Tamasheq language
| Tamasheq | |
|---|---|
| Tamashek, Tamachen, Tamashekin, Tamachek, Tomacheck | |
| Tafaghist | |
| Native to | Mali,Burkina Faso |
| Region | Sahara |
| Ethnicity | Tuareg |
Native speakers | 900,000 (2021–2022)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Official status | |
Official language in |  Mali[2][3] |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | taq |
| Glottolog | tama1365 |
TamashekorTamasheqis a variety ofTuareg,aBerbermacro-languagewidely spoken by nomadic tribes across North Africa inAlgeria,Mali,Niger,andBurkina Faso.Tamasheq is one of the three main varieties of Tuareg, the others beingTamajaqandTamahaq.[4]: 2
Tamashek is spoken mostly in Mali, especially in its central region includingTimbuktu,Kidal,andGao.It is also spoken by a sizeable population in Burkina Faso where it is spoken by 187,000 people as of 2021. As of 2022, approximately 900,000 people speak Tamashek, with the majority of speakers residing in Mali with approximately 590,000 speakers.[1]The livelihood of the Tuareg people has been under threat in the last century, due to climate change and a series of political conflicts, notably theArab-Tuareg rebellionof 1990–1995 in Mali which resulted in ethnic cleansing of the Tuareg in the form of reprisal killings and exile.[4]: 5–6 Tamashek is currently classified as a developing language (5), partly due to the Malian government's active promotion of the language; it is currently taught in public education, from primary schools to adult literacy classes.[1]
Tamashek is often understood in Mali as a term that denotes all Tuareg varieties.[4]: 3 Other alternative names for Tamashek include Tamachen, Tamashekin, and Tomacheck.[1]
Dialect divisions of Malian Tamashek[edit]
There are divergent views regarding Tamashek's dialect divisions. Some report two main dialects, named Timbuktu and Tadhaq.[1]
Others take there to be roughly three main divisions of Malian Tamashek:[4]: 6
- Kal Ansar dialects around Timbuktu (denoted 'T-Ka')
- "mainstream" Tamashek dialects spoken in Kidal, Tessalit, the Gao area, and the non-Kal Ansar groups around Timbuktu
- dialects spoken by certain groups in the Gourma of Gao and Ansongo
Phonology[edit]
Vowels[edit]
The Tamasheq language has sevenvowelsin total: two frontal vowels /i/, /æ/; three central vowels /ə/, /æ/, /a/; and two back vowels /u/, /o/. There are two short vowels, /ə/ and /æ/, where /ə/ may beelidedin some contexts, and /æ/ is always short but may be phonetically realized as a sound ranging from [æ] to [a], distinguished from /a/ which is always [ɑː]. There are no other distinctions between vowels which are primarily length-based. Tamasheq has nodiphthongs.[4]: 34
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | ə | ||
| Low | æ |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | e | o | |
| Low | a |
While all vowels occur word-initially and word-medially, only full vowels occur word-finally.[4]: 34
Consonants[edit]
Tamasheq has 33consonants,featuring six manners of articulation and eight places of articulation. There are nonon-pulmonicconsonants. The consonants are detailed in the table below.[4]: 23
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Laryngeal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | pharyngealized | ||||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | (p) | t | (tˤ) | tʃ | k | (q) | (ʔ) | |
| voiced | b | d | dˤ | gʲ | g | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | (sˤ) | ʃ | χ | (ħ) | h | |
| voiced | z | zˤ | ʒ | ʁ | (ʕ) | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | |||||
| Liquid | lateral | l | (ɫ) | ||||||
| rhotic | r | ||||||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||
The table places the two laryngeal consonants, and /h/ and /ʔ/, according to theIPA chart(the source did not specify their manners of articulation).
