THE LANGUAGE OF THE HAUSA TRIBE AND A LINGUA FRANCA FOR MANY INHABITANTS OF NIGERIA'S NORTHERN REGION, HAUSA IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED TO BE THE MOST IMPORTANT LANGUAGE OF WEST AFRICA AND HAS MANY DIALECTS. THIS TEXT IS BASED ON THE KANO DIALECT AND IS INTENDED AS A PRELIMINARY STUDY TO A MORE THOROUGH ANALYSIS OF HAUSA MORPHOLOGY, SYNTAX, AND PHONOLOGY. THIS FIRST VOLUME OF A THREE-PART SERIES EXAMINES AND DESCRIBES A REPRESENTATIVE HAUSA CORPUS WHICH CONCENTRATES ON PRINTED NARRATIVE, EXTEMPORE NARRATIVE, AND NEWSPAPER WRITING. THIS STUDY DISCUSSES THE LINGUISTIC STRUCTURE OF THE WORD, PHRASE, CLAUSE, AND SENTENCE HIERARCHY, BUT DOES NOT COVER THE PARAGRAPH. THE FOCUS IS MAINLY ON SYNTAX, BUT MORPHOLOGY IS DISCUSSED WHEN PERTINENT. LINGUISTICALLY, THE APPROACH IS FROM THE POINT OF VIEW OF SLOT-FILLER RELATIONSHIPS. VOLUMES II AND III OF THE SERIES DEAL WITH A LEXICON OF HAUSA FUNCTION WORDS AND VARIOUS TEXTS, RESPECTIVELY. THIS STUDY IS AVAILABLE FROM THE HARTFORD SEMINARY FOUNDATION, HARTFORD, CONNECTICUT 06105. (FB)