Zenaga language
| Zenaga | |
|---|---|
| Tuẓẓungiyya | |
| Native to | Mauritania |
| Region | Mederdra |
Native speakers | 3,500 (2018–2021) |
| Dialects |
|
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-2 | zen |
| ISO 639-3 | zen |
| Glottolog | zena1248 |
| ELP | Zenaga |
 Zenaga in Mauritania is classified as Severely Endangered and Zenaga in Western Sahara is classified as Critically Endangered by the UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger. | |
Zenaga (endonym: Tuẓẓungiyya or āwӓy ən uẓ̄nӓgӓn) is a Berber language spoken in Mauritania and northern Senegal by thousands of people. Zenaga Berber is spoken as a mother tongue from the town of Mederdra in southwestern Mauritania to the Atlantic coast and in northern Senegal. The language is not recognised by the Mauritanian government.
It shares its basic linguistic structure with other Berber languages, but specific features are quite different. In fact, Zenaga is probably the most divergent surviving Berber language, with a significantly different sound system made even more distant by sound changes such as /l/ > /dj/ and /x/ > /k/, as well as a profusion of glottal stops with no correspondents in other Berber varieties that are interpreted as the only segmental survivor of a Proto-Berber *ʔ.
The name Zenaga comes from that of a much larger ancient Berber tribe, the Iznagen, who are known in Arabic as the Sanhaja. Adrian Room's African Placenames gives Zenaga derivations for some place-names in Mauritania.