Tagdal language

Tagdal (Tuareg name: Tagdalt)^[3] is a mixed Northern Songhay language of central Niger. Ethnologue considers it a "mixed Berber–Songhay language",^[1][4] while other researchers consider it Northern Songhay.^[5] Nicolaï (1981) argued that Tagdal was originally derived from the Tuareg languages and adopted characteristics of Songhai rather than vice versa.^[6]

Tagdal
Tagdal-Tabarog
Tihishit
Native to	Niger
Ethnicity	Igdalen, Iberogan
Native speakers	65,000 (2021)[1]
Language family	Nilo-Saharan? Songhay Northern Songhay Tagdal
Dialects	Tagdal Tabarog
Writing system	Tifinagh
Language codes
ISO 639-3	tda
Glottolog	tagd1238
ELP	Tagdal
Location of Songhay languages[2] Northwest Songhay:   Korandje   Koyra Chiini   Tadaksahak   Tasawaq   Tagdal Eastern Songhay:   Tondi Songway Kiini   Humburi Senni   Koyraboro Senni   Zarma language   Songhoyboro Ciine   Dendi
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Agdal
Person	Agdal
People	Igdalan
Language	Tagdal

Abarog
People	Iberogan
Language	Tabarog

There are two dialects: Tagdal proper, spoken by the Igdalen people, pastoralists who inhabit a region to the east along the Niger border to Tahoua in Niger,^[4] and Tabarog, spoken by the Iberogan people of the Azawagh valley on the Niger–Mali border. The Iberogan sometimes refer to their language as Tagdal.^{[citation needed]}

Nicolaï (1981) uses the name Tihishit as a cover term. Rueck & Christiansen say that

...the Igdalen and the Iberogan have for many purposes been treated as one group, and their speech forms are closely related. Nicolaï uses "tihishit" as a common designator for these two speech forms...; however, this term is ambiguous. "Tihishit" is a term of Tamajaq origin meaning "the language of the blacks". The Igdalen and Iberogan used it to refer to all Northern Songhay speech forms.^[5]

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Alveolar		Post-alv./ Palatal	Velar	Uvular	Pharyn- geal	Glottal
			plain	phar.
Nasal		m	n	nˤ		ŋ
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless		t	tˤ	tʃ	k	q
	voiced	b	d	dˤ	dʒ	ɡ
Fricative	voiceless	f	s	sˤ	ʃ	x		ħ	h
	voiced		z	zˤ	ʒ	ɣ		ʕ
Tap			ɾ	ɾˤ
Lateral			l	lˤ
Approximant		w			j

• /w/ may be heard as [ʋ] in the Tarbun dialect.

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i iː		u uː
Mid	e eː	ə	o oː
Open		a aː

• Each of the vowels /i, e, ə, a, o, u/ tend to fluctuate within the presence of the phonemes /x, ɣ, q, ʕ, ħ/ or of a pharyngealized consonant, as [ɨ, ɛ, ʌ, ɑ, ɔ, o].^[7]

Grammar

Tagdal is an agglutinative language, most likely due to Tuareg influence.^[4]: 71

Pronouns

Tagdal gets its pronominal system from Northern Songhay languages.

	Singular	Plural
1st	ɣɑy	iri
2nd	nin	ɑnji
3rd	ɑnga	ingi

Subject prefixes:

	Singular	Plural
1st	ɣɑ-	iri-
2nd	ɘn/ni-	ɑnji-
3rd	ɑ-	i-

Tadgal has two different prefixes used for negation. The first is nɘ-, which functions as perfective negation, and is the default choice for negation. It indicates something that might have happened in the past, but didn't, or in the case of stative verbs, something that is not true. The other negation prefix is sɘ-, which acts as a negation in the present or future. Uses of this negation are shown in these examples:^[8]

• ɣɑnɘkoy: I did not go
• ɣɑsɘbkoy: I was not going/I do not (habitually) go
• ɣɑnəyɑrdɑ: I disagree