Kanembu is a

Nilo-Saharan language The Nilo-Saharan languages are a proposed family of African languages spoken by some 50–60 million people, mainly in the upper parts of the Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. T ...

spoken in

Chad Chad (; ar, تشاد , ; french: Tchad, ), officially the Republic of Chad, '; ) is a landlocked country at the crossroads of North and Central Africa. It is bordered by Libya to the north, Sudan to the east, the Central African Republic ...

by the

Kanembu people The Kanembu are an ethnic group of Chad, generally considered the modern descendants of the Kanem-Bornu Empire. The Kanembu number an estimated 890,000 people, located primarily in Chad's Lac Prefecture but also in Chari-Baguirmi and Kanem pre ...

. It is closely related to Kanuri.

Writing system

Kanembu is written with the

Latin script The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...

alphabet. The letters are also used. The orthography also uses the digraphs . The

Ajami script Ajami ( ar, عجمي, ) or Ajamiyya ( ar, عجمية, ), which comes from the Arabic root for ''foreign'' or ''stranger'', is an Arabic-derived script used for writing African languages, particularly those of Mandé, Hausa and Swahili, although ...

was used for Kanembu, since the time of

Dunama Dabbalemi Dunama Dabbalemi, or Dounama Dibbalém, of the Sayfawa dynasty, was the ''mai'' (king) of the Kanem Empire, in present-day Chad, from 1210 to 1224. A fervent Muslim, Dabbalemi initiated diplomatic exchanges with sultans in North Africa and appar ...

, and still today in the

Tarjumo language Tarjumo is a Kanuri liturgical language of Nigeria. Also referred to as "Classical Kanembu," it is a modernized form of Old Kanembu from c. 1400 CE and is unintelligible with modern Kanembu or Kanuri. The name derives from the Arabic verb ''tar ...

or in religious works.

Notes

References

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External links

PanAfriL10n page on Kanuri (includes Kanembu)"http://kanembou.net – photos and language recordings"Old Kanembu Islamic Manuscripts
Saharan languages Languages of Chad {{ns-lang-stub