Tasawaq language

Sawaq
Tásàwàq
Native to Niger
Ethnicity Isawaghan
Native speakers
8,000  (1998)[1]
Nilo-Saharan?
Dialects
Ingelshi
Emghedeshie
Language codes
ISO 639-3 twq
Glottolog tasa1240[2]
Sawaq
Person Asawagh / Ingalkoy
People Isawaghan / Ingalkoyyu
Language Tasawaq / Ingelshi

The Sawaq language, Tasawaq, sometimes also called Ingelshi, is a northern Songhay language spoken by the Issawaghan (or Ingalkoyyu), a community surrounding Ingal in Niger.[3][4] A closely related variety called Emghedeshie was spoken at Agadez, but is now extinct.

Like other Northern Songhay languages, it has been strongly influenced by neighboring Tuareg languages.

References

  1. Sawaq at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
  2. Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds. (2013). "Tasawaq". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology.
  3. Michael J. Rueck; Niels Christiansen. Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger, a sociolinguistic survey. Summer Institute of Linguistics (1999).
  4. Catherine Taine-Cheikh. [Les langues parlées au sud Sahara et au nord Sahel http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00456346/]. De l'Atlantique à l'Ennedi (Catalogue de l'exposition « Sahara-Sahel »), Centre Culturel Français d'Abidjan (Ed.) (1989) 155–173