Consonants in a single parenthesis are of marginal use, "confined largely to loanwords."[4]: 23 Consonants of Arabic origins – /sˤ/, /ɫ/, /ħ/, /ʕ/, and /ʔ/ – occur in Arabic loanwords. The glottal stop /ʔ/ is already largely absent in local Arabic dialects, is thus only found in unassimilated Islamic vocabulary.[4]: 24
Consonants in a double parenthesis occur mostly as geminated versions of other consonants.[clarification needed]A uvular stop /q/ principally occurs in thegeminatedform /qq/, which can be interpreted as the "phonetic realization of geminated /ɣɣ/.[4]: 24
Accent[edit]
Accentis an "important feature of Tamasheq". The role of accent is "very different" for verbs and nouns. For nouns and other non-verb stems, accent is lexically determined. This is not the case for verbs. According to the rule called "default accentuation", the accent falls on the antepenult or on the leftmost syllable of verbs. The exception to the rule is resultative and long imperfect positive stems.[4]: 20
For example,a-bæ̀mbæra,which meansBambara,has its primary accent on the antepenult syllable. A bisyllabic wordhæ̀ræt,which is glossed as 'thing,' has its accent on the initial syllable.[4]: 83–84
Morphology[edit]
Tamasheq's two main morphological processes areablautandaffixation,with the former permeating the language. Many processes also undergo a combination of the two.[4]: 21
Derivational morphology[edit]
Most of Tamasheqnounsare underived, although some arederivedby "some combination of ablaut and prefixation." For example, the nount-æ-s-ȁnan-t,which means 'oxpecker,' is prefixally derived from the causative verbæ̀ss-onæn'tame, break in animal' with its-s-prefix.[4]: 13
In Tamasheq, nearly all "modifying adjectives" are participles of inflected intransitive verbs.[4]: 243 For example, the verb 'to ripe' isəŋŋá,and it is inflected into participles such asi-ŋŋá-n(MaSg) ort-əŋŋá-t(FeSg). These resultative participles are used with "adjectival" sense, adjectivalized into the word 'ripened'.: 502, 503
Nominal morphology[edit]
Gender and number[edit]
Gender and number are mainly marked using affixation, though in many cases they use ablaut or a combination of both.
Most nouns, regardless of gender, have vocalicprefixes,varying between -æ-/-ə, -a-, or -e-for the singular, and invariablei-in the plural. Some nouns entirely lack a vocalic prefix, e.g.deké('basket').[4]: 162, 164
Feminine nouns are additionally marked by the Fe[minine] prefixt-.For feminine singular nouns, suffix-tis required to denote singularity, thus we see acircumfixt-...-t.In cases where the stem ends in a vowel, however, an additional inner Fe suffix-t-is added before the outer suffix, thus the affix frame becomest-...-t-t.[4]: 166
In addition to the plural vocalic prefix-i-,pluralization of nouns requires gender-based suffixation: for feminine plural nouns, suffix-enor-tenis added, while for masculine nouns Ma[sculine] suffix-ænor-tænis added. In some cases, a noun pluralizes by stem ablaut without suffixation; one example of unsuffixed plural ablaut isæ̀-ɣata('crocodile'), which is pluralized toì-ɣata.[4]: 162, 211
The table below illustrates the idealized morphological rules of gender and number marking explained so far:
| singular | plural | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| typical rule | example | typical rule | example | |
| masculine | -æ-/-ə, -a-,or-e- SGprefix |
æxxú 'monster'[4]: 165 |
-i- PLprefix + -ænor-tæn MASC.PLsuffix |
i-xxú-tæn 'monsters'[4]: 165 |
| feminine | -æ-/-ə, -a-,or-e- SGprefix + t-...-(t)t FEMcircumfix |
t-æ-s-ȁnan-t 'oxpecker'[4]: 13 |
-i- PLprefix + -enor-ten FEM.PLsuffix |
t-i-s-ànan-en 'oxpeckers'[4]: 14 |
Compounding[edit]
Tamasheq makes use ofcompoundingto form nouns. Most noun-noun compounds necessitate a possessorprepositionə̀n in between the two morphemes, which can be analytically structured as [X [ə̀n Y]] 'X of Y.' Depending on the nouns, ə̀n may become unaccented, as shown in the first example below.[4]: 263
| Compounding Type | Example |
|---|---|
| Noun + Noun | t-e-fæ̏tel-t F-SG-lamp-F.SG ən POSS bə́t̩ron gasoline |
| Verb + Noun | kæ̀wkæw peck í-ɣbab PL-tree.hole |
| Adjective + Noun | èrk bad hæræt thing.SG |
Verbal morphology[edit]
Ablaut distinguishes the three basic inflectable verb stems in Tamasheq:[4]: 15–16
- perfective
- shortimperfective
- long imperfective
