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Northern Songhai
Northern Songhay is the smaller of the two branches of the Songhay languages. It is a group of heavily Berber-influenced dialects spoken in scattered oases of the Sahara. Languages The nomadic varieties include Tihishit in central Niger around Mazababou (with two dialects, Tagdal and Tabarog) and Tadaksahak (or ''Dawsahak'') spoken around Ménaka northeast of Gao (Heath 1999:xv). The sedentary varieties include Tasawaq in northern Niger (with two dialects, Ingelsi in In-Gall and the extinct Emghedeshie of Agadez) and Korandje far to the north, 150 km east of the Algerian– Moroccan border at Tabelbala. Classification The main outside influence on all of these except on Korandje is the Tamasheq language cluster. Korandje appears to be influenced more by Northern and Western Berber; in turn, the neighboring Northern Berber language Taznatit shows a few traces of Songhay influence. Since the Berber influence in these languages extends beyond the lexicon into the infl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Niger
Niger, officially the Republic of the Niger, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is a unitary state Geography of Niger#Political geography, bordered by Libya to the Libya–Niger border, north-east, Chad to the Chad–Niger border, east, Nigeria to the Niger–Nigeria border, south, Benin and Burkina Faso to the Benin-Niger border, south-west, Mali to the Mali–Niger border, west, and Algeria to the Algeria–Niger border, north-west. It covers a land area of almost , making it the largest landlocked country in West Africa and the second-largest landlocked nation in Africa behind Chad. Over 80% of its land area lies in the Sahara. Its Islam in Niger, predominantly Muslim population of about million lives mostly in clusters in the south and west of the country. The capital Niamey is located in Niger's south-west corner along the namesake Niger River. Following the spread of Islam to the region, Niger was on the fringes of some states, including the Kanem–Bornu Empire ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabarog
Tagdal (Tuareg name: ''Tagdalt'') is a mixed Northern Songhay language of central Niger. Ethnologue considers it a "mixed Berber–Songhay language", while other researchers consider it Northern Songhay. Nicolaï (1981) argued that Tagdal was originally derived from the Tuareg languages and adopted characteristics of Songhai rather than vice versa.Catherine Taine-CheikhLes langues parlées au sud Sahara et au nord Sahel De l'Atlantique à l'Ennedi (Catalogue de l'exposition « Sahara-Sahel »), Centre Culturel Français d'Abidjan (Ed.) (1989) 155-173 There are two dialects: Tagdal proper, spoken by the Igdalen people, pastoralists who inhabit a region to the east along the Niger border to Tahoua in Niger, and Tabarog, spoken by the Iberogan people of the Azawagh valley on the Niger–Mali border. The Iberogan sometimes refer to their language as Tagdal. Nicolaï (1981) uses the name ''Tihishit'' as a cover term. Rueck & Christiansen say that ...the Igdalen and the Iberogan ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Mixed Language
A mixed language, also referred to as a hybrid language or fusion language, is a type of contact language that arises among a bilingual group combining aspects of two or more languages but not clearly deriving primarily from any single language. It differs from a creole language, creole or pidgin, pidgin language in that, whereas creoles/pidgins arise where speakers of many languages acquire a common language, a mixed language typically arises in a population that is fluent in both of the source languages. Because all languages show some degree of mixing by virtue of containing Loanword, loanwords, it is a matter of controversy whether the concept of a mixed language can meaningfully be distinguished from the type of contact and borrowing seen in all languages.Arends et al. 1994 Scholars debate to what extent language mixture can be distinguished from other mechanisms such as code-switching, Stratum (linguistics), substrata, or lexical borrowing. Definitions Other terms used in l ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gurara Language
