentionable in most contexts. These include the expressions for snakes and snakebite, sexual intercourse and genitalia, and death. The mention of the explicit terms for these expressi…
Nominal classification in Mabia languages of West Africa
Serial verb reduplication in the Mabia languages of West Africa
This paper introduces and discusses the notion of Serial Verb Reduplication (SVR) in two Mabia languages of West Africa, Dagaare and Kusaal. The authors show that the phenomenon of SVRs, though under-represented in the literature, has a wide scope occurrence in natural language usage within serializing languages. Theoretically, two lexical semantic notions: semantics of verbs (verb meaning) and pluraction, are advanced to explain the intricacies …
Noun class system of Kusaal
It is common knowledge that noun classes in Mabia (Gur) languages are primarily characterized by stems and affixes. Common to all studies on nominal classification in Kusaal is the observation that nouns that exhibit common morphological properties also share identical semantic features. Though this is true to some extent, the generalization breeds a lot of leakages because classifications based on semantic field alone is unable to explain the in…
Topic marking in Kusaal and selected Mabia (Gur) languages of West Africa
This article looks at topic marking strategies in Kusaal and related Mabia (Gur) languages: Dagaare, Buli, Moore, Dabgani, and Gurene, spoken in Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast. It is generally observed that these languages use left dislocation as a topic coding strategy. They either use topic phrases or particles, which may be obligatory or optional. It is argued that the languages under discussion cannot be fully classified as subject prominent lan…
Framing of Covid-19 safety protocols in Kusaal musical health communication: Language and literary analysis
The syntax of weak and strong pronouns in Dagbani and Kusaal
Although studies in Dagbani and Kusaal have distinguished between weak and strong pronouns, their syntactic peculiarities remain largely uninvestigated. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting a systematic investigation of the distribution of these pronouns drawing data from these two languages. We demonstrate that strong pronouns have dedicated syntactic positions including left peripheral focus, predicate focus, and fragmentary answers w…
Personal names in Kusaal: A sociolinguistic analysis
Personal names in Kusaal: A sociolinguistic analysis
Nominal classification in Mabia languages of West Africa
Noun class system of Kusaal
It is common knowledge that noun classes in Mabia (Gur) languages are primarily characterized by stems and affixes. Common to all studies on nominal classification in Kusaal is the observation that nouns that exhibit common morphological properties also share identical semantic features. Though this is true to some extent, the generalization breeds a lot of leakages because classifications based on semantic field alone is unable to explain the in…
Folktales for Environmental Conservation: From Oral Traditions to Ecological Wisdom
Kusaal Folktales: Communicative Tools for Preserving Indigenous Cultural Values in Ghanaian Marriages
The syntax of weak and strong pronouns in Dagbani and Kusaal
Although studies in Dagbani and Kusaal have distinguished between weak and strong pronouns, their syntactic peculiarities remain largely uninvestigated. This paper aims to fill this gap by presenting a systematic investigation of the distribution of these pronouns drawing data from these two languages. We demonstrate that strong pronouns have dedicated syntactic positions including left peripheral focus, predicate focus, and fragmentary answers w…
Personal names in Kusaal: A sociolinguistic analysis
Noun class system of Kusaal
It is common knowledge that noun classes in Mabia (Gur) languages are primarily characterized by stems and affixes. Common to all studies on nominal classification in Kusaal is the observation that nouns that exhibit common morphological properties also share identical semantic features. Though this is true to some extent, the generalization breeds a lot of leakages because classifications based on semantic field alone is unable to explain the in…
Topic marking in Kusaal and selected Mabia (Gur) languages of West Africa
This article looks at topic marking strategies in Kusaal and related Mabia (Gur) languages: Dagaare, Buli, Moore, Dabgani, and Gurene, spoken in Ghana, Togo and Ivory Coast. It is generally observed that these languages use left dislocation as a topic coding strategy. They either use topic phrases or particles, which may be obligatory or optional. It is argued that the languages under discussion cannot be fully classified as subject prominent lan…
Framing of Covid-19 safety protocols in Kusaal musical health communication: Language and literary analysis
Serial verb reduplication in the Mabia languages of West Africa
This paper introduces and discusses the notion of Serial Verb Reduplication (SVR) in two Mabia languages of West Africa, Dagaare and Kusaal. The authors show that the phenomenon of SVRs, though under-represented in the literature, has a wide scope occurrence in natural language usage within serializing languages. Theoretically, two lexical semantic notions: semantics of verbs (verb meaning) and pluraction, are advanced to explain the intricacies …
