Tawellemmet language

Tawellemmet (Tawəlləmmət) is the largest of the Tuareg languages in the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family. It is usually one of two languages classed within a language called Tamajaq, the other language being Aïr Tamajeq. Tawellemmet is the language of the Iwellemmeden Tuareg. It is spoken in Mali, Niger and parts of northern Nigeria by approximately 1.2 million people with the largest number of speakers in Niger at 829,000 people.[2]

Tawellemmet
Tawəlləmmət
ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵌⵈ
Native toMali, Niger, Nigeria, Libya, Burkina Faso
RegionSahara, Sahel
EthnicityTuareg
Native speakers
1.3 million (2021–2022)[1]
Afro-Asiatic
Language codes
ISO 639-3ttq
Glottologtawa1286
Location of Tawellemmet

Phonology

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid e ə o
Low-mid ɐ
Low a
  • Vowels may also be lengthened as /iː, eː, aː, oː, uː/.[3]
  • /a/ in lax form can be heard as [æ].

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palato-
alveolar		 Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain phar.
Plosive voiceless t tˤ c k q ʔ
voiced b d dˤ dʒ ɡʲ g
Fricative voiceless f s sˤ ʃ χ ħ h
voiced z zˤ ʒ ʁ
Nasal m n ŋ
Lateral l lˤ
Trill r
Approximant w j
  • Consonants may also occur as geminated.[4]

See also

References
  1. Tawellemmet at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) closed access
  2. "Tamajaq, Tawallammat". Ethnologue. Retrieved 9 February 2019.
  3. Enguehard, Chantal; Modi, Issouf. Towards an electronic dictionary of Tamajaq language in Niger.
  4. Alidou, Ousseina Dioula (1997). A Phonological Study of Language Games in Six Languages of Niger. Ann Arbor: UMI. pp. 85–88.


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