SafekipediaZaghawa language
Adapted from Wikipedia · Discoverer experience
The Zaghawa language is spoken by the Zaghawa people who live in east-central Chad and northwestern Sudan, especially in a place called Darfur. It is also spoken by some people in Libya. The Zaghawa people call their language Beria. This name comes from the word Beri, which is what they call themselves, and a, which means "mouth" in their language.
Zaghawa is part of a group of languages called Nilo-Saharan language. About 447,400 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 with each other.
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 a system of nine vowels that change based on tongue position. These vowels are grouped into two sets, and some dialects may include a tenth vowel.
Consonants in Zaghawa follow simple rules, and some sounds change based on dialect. The language uses five tones — high, mid, low, rising, and falling — which help distinguish words and show grammatical meaning. Words are usually short, often following patterns like CV and CVCV.
Orthography
Main article: Zaghawa script
The Zaghawa language uses a special Latin alphabet. A special mark called a macron helps to show certain vowel sounds, and special symbols are used to show tones.
Long ago, in the 1950s, a schoolteacher named Adam Tajir made his own alphabet for Zaghawa. He used special marks that were used for identifying clans, sometimes called the camel alphabet. This system was based on the Arabic language and was tricky 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 was turned into a computer font with help from SIL International and the Mission Protestante Franco-Suisse au Tchad.
There is also work being done on an Arabic script for Zaghawa, inspired by a very old system from the 13th century.
Related articles
This article is a child-friendly adaptation of the Wikipedia article on Zaghawa language, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.