Azer or Azayr is a mostly or entirely extinct dialect of the
Soninke language, heavily mixed with
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–196 ...
and
Hassaniya Arabic
Hassānīya ( ar, حسانية '; also known as , , , , and ''Maure'') is a variety of Maghrebi Arabic spoken by Mauritanian Arabs and the Sahrawi. It was spoken by the Beni Ḥassān Bedouin tribes, who extended their authority over most of M ...
, formerly spoken in
Mauritania
Mauritania (; ar, موريتانيا, ', french: Mauritanie; Berber: ''Agawej'' or ''Cengit''; Pulaar: ''Moritani''; Wolof: ''Gànnaar''; Soninke:), officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania ( ar, الجمهورية الإسلامية ...
and northern
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
.
History and distribution
Azer arose as a lingua franca for trade across the Sahel, a mixture between Soninke and Berber, widely spoken in the salt-trading centres of
Ouadane
, settlement_type = Commune and town
, image_skyline = OuadaneOldTown1.jpg
, imagesize =
, image_caption = Old tower, Ouadane
, image_flag =
, im ...
, Tinigi,
Chinguetti,
Tichit
Tichit or Tichitt ( ber, Ticit, ar, تيشيت) is a partly abandoned village at the foot of the Tagant Plateau in central southern Mauritania that is known for its vernacular architecture. The main agriculture in Tichit is date farming, and the ...
,
Oualata
, settlement_type = Communes of Mauritania, Commune and town
, image_skyline = Oualata 03.jpg
, imagesize = 300px
, image_caption = View of the town looking in a southeas ...
, and
Aoudaghost
, image_skyline =
, imagesize =
, map_caption =
, pushpin_map = Mauritania
, pushpin_label_position =bottom
, pushpin_mapsize = 300
, pushpin_map_caption =Location in Mauritania
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_type1 = Region ...
. The name is supposedly derived from the Berber term 'El Answar', their name for the Guiriganke or related Soninke group who founded these oasis towns. Azer's usage progressively declined beginning in the 16th century as it was replaced by Berber and Hassaniya.
[
Elements of the language were collected and studied by Heinrich Barth in the 19th century, Diego Brosset in 1930–1931 and ]Théodore Monod
Théodore André Monod (9 April 1902 – 22 November 2000) was a French naturalist, humanist, scholar and explorer.
Exploration
Early in his career, Monod was made professor at the ''Muséum national d'histoire naturelle'' and founded the '' Inst ...
in 1934.
Some Berber and Nemadi communities in the Adrar Plateau, Araouane
Araouane or Arawan is a small village in the Malian part of the Sahara Desert, lying north of Timbuktu on the caravan route to the salt-mining centre of Taoudenni. The village once served as an entrepôt in the trans-Saharan trade.
History
Betw ...
, Oualata
, settlement_type = Communes of Mauritania, Commune and town
, image_skyline = Oualata 03.jpg
, imagesize = 300px
, image_caption = View of the town looking in a southeas ...
, Néma and Taoudenni ar, تودني
, nickname =
, settlement_type =
, total_type =
, motto =
, translit_lang1=
, translit_lang1_type=
, translit_lang1_info=
, translit_lang1_type1=
, translit_lang1_info1=
, transli ...
spoke Azer well into the 20th century. The language survives today mostly in place names such as Chinguetti, which means 'spring of horses'.
Notes
Sources
*
*
*
*
{{Authority control
Languages of Mali
Languages of Mauritania
Languages of Senegal
Mande languages
Sahel