Abstract
With massive borrowing resulting in systematic suppletion, the nomadic Northern Songhay languages, Tadaksahak and Tagdal, are some of the most striking products of intense language contact in Africa. While the importance of Berber in their formation is obvious, published comparisons have focused almost exclusively on Tuareg, the currently dominant Berber language of the region. This paper, however, demonstrates that Tuareg-Songhay contact alone cannot adequately account for their emergence. Tadaksahak at least seems to have as its substrate not Tuareg, but rather a Western Berber language closely related to Tetserrét, a small minority language of Niger; such a language also played a role in the development of Tagdal. Western Berber influence, however, is not reconstructible at the proto-Northern-Songhay level, despite being attested in most Northern Songhay languages individually. A closer look at the Western Berber stratum in Tadaksahak indicates that language shift there was accompanied by broader cultural changes, including a shift away from the regional norm of cross-cousin marriage towards the North African preference for patrilineal parallel cousin marriage. These linguistic and cultural changes may have been part of an effort to assert an identity as specialists in Islamic learning, following regional political shifts around the sixteenth century.
Acknowledgements
I thank Maarten Kossmann, Cécile Lux, and “Idak Sahak” for sharing unpublished data, and Catherine Taine-Cheikh, Abdulhasieb Sharif, and anonymous reviewers for comments on an earlier manuscript from which part of this article derives. Any remaining errors are of course my own.
References
Al Jazeera English. 2013. Orphans of the Sahara, Episode I. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmq3RTkUFGU (accessed 2 February 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Alojaly, Ghoubeïd. 1980. Lexique Touareg-Français = Ăwgălel Təmajəq-Təfṛənsist. Copenhagen: Akademisk Forlag.Search in Google Scholar
Badi, Dida.2001. Ifoghas (Ifughas, Ifoughas, Iforas). In GabrielCamps (ed.), Encyclopédie berbère, 3649–3657. Éditions Peeters. http://encyclopedieberbere.revues.org/1540?lang=en (accessed 23 October 2013).10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.1540Search in Google Scholar
Barth, Heinrich.1851. Progress of the African Mission, Consisting of Messrs. Richardson, Barth, and Overweg, to Central Africa. A. Petermann. (Ed.) Journal of the Royal Geographical Society of London21. 130–221. doi:10.2307/1798187 (accessed 28 June 2009).Search in Google Scholar
Barth, Heinrich.1857. Travels and discoveries in North and Central Africa: being a journal of an expedition undertaken under the auspices of H. B. M.’s Government, in the years 1849–1855. London: Longman, Brown, Green, Longmans, & Roberts.10.5962/bhl.title.124039Search in Google Scholar
Basset, André. 1934. Notes sur les parlers touaregs du Soudan. Bulletin du Comité d’études Historiques et Scientifiques de l’Afrique Occidentale Française17(3). 496–509.Search in Google Scholar
Basset, André. 1948. La langue berbère au Sahara. Cahiers Charles de Foucauld10. 115–127.Search in Google Scholar
Benítez-Torres, Carlos M.2008. The Songhay and Berber structures in Tagdal: A mixed language. Paper presented at the 17th Biennial Conference of the Society for Caribbean Linguistics.Search in Google Scholar
Benítez-Torres, Carlos M.2009. Inflectional vs. derivational morphology in Tagdal: A mixed language. In MasanguMatondo, FionaMcLaughlin & EricPotsdam (eds.), Selected proceedings of the 38th annual conference on African linguistics: Linguistic theory and African language documentation, 69–83. Somerville, MA: Cascadilla Proceedings Project. http://www.lingref.com/cpp/acal/38/abstract2136.html.Search in Google Scholar
Bernard, Yves & MaryWhite-Kaba. 1994. Dictionnaire zarma-français (République du Niger). Paris: Agence de Coopération Culturelle et Technique.Search in Google Scholar
