Tama, or Tamongobo, is the primary language spoken by the Tama people in Ouaddai, eastern Chad and in Darfur, western Sudan.[2] It is a Taman language which belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. Miisiirii is often considered a dialect, though it is not particularly close.
| Tama | |
|---|---|
| Tamongobo | |
| Native to | Chad, Sudan |
| Region | Wadi Fira, West Darfur, South Darfur |
| Ethnicity | Tama, Kimr[1] |
Native speakers | 460,000 (2022–2023)[1] |
| Dialects |
|
| Unwritten | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | tma |
| Glottolog | tama1331 |
| Linguasphere | 05-DAA-aa |
Demographics edit
Tama is spoken by 63,000 people in Dar Tama, a well irrigated area near Guéréda that extends from Kebkebiya village to nearby Sudan. There are two nearly identical dialects, one spoken in the northern and central areas, and another one spoken in the south.[3]
Phonology edit
Consonants edit
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Retroflex | Palatal | Velar | Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Stop | voiceless | t̪ | k | |||||
| voiced | b | d̪ | ɟ | g | ||||
| implosive | ɓ | ɗ̪ | ||||||
| Fricative | f | s | ʃ | h | ||||
| Nasal | m | n | ɲ | ŋ | ||||
| Rhotic | r | ɽ | ||||||
| Lateral | l | ɭ | ||||||
| Approximant | w | j | ||||||
Vowels edit
| +ATR | -ATR | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Front | Central | Back | Front | Central | Back | |
| Close | i | u | ɪ | ʊ | ||
| Mid | e | o | ɛ | ɔ | ||
| Open | ʌ̈ | a | ||||
Vowel length is also distinctive.[4]
References edit
- ^ a b Tama at Ethnologue (27th ed., 2024)
- ^ Anthony Appiah; Henry Louis Gates (2010). Encyclopedia of Africa. Oxford University Press. p. 454. ISBN 978-0195337709.
- ^ Rilly, Claude. 2010. Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. ISBN 978-9042922372
- ^ Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (2009). Tama. In Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (ed.), Coding Participant Marking: Construction Types in Twelve African Languages: Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Amsterdam: John Benjamins. pp. 305–330.
External links edit