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Zenaga (autonym Tuḍḍungiyya) is a Berber language spoken by some 200 people between Mederdra and the Atlantic coast in southwestern
Mauritania and in Senegal. The language shares its basic structure with other Berber languages, but specific details are quite
different; in fact, it is probably the most divergent surviving Berber language, with a significantly different sound system
made even more distant by sound changes such as /l/ > /dj/ and /x/ > /k/, as well as a difficult-to-explain profusion of glottal
stops. The name 'Zenaga' comes from that of a much larger ancient Berber tribe (Iznagen), known in Arabic as the Senhaja.
Zenaga was once spoken throughout much of Mauritania, but fell into decline when its speakers were defeated by the Maqil Arabs
in the Char Bouba war of the seventeenth 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 (Dubié 1940), Zenaga was spoken by about 13,000 people belonging to four nomadic
tribes distributed in an area roughly bounded by St. Louis, Podor, Boutilimit, and Nouakchott (but including none of these
cities): Tashumsha (the five): 4653 speakers out of 12000 members D-abu-djhes (Arabic Id-ab-lahsen): 5000 out of 5000 Gumdjedjen
(Arabic Ikumleilen), subtribe of the Ida ou el Hadj: 700 (out of Ida ou el Hadj population of 4600) Tendgha: 2889 out of 8500
(Zenaga names from Nicolas 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
language of 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 fervor;
Dubie cites a Hassaniya proverb: A Moor who speaks Zenaga is certainly not a Zenagui Half a century later, the number of
speakers is reportedly under 300 . While Zenaga appears to be nearing extinction, Hassaniya, the dominant spoken Arabic dialect
of Mauritania, contains a substantial number of Zenaga loanwords There are significant dialect differences within Zenaga,
notably between the Id-ab-lahsen and Tendgha dialects. The ISO 639-2 and ISO 639-3 codes for Zenaga are zen. |
Names (more)[ar] الزيناجا[an] Idioma zenacha [az] zenaqa dili [bn] জেনাগা [bo] ཟེ་ན་གཱ་སྐད། [bs] zenaga [br] Zenagaeg [bg] зенага [ca] zenaga [cs] zenaga [da] zenaga [de] Zenaga [el] Ζενάγκα [en] Zenaga language [et] zenaga [fa] زناگا [fi] zenaga [fr] Zenaga [gu] ઝેનાગા [sh] Zenaga jezik [he] זנאגה [hi] ज़ेनान्गा [hr] Zenaga jezik [hu] zenaga [id] Zenaga [is] senaga [it] Lingua zenaga [ja] ゼナガ語 [kn] ಝೆನಾಗಾ [ks] زیناگا [ko] 제나가어 [lo] ເຊນາກາ [lv] zenagu [lt] zenaga [ml] സെനഗ [mr] झेनान्गा [mk] зенага [mt] Żenaga [nl] Zenaga [nn] zenaga [nb] zenaga [oc] Zenaga [or] ଜେନାଗା [pl] zenaga [pt] zenaga [rm] zenaga [ro] zenaga [ru] Зенага [sk] zenaga [sl] zenaščina [es] Idioma zenaga [sr] Зенага [sv] zenaga [ta] ஜெனகா [te] జెనాగా [th] เซนากา [tr] Zenaga [uk] зенага [vi] Tiếng Zenaga |
Language type : Living
Technical notes
This page is providing structured data for the language Zenaga. |
ISO 639 CodesISO 639-2B : zenISO 639-2T : zen ISO 639-3 : zen Linked Data URIshttp://lexvo.org/id/iso639-3/zenhttp://dbpedia.org/resource/ISO_639:zen http://id.loc.gov/vocabulary/iso639-2/zen More URIs at sameas.org SourcesAuthority documentation for ISO 639 identifier: zenFreebase ISO 639-3 : zen GeoNames.org Country Information Publications Office of the European Union Metadata Registry : Countries and Languages |