Tamasheq

Facts

  • Language: Tamasheq
  • Alternate names: Kidal Tamasheq, Tomacheck, Tamashekin, "Tuareg", Timbuktu, Kidal
  • Language code: taq
  • Language family: Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Tuareg, Southern Tuareg
  • Number of speakers: 281169
  • Script: Tifinagh script, Arabic script, Latin script

More information:

    Introduction

    Tamasheq is a Berber language spoken by the Tuareg.

    The verb

    Tamasheq verbs jave four aspects:

    1. Perfective: complete actions
    2. Stative: "lasting states as the ongoing results of a completed action."
    3. Imperfective: future or possible actions, "often used following a verb expressing emotion, decision or thought," it can be marked with "'ad'" (shortened to "'a-'" with prepositions).
    4. Cursive: ongoing actions, often habitual ones.

    Conjugation in Tamasheq is done by adding suffixes (prefixes, postfixes or both) to a root. The triliteral roots (three-consonant bases) are the most common in Tamasheq.

    Sample verb: ktb 'to write'

    In the following table the prefixes and postfixes are marked in bold.

    Past

    Sg.1ektabaɣ
    Sg.2tektabad
    Sg.3 m.iktab
    Sg.3 f.tektab
    Pl.1nektab
    Pl.2 m.tektabam
    Pl.2 f.tektabmat
    Pl.3 m.ektaban
    Pl.3 f.ektabnat