Air Tamajeq language

Air Tamajeq (Tayiṛt) is a variety of Tamasheq, one of the Tuareg languages. It is spoken by the Tuareg people inhabiting the Aïr Mountains of the Agadez Region in Niger.

Tayart
Tamajeq
Native toNiger
RegionSahara
EthnicityTuareg
Native speakers
480,000 (2021)[1]
Dialects
  • Air (Tayiṛt)
  • Tanassfarwat (Tamagarast)
Language codes
ISO 639-3thz
Glottologtaya1257

Ethnologue lists two dialects: Air (Tayert) and Tanassfarwat (Tamagarast/Tamesgrest). Blench (2006) considers these two varieties to be distinct languages. He lists Ingal and Gofat as dialects of Air/Tayirt and Azerori as a dialect of Tamesgrest.

Phonology

Vowels
Short Vowels
Front Central Back
High i ə u
Mid e ă o
Low a
Phonetic vowel sounds
Oral Pharyngealized
Front Central Back Front Central Back
High [i] [ɨ ~ ə] [u] [ɪˤ] [ɜˤ] [ʊˤ]
Mid [ɪ ~ e] [ɜ ~ ɐ] [ʊ ~ o] [ɛˤ ~ æˤ] [ɐˤ ~ aˤ] [ɔˤ]
Low [æ ~ a] [aˤ ~ ɑˤ]

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Palato-
alveolar		 Velar Uvular Glottal
plain phar. plain phar. plain phar.
Plosive voiceless t (tˤ) (č) [tʃ] k kˤ q
voiced b bˤ d dˤ (ǧ) [dʒ] g
Fricative voiceless f (fˤ) s (sˤ) š [ʃ] χ h
voiced z zˤ ž [ʒ] ʁ
Nasal m (mˤ) n (nˤ) ŋ
Lateral l (ɫ)
Trill r (rˤ)
Approximant w y [j]
  • Sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ] mainly occur as allophones of /t/ and /d/ before front vowels. A velar /ŋ/ mainly appears when followed by a labio-velar /w/, or a uvular /q/.[2]

References
  1. Tayart at Ethnologue (26th ed., 2023) closed access
  2. Kossmann, Maarten G. (2011). A Grammar of Ayer Tuareg (Niger). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.



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