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Daza language

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(Redirected from Daza language (Saharan))
Not to be confused with Dazawa language.
"Goran language" redirects here. Not to be confused with Gorani language or Gora dialect.
Daza
Dazaga
Native toChad and Niger[1]
RegionBET Region, Bahr el Gazel Region, Batha, Borkou, Hadjer-Lamis, Kanem, Lac, Wadi-Fira, Diffa, Zinder[1]
EthnicityToubou
Native speakers
700,000 (2019–2021)[1]
Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3dzg
Glottologdaza1242
Linguasphere02-BAA-ab

Daza (also known as Dazaga) is a Nilo-Saharan language spoken by the Daza people (a sub-group of the Toubou people) inhabiting northern Chad and eastern Niger.[1] The Daza are also known as the Gouran (Gorane) in Chad.[1] Dazaga is spoken by around 700,000 people, primarily in the Djurab Desert region and the Borkou region, locally called Haya or Faya-Largeau northern-central Chad, the capital of the Dazaga people. Dazaga is spoken in the Tibesti Mountains of Chad (606,000 speakers), in eastern Niger near N'guigmi and to the north (93,200 speakers).[1] It is also spoken to a smaller extent in Libya and in Sudan, where there is a community of 3,000 speakers in the city of Omdurman.[citation needed] 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. It is closely related to the Tedaga language, spoken by the Teda, the other out of the two Toubou people groups, 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.[2] Tebu is further divided into Tedaga and Dazaga. The Eastern Saharan branch includes the Zaghawa language and Berti language.[3]

Vocabulary

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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 was not traditionally a written language but in recent years the SIL had developed an orthography. The majority of Dazaga speakers are bilingual or multilingual in their native tongue along with either Arabic, French, Zaghawa, Hausa, Zarma, Kanuri or Tuareg. There are thus many borrowings from other languages such as Arabic, Hausa or French. For example, the word for "thank you" is borrowed from Arabic shokran and incorporated into the language by usually being followed by the suffix -num marking the second person.


The following tables contain words from the Daza dialect spoken in Omdurman, Sudan. This romanisation is not standard.

Numbers

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English Dazaga English Dazaga
One Tron Eleven Murdai sa Tron
Two Jow Twelve Murdai sa Jow
Three Aguzo Thirteen Murdai sa Aguzo
Four Twzo Fourteen Murdai sa Twzo
Five Foo Fifteen Murdai sa Foo
Six Disi Sixteen Murdai sa Disi
Seven Troso Seventeen Murdai sa Troso
Eight Woso Eighteen Murdai sa Woso
Nine Yisi Nineteen Murdai sa Yisi
Ten Murdum Twenty Digiram
Thirty Murtta Aguzo Fifty Murtta Foo
Forty Murtta Twzo Hundred Kidri

Basic words and phrases

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English Dazaga English Dazaga
man Agni Good Morning Wasa Nisira
woman Ari Good Night Kalar Sizoo
family Ama tanga Thank you alay barkantchân
brother Dagi My name is... Tan Sortanjo
sister Duroo What is your name? Sornuma Jaa? or sornuma eni'
papa Abaa How are you? neré wasi?
mama Aya I am well Kala Layy or Tan Wasu or wasa a'
friend Lao Please toussowna
world Dina Country Ni
dead Noso Religion Din
people Amma Better Bouré
East Mah West Jeh
North Yallh South Onoum


The Azza are a blacksmith class who speak their own dialect of the language, referred to as Azzanga, which is considered by Dagaza speakers to be lower in status then the standard dialect.[4]

Phonology

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The phonology of Daza is as follows:[5]

Consonants

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Labial Alveolar Palatal Velar Glottal
Plosive b t d tʃ dʒ k ɡ
Fricative f s z (ʃ) h
Nasal m n ɲ ŋ
Flap ɾ
Lateral l
Approximant w j

Vowels

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Front Central Back
Close i u
ɪ ʊ
Mid e o
ɛ ɔ
Open a

Grammar

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The Daza language exhibits a subject-object-verb word order, as can be seen in the following example[6]:

à̰ʊ̰́

à̰ʊ̰́

man

áɪ̀

áɪ̀

this

dɪ́lɪ̀mɪ̀

dɪ́lɪ̀m=ɪ̀

leprosy=ERG

[káá]

kɛ́ɛ́-a

hand-PL

[sʊ́nà]

sʊ́n-à

3S.POSS-PL

ɡɔ́ɾʊ̀

Ø-j-kɔ́ɾ

3.OBJ-3-cut

à̰ʊ̰́ áɪ̀ dɪ́lɪ̀mɪ̀ [káá] [sʊ́nà] ɡɔ́ɾʊ̀

à̰ʊ̰́ áɪ̀ dɪ́lɪ̀m=ɪ̀ kɛ́ɛ́-a sʊ́n-à Ø-j-kɔ́ɾ

man this leprosy=ERG hand-PL 3S.POSS-PL 3.OBJ-3-cut

‘This man, leprosy cut his hands.’

There are no grammatical genders in Dagaza, and biological gender is indicated with separate lexical items for male and female.[7]

Adding the adjectivalizer suffix -ɾ́ɛ at the end of a word forms adjectives from nouns, verbs, and occasionally even other adjectives.[8]

Verbs are inflected for both subject and object arguments. This inflection is sensitive to grammatical person, but not number, gender, or other features of the subject and object.[6]

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f Daza at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) Closed access icon
  2. ^ Greenberg, Joseph H. 1963. The languages of Africa. International Journal of American Linguistics 29.1. Repr. The Hague: Mouton, 1966.
  3. ^ Cyffer, Norbert. 2000. Linguistic properties of the Saharan languages. Areal and Genetic Factors in Language Classification and Description: Africa South of the Sahara, ed. by Petr Zima, 30–59. Lincom Studies in African Linguistics 47. München: Lincom Europa
  4. ^ Walters, Josiah K. (2016). A Grammar of Dazaga. Grammars and sketches of the world's languages Africa. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-32391-9.
  5. ^ Walters, Josiah (2016). A Grammar of Dazaga.
  6. ^ a b Walters, Josiah K. (2016). A grammar of Dazaga. Grammars and sketches of the world's languages Africa. Boston: Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-32391-9.
  7. ^ Walters, Josiah K. (2016). A Grammar of Dazaga. Grammars and sketches of the world's languages Africa. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-32391-9.
  8. ^ Walters, Josiah K. (2016). A Grammar of Dazaga. Grammars and sketches of the world's languages Africa. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-32391-9.
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