Air Tamajeq language
Air Tamajeq (Tayiṛt) is a variety of Tamasheq, one of the Tuareg languages. It is spoken by the Tuareg people inhabiting the Aïr Mountains, in the Agadez Region of Niger.
| Tayart | |
|---|---|
| Tamajeq | |
| Native to | Niger |
| Region | Sahara |
Native speakers | 250,000 (1998)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | thz |
| Glottolog | taya1257 |
Ethnologue lists two dialects: Air (Tayert) and Tanassfarwat (Tamagarast/Tamesgrest). Blench (2006) considers these two varieties to be distinct languages. He lists Ingal and Gofat as dialects of Air/Tayirt and Azerori as a dialect of Tamesgrest.
Phonology
Vowels
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | ə | u |
| Mid | e | ă | o |
| Low | a |
| Oral | Pharyngealized | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | |
| High | [i] | [ɨ ~ ə] | [u] | [ɪˤ] | [ɜˤ] | [ʊˤ] |
| Mid | [ɪ ~ e] | [ɜ ~ ɐ] | [ʊ ~ o] | [ɛˤ ~ æˤ] | [ɐˤ ~ aˤ] | [ɔˤ] |
| Low | [æ ~ a] | [aˤ ~ ɑˤ] | ||||
Consonants
| Labial | Alveolar | Palato- alveolar |
Velar | Uvular | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | |||||
| Plosive | voiceless | t | (tˤ) | (č) [tʃ] | k | kˤ | q | |||
| voiced | b | bˤ | d | dˤ | (ǧ) [dʒ] | g | ||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | (fˤ) | s | (sˤ) | š [ʃ] | χ | h | ||
| voiced | z | zˤ | ž [ʒ] | ʁ | ||||||
| Nasal | m | (mˤ) | n | (nˤ) | ŋ | |||||
| Lateral | l | (ɫ) | ||||||||
| Trill | r | (rˤ) | ||||||||
| Approximant | w | y [j] | ||||||||
- Sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ] mainly occur as allophones of /t/ and /d/ before front vowels. A velar /ŋ/ mainly appears when followed by a labio-velar /w/, or a uvular /q/.[2]
References
- Tayart at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
- Kossmann, Maarten G. (2011). A Grammar of Ayer Tuareg (Niger). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.
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