Tamahaq language

Tamahaq
Native to	Algeria, Libya, Niger
Region	Sahara
Native speakers	62,000  (date missing)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Berber Tuareg Northern Tamahaq
Language codes
ISO 639-3	thv

Tamahaq is the only known Northern Tuareg language, spoken in Algeria, western Libya, and northern Niger. It varies little from the southern languages of Ayr, Azawagh or Adagh, with the differences mostly being substitution of sounds, for instance Tamahaq instead of Tamajaq or Tamasheq.

Varieties

There are three main varieties of Tamahaq:

• Tahaggart, spoken around the Ahaggar Mountains in southern Algeria, by the Kel Ahaggar confederation.
• Ajjer, spoken by the Kel Ajjer confederation.
• Ghat, spoken around Djanet in southeast Algeria and Ghat in Libya.

According to Blench (2006), Tahaggart and Ghat are distinct Tuareg languages.

External links

• Map of Tamahaq language from the LL-Map Project
• Information about Tamahaq language from the MultiTree Project