Tamashek

Tamasheq or Tamashek is a Berber macro-language widely spoken by nomadic tribes in
Algeria, Mali, Niger and Burkina Faso. Tamasheq is one of the three main varieties of Tuareg,
the others being Tamajaq and Tamahaq.
The livelihoods of the Tuareg people has been in serious detriment in the last century due to
climate change and a series of political conflict, notably; the Arab-Tuareg rebellion of 1990 –
1995 in Mali which brought about the ethnic cleansing of the Tuareg in the form of reprisal
killing and exile.
Tamashek is an endangered language having only 900,000 native speakers(2021 – 2022)
with 187,000 Tamashek speakers being Burkinabes(Burkina Faso) and 590,000 Tamashek
speakers being Malian (Mali).Tamashek can also be classified as a developing language as it is
the official language of Mali and through the efforts of the Malian government being promoted in
Schools.
There are roughly three main divisions of Malian Tamashek;
*, Kal Ansar dialect around Timbuktu denoted as T-ka’
*, “Mainstream” Tamasheq dialects spoken in Kidal, Tessalit, the Gao area and the non-Kal
Ansar groups around Timbuktu.
*dialect spoken by certain groups in the Gourma of Gao and Ansongo.
Tamashek has 7 vowels in total. Two frontal vowels;/I/,/ae/, three central vowels/ae/,/a/ and
the last being an upside down “e”. It also has two back vowels /u/ and /o/. Tamashek has no
diphthongs but has 33 consonants; having six manners of articulation and eight places of
articulation; also having no non-pulmonic consonants.