Tasawaq language

Tasawaq
Tásàwàq
Native toNiger
RegionAgadez
EthnicityIsawaghan/Ingalkoyyu
Native speakers
21,000 (2021)[1]
Dialects
  • Ingelshi
  • Emghedeshie
Language codes
ISO 639-3twq
Glottologtasa1240
ELPTasawaq
Location of Songhay languages[2]

Northwest Songhay:

  Korandje
  Koyra Chiini
  Tadaksahak
  Tasawaq
  Tagdal

Eastern Songhay:

  Tondi Songway Kiini
  Humburi Senni
  Koyraboro Senni
  Zarma language
  Songhoyboro Ciine
  Dendi
Sawaq
PersonAsawagh / Ingalkoy
PeopleIsawaghan / Ingalkoyyu
LanguageTasawaq / Ingelshi

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.

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.

  1. ^ Tasawaq at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. ^ This map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.
  3. ^ Ritter, Georg (2009). Wörterbuch zur Sprache und Kultur der Twareg II Deutsch-Twareg. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz. p. 735.
  4. ^ Michael J. Rueck; Niels Christiansen. Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger, a sociolinguistic survey. Summer Institute of Linguistics (1999).
  5. ^ 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