Nemadi is a language spoken by a small hunting tribe of eastern
Mauritania
Mauritania, officially the Islamic Republic of Mauritania, is a sovereign country in Maghreb, Northwest Africa. It is bordered by the Atlantic Ocean to the west, Western Sahara to Mauritania–Western Sahara border, the north and northwest, ...
known as the Nemadi people. It is, according to some sources, a dialect of
Hassaniyya, according to others, a mixture of
Zenaga,
Azer and Hassaniyya. The name "Nemadi" itself appears to come from Soninke, where it means "master of dogs".
Accounts of the language
According to
Robert Arnaud (1906), "around
Tichit the Nemadi employ a dialect called Azeïr which is close to Soninke." Chudeau (1913), perhaps following him, adds that "We have little information on their language, which
M. Delafosse classifies provisionally with Soninké." However, Brosset (1932) says that they speak Hassaniyya, and that "their special vocabulary does not consist of vocables different from Hassaniyya, but of technical terms which need has forced them to create, which are forged from
Arabic
Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...
,
Zenaga, and maybe
Azer."
Chinguetti
Chinguetti ( ; ) is a ksar and a medieval trading center in northern Mauritania, located on the Adrar Plateau east of Atar. Chinguetti had a population of 4,800 as of 2013.
Founded in the 13th century as the center of several trans-Saharan trad ...
's ''Kitab El Wasit'' says that "The Nmadi speak the dialect common to all the
Moors
The term Moor is an Endonym and exonym, exonym used in European languages to designate the Muslims, Muslim populations of North Africa (the Maghreb) and the Iberian Peninsula (particularly al-Andalus) during the Middle Ages.
Moors are not a s ...
(i.e. Hassaniyya). However, they do not pronounce the final ''m'' of the affixed second person plural pronoun, so they say: ''as-Salam alayku'' ("peace be upon you") for ''alaikum'', and ''kayfa haluku'' ("how are you?") for ''halukum''."
Laforgue claims that they speak "
Zenati", i.e.
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 ...
, a claim seen by Hermans as "very improbable".
According to Gerteiny (1967), they speak "their own dialect, probably a mixture of Azêr
oninke Zenaga, and Hassaniyya, called ''Ikôku'' by the Moors. They express themselves in brief idiomatic phrases, and the language has neither singular nor plural."
The
Ethnologue
''Ethnologue: Languages of the World'' 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 comprehensive catalogue of languages. It w ...
's former description of their language appears to be based solely on this source.
[Nemadi entry in th]
Languages of Mali
, 13th edition (1996) Later editions say that "The Nemadi (Ikoku) are an ethnic group of 200 (1967) that speak Hassaniyya, but they have special morphemes for dogs, hunting, and houses".
[
Hermans' opinion is that "the language spoken by the Nemadi in general (there may remain some Azer-speaking Nemadi) is Hassaniyya. But one must recognize certain peculiarities", including the lack of plural, certain ]argot
A cant is the jargon or language of a group, often employed to exclude or mislead people outside the group.McArthur, T. (ed.) ''The Oxford Companion to the English Language'' (1992) Oxford University Press It may also be called a cryptolect, argo ...
-like expressions (cf. Fondacci), and the technical terms (cf. Brosset, Fondacci, Gabus.)
See also
* Imraguen people
In literature
The Nemadi feature in a side story in Bruce Chatwin
Charles Bruce Chatwin (13 May 194018 January 1989) was an English travel writer, novelist and journalist. His first book, ''In Patagonia'' (1977), established Chatwin as a travel writer, although he considered himself instead a storytelling, s ...
's semi-fictional book ''The Songlines
''The Songlines'' is a 1987 book written by British novelist and travel writer Bruce Chatwin about the songs of Aboriginal Australians and their connections to nomadic travel. A roman à clef that combines novel, travelogue, and memoir, Chatw ...
'' about Aboriginal Australians
Aboriginal Australians are the various indigenous peoples of the Mainland Australia, Australian mainland and many of its islands, excluding the ethnically distinct people of the Torres Strait Islands.
Humans first migrated to Australia (co ...
.
References
Bibliography
* Robert Arnaud, 1906. "Chasseurs et pêcheurs du Tagant et du Hodh", in ''La Géographie'', vol. 16.
* Capt. Diégo Brosset 1932, "Les Némadi", in ''Bulletin de l'Afrique de l'Ouest Française''.
* Sid Ahmad Lamine ech-Chinguetti 1911. ''Kitab al-Wasît''. Cairo.
* Raymond Chudeau 1913. "Peuples du sahara central et occidental", in ''l’Anthropologie''.
* Capt. P. H. Fondacci 1945. "Les Némadis" (Mémoire du CHEAM n° 1009).
* Jean Gabus 1951. "Contribution à l’étude des Némadis", in ''Bull. Soc. Suisse d’ Anthropologie-Neuchâtel.''
* Alfred G. Gerteiny 1967, ''Mauritania''. Frederic A. Praeger.
* Jean-Michel Hermans
Les NEMADIS, chasseurs-cueilleurs du désert mauritanien
* Pierre Laforgue 1926. "Une fraction non musulmane : les Némadi", in ''Bulletin de l'Afrique de l'Ouest Française''.
{{Arabic language
Languages of Mauritania
Mixed languages
Maghrebi Arabic