Editing Tama language

{{Short description|Nilo-Saharan language spoken in Chad and Sudan}}
{{distinguish|Tama language (Colombia)}}
{{Infobox language
|name=Tama
|altname=''Tamongobo''
|states=[[Chad]], [[Sudan]]
|region=[[Wadi Fira (region)|Wadi Fira]], [[West Darfur]], [[South Darfur]]
|ethnicity=[[Tama people|Tama]], [[Kimr people|Kimr]]<ref name=e27/>
|speakers={{sigfig|464,000|2}}
|date=2022–2023
|ref=e27
|dia1=Tama
|dia2=Orra
|dia3=Girga 
|dia4=Haura
|dia5=Erenga
|dia6=Murase
|dia7=Mileere
|dia8=Madungore
|script=Unwritten
|familycolor=Nilo-Saharan
|fam2=[[Eastern Sudanic languages|Eastern Sudanic]]
|fam3=[[Northern Eastern Sudanic languages|Northern Eastern]]
|fam4=[[Taman languages|Taman]]
|fam5=[[Taman languages|Tama–Sungor]]
|iso3=tma
|glotto=tama1331
|glottorefname=Tama (Chad)
|lingua = 05-DAA-aa 
}}
[[Image:Darfur Linguistic Map.svg|thumb|right|Linguistic map of the non-Arab peoples of Darfur, showing the extent of the Taman languages in Sudan.]]

'''Tama''', or '''Tamongobo''', is the primary language spoken by the [[Tama people]] in [[Ouaddai Region|Ouaddai]], eastern [[Chad]] and in [[Darfur]], western [[Sudan]].<ref name="Appiah">{{cite book |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=A0XNvklcqbwC&q=tama&pg=RA1-PA454 |title = Encyclopedia of Africa |author1=Anthony Appiah |author2=Henry Louis Gates |publisher= Oxford University Press |year= 2010 |isbn= 978-0195337709 |page=454}}</ref> It is a [[Taman languages|Taman]] language which belongs to the [[Eastern Sudanic languages|Eastern Sudanic]] branch of the [[Nilo-Saharan languages|Nilo-Saharan]] language family. [[Miisiirii language|Miisiirii]] is often considered a dialect, though it is not particularly close.

==Demographics==
Tama is spoken by 63,000 people in Dar Tama, a well irrigated area near [[Guéréda]] that extends from Kebkebiya village to nearby Sudan. There are two nearly identical dialects, one spoken in the northern and central areas, and another one spoken in the south.<ref>Rilly, Claude. 2010. ''Le méroïtique et sa famille linguistique''. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. {{ISBN|978-9042922372}}</ref>

== Phonology ==

=== Consonants ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! colspan="2" |
![[Labial consonant|Labial]]
![[Dental consonant|Dental]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Retroflex consonant|Retroflex]]
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|-
! rowspan="3" |[[Stop consonant|Stop]]
!{{Small|voiceless}}
|
|t̪
|
|
|
|k
|
|-
!{{Small|voiced}}
|b
|d̪
|
|
|ɟ
|g
|
|-
!{{Small|implosive}}
|ɓ
|ɗ̪
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
|f
|
|s
|
|ʃ
|
|h
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
|m
|
|n
|
|ɲ
|ŋ
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Rhotic consonant|Rhotic]]
|
|
|r
|ɽ
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
|
|l
|ɭ
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Approximant]]
|w
|
|
|
|j
|
|
|}

=== Vowels ===
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
! rowspan="2" |
! colspan="3" |[[Advanced and retracted tongue root|+ATR]]
! colspan="3" |[[Advanced and retracted tongue root|-ATR]]
|-
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|- align="center"
![[Close vowel|Close]]
|i
|
|u
|ɪ
|
|ʊ
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|e
|
|o
|ɛ
|
|ɔ
|- align="center"
![[Open vowel|Open]]
|
|ʌ̈
|
|
|a
|
|}
Vowel length is also distinctive.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Dimmendaal |first=Gerrit J. |title=Tama |publisher=Amsterdam/Philadelphia: Amsterdam: John Benjamins |year=2009 |location=In Dimmendaal, Gerrit J. (ed.), Coding Participant Marking: Construction Types in Twelve African Languages |pages=305–330}}</ref>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
* [http://starling.rinet.ru/cgi-bin/response.cgi?root=new100&morpho=0&basename=new100\esu\tam&limit=-1 Tama basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database]

{{Eastern Sudanic languages}}

[[Category:Taman languages]]
[[Category:Languages of Chad]]
[[Category:Languages of Sudan]]


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