Daza language

Not to be confused withDazawa language.

"Goran language" redirects here. Not to be confused withGorani languageorGora dialect.

Daza
Dazaga
Native to	ChadandNiger
Region	BET Region,Bahr el Gazel Region,Batha,Borkou,Hadjer-Lamis,Kanem,Lac,Wadi-Fira,Diffa,Zinder
Ethnicity	Toubou
Native speakers	700,000 (2019–2021)
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Saharan Western Tebu Daza
Writing system	Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3	dzg
Glottolog	daza1242
Linguasphere	02-BAA-ab

Daza(also known asDazaga) is aNilo-Saharanlanguage spoken by the Daza people (a sub-group of theToubou people) inhabiting northernChadand easternNiger.The Daza are also known as theGouran(Gorane) in Chad.Dazaga is spoken by around 700,000 people, primarily in theDjurab Desertregion and theBorkouregion, locally called Haya orFaya-Largeaunorthern-central Chad, the capital of the Dazaga people. Dazaga is spoken in theTibesti MountainsofChad(606,000 speakers), in easternNigernearN'guigmiand to the north (93,200 speakers).It is also spoken to a smaller extent inLibyaand inSudan,where there is a community of 3,000 speakers in the city ofOmdurman.There's also a small diaspora community working inJeddah,Saudi Arabia.

The two primary dialects of the Dazaga language are Daza and Kara, but there are several other mutually intelligible dialects, including Kaga, Kanobo, Taruge and Azza. It is closely related to theTedaga language,spoken by theTeda,the other out of the twoToubou peoplegroups, who reside primarily in the Tibesti Mountains of northern Chad and in southern Libya near the city ofSabha.

Dazaga is a Nilo-Saharan language and a member of the Western Saharan branch of theSaharansubgroup which also contains theKanuri language,Kanembu languageandTebu languages.Tebu is further divided into Tedaga and Dazaga. The Eastern Saharan branch includes theZaghawa languageandBerti language.

Vocabulary

The dialects spoken in Chad and Niger have someFrenchinfluence whereas the dialects spoken in Libya and Sudan have more of anArabicinfluence. The Dazaga language was not traditionally a written language but in recent years theSILhad developed an orthography. The majority of Dazaga speakers arebilingualor multilingual in their native tongue along with either Arabic, French, Zaghawa,Hausa,Zarma,Kanuri orTuareg.There are thus many borrowings from other languages such as Arabic, Hausa or French. For example, the word for "thank you" is borrowed from Arabicshokranand incorporated into the language by usually being followed by the suffix-nummarking the second person.
The following tables contain words from the Daza dialect spoken in Omdurman, Sudan. Thisromanisationis not standard.

Numbers

English	Dazaga	English	Dazaga
One	Tron	Eleven	Murdai sa Tron
Two	Jow	Twelve	Murdai sa Jow
Three	Aguzo	Thirteen	Murdai sa Aguzo
Four	Twzo	Fourteen	Murdai sa Twzo
Five	Foo	Fifteen	Murdai sa Foo
Six	Disi	Sixteen	Murdai sa Disi
Seven	Troso	Seventeen	Murdai sa Troso
Eight	Woso	Eighteen	Murdai sa Woso
Nine	Yisi	Nineteen	Murdai sa Yisi
Ten	Murdum	Twenty	Digiram
Thirty	Murtta Aguzo	Fifty	Murtta Foo
Forty	Murtta Twzo	Hundred	Kidri

Basic words and phrases

English	Dazaga	English	Dazaga
man	Agni	Good Morning	Wasa Nisira
woman	Ari	Good Night	Kalar Sizoo
family	Ama tanga	Thank you	alay barkantchân
brother	Dagi	My name is...	Tan Sortanjo
sister	Duroo	What is your name?	Sornuma Jaa? or sornuma eni'
papa	Abaa	How are you?	neré wasi?
mama	Aya	I am well	Kala Layy or Tan Wasu or wasa a'
friend	Lao	Please	toussowna
world	Dina	Country	Ni
dead	Noso	Religion	Din
people	Amma	Better	Bouré
East	Mah	West	Jeh
North	Yallh	South	Onoum

Phonology

The phonology of Daza is as follows:

Consonants

	Labial	Alveolar	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Plosive	b	td	tʃdʒ	kɡ
Fricative	f	sz	(ʃ)		h
Nasal	m	n	ɲ	ŋ
Flap		ɾ
Lateral		l
Approximant	w		j

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u
	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	e		o
	ɛ		ɔ
Open		a

External links

• Relative Clauses in Dazaga[1]Archived2016-03-11 at theWayback Machine