Tama language

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File:Darfur Linguistic Map.svg

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, eastern Chad and in Darfur, western Sudan.<ref name="Appiah">Template:Cite book</ref> It is a Taman language which belongs to the Eastern Sudanic branch of the Nilo-Saharan language family. 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. Template:ISBN</ref>

Phonology

Consonants

		Labial	Dental	Alveolar	Retroflex	Palatal	Velar	Glottal
Stop	Template:Small		t̪				k
	Template:Small	b	d̪			ɟ	g
	Template:Small	ɓ	ɗ̪
Fricative		f		s		ʃ		h
Nasal		m		n		ɲ	ŋ
Rhotic				r	ɽ
Lateral				l	ɭ
Approximant		w				j

Vowels

	+ATR			-ATR
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
Close	i		u	ɪ		ʊ
Mid	e		o	ɛ		ɔ
Open		ʌ̈			a

Vowel length is also distinctive.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

External links

• Tama basic lexicon at the Global Lexicostatistical Database

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