Tasawaq (Tuareg name: Tesăwăq),[3] 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.[4][5] A closely related variety called Emghedeshie was spoken in Agadez but is now extinct.
| Tasawaq | |
|---|---|
| Tásàwàq | |
| Native to | Niger |
| Region | Agadez |
| Ethnicity | Isawaghan/Ingalkoyyu |
Native speakers | 21,000 (2021)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | twq |
| Glottolog | tasa1240 |
| ELP | Tasawaq |
 | |
| Sawaq | |
|---|---|
| Person | Asawagh / Ingalkoy |
| People | Isawaghan / Ingalkoyyu |
| Language | Tasawaq / Ingelshi |
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.
References
edit- ^ Tasawaq at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023)
- ^ This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
- ^ Ritter, Georg (2009). Wörterbuch zur Sprache und Kultur der Twareg II Deutsch-Twareg. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. 735.
- ^ Michael J. Rueck; Niels Christiansen. Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger, a sociolinguistic survey. Summer Institute of Linguistics (1999).
- ^ 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
