Gurara language
{{Short description|Berber language of Algeria}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Gurara
|nativename= {{lang|ar|تازناتيت}} (Taznatit) / {{script|Tfng|ⵜⴰⵣⵏⴰⵜⵉⵜ}}
|altname=
|region=Gourara (wilaya of Adrar)
|speakers=26,000, including Tuwat
|date=2014–2022
|ref=e26
|familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
|fam2=Berber
|fam3=Northern
|fam4=Zenati
|fam5=Mzab-Wargla
|iso3=grr
|iso3comment=(included)
|glotto=gour1247
|glottorefname=Gourara
|map=Gourara ksour - Linguistic map.PNG
|mapcaption=Map of the ksour of Gourara by spoken language
}}
Gurara (Gourara) is a Zenati Berber language spoken in the Gourara (Tigurarin) region, an archipelago of oases surrounding the town of Timimoun in southwestern Algeria. Ethnologue gives it the generic name Taznatit ("Zenati"), along with Tuwat spoken to its south; however, Blench (2006) classifies Gurara as a dialect of Mzab–Wargla and Tuwat as a dialect of the Riff languages.
Characteristics
Gurara and Tuwat are the only Berber languages to change r in certain coda positions to a laryngeal ħ;{{cite journal |last=Basset |first=René |author-link=René Basset |title=Notes de lexicographie berbère |journal=Journal Asiatique |issue=8 |volume=X |year=1887 |page=390}} in other contexts it drops r, turning a preceding schwa into a,{{cite journal |first=Maarten |last=Kossmann |title=Cinq notes de linguistique historique berbère |journal=Études et Documents Berbères |volume=17 |year=1999 |pages=131–152|doi=10.3917/edb.017.0131 |s2cid=193269275 }} and this latter phenomenon exists also in Zenata Rif-Berber in the far northern Morocco.
There is inconclusive evidence for Songhay influence on Gurara.{{cite book |first=Maarten |last=Kossmann |chapter=Is there a Songhay substratum in Gourara Berber? |editor-first1=Maarten |editor-last1=Kossmann |editor-first2=Rainer |editor-last2=Vossen |editor-first3=Dymitr |editor-last3=Ibriszimow |title=Nouvelles études berbères: Le verbe et autres articles |publisher=Rüdiger Köppe |location=Köln |year=2004 |pages=51–66}}
=''Ahellil''=
The local tradition of ahellil poetry and music in Gurara, described in Mouloud Mammeri's L'Ahellil du Gourara,{{cite book |first=Mouloud |last=Mammeri |title=L'Ahellil du Gourara |publisher=M.S.H. |location=Paris |year=1984}} has been listed as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.
References
{{reflist}}
{{Berber languages}}
{{Algeria-stub}}
{{Berber-lang-stub}}