The demonstratives of a language allow a four-way distinction in distance, relative to the position of the speaker or hearer.  In Hausa, <i>nân</i> indicates a referent noun "near the speaker," <i>nan</i> is for those "near the hearer," <i>cân</i> describes those "away from the speaker and hearer," and <i>can</i> denotes those "far away from the speaker and hearer."

<br><br><b>Reference</b><br>
Diessel, Holger. 2008. Distance Contrasts in Demonstratives.
In Haspelmath et al (2008), chapter 41. Available online at <a href="http://wals.info/feature/41">
http://wals.info/feature/41</a href>.
