Zenaga language

Zenaga (autonym: ' or ') is a Berber language spoken in Mauritania and northern Senegal by thousands of people. Zenaga Berber is spoken as a mother tongue from the town of Mederdra in southwestern Mauritania to the Atlantic coast and in northern Senegal. The language is recognized by the Mauritanian government.

It shares its basic linguistic structure with other Berber idioms in Morocco and Algeria, but specific features are quite different. In fact, Zenaga is probably the most divergent surviving Berber language, with a significantly different sound system made even more distant by sound changes such as > and > , as well as a profusion of glottal stops with no correspondents in other Berber varieties that are interpreted as the only segmental survivor of a Proto-Berber .

The name ''Zenaga'' comes from that of a much larger ancient Berber tribe, the Iznagen (Iẓnagen), who are known in Arabic as the Sanhaja. Adrian Room's ''African Placenames'' gives Zenaga derivations for some place-names in Mauritania.

Demographics

Zenaga is a language descended from the Sanhaja confederation who ruled over much of North Africa during the early Middle Ages. Zenaga was once spoken throughout Mauritania and beyond but fell into decline when its speakers were defeated by the invading Maqil Arabs in the Char Bouba war of the 17th century. After this war, they were forbidden to bear arms and variously became either specialists in Islamic religious scholarship or servants to more powerful tribes. It was among the former, more prestigious group that Zenaga survived longest.

In 1940 (Dubié 1940), Zenaga was spoken by about 13,000 people belonging to four nomadic tribes distributed in an area roughly bounded by Saint-Louis, Podor, Boutilimit and Nouakchott (but including none of these cities):
* ('the five'): 4,653 speakers out of 12,000 members
* ('i-D-ab-lahs-en'): 5,000 out of 5,000
* ('i-Kumleil-en'), subtribe of the Ida u el Hadj: 700 (out of Ida u el Hadj population of 4,600)
*: 2,889 out of 8,500

These tribes, according to Dubié, traditionally specialised in Islamic religious scholarship and led a nomadic lifestyle, specialising in sheep and cows (camel-herding branches of the same tribes had already switched to Arabic). Even then, many speakers were shifting to Hassaniya Arabic, the main Arabic variety spoken in Mauritania, and all were bilingual. Zenaga was used only within the tribe, and it was considered impolite to speak it when non-speakers were present; some speakers deliberately avoided using Zenaga with their children, hoping to give them a head start in Hassaniya. However, many speakers regarded Zenaga as a symbol of their independence and their religious fervour; Dubie cites a Hassaniya proverb: "A Moor who speaks Zenaga is certainly not a Zenagui (that is, a or a member of a Berber tribe subjugated by the Arab Beni Hassan), nor a warrior".

Half a century later, the number of speakers is reportedly around 2,000. While Zenaga appears to be nearing extinction, Hassaniya Arabic contains a substantial number of Zenaga loanwords (more than 10% of the vocabulary).

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

* can be heard as an allophone of /f/.
* Sounds ˤand ˤoccur marginally.
* Pharyngeal sounds /ħ, ʕ/ are heard from Arabic loanwords.

Dialects

There are significant dialectal differences within Zenaga, notably between the ''Id-ab-lahsen'' and ''Tendgha'' dialects.

