Tama language should not be confused with Tama language (Colombia).
| Tama | |
| Also Known As: | Tamongobo |
| States: | Chad, Sudan |
| Region: | Wadi Fira, West Darfur, South Darfur |
| Ethnicity: | Tama, Kimr |
| Date: | 2022–2023 |
| Ref: | e27 |
| Dia1: | Tama |
| Dia2: | Orra |
| Dia3: | Girga |
| Dia4: | Haura |
| Dia5: | Erenga |
| Dia6: | Murase |
| Dia7: | Mileere |
| Dia8: | Madungore |
| Script: | Unwritten |
| Familycolor: | Nilo-Saharan |
| Fam2: | Eastern Sudanic |
| Fam3: | Northern Eastern |
| Fam4: | Taman |
| Fam5: | Tama–Sungor |
| Iso3: | tma |
| Glotto: | tama1331 |
| Glottorefname: | Tama (Chad) |
| Lingua: | 05-DAA-aa |
Tama, or Tamongobo, is the primary language spoken by the Tama people in Ouaddai, eastern Chad and in Darfur, western Sudan.[1] It is a Taman language which belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Miisiirii is often considered a dialect, though it is not particularly close.
Tama is spoken by 63,000 people in Dar Tama, a well irrigated area near Guéréda that extends from Kebkebiya village to nearby Sudan. There are two nearly identical dialects, one spoken in the northern and central areas, and another one spoken in the south.[2]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | t̪ | k | |||||||
| b | d̪ | ɟ | g | ||||||
| ɓ | ɗ̪ | ||||||||
| Fricative | f | s | ʃ | h | |||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
| Rhotic | r | ɽ | |||||||
| Lateral | l | ɭ | |||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||
| +ATR | -ATR | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | ||
| Close | i | u | ɪ | ʊ | |||
| Mid | e | o | ɛ | ɔ | |||
| Open | ʌ̈ | a | |||||