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Saharan Languages
The Saharan languages are a small family of languages across parts of the eastern Sahara, extending from northwestern Darfur to southern Libya, north and central Chad, eastern Niger and northeastern Nigeria. Noted Saharan languages include Kanuri language, Kanuri (4 million speakers, around Lake Chad in Chad, Nigeria, Niger, and Cameroon), Daza language, Daza (330,000 speakers, Chad), Teda language, Teda (49,000 speakers, northern Chad), and Zaghawa language, Zaghawa (170,000 speakers, eastern Chad and Darfur). They are a part of the proposed Nilo-Saharan languages, Nilo-Saharan family. A comparative word list of the Saharan languages has been compiled by Václav Blažek (2007). Internal classification External classification Roger Blench argues that the Saharan and Songhay languages form a Songhay-Saharan branch with each other within the wider Nilo-Saharan linguistic phylum. Reconstruction Cyffer (2020:385) gives the following Proto-Saharan reconstructions: Comparative v ...
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Nilo-Saharan Languages
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 River, Chari and Nile rivers, including historic Nubia, north of where the two tributaries of the Nile meet. The languages extend through 17 nations in the northern half of Africa: from Algeria to Benin in the west; from Libya to the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the centre; and from Egypt to Tanzania in the east. As indicated by its hyphenated name, Nilo-Saharan is a family of the African interior, including the greater Nile Basin and the Central Sahara Desert. Eight of its proposed constituent divisions (excluding Kunama languages, Kunama, Kuliak, and Songhai languages, Songhay) are found in the modern countries of Sudan and South Sudan, through which the Nile River flows. In his book ''The Languages of Africa'' (1963), Joseph Greenberg named the group and argued it was a genetic (linguistics), genetic family. It contains the ...
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Václav Blažek
Václav Blažek (born 23 April 1959 in Sokolov, Czechoslovakia) is a Czech historical linguist. He is a professor at Masaryk University Masaryk University (MU) ( cs, Masarykova univerzita; la, Universitas Masarykiana Brunensis) is the second largest university in the Czech Republic, a member of the Compostela Group and the Utrecht Network. Founded in 1919 in Brno as the seco ... (Brno, Czech Republic) and also teaches at the University of West Bohemia (Plzeň, Pilsen, Czech Republic). His major interests include Indo-European languages, Uralic languages, Altaic languages, Afro-Asiatic languages, Afroasiatic (Hamito-Semitic) languages, Nostratic languages, Dené–Caucasian languages, and mathematical linguistics (lexicostatistics and glottochronology). In his book ''Numerals'', Blažek discusses words for Numeral (linguistics), numerals in several language families of Eurasia and Africa (Indo-European, Uralic, Altaic, Kartvelian, Egyptian, Berber, Nubian, and Saharan), wi ...
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Bideyat
Tuba, also Bidayat (Bideyat), is a dialect of the Zaghawa language found in Chad and western Sudan. In contrast to their Zaghawa kin, Bidayat speakers are more nomadic. This difference led early ethnographers to refer to them as different groups until linguistic similarities proved their close relationship. The former President of Chad, Idriss Déby Idriss Déby Itno ' (18 June 1952 – 20 April 2021) was a Chadian politician and military officer who was the president of Chad from 1990 until his death in 2021. Déby was a member of the Bidayat clan of the Zaghawa ethnic group. A high-ranki ... belonged to this group. Notes and references Ethnic groups in Chad Ethnic groups in Sudan Saharan languages {{NiloSaharan-lang-stub ...
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Beria Language
Zaghawa is a Saharan language spoken by the Zaghawa people of east-central Chad (in the Sahel) and northwestern Sudan (Darfur). The people who speak this language call it Beria, from ''Beri'', the endonym of the Zaghawa people, and ''a'', Zaghawa for "mouth". It has been estimated that there are between 750,000 native Zaghawa speakers, who primarily live in Chad and the Darfur region of Sudan. Dialects Zaghawa clans are:Anonby, Erik John and Johnson, Eric. 2001. ''A sociolinguistic survey of the Zaghawa (Beria) of Chad and Sudan'', p.9. Moursal-N'Djaména, Chad: Association SIL Tchad. *Beria (Arabic: ''Zaghawa'') *Tuba (Arabic: ''Bideyat''): Biria, Brogat *Kube (Arabic: ''Zaghawa''): Dirong, Guruf, Kube, Kapka *Wegi (Arabic: ''Twer'') Zaghawa dialects, which do not always correspond to clan divisions, are: Phonology Vowels Zaghawa has a nine-vowel system with advanced-tongue-root vowel harmony. The vowels fall into two sets: * * , with the vowels of affixes depending on t ...
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Tubu Language
Tebu is a small family of two Saharan languages, consisting of Daza and Teda. It is spoken by the two groups of Toubou people, the ''Daza'' and ''Teda''. Tebu is predominantly spoken in Chad and in southern Libya by around 580,000 people. Daza and Teda have an estimated 537,000 and 42,500 speakers, respectively.SIL Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensiv ... estimatesDazagaTedaga. References Saharan languages Languages of Chad Languages of Libya Languages of Niger Toubou people {{ns-lang-stub ...
