Daza language
| Daza | |
|---|---|
| Dazaga | |
| Native to | Chad, Niger, Sudan, Libya |
| Region | Chad, BET Region, bahr el Gazel Region, eastern Niger |
| Ethnicity | Daza people/Gouran people |
|
Native speakers
|
380,000 (2006–2007) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | daza1242 |
| Linguasphere | 02-BAA-ab |
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|
Daza (also known as Dazaga) is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Daza people inhabiting northern Chad. The Daza are also known as the Gouran(Gorane) in Chad. Dazaga is spoken by around 380,000 people, primarily in the Djurab desert region and Borkou region, locally called Haya or Faya-Largeau northern-central Chad, the capital of Dazaga people. Tibesti Mountains of Chad (330,000 speakers), in the eastern Niger near N'guigmi, and to the north (50,000 speakers). It is also spoken to a smaller extent in Libya and in Sudan where there is a community of 3000 speakers in Omdurman. There's also a small diaspora community working in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The two primary dialects of the Dazaga language are Daza and Kara, but there are several other mutually intelligible dialects including Kaga, Kanobo, Taruge and Azza as well. It is closely related to the Tedaga language, spoken by the Teda, the otherToubou people who reside primarily in the Tibesti Mountains of Northern Chad and in Southern Libya near the city of Sabha.
Dazaga is a Nilo-Saharan language and a member of the Western Saharan branch of the Saharan subgroup which also contains the Kanuri language, Kanembu language and Tebu languages. Tebu is further divided into Tedaga and Dazaga. The Eastern Saharan branch includes the Zaghawa language and Berti language.
The dialects spoken in Chad and Niger have some French influence whereas the dialects spoken in Libya and Sudan have more of an Arabic influence. The Dazaga language is not a literary language and has a limited vocabulary. It adjusts to this by borrowing from other languages such as Arabic or French. For example, the word for "thank you" did not exist in Dazaga so the Arabic word "shokran" was incorporated into the language and is usually followed by the suffix "num" which acknowledges the second person. The majority of Dazaga speakers are bilingual in their native tongue along with either Arabic, French, Zaghawa, Hausa, Zarma, Kanuri or Tuareg.
The following tables contain words from the Daza dialect spoken in Omdurman, Sudan. This romanization is not standard.
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