References

Further reading

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* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2005. " Du rôle de la quantité vocalique en morphogénie. Réflexions à partir de l'arabe et du berbère de Mauritanie ", ''Faits de Langues'' n° 26 pecial issue on Hamito=Semitic languages (afro-asiatiques, vol. 1), Éd. A. Lonnet & A. Mettouchi Paris, Ophrys, pp. 41–63.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2005. " Le rôle des phénomènes d'agglutination dans la morphogenèse de l'arabe et du berbère, éd. G. Lazard & C. Moyse, ''Linguistique typologique'' ctes du 3ème colloque "Typologie des langues et universaux linguistiques", Paris, 18–19 novembre 2002 Lille: Presses du Septentrion, pp. 288–315.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2005. " Moyen et réfléchi: typologie comparée de l’arabe et du berbère (exemples mauritaniens) ", ''Matériaux arabes et sudarabiques'' (GELLAS) 003–2005. "En hommage à Omar Bencheikh (1940–2005)" n° 11 (nouvelle série), Paris, pp. 37–52.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2005. " Les numéraux en berbère. Le cas du zénaga ", Éd. A. M. Di Tolli, ''Studi Maġribini'' Nuova Serie, vol. 3 (2005 "Studi Berberi e Mediterranei. Miscellanea offerta in onore di Luigi Serra"), Napoli: Università degli Studi di Napoli "L'Orientale", pp. 269–280.
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* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2007. " Les propositions relatives en zénaga et la question des relateurs en berbère ", Éd. M. Moriggi, ''XII Incontro Italiano di Linguistici Camito-semitica (Afroasiatica). Atti'', Rubbettino: Medioevo Romanzo e Orientale, pp. 301–310.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2007. " Voix moyenne et variations d'actance: le réfléchi en arabe et en berbère (exemples de Mauritanie) ", Éd. A. Rousseau, D. Bottineau et D. Roulland, ''L'énoncé réfléchi"'', Rennes: Presses Universitaires de Rennes, pp. 321–342.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2007. " Périphérie géographique et perméabilité aux contacts. Le cas du Maghreb ", ''Romano-Arabica'', n° 6–7 (2006–2007 "Peripheral Arabic Dialects", Éd. George Grigore), pp. 159–178.
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* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine, "Dictionnaire zénaga-français. Le berbère de Mauritanie présenté par racines dans une perspective comparative", (Berber Studies; n° 20, 2008) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag, XCIX + 650 p. vec un avant-propos d'Abdel Wedoud Ould Cheikh
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2009. " La lexicographie du zénaga et le problème de classement par racines ", Éd. R. Vossen, D. Ibriszimow & H.J. Stroomer, ''Etudes berbères IV. Essais lexicologiques et lexicographiques et autres articles. Actes du "4. Bayreuth-Frankfurt-Leidener Kolloquium zur Berberologie", 21–23 septembre 2006''. (Berber Studies; n° 25). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag , pp. 231–247,
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2009. " Les morphèmes de futur en arabe et en berbère. Réflexions pour une typologie ", ''Faits de Langues''; n° 33 pecial issue on the future Paris: Ophrys, pp. 91–102.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2009. " L'aoriste en zénaga : Contribution à l'étude des aspects en berbère ", Éd. S. Chaker, A. Mettouchi et G. Philippson, ''Études de phonétique et linguistique berbères. Hommage à Naïma LOUALI (1961–2005)'', Paris: Peeters eries: SELAF n° 452, Maghreb-Sahara n° 23 pp. 231–249.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2009. " À propos de l'expression de l'état en zénaga. Apophonie et sous-catégorisation verbale en berbère et en arabe ", Éd. S. Baldi, ''Studi Maġribini'' Nuova Serie, vol. VII ("International Afro-Asiatic Congress. 11th–13th September 2008", at the University of Naples "L'Orientale", Italy, ed. by ), pp. 95–109.
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* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2010. " The role of the Berber deictic ad and TAM markers in dependent clauses in Zenaga ", Éd. I. Bril (éd.), "Clause Linking and Clause Hierarchy. Syntax and pragmatics", Amsterdam / Philadelphia, John Benjamins Publishing Company, pp. 355–398.
* Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2010. " Aux origines de la culture matérielle des nomades de Mauritanie. Réflexions à partir des lexiques arabes et berbères ". "The Maghreb Review" Spécial issue on Mauritania", Part 1, Éd. P. Bonte et S. Boulay 35 (n° 1–2), pp. 64–88.

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Berbers in Mauritania
Berbers in Senegal
Western Berber languages
Languages of Mauritania
Languages of Senegal
Endangered languages of Africa
Verb–subject–object languages
Endangered Afroasiatic languages