Zenaga language - Definition and Overview

Afro-Asiatic - Berber - Zenaga

Zenaga is a Berber language spoken by some 200 to 300 people between Mederdra and the Atlantic coast in southern Mauritania. The language shares its basic structure with other Berber languages, but specific details are quite different; in fact, it is probably the most divergent surviving Berber language, with a significantly different sound system made even more distant by sound changes such as l > dj and kh > k, as well as a difficult to explain profusion of glottal stops. The name 'Zenaga' comes from that of a much bigger ancient Berber tribe, known to medieval Arab geographers as the Senhaja; the name "Senegal", ironically, derives from "Zenaga" as well.

The language seems to be going extinct since its speakers do not teach it to their children. Those learn Hassaniya, the dominant Arabic language of Mauritania, which itself contains a substantial number of Zenaga loanwords.

The people speaking Zenaga are Muslim nomads. Racially the group is both black and white. The blacks are descendants of slaves that were captured centuries ago.

The ISO 639-2 code for Zenaga is: zen.