Tamahaq language

Tamahaq
Native to	Algeria, Libya, Niger
Region	Sahara
Native speakers	(undated figure of 40,000 in Algeria)[1] 40,000 Libya & Niger (1998–2006)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Berber Tuareg Northern Tamahaq
Language codes
ISO 639-3	thv
Glottolog	taha1241[2]

Tamahaq is the only known Northern Tuareg language spoken in Algeria, western Libya, and northern Niger. It varies little from the southern languages of Ayr, Azawagh and Adagh. The differences mostly being substitution of sounds, such as Tamahaq instead of Tamajaq or Tamasheq.

Varieties

There are three main varieties of Tamahaq:

• Tahaggart, spoken around the Ahaggar Mountains in southern Algeria, by the Kel Ahaggar confederation.
• Ajjer, spoken by the Kel Ajjer confederation.
• Ghat, spoken around Djanet in southeast Algeria and Ghat in Libya.

According to Blench (2006), Tahaggart and Ghat are distinct Tuareg languages.

References

1. Tamahaq at Ethnologue (17th ed., 2013)
2. Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin; Bank, Sebastian, eds. (2016). "Tahaggart Tamahaq". Glottolog 2.7. Jena: Max Planck Institute for the Science of Human History.