Zenaga (autonym: Tuẓẓungiyya or āwӓy ən uẓ̄nӓgӓn) is a Berber language on the verge of extinction currently spoken in Mauritania and northern Senegal by a few hundred people. Zenaga Berber is spoken as a mother tongue from the town of Mederdra in southwestern Mauritania to the Atlantic coast and in northern Senegal. The language is recognized by the Mauritanian government. It shares its basic linguistic structure with other Berber idioms in Morocco and Algeria, but specific features are quite different. In fact, Zenaga is probably the most divergent surviving Berber language, with a significantly different sound system made even more distant by sound changes such as > and > as well as a difficult-to-explain profusion of glottal stops. The name Zenaga comes from that of a much larger ancient Berber tribe, the Iznagen (Iẓnagen), who are known in Arabic as the Sanhaja. Adrian Room's African Placenames gives Zenaga derivations for some place-names in Mauritania.

Demographics

Zenaga is a language descended from the Sanhaja confederation who ruled over much of North Africa during the early Middle Ages. Zenaga was once spoken throughout Mauritania and beyond but fell into decline when its speakers were defeated by the invading Maqil Arabs in the Char Bouba war of the 17th century. After this war, they were forbidden to bear arms and variously became either specialists in Islamic religious scholarship or servants to more powerful tribes. It was among the former, more prestigious group that Zenaga survived longest. In 1940 (Dubié 1940), Zenaga was spoken by about 13,000 people belonging to four nomadic tribes distributed in an area roughly bounded by Saint-Louis, Podor, Boutilimit and Nouakchott (but including none of these cities): These tribes, according to Dubié, traditionally specialised in Islamic religious scholarship and led a nomadic lifestyle, specialising in sheep and cows (camel-herding branches of the same tribes had already switched to Arabic). Even then, many speakers were shifting to Hassaniya Arabic, the main Arabic variety spoken in Mauritania, and all were bilingual. Zenaga was used only within the tribe, and it was considered impolite to speak it when non-speakers were present; some speakers deliberately avoided using Zenaga with their children, hoping to give them a head start in Hassaniya. However, many speakers regarded Zenaga as a symbol of their independence and their religious fervour; Dubie cites a Hassaniya proverb: "A Moor who speaks Zenaga is certainly not a Zenagui (that is, a laḥma or a member of a Berber tribe subjugated by the Arab Beni Hassan), nor a warrior". Half a century later, the number of speakers is reportedly around 2,000. While Zenaga appears to be nearing extinction, Hassaniya Arabic contains a substantial number of Zenaga loanwords (more than 10% of the vocabulary).

Phonology

Vowels

Consonants

Dialects

There are significant dialectal differences within Zenaga, notably between the Id-ab-lahsen and Tendgha dialects.