Ablaut can change a perfect present stem to aresultativestem. For example, the perfect present stem of the verb 'to run' isòšæl,and its resultative stem isòšál.: 306 Note the vowel change from /æ/ to /á/. Ablaut also creates perfective negative stems; for example, the perfect negative stem ofəhlæk,the perfect present stem of 'destroy,' isə̀hlek.[4]: 310
Affixation is also a morphological tool for Tamasheq verbs. One category of verbal affixation is pronominal subject affixes. For example, pronominal subject marking in positive imperatives usessuffixation.The table demonstrates second person subject affixes in imperatives with the example of the verbə̀jjəš('enter').[4]: 438
| Number | Gender | Suffix | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| Singular (Sg) | N/A | zero (bare stem) | ə̀jjəš |
| Plural (Pl) | Masculine (Ma) | -æt | ə̀jjə̏š-æt |
| Feminine (Fe) | -mæt | ə̀jjə̏š-mæt |
Suffixation is responsible forhortativestems. The hortative suffix-etcan be added to short imperfective stems. For example:
n-əkrəbbə̏-t-et
1PL.SBJ-taste-AUG-HORT
'Let's taste!'[4]: 321
Particles[edit]
Particlesexist in Tamasheq. One type of particle is preposition-like, and these particles precede noun phrases or independent pronouns.[4]: 291 For example:
Many categories of discourse-functional particles exist as well. For example,ɣásis an "extremely common" phrase-final particle that means 'only':
Another example, though less common, is a clause-final particleyá,which emphasizes on the truth of a statement:
Clitics[edit]
In terms of structure,cliticsare "normally realized at the end of the first word" in the clause. There are many types of clitics, including directionals, object and dativepronominals,pronominal prepositional phrases, etc. Below, clitics are indicated by the symbol "-\".[4]: 595
Directional clitics[edit]
There are two directional clitics – "centripetal" clitics and "centrifugal" clitics—and they cannot co-occur. The directional clitics are attached to the pronominal clitics hosted by the same word, and are usually accented.[4]: 595
The centripetal clitic's rudimentary form is -\ə̀dd.Its allomorphic variation depends on postvocalic versus postconsonantal position (e.g. -\ə̀dif, -\ddafter a, and -\hə̀ddafter high V). This clitic can be best understood as 'here,' as it specifies a direction toward "the deictic center." If the verb is non-motion, then the clitic suggests that the action was directed toward 'here' or was carried out in 'this direction'.[4]: 596, 598
osæ-n-\ə́dd
arrive.PFV.POS-3M.PL-\CENTRIPETAL
'They came (here).'[4]: 597
i-su-\hə́dd
3M.SG.SBJ-cough.PFV.POS-\CENTRIPETAL
'He coughed (while coming this way).'[4]: 597
On the other hand, the centrifugal clitic (-\ín) indicates direction away from the deictic center, and is best translated to 'away' or 'there' in English.[4]: 601
Pronominal clitics[edit]
Object clitics[edit]
Pronominal object clitics are attached at the end of a simpletransitive verb,or a preverbal particle if relevant. Pronominal clitics show wideallomorphic variationmainly depending on point of view and plurality. Allomorphs differ both syntactically and phonologically. The table below shows first person object clitics found in Kal Ansar dialects (T-ka).[4]: 603
| person | preverbal | postverbal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| after vowel or consonant | after /u/, /i/ | after consonant | after /a/ | |
| 1Sg | -\hi | -\ha-hi | -\a-hi | -\ø-hi |
| 1Pl | -\hə-næɣ | -\ha-næɣ | -\a-næɣ | -\ø-næɣ |
As seen in the table, the T-ka first-person singular object clitic attached to a preverbal particle is-\hi.The phrase 'he makes me weep' translates toi-s-álha-\hi,with the clitic attached at the end of the verb 'to make weep' (álha).[4]: 603
The table below shows second and third person object clitics for T-ka dialects. The column designated for post-a variants also occasionally applies for post-i variants.[4]: 604
| Person | postverbal after /a/ | elsewhere |
|---|---|---|
| 2MaSg | (i)-\k | -\kæy |
| 2FeSg | (i)-\m | -\kæm |
| 2MaPl | (i)-\wæn | -\kæwæn |
| 2FePl | (i)-\kmæt | -\kæmæt |
| 3FeSg | -\et | -\tæt |
| 3MaPl | -\en | -\tæn |
| 3FePl | -\enæt | -\tænæt |
Dative clitics[edit]
Tamasheq also makes use of pronominaldativeclitics. The basic dative morpheme is -\ha-, and it gets reduced to -\a\ or -\həin certain contexts. 1Sg and 1Pl object and dative clitics are identical.[4]: 607
i-wæt-\ȁ-hi-\tt
3M.SG.SBJ-hit.PFV.POS-\DAT-1SG-\3M.SG.OBJ
'he hit it for me.'