Bernus, Edmond.1972. Du sel et des dattes; introduction a l’étude de la communauté d’In Gall et de Tegidda-n-tesemt. Niamey: Centre Nigérien de Recherches en Sciences Humaines.Search in Google Scholar
Bernus, Edmond.1981. Touaregs nigériens : Unité culturelle et diversité régionale d’un peuple pasteur. Paris: Office de la Recherche Scientifique et Technique Outre-Mer.Search in Google Scholar
Bernus, Edmond.2001. Igdalen. Encyclopédie berbère. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud.10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.1549Search in Google Scholar
Bernus, Suzanne & PatriceCreissier (eds.). 1983. La région d’In Gall–Tegidda N Tesemt (Niger): Programme archéologique d’urgence, 1977–1981 (Etudes Nigériennes 47–52). Niamey: Institut de Recherches en Sciences Humaines.Search in Google Scholar
Bernus, Suzy.1992. Le mariage chez les Isawaghen d’In Gall. Extrait des carnets d’enquête de Suzy Bernus. Journal des Africanistes62(2). 219–238.10.3406/jafr.1992.2365Search in Google Scholar
Bernus, Suzy & PatriceCressier.1990. Azelik. In GabrielCamps (ed.), Encyclopédie berbère, 1210–1217. Éditions Peeters. http://encyclopedieberbere.revues.org/210 (accessed 22 November 2012).10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.210Search in Google Scholar
Bornand, Sandra.2006. Parlons zarma: une langue du Niger. Paris: Harmattan.Search in Google Scholar
Bornand, Sandra.2009. Entre ciel et terre. De la construction de l’espace à la construction d’une identité collective dans deux récits d’origine des Zarma (Niger). Journal des Africanistes79(2). 13–42.10.4000/africanistes.2848Search in Google Scholar
Calame-Griaule, Geneviève & Pierre FrancisLacroix. 1970. La mère vendue: Essai d’analyse d’un thème de conte Africain. In Jean, Pouillon & Pierre, Maranda (eds.), Echanges et communications : Mélanges offertes à Claude Lévi-Strauss à l’occasion de son 60ème anniversaire, 1357–1380. Paris: Mouton.Search in Google Scholar
Champault, Francine Dominique. 1969. Une oasis du Sahara nord-occidental : Tabelbala. Paris: CNRS.Search in Google Scholar
Chaventré, André. 1983. Evolution anthropo-biologique d’une population touarègue: Les Kel Kummer et leurs apparentés (Travaux et Documents Cahier no. 103). Paris: Presses Universitaires de France.Search in Google Scholar
Christiansen-Bolli, Regula. 2010. A Grammar of Tadaksahak: A Berberised Songhay Language (Mali). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Christiansen, Niels & RegulaChristiansen.2002. Some verb morphology features of Tadaksahak, or Berber or Songhay, this is the question. SIL Electronic Working Papers (2002–005). http://www.sil.org/resources/publications/entry/7842.Search in Google Scholar
Destaing, Edmond.1920. Etude sur la Tachelḥît du Sous. Vol. I: Vocabulaire français-berbère. Paris: Ernest Leroux.Search in Google Scholar
Drouin, Jeanette.1984. Nouveaux elements de socio-linguistique Touaregue: un parler méridional nigerien, la Taməsəghlalt. G. L. E. C. S. TomesXXIV–XXVIII, 1979–1985.Search in Google Scholar
Gado, Boubé. 1986. Possible contacts between the central valley of the Nile and the River Niger area. Libya Antiqua: Report and papers of the symposium organized by UNESCO in Paris, 16 to 18 January 1984, 187–234 (The General History of Africa: Studies and Documents 11). Paris: UNESCO.Search in Google Scholar
Grémont, Charles. 2010. Les Touaregs Iwellemmedan, 1647-1896: un ensemble politique de la boucle du Niger (Hommes et Sociétés). Paris: Karthala.Search in Google Scholar
Hama, Boubou.1967. L’histoire traditionnelle d’un peuple: les zarma-songhay. Paris: Présence Africaine.Search in Google Scholar
Heath, Jeffrey.1998. Dictionnaire songhay-anglais-français (Langues d’Afrique 4–6). Paris: L’Harmattan.Search in Google Scholar
