Tasawaq language explained

Tasawaq
Nativename:Tásàwàq
States:Niger
Ethnicity:Isawaghan/Ingalkoyyu
Region:Agadez
Date:2021
Ref:e26
Familycolor:Nilo-Saharan
Fam2:Songhay
Fam3:Northern
Dia1:Ingelshi
Dia2:Emghedeshie
Iso3:twq
Glotto:tasa1240
Glottorefname:Tasawaq
Map:Songhay languages.svg
Mapcaption:Location of Songhay languages[1]
Northwest Songhay:Eastern Songhay:

Tasawaq (Tuareg name: Tesăwăq),[2] sometimes also called Ingelshi, is a Northern Songhay language spoken by the Issawaghan or Ingalkoyyu, a community surrounding the town of In-Gall in Niger.[3] [4] A closely related variety called Emghedeshie was spoken in Agadez but is now extinct.

It shares some similarities with Berber languages, e.g. Tamasheq. For example in both languages, the grammatical gender of a noun is female if it begins and ends with the letter t.

Notes and References

  1. This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
  2. Book: Ritter. Georg. Wörterbuch zur Sprache und Kultur der Twareg II Deutsch-Twareg. 2009. Harrassowitz. Wiesbaden. 735.
  3. Michael J. Rueck; Niels Christiansen. Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger, a sociolinguistic survey. Summer Institute of Linguistics (1999).
  4. Catherine Taine-Cheikh. [Les langues parlées au sud Sahara et au nord Sahel http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00456346/]. De l'Atlantique à l'Ennedi (Catalogue de l'exposition « Sahara-Sahel »), Centre Culturel Français d'Abidjan (Ed.) (1989) 155–173