Tama, or Damut, is the primary language spoken by the

Tama people Tama are a non-Arab, African ethnic group of people who live in eastern Chad and western Sudan. They speak Tama, a Nilo-Saharan language. The population is 200,000–300,000 people and they practice Islam. Many Tama are subsistence farmers who l ...

in Ouaddai, eastern

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 ...

and in

Darfur Darfur ( ; ar, دار فور, Dār Fūr, lit=Realm of the Fur) is a region of western Sudan. ''Dār'' is an Arabic word meaning "home f – the region was named Dardaju ( ar, دار داجو, Dār Dājū, links=no) while ruled by the Daju, ...

, western

Sudan Sudan ( or ; ar, السودان, as-Sūdān, officially the Republic of the Sudan ( ar, جمهورية السودان, link=no, Jumhūriyyat as-Sūdān), is a country in Northeast Africa. It shares borders with the Central African Republic t ...

. It is a member of the

Taman Taman may refer to: Places *Taman Peninsula, a peninsula in southern Russia **Taman Bay, an inlet of the Strait of Kerch off the peninsula **Taman, Russia, a rural locality located on the peninsula ** Port of Taman, a seaport on the Peninsula * ...

language family. Miisiirii is often considered a dialect, though it is not particularly close.

Demographics

Tama is spoken by 63,000 people in Dar Tama, a well irrigated area near

Guéréda Guéréda ( ar, غيريدا) is a town in the Wadi Fira Region, Chad. It is located at around . Guéréda was the site of fighting between the Chadian army and the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD) in early December 2006. On December 1, ele ...

that extends from Kebkebiya village to nearby Sudan. There are two nearly identical dialects, one spoken in the northern and central areas, and another one spoken in the south.Rilly, Claude. 2010. ''Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique''. Leuven: Peeters Publishers.

References

External links

Tama basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database
Taman languages Languages of Chad Languages of Sudan {{ns-lang-stub