Gurara (Gourara) is a Zenati Berber language spoken in the Gourara (''Tigurarin'') region, an archipelago of oases surrounding the town of Timimoun in southwestern Algeria. ''Ethnologue'' gives it the generic name ''Taznatit'' ("Zenati"), along with Tuwat spoken to its south; however, Blench (2006) classifies Gurara as a dialect of Mzab–Wargla and Tuwat as a dialect of the Riff languages. Characteristics Gurara and Tuwat are the only Berber languages to change ''r'' in certain coda positions to a laryngeal ''ħ''; in other contexts it drops ''r'', turning a preceding schwa into ''a'', and this latter phenomenon exists also in Zenata Rif-Berber in the far northern Morocco. There is inconclusive evidence for Songhay influence on Gurara. ''Ahellil'' The local tradition of ''ahellil'' poetry and music in Gurara, described in Mouloud Mammeri's ''L'Ahellil du Gourara'', has been listed as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO The United Nation ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Western Berber Languages
The Western Berber languages are a branch of the Berber languages. They comprise two languages: * Zenaga * Tetserret Zenaga is spoken in southwestern Mauritania while Tetserret is spoken in central Niger. They appear to have influenced the Algerian Songhai language Korandje. The label "Western Berber" was first used in a classificatory sense by Aikhenvald and Militarev (1984) in reference to Zenaga alone. ( Tetserret data was not available to them.) Sound changes characteristic of this subgroup include the reflex of proto-Berber Proto-Berber or Proto-Libyan is the reconstructed proto-language from which the modern Berber languages descend. Proto-Berber was an Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language, and thus its descendant Berber languages are cousins to the Egyptian ... *ww as *bb (elsewhere gg/ggʷ) and *w (elsewhere retained) as *b after consonants; of *x (elsewhere retained) as *k; of *ṭṭ as ḍḍ (elsewhere ṭṭ); and of *ẓ as a voiceless fricative ṣ ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Northern Berber Languages
The Northern Berber languages are a dialect continuum spoken across the Maghreb, constituting a subgroup of the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family. Their continuity has been broken by the spread of Arabic, and to a lesser extent by the Zenati group of Northern Berber. The Zenati idioms share certain innovations not found in the surrounding languages; notably a softening of ''k'' to ''sh'' and an absence of ''a-'' in certain words, such as "hand" (''afus'' vs. ''fus''.) Northern Berber languages spoken by over a million people include Shilha, Central Morocco Tamazight, Riff, Shawiya and Kabyle. They fall into three groups: *Moroccan Atlas languages (incl. Shilha, Central Morocco Tamazight) * Zenati languages (incl. Riff, Shawiya) * Kabyle The eastern boundaries of the North Berber varieties are uncertain. Some linguists include the Nafusi and Ghadames languages, while others do not. Most regard Ghadamès as lying outside of Northern Berber, but ''Ethnologue'' does n ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tuareg Languages
Tuareg (), also known as ''Tamasheq'' (), ''Tamajaq'' or ''Tamahaq'' (Tifinagh: ), is a group of closely related Berber languages, Berber Linguistic variety, varieties. They are spoken by the Tuareg people, Tuareg Berbers in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya, and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the ''Kinnin'', in Chad. Description The Tuareg varieties, on account of their low internal diversity and high Mutual intelligibility, mutual intercomprehensibility, are commonly regarded as a single language by linguists (as for instance by Karl-Gottfried Prasse). They are distinguished mainly by a few sound shifts (notably affecting the pronunciation of original ''z'' and ''h''). The Tuareg varieties are unusually Conservative and innovative language, conservative in some respects; they retain two short vowels where Northern Berber languages have one or none, and have a much lower proportion of Arabic language, Arabic loanwords than most Berber languages. The Tuareg languages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tabelbala