Heath, Jeffrey.1999. A Grammar of Koyra Chiini: The Songhay of Timbuktu (Mouton Grammar Library 19). Berlin: Mouton de Gruyter.10.1515/9783110804850Search in Google Scholar
Heath, Jeffrey.2006. Dictionnaire Touareg du Mali: tamachek-anglais-français. Paris: Karthala.Search in Google Scholar
Hopkins, John Francis Price & NehemiaLevtzion (eds.). 1981. Corpus of early Arabic sources for West African history (Fontes Historiae Africanae 4). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Hunwick, J. O.1980. Gao and the Almoravids: A hypothesis. In B. K.Swartz & Raymond E.Dumett (eds.), West African culture dynamics: Archaeological and historical perspectives, 413–430 (World Anthropology). The Hague: Mouton.10.1515/9783110800685.413Search in Google Scholar
Hunwick, John O.1999. Translator’s introduction. Timbuktu and the Songhay Empire: Al-Sa’dī’s Ta’rīkh al-Sūdān down to 1613 and other contemporary documents (Islamic History and Civilization 27). Leiden& Boston: Brill.10.1163/9789004491137Search in Google Scholar
Keenan, Jeremy.2004. The lesser gods of the Sahara: Social change and contested terrain amongst the Tuareg of Algeria (The Journal of North African Studies 8:3-4 (Autumn-Winter 2003)). London and Portland, OR: Frank Cass.Search in Google Scholar
Khamed Attayoub, Abdoulmohamine. 2001. La tetserrét des Ayttawari Seslem : Identification socio-linguistique d’un parler berbère non documenté parmi les Touaregs de l’Azawagh (Niger). Paris: INALCO.Search in Google Scholar
Korotayev, Andrey.2000. Parallel-cousin (FBD) marriage, Islamization, and Arabization. Ethnology39(4). 395–407. doi:10.2307/3774053 (accessed 24 February, 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Kossmann, Maarten.1999. Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Kossmann, Maarten.2003. Ms. Notes sur le tasawaq.Search in Google Scholar
Lacroix, Pierre Francis. 1971. L’ensemble songhay-jerma: problèmes et thèmes de travail. In Actes du 8ème Congrès de la Société Linguistique de l’Afrique Occidentale, 87–99. Abidjan: Université d’Abidjan.Search in Google Scholar
Lux, Cécile. Ongoing. Base de Données Tetserret et comparaison berbère, Filemaker.Search in Google Scholar
Lux, Cécile. 2013. Le tetserrét, langue berbère du Niger : Description phonétique, phonologique et morphologique, dans une perspective comparative (Berber Studies 38). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Moraes Farias, Paulo Fernando de. 2001. Arabic medieval inscriptions from the Republic of Mali: Epigraphy, chronicles and Songhay-Tuareg history. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Search in Google Scholar
Mounkaïla, Fatimata. 1989. Le mythe et l’histoire dans la Geste de Zabarkâne (Cultures Africaines). Niamey: CELHTO.Search in Google Scholar
Murphy, Robert F.1967. Tuareg Kinship. American Anthropologist69(2). 163–170. doi:10.1525/aa.1967.69.2.02a00030 (accessed 23 January, 2014).Search in Google Scholar
Nicolaï, Robert. 1979a. Le songhay septentrional (études phonématiques). I: Les parlers du groupe nomade. Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire. Série B: Sciences Humaines Dakar41(2). 303–370.Search in Google Scholar
Nicolaï, Robert. 1979b. Le songhay septentrional (études phonématiques). III: Les groupes consonantiques. Bulletin de l’Institut Fondamental d’Afrique Noire. Série B: Sciences Humaines Dakar41(4). 828–866.Search in Google Scholar
Nicolaï, Robert. 1981. Le songhay septentrional. Etudes prosodiques. In E.R.A. 246 du CNRS “Langage et Culture en Afrique de l’Ouest” (ed.), Itinérances – en pays peul et ailleurs: mélanges, 229–256 (Mémoires de la Société des Africanistes). Paris: Société des Africanistes.Search in Google Scholar
Nicolaï, Robert. 1984. Préliminaires à une étude sur l’origine du songhay: (matériaux, problématique et hypothèses) (Marburger Studien zur Afrika- und Asienkunde 37). Berlin: Dietrich Reimer.Search in Google Scholar