This example shows the first-person dative clitic -\a-hi,which follows the verb 'hit' (wæt).[4]: 609
Ordering of clitics[edit]
The basic ordering of clitics is as follows:[4]: 610
- host word
- cliticized preposition
- objective and/or dative
- directional
- pronominal prepositional phrase
For example:
ma-\dæɣ-\hà-m-\tæn-\dd
what?-\in-\DAT-2F.SG-\3M.PL.OBJ-\CENTRIPETAL
e
FUT
ȉ-ž-ænš
3M.SG.SBJ-CAUS-trade.SH.IPFV
?
?
'With (lit.: "in" ) what will he buy them for you?'[4]: 610
Syntax[edit]
Word order[edit]
Tamashek's simple main clauses have theword orderof VSO: [verb(-\clitics) (subject) (object)...].[4]: 16
Verb phrases[edit]
As shown in the examples above, the verb precedes the object.
Auxiliariesprecede the verb phrase. Future particle has a formàdin clause-initial position.[4]: 589 For example:
The clause-internal negative particle iswæ̀r,though it is heard as [wər] if it is directly before {ə u i}.[4]: 587 For example:
Noun phrases[edit]
In Tamashek, a NP starts with the head noun, followed by anadnominalcomplement such as a demonstrative, a possessor, or a relative clause. Tamashek does not have definiteness marking.[4]: 14
A few chief examples of NP are given below:
Demonstrative NP[edit]
Relative clause NP[edit]
Possessor NP[edit]
Numeral NP[edit]
Unlike the above three types where the NP starts with the head noun, numerals normally precede the head noun. One exception is when the numeral 'one' functions as an indefinite determiner, rather than as an actual number.[4]: 14
Adpositional phrases[edit]
Tamashek hasprepositions.
jèr-əs
between-3SG
dætén
and
burkína
Burkina
'between it (a town) and Burkina (neighboring country)'[4]: 289
Interrogatives[edit]
In Tamashek,question particlesprecede the clause.[4]: 649–662
ajə́mm'
yes/no?
ə́ttižal
due.date
ə́n
POSS
ʕali
Ali
wæ̀r
NEG
ø-æwwed̩
3M.SG.SBJ-arrive.PFV.NEG
'Has Ali's due date not arrived?’[4]: 649
Topicalization[edit]
Topicalizationis present in Tamashek, and a topicalized constituent may appear "before the clause proper."[4]: 615 For example:
Focalization[edit]
Focalizationis present in Tamashek. The focalized constituted is "fronted to sentence-initial position." The morpheme à, best understood as a minimal demonstrative form, usually follows the focus.[4]: 643 For example:
t-a-də̏ɣnu-t-t
F-Sg-cream-F-F.SG
[à
[FOC
kánn-æɣ]
make.LO.IPFV-1SG.SBJ]
'It is millet cream[focus] that I am making.’[4]: 645
References[edit]
- ^abcdeTamasheqatEthnologue(26th ed., 2023)
- ^"Décret N°2023-0401/PT-RM du 22 juillet 2023 portant promulgation de la constitution"(PDF).Journal Officiel de la République du Mali.Soixante-quatrième Année (SPECIAL N°13). Secrétariat général du gouvernement. 2023-07-22.
- ^"Décret n°2017-0735/P-RM du 21 août 2017 fixant l'organisation et les modalités de fonctionnement des structures d'éducation non formelle"(PDF).Journal Officiel de la République du Mali.Cinquante huitième Année (39). Secrétariat général du gouvernement. 2017-09-29.
- ^abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyzaaabacadaeafagahaiajakalamanaoapaqarasatauavawaxayazbabbbcbdbebfbgbhbibjbkblbmbnbobpbqbrHeath, Jeffrey. (2005).A grammar of Tamashek (Tuareg of Mali).Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.ISBN3110184842.OCLC60839346.
Further reading[edit]
- Sudlow, David (2001).The Tamasheq of North-East Burkina Faso: notes on grammar and syntax including a key vocabulary.Vol. 1. R. Köppe Verlag.