Tawellemmet (''Tawəlləmmət'') is the largest of the

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, ...

in the

Berber Berber or Berbers may refer to: Ethnic group * Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa * Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages Places * Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile People with the surname * Ady Berber (1913–196 ...

branch of the

Afroasiatic family The Afroasiatic languages (also known as Afro-Asiatic, Afrasian, Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic) are a language family (or "phylum") of about 400 languages spoken predominantly in West Asia, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, and parts of the ...

. It is usually one of two languages classed within a language called ''Tamajaq'', the other language being Aïr Tamajeq. Tawellemmet is the language of the Iwellemmeden Tuareg. It is spoken in

Mali Mali, officially the Republic of Mali, is a landlocked country in West Africa. It is the List of African countries by area, eighth-largest country in Africa, with an area of over . The country is bordered to the north by Algeria, to the east b ...

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 ...

and parts of northern

Nigeria Nigeria, officially the Federal Republic of Nigeria, is a country in West Africa. It is situated between the Sahel to the north and the Gulf of Guinea in the Atlantic Ocean to the south. It covers an area of . With Demographics of Nigeria, ...

by approximately 1.3 million people with the largest number of speakers in Niger at 829,000 people.

Phonology

Vowels

* Vowels may also be lengthened as /iː, eː, aː, oː, uː/. * /a/ in lax form can be heard as �

Consonants

* Consonants may also occur as geminated.

Orthography

Tawellemmet, as well as other Tuareg languages, has traditionally and recently been written in three orthographies, with one or the other being the dominant orthography in specific contexts. These are

Arabic script The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic (Arabic alphabet) and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used alphabetic writing system in the world (after the Latin script), the second-most widel ...

Latin script The Latin script, also known as the Roman script, is a writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae in Magna Graecia. The Gree ...

, and Tifinagh (Traditional Tamajeq Tifinagh) script.West African Scripts Literature Ministry
https://www.westafricanscripts.org/
/ref> Tifinagh has been the ancient and traditional script for writing of Tuareg. However, as Tuareg peoples have been a largely oral society, Tifinagh has only been used primarily for games and puzzles, short graffiti and brief messages. Arabic alphabet has come to be adopted with the spread of Islam among Tuareg people from the 7th century onward. Tuareg people, being an integral part of the Trans-Saharan trade, played the most significant role in spreading

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

to indigenous African communities further south, in the

Sahel The Sahel region (; ), or Sahelian acacia savanna, is a Biogeography, biogeographical region in Africa. It is the Ecotone, transition zone between the more humid Sudanian savannas to its south and the drier Sahara to the north. The Sahel has a ...

and Sub-Saharan Africa. Thus, Tuareg merchant, scholars, and clerics played a significant role in the teaching of the

Arabic alphabet The Arabic alphabet, or the Arabic abjad, is the Arabic script as specifically codified for writing the Arabic language. It is a unicase, unicameral script written from right-to-left in a cursive style, and includes 28 letters, of which most ...

and its eventual adoption as part of what's today known as Ajami convention of writing, for writing of languages such as Songhai, Fula, and Hausa. Latin has been used for writing of Tawellemmet and other Tuareg languages a lot more recently. Latin-derived scripts have been developed and adopted since the 19th century with the arrival of European Christian missionaries, colonial administrators, and linguists. The Latin script for Tawellemmet is an "

Alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

". Tuareg languages, including Tawellemmet, are the only languages that use Tifinagh in its original traditional form. The Traditional Tifinagh script is an "

Abjad An abjad ( or abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving the vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introd ...

", meaning that vowels are not written or shown in any way, neither are geminated consonants. Only in the final position do letters ''a'' (), ''w'' (), ''y'' () serve as vowels in some contexts. Elsewhere, for example among the Imazighen (Berbers), the modified neo-Tifinagh, which is a full alphabet, is used. The Arabic script is an " Impure Abjad", meaning that some vowels are written using

diacritics A diacritic (also diacritical mark, diacritical point, diacritical sign, or accent) is a glyph added to a letter or to a basic glyph. The term derives from the Ancient Greek (, "distinguishing"), from (, "to distinguish"). The word ''diacrit ...

and some using actual letters, consonant letters serving as vowels depending on the context.Savage, Andrew. ''Tifinagh Unicode Propositions''
Archive

Latin

Arabic

Tifinagh

Sample Text

Below is a sample text, translation of the Bible, Holy Bible, specifically the

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...

, chapter 1, verses 1 to 4 into Tawellemmet.

References

{{Arabic script Berber languages Berbers in Mali Berbers in Niger Berbers in Nigeria Tuareg languages