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Songhay Languages
The Songhay, Songhai or Ayneha languages (, or ) are a group of closely related languages/dialects centred on the middle stretches of the Niger River in the West African countries of Mali, Niger, Benin, Burkina Faso and Nigeria. In particular, they are spoken in the cities of Timbuktu, Niamey and Gao. They have been widely used as a ''lingua franca'' in that region ever since the era of the Songhai Empire. In Mali, the government has officially adopted the dialect of Gao (east of Timbuktu) as the dialect to be used as a medium of primary education. Some Songhay languages have little to no mutual intelligibility between each other. For example, Koyraboro Senni, spoken in Gao, is unintelligible to speakers of Zarma in Niger, according to ''Ethnologue''. However, Songhoyboro Ciine, Zarma, and Dendi have high mutual intelligibility within Niger. For linguists, a major point of interest in the Songhay languages has been the difficulty of determining their genetic affiliation; they ...
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Roger Blench
Roger Marsh Blench (born August 1, 1953) is a British linguist, ethnomusicologist and development anthropologist. He has an M.A. and a Ph.D. from the University of Cambridge and is based in Cambridge, England. He researches, publishes, and works as a consultant. Career Blench is known for his wide-ranging interests and has made important contributions to African linguistics, Southeast Asian linguistics, anthropology, ethnomusicology, ethnobotany, and various other related fields. He has done significant research on the Niger–Congo, Nilo-Saharan, and Afroasiatic families, as well as the Arunachal languages. Additionally, Blench has published extensively on the relationship between linguistics and archaeology. Blench is currently engaged in a long-term project to document the languages of central Nigeria. He has also carried out extensive research on the herder–farmer conflicts in Nigeria. Blench collaborated with the late Professor Kay Williamson, who died in January 2005, ...
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Tebu Language
Tebu is a small family of two Saharan languages, consisting of Daza and Teda. It is spoken by the two groups of Toubou people, the ''Daza'' and ''Teda''. Tebu is predominantly spoken in Chad and in southern Libya by around 580,000 people. Daza and Teda have an estimated 537,000 and 42,500 speakers, respectively.SIL Ethnologue ''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' (stylized as ''Ethnoloɠue'') is an annual reference publication in print and online that provides statistics and other information on the living languages of the world. It is the world's most comprehensi ... estimatesDazagaTedaga. References Saharan languages Languages of Chad Languages of Libya Languages of Niger Toubou people {{ns-lang-stub ...
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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 ''tarjama'' (ترجم), meaning "to translate." It is primarily used by Muslim scholars for exegesis of the Qur'an (''tafsir Tafsir ( ar, تفسير, tafsīr ) refers to exegesis, usually of the Quran. An author of a ''tafsir'' is a ' ( ar, مُفسّر; plural: ar, مفسّرون, mufassirūn). A Quranic ''tafsir'' attempts to provide elucidation, explanation, in ...'') and other Arabic texts. References Sacred languages Saharan languages Languages of Nigeria {{ns-lang-stub ...
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Kanembu Language
Kanembu is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Chad by the Kanembu people. It is closely related to Kanuri. Writing system Kanembu is written with the Latin script alphabet. The letters are also used. The orthography also uses the digraphs . The Ajami script was used for Kanembu, since the time of Dunama Dabbalemi, 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 * * * External linksPanAfriL10n page on Kanuri (includes Kanembu)"http://kanembou.net – photos and language recordings"
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Bilma
Bilma is an oasis town and commune in north east Niger with, as of the 2012 census, a total population of 4,016 people. It lies protected from the desert dunes under the Kaouar Cliffs and is the largest town along the Kaouar escarpment. It is known for its gardens, for salt and natron production through evaporation ponds, date cultivation, and as the destination of one of the last Saharan caravan routes (the Azalai, from Agadez). Population Its population is mostly Kanuri, with smaller Toubou, Tuareg, and Hausa populations, the last being a reminder of Bilma's role as a key stop in the Trans Saharan trade. Administration and economy Bilma is the administrative seat of the Bilma Department, covering some of north eastern Niger. While it continues to produce salt in large ''natron'' salt pans, and this salt is still sold for livestock use throughout west Africa, tourism (based out of Agadez and the Aïr Mountains some to the west) is of growing importance. Climate Bil ...
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Berti Language
Berti is an extinct Saharan language formerly spoken in northern Sudan, specifically in the Tagabo Hills, Darfur, and Kurdufan. Berti speakers migrated into the region with other Nilo-Saharan speakers, such as the Masalit and Daju, who were agriculturalists practicing varying degrees of animal husbandry. They settled in two separate areas: one north of Al-Fashir, while the other had continued eastward, settling in eastern Darfur and western Kurdufan by the nineteenth century. The two groups did not appear to share a common identity, the western group differing noticeably in its cultivation of gum arabic. By the 1990s, Sudanese Arabic had largely replaced Berti as a native language.Sudan: The Muslim Peoples
U.S.