Tagdal language

{{short description|Songhay language}}

{{Infobox language

|name=Tagdal

|altname=Tagdal-Tabarog

|nativename=Tihishit

|states=Niger

|ethnicity=Igdalen, Iberogan

|speakers={{sigfig|65,300|2}}

|date=2021

|ref=e26

|familycolor=Nilo-Saharan

|fam2=Songhay

|fam3=Northern Songhay

|dia1=Tagdal

|dia2=Tabarog

|script= Tifinagh

|iso3=tda

|glotto=tagd1238

|glottorefname=Tagdal

|notice = IPA

|map =Songhay languages.svg

|mapcaption =Location of Songhay languagesThis map is based on classification from Glottolog and data from Ethnologue.

Northwest Songhay:

{{legend|#002b00|Korandje}}

{{legend|#008000|Koyra Chiini}}

{{legend|#00ff00|Tadaksahak}}

{{legend|#55ff55|Tasawaq}}

{{legend|#aaffaa|Tagdal}}

Eastern Songhay:

{{legend|#2b0000|Tondi Songway Kiini}}

{{legend|#800000|Humburi Senni}}

{{legend|#d40000|Koyraboro Senni}}

{{legend|#ff5555|Zarma language}}

{{legend| #ffff00|Songhoyboro Ciine}}

{{legend|#ffaaaa|Dendi}}

}}

{{infobox ethnonym|Agdal|Igdalan|Tagdal||Agdal}}

{{infobox ethnonym||Iberogan|Tabarog||Abarog}}

Tagdal (Tuareg name: Tagdalt){{cite book|last1=Ritter|first1=Georg|title=Wörterbuch zur Sprache und Kultur der Twareg II Deutsch-Twareg|date=2009|publisher=Harrassowitz|location=Wiesbaden|page=735}} is a mixed Northern Songhay language of central Niger. Ethnologue considers it a "mixed Berber–Songhay language", while other researchers consider it Northern Songhay. Nicolaï (1981) argued that Tagdal was originally derived from the Tuareg languages and adopted characteristics of Songhai rather than vice versa.Catherine Taine-Cheikh. [http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00456346/ Les langues parlées au sud Sahara et au nord Sahel]. De l'Atlantique à l'Ennedi (Catalogue de l'exposition « Sahara-Sahel »), Centre Culturel Français d'Abidjan (Ed.) (1989) 155-173

There are two dialects: Tagdal proper, spoken by the Igdalen people, pastoralists who inhabit a region to the east along the Niger border to Tahoua in Niger,{{cite book |last=Benítez-Torres |first=Carlos M. |year=2009 |chapter=Inflectional vs. Derivational Morphology in Tagdal: A Mixed Language

|editor1=Masangu Matondo |editor2=Fiona Mc Laughlin |editor3=Eric Potsdam |title=In Selected Proceedings of the 38th Annual Conference on African Linguistics |location=Somerville |pages=69–83 |publisher=Cascadilla Proceedings Project |chapter-url=http://www.lingref.com/cpp/acal/38/paper2136.pdf}} and Tabarog, spoken by the Iberogan people of the Azawagh valley on the Niger–Mali border. The Iberogan sometimes refer to their language as Tagdal.{{cn|date = August 2024}}

Nicolaï (1981) uses the name Tihishit as a cover term. Rueck & Christiansen say that

...the Igdalen and the Iberogan have for many purposes been treated as one group, and their speech forms are closely related. Nicolaï uses "tihishit" as a common designator for these two speech forms...; however, this term is ambiguous. "Tihishit" is a term of Tamajaq origin meaning "the language of the blacks". The Igdalen and Iberogan used it to refer to all Northern Songhay speech forms.Michael J Rueck; Niels Christiansen. [http://www.sil.org/silesr/1999/008/nsonghay.html Northern Songhay languages in Mali and Niger, a sociolinguistic survey]. Summer Institute of Linguistics (1999).