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Ethnologue > Web version > Country index > Africa > Mali > Tamasheq

Tamasheq

A language of Mali

ISO 639-3: taq

Population	250,000 in Mali (1991). Population total all countries: 281,200.
Region	Central, Timbuktu area, and northeast Mali. Also in Algeria, Burkina Faso.
Language map	Mali, Enlarged Area
Alternate names	Kidal, Kidal Tamasheq, Tamashekin, Timbuktu, Tomacheck, “Tuareg”
Dialects	Timbuktu (Tombouctou, Tanaslamt), Tadhaq (Kidal). May be 2 separate languages.
Classification	Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Tamasheq, Southern A member of macrolanguage Tamashek [tmh] (Mali).
Language use	National language.
Language development	The government is actively promoting the language through adult literacy classes. Taught in primary schools. NT: 2003.
Writing system	Latin script. Tifinagh (Berber) script.
Comments	The people are called ‘Kel Tamasheq’. The Bellah were formerly under the Tuareg economically. Pastoralists: cattle, goats, camels, donkeys. Muslim.

Also spoken in:

Burkina Faso

Language name	Tamasheq, Kidal
Population	31,200 in Burkina Faso (2000).
Region	Oudalan Province.
Language map	Burkina Faso, reference number 24
Alternate names	Tamashekin, Timbuktu, Tomacheck, Tuareg
Dialects	Timbuktu (Tombouctou, Tanaslamt), Tadghaq (Kidal).
Comments	People are called ‘Tuareg’ (‘Targi’, sg.). Muslim.

Entries from the SIL Bibliography about this language:

Academic Publications

CHRISTIANSEN, Niels; CHRISTIANSEN, Regula, authors. 2002. Some verb morphology features of Tadaksahak, or Berber or Songhay, this is the question.  

WOLTHUIS, Wilma M. C., author. 2006. Tamasheq prepositions: a semantic analysis of Tamasheq prepositions.

Vernacular Publications

Ănaxsib n-išilan n-awătay wa n- 1999. 1999.

Oẓẓawăn n-awatay 2000 (Calendrier Tamasheq 2000). 2000.