Zenaga language


Zenaga is an Amazigh language spoken in Mauritania and northern Senegal by thousands of people. Zenaga Amazigh is spoken as a mother tongue from the town of Mederdra in southwestern Mauritania to the Atlantic coast and in northern Senegal. The language is recognized by the Mauritanian government.
It shares its basic linguistic structure with other Amazigh idioms in Morocco and Algeria, but specific features are quite different. In fact, Zenaga is probably the most divergent surviving Amazigh language, with a significantly different sound system made even more distant by sound changes such as > and >, as well as a profusion of glottal stops with no correspondents in other Amazigh varieties that are interpreted as the only segmental survivor of a Proto-Berber.
The name Zenaga comes from that of a much larger ancient Amazigh tribe, the Iznagen, who are known in Arabic as the Sanhaja. Adrian Room's African Placenames gives Zenaga derivations for some place-names in Mauritania.

Demographics

Zenaga is a language descended from the Sanhaja confederation who ruled over much of North Africa during the early Middle Ages. Zenaga was once spoken throughout Mauritania and beyond but fell into decline when its speakers were defeated by the invading Maqil Arabs in the Char Bouba war of the 17th century. After this war, they were forbidden to bear arms and variously became either specialists in Islamic religious scholarship or servants to more powerful tribes. It was among the former, more prestigious group that Zenaga survived longest.
In 1940, Zenaga was spoken by about 13,000 people belonging to four nomadic tribes distributed in an area roughly bounded by Saint-Louis, Podor, Boutilimit and Nouakchott :
  • Tashumsha : 4,653 speakers out of 12,000 members
  • D-abu-djhes : 5,000 out of 5,000
  • Gumdjedjen, subtribe of the Ida u el Hadj: 700
  • Tendgha: 2,889 out of 8,500
These tribes, according to Dubié, traditionally specialised in Islamic religious scholarship and led a nomadic lifestyle, specialising in sheep and cows. Even then, many speakers were shifting to Hassaniya Arabic, the main Arabic variety spoken in Mauritania, and all were bilingual. Zenaga was used only within the tribe, and it was considered impolite to speak it when non-speakers were present; some speakers deliberately avoided using Zenaga with their children, hoping to give them a head start in Hassaniya. However, many speakers regarded Zenaga as a symbol of their independence and their religious fervour; Dubie cites a Hassaniya proverb: "A Moor who speaks Zenaga is certainly not a Zenagui, nor a warrior".
Half a century later, the number of speakers is reportedly around 2,000. While Zenaga appears to be nearing extinction, Hassaniya Arabic contains a substantial number of Zenaga loanwords.

Phonology

Vowels

PhonemeAllophones
/i/,
/u/,,,
/a/,,,,,,

Consonants

  • can be heard as an allophone of /f/.
  • Sounds and occur marginally.
  • Pharyngeal sounds /ħ, ʕ/ are heard from Arabic loanwords.

Dialects

There are significant dialectal differences within Zenaga, notably between the Id-ab-lahsen and Tendgha dialects.