SafekipediaZaghawa language
Adapted from Wikipedia · Adventurer experience
The Zaghawa language is spoken by the Zaghawa people. They live in east-central Chad and northwestern Sudan, especially in a place called Darfur. Some people in Libya also speak it. The Zaghawa people call their language Beria. This name comes from the word Beri, which is what they call themselves, and a, meaning "mouth" in their language.
Zaghawa is part of a group of languages called Nilo-Saharan language. Many people speak this language as their first language. Most of these speakers live in Chad and Darfur, but some also live in Libya. This language is important to the Zaghawa people because it helps them share their culture, stories, and traditions.
Dialects
The Zaghawa language has different groups of people, called clans. These clans include Beria, Tuba, Kobe, and Wegi. Each clan may have its own way of speaking, known as a dialect. These dialects do not always match exactly with the clan divisions.
| Dialect | Other names | Clans | Population | Major communities | Locations |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tuba | Bideyat (Arabic), Borogat | Biria, Brogat | 15,000 | Bahaï, Bao Bilia, Kalaït | Chad: canton Kobé-Nord-Est (Iriba s.p.); sub-prefectures Bao Bilia and Kalaït (Ennedi prefecture); Sudan: Northern Dar Fur |
| Dirong-Guruf | Durong, Gourouf | Dirong, Guruf | 4,000 | Ebiri, Mardébé, Tronga | Chad: cantons Dirong and Gourouf, and a few villages in Kapka canton (Iriba s.p.) |
| Kobe | Zaghawa (Arabic), Kobe | Kapka, Kige, Kuba | 25,000 | Bakaoré (Matadjana), Iriba, Kouba, Tina | Chad: cantons Kapka, Kobé-Nord-Est, Kobé-Nord-Ouest, and Kobé-Sud (Iriba s.p.); Sudan: Northern Dar Fur (near the Chadian border) |
| Wegi | Twer (Arabic), Artagh, Gala, Wagí | Wegi | 100,000 | Ambodu, Kornoye, Kutum | Sudan: Northern Dar Fur |
Phonology
Zaghawa has nine vowels. These vowels change based on how you move your tongue. Some dialects might have a tenth vowel.
Consonants in Zaghawa follow simple rules. Some sounds change in different dialects. The language uses five tones — high, mid, low, rising, and falling — to show meaning. Words are usually short, often like CV and CVCV.
Orthography
Main article: Zaghawa script
The Zaghawa language uses a special Latin alphabet. A mark called a macron helps to show certain vowel sounds, and special symbols are used for tones.
Long ago, in the 1950s, a schoolteacher named Adam Tajir made his own alphabet for Zaghawa. He used special marks from an old system for identifying clans. This system was based on the Arabic language and was hard to use on computers.
In 2000, a veterinarian named Siddick Adam Issa improved the alphabet, calling it Beria Giray Erfe. By 2007, this writing system became a computer font with help from SIL International and the Mission Protestante Franco-Suisse au Tchad.
There is also work on an Arabic script for Zaghawa, inspired by a very old system.
Related articles
This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Zaghawa language, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.