Nicolaï, Robert. 1993. Constraints of communication and linguistic evolution: The example of Songay. In M.Lionel Bender (ed.), Topics in Nilo-Saharan linguistics, 11–42 (Nilo-Saharan 3). Hamburg: Buske.Search in Google Scholar
Nicolaï, Robert. 2009. Language contact, areality, and history: The Songhay question revisited. In Wilhelm Möhlig, Frank Seidel & MarcSeifart (eds.), Language contact, language change and history based on language source in Africa, 187–207 (Sprache und Geschichte in Afrika 20). Köln: Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Nixon, Sam.2009. Excavating Essouk-Tadmakka (Mali): New archaeological investigations of early Islamic trans-Saharan trade. Azania: Archaeological Research in Africa44(2). 217. doi:10.1080/00671990903047595 (accessed 16 April 2010).Search in Google Scholar
Norris, Harry T.1990. Ṣūfī Mystics of the Niger Desert: Sīdī Maḥmūd and the Hermits of Aïr. Oxford: Clarendon Press.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198265382.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 1969. Système des relations économiques et sociales chez les Wogo (Niger). Paris: Institut d’Ethnologie.Search in Google Scholar
Olivier de Sardan, Jean-Pierre. 1982. Concepts et conceptions songhay-zarma: histoire, culture, société (Uhuuru). Paris: Nubia.Search in Google Scholar
Ould Cheikh, Abdel Wedoud.2008. Les communautés zénagophones aujourd’hui. Dictionnaire zénaga-français, XV–XXXIII. Köln: Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Rueck, Michael J. & NielsChristiansen. 1999. Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger. SIL Electronic Survey Reports 008. http://www.sil.org/silesr/1999/008/nsonghay.pdf.Search in Google Scholar
Souag, Lameen.2010a. The Western Berber Stratum in Kwarandzyey (Tabelbala, Algeria). In DymitrIbriszimow, MaartenKossmann, HarryStroomer & RainerVossen (eds.), Études berbères V – Essais sur des variations dialectales et autres articles, 177–189. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Souag, Lameen.2010b. Grammatical Contact in the Sahara: Arabic, Berber, and Songhay in Tabelbala and Siwa. School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London.Search in Google Scholar
Souag, Lameen.2012. The subclassification of Songhay and its historical implications. Journal of African Languages and Linguistics33(2). 181–213.10.1515/jall-2012-0008Search in Google Scholar
Souag, Lameen.fc. Explaining Korandjé: Language contact, plantations, and the trans-Saharan trade. Journal of Pidgin and Creole Studies.Search in Google Scholar
Taine-Cheikh, Catherine. 2008. Dictionnaire zenaga-francais : le berbere de Mauritanie présenté par racines dans une perspective comparative (Berber Studies v. 20). Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
Tilmatine, Mohamed.1996. Un parler berbèro-songhay du sud-ouest algérien (Tabelbala): Elements d’histoire et de linguistique. Etudes et Documents Berbères14. 163–198.10.3917/edb.014.0163Search in Google Scholar
Walentowitz, Saskia.2003. Enfant de Soi, enfant de l’Autre. La construction symbolique et sociale des identités à travers une étude anthropologique de la naissance chez les Touaregs (Kel Eghlal et Ayttawari Seslem de l’Azawagh, Niger). Bulletin Amades. Anthropologie médicale appliquée au développement et à la santé 56. http://amades.revues.org/650?lang=en (accessed 21 January 2014).10.4000/amades.650Search in Google Scholar
Walentowitz, Saskia & AbdoulmohamineKhamed Attayoub. 2001. La tetserrét des Ayttawari Seslem : un parler proche du berbère “septentrional”, chez les Touaregs de l’Azawagh (Niger). Annuaire de l’Afrique du Nord36. 27–48.Search in Google Scholar
Wolff, H. Ekkehard & OusseinaAlidou. 2001. On the non-linear ancestry of Tasawaq (Niger), or: how “mixed” can a language be? In DerekNurse (ed.), Historical language contact in Africa, 523–574. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe.Search in Google Scholar
©2015 by De Gruyter Mouton
