Lexical Borrowing from Fulfulde into Hausa: Evidence from Daily Communication in Sokoto State

This study investigates the patterns of lexical borrowing from Fulfulde into Hausa as evidenced in daily communication among residents of Sokoto metropolis and selected rural areas in Sokoto State, North West Nigeria. The longstanding contact between Hausa and Fulfulde speakers in this region, rooted in historical trade, religious practice, and intermarriage, has produced a rich zone of lexical influence that has not been comprehensively documented in recent scholarship. The study adopts a descriptive contact linguistics methodology, drawing on Thomason and Kaufman's framework for language contact and borrowing. Data were collected through elicitation interviews with 80 bilingual Hausa-Fulfulde speakers and community word lists compiled with the assistance of community informants. The analysis categorises borrowings by semantic domain, degree of phonological adaptation, and social context of use. Findings show that the highest concentrations of Fulfulde borrowings appear in domains of animal husbandry, kinship terminology, and Islamic religious practice, reflecting historical patterns of Fulani cultural influence in the region. The study further notes that younger urban speakers show lower recognition rates for borrowings compared to older rural informants, suggesting generational erosion of the Fulfulde lexical layer. The research provides a contribution to the documentation of language contact in North West Nigeria and recommends systematic digital archiving of contact vocabulary. Keywords: lexical borrowing, Fulfulde, Hausa, language contact, Sokoto State.