Gurara (Gourara) is a
Zenati Berber language
The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber commun ...
spoken in the
Gourara
Tuat, or Touat, is a natural region of desert in central Algeria that contains a string of small oases. In the past, the oases were important for caravans crossing the Sahara.
Geography
Tuat lies to the south of the Grand Erg Occidental, to th ...
(''Tigurarin'') region, an archipelago of oases surrounding the town of
Timimoun
Timimoun ( ar, ﺗﻴﻤﻴﻤﻮن) is a town and commune, and capital of Timimoun District, in Adrar Province, south-central Algeria. According to the 2008 census it has a population of 33,060, up from 28,595 in 1998, with an annual growth rate ...
in southwestern
Algeria
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, capital = Algiers
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, relig ...
. ''
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, Mouloud Mammeri's ''L'Ahellil du Gourara'',
[Mouloud Mammeri, ''L ‘Ahellil du Gourara'', M.S.H.:Paris 1984.] has been listed as part of the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
References
Berber languages
Languages of Algeria
{{Berber-lang-stub