A serializing particle ń with discourse functions in Kusaal
This paper presents novel empirical data revealing a previously unidentified particle n in Serial Verb Constructions in Kusaal. The issue that requires attention is to find out the status of the said particle in SVCs in the language. The central question is whether the observed particle is an overt marker of coordination or subordination which is likely suppressed in other instances of SVCs in the language. The particle n has several functions in…
Mabia languages and cultures expressed through personal names
This paper is a comparative study of names and naming practices among speakers of Dagbani, Kusaal, Likpakpaanl and Sɩsaalɩ. We discuss in detail the ceremonies that accompany the naming of a newborn among speakers of these languages. By using the framework of ethnopragmatics, the study explores the culture-internal dynamics of personal names by comparing the typology of names in the four languages. It draws attention to the fact that personal nam…
Exploring Euphemisms as Taboo Avoidance Strategies in the Mabia Languages
This article investigates the use of euphemisms in mitigating prohibited expressions in three Mabia (Gur) languages: Dagbani, Farefare (also known as Gurenε) and Kusaal. In the daily interactions of the Mabia people, they avoid using certain expressions, which are unmentionable in most contexts. These include the expressions for snakes and snakebite, sexual intercourse and genitalia, and death. The mention of the explicit terms for these expressi…
Nominal classification in Mabia languages of West Africa
Distinguishing Compounds from Phrases in Kusaal
This study examines how compounds can be distinguished from phrases in Kusaal, a Mabia language spoken in the Upper East region of Ghana as well as two neighbouring countries: Burkina Faso and Togo. Both compounds and phrases involve the combination of lexemes. It is, therefore, important to establish clear-cut criteria for distinguishing between them. However, due to individual language uniqueness, there are no universally acceptable criteria th…
Names of seasons as expressions of climatic conditions and agrarian practices
Current changes in climatic conditions pose a threat to historical anecdotes associated with names of seasons among the Kusaas (native speakers of the Kusaal language) of Ghana. Historically, the weather patterns during specific periods were used as names for those periods creating a direct relationship between language and climatic conditions. However, this relationship is threatened by the rapid effect of climate change, which is resulting in c…
A structural analysis of personal names in Kusaal
Kusaal Folktales: Communicative Tools for Preserving Indigenous Cultural Values in Ghanaian Marriages
Metaphorical Personal Names in Mabia Languages of West Africa
Cultural philosophies, belief systems and experiences serve as superordinate cultural concepts that are reconceptualised and expressed using metaphorical personal names in Mabia languages. Metaphorical personal names are 'vehicles' that transport the worldviews of speakers of Mabia languages to the target audiences. Every metaphorical personal name shares properties of a superordinate umbrella concept such that even newly created metaphorical nam…
Communication through popular culture: Analyzing a googi performance on early marriage among the Kusaas of Ghana
Folktales for Environmental Conservation: From Oral Traditions to Ecological Wisdom
Tone in Mabia Languages: Structure and Processes
The Mabia languages belong to the Niger–Congo family and are spoken primarily across the savannah and Sahelian regions of West Africa, including northern Ghana, Ivory Coast, Togo, Benin, Nigeria, Burkina Faso, Niger, and Mali. Tone plays a crucial role in these languages, shaping both lexical meaning and grammatical structure. This study is a synthesis or an overview of previously described facts about the tonal phenomena in six Mabia languages, …
Names as Archives: A Comparative Analysis of Lineage and Settlement Histories Through Dàgáárè and Yorùbá Anthroponymy
This study investigates the role of naming practices as cultural repositories that preserve family, lineage, and community identity. It explores how anthroponymy encodes histories of ancestry, migration, settlement, and sociopolitical organisation in two West African societies, Dàgáárè-speaking communities and Yorùbá communities. Adopting a comparative onomastic ethnographic approach, this research analyses names among the two selected cultures. …
African Indigenous Knowledge Systems: Environmental Stewardship Expressed through Folktales
This study focuses on African Indigenous Knowledge Systems in relation to environmental conservation. Using a qualitative research approach, the study explores the use of folktales for environmental education in three Mabia languages and cultures in West Africa. It shows that speakers of Kusaal, Buli, and Dagaare, through their cultural beliefs and philosophies expressed in folktales, have measures that ensure environmental protection and sanctio…
Linguistics (14 works) · Philosophy (14 works) · Sociology (9 works) · Syntax, Semantics, Linguistic Variation (7 works) · Anthropology (6 works) · Computer Science (6 works) · Psychology (6 works) · Philosophy (5 works) · Artificial Intelligence (4 works) · Geography (4 works)