Tabelbala (, , Korandje: ''tsawərbəts'') is a town and commune between Béchar and Tindouf in south-western Algeria, and is the capital, and only significant settlement, of the Daïra of the same name, encompassing most of the western half of Béni Abbès Province (part of Béchar Province until 2019). As of the 2008 census, its population was 5,121, up from 4,663 in 1998, with an annual growth rate of 1.0%. The commune covers an area of , making it by far the largest commune in the province, as well as the least densely populated. Tabelbala is notable for being the only town in Algeria to speak a language neither Arabic nor Berber, namely Korandje, which is spoken by about 3,000 people. Most of the rest of the population are descendants of twentieth-century immigrants to the oasis. History From at least the 13th to the 19th century, Tabelbala was a stop on the caravan routes linking southern Morocco (notably Sijilmasa) to the Sahel, in particular Timbuktu. Geography The ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Morocco
Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocco border, the east, and the disputed territory of Western Sahara to Morocco–Western Sahara border, the south. Morocco also claims the Spain, Spanish Enclave and exclave, exclaves of Ceuta, Melilla and Peñón de Vélez de la Gomera, and several small Plazas de soberanía, Spanish-controlled islands off its coast. It has a population of approximately 37 million. Islam is both the official and predominant religion, while Arabic and Berber are the official languages. Additionally, French and the Moroccan dialect of Arabic are widely spoken. The culture of Morocco is a mix of Arab culture, Arab, Berbers, Berber, Culture of Africa, African and Culture of Europe, European cultures. Its capital is Rabat, while its largest city is Casablanca. Th ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Agadez
Agadez ( Air Tamajeq: ⴰⴶⴰⴷⴰⵣ, ''Agadaz''), formerly spelled Agadès, is the fifth largest city in Niger, with a population of 110,497 based on the 2012 census. The capital of the eponymous Agadez Region, the city lies in the Sahara desert, and is also the capital of Aïr, one of the traditional Tuareg–Berber federations. The historic centre of the town has been designated a World Heritage Site by UNESCO. History Agadez was founded before the 14th century, and, by growing around trans-Saharan trade, gradually became the most important city of the Tuareg people, supplanting Assodé. The city still sees the arrival of caravans bringing salt from Bilma. In 1449 Agadez became a sultanate, but was later conquered by the Songhai Empire in 1515, remaining a part of that empire until 1591.Geels, Jolijn, (2006) ''Bradt Travel Guide - Niger'', pgs. 157-200 At this point, the city had a population of around 30,000 people. By then, the city was a key passage for the med ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
In-Gall
In-Gall (var. In Gall, I-n-Gall, In-Gal, Ingal, Ingall) is a department, commune and town in the Agadez Region of northeast Niger, with a year-round population of less than 500. Known for its oasis and salt flats, In-Gall is the gathering point for the Cure Salee festival of Tuareg and Wodaabe pastoralists to celebrate the end of the rainy season each September. During the festival, In-Gall's population grows to several thousand nomads, officials, and tourists. As of 2011, the commune had a total population of 47,170 people. In-Gall had been a stop on the main roads between the capital of Niger, Niamey (600 km to the southwest), and the mining town of Arlit (200 km to the northeast, 150 km from the Algerian border) or the provincial capital Agadez (100 km to the east). In the 1970s, the main road was repaved to transport uranium from the French-owned mines in Arlit, but the new road bypassed In-Gall, ending its use as a waystation. Since then, its popu ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Ménaka
Ménaka (Berber languages, Berber: ⵎⵏⴾⴰ) is a town and Communes of Mali, urban commune in Ménaka Cercle and Ménaka Region in eastern Mali. It is the seat and the largest town in the ''cercle'' and region. The town is set amidst the rocky outcrops of the Ader Douchi hills, and is served by Ménaka Airport. As of September of 2024, the town has been taken under control by the Malian government and the Plateforme, however they are under siege by the Islamic State – Sahel Province, ISSP. Tuareg rebellions The Ménaka area was a center of Ag El Insar Firhoun's Malian rising of larger Kaocen Revolt, 1916 Tuareg Rebellion, and was a government garrison town in the Tuareg Rebellion (1961–1964), 1961–1964, Tuareg Rebellion (1990–1995), 1990–1995, and the Tuareg rebellion (2007–2009), 2007–2009 Tuareg Rebellions. Most recently, Ménaka was put under siege and the military post sacked by former rebels who had been integrated into the Malian Army in a short term rising ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
