Zenaga language

Zenaga
ⵜⵓⵥⵥⵓⵏⴳⵉⵢⵢⴰ (Tuẓẓungiyya)
Native to	Mauritania, Senegal
Region	Mederdra
Native speakers	3,500 (2018–2021)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Berber Western Zenaga
Writing system	Tifinagh
Official status
Recognised minority language in	Mauritania
Language codes
ISO 639-2	zen
ISO 639-3	zen
Glottolog	zena1248
ELP	Zenaga

Zenaga (autonym: Tuẓẓungiyya or āwӓy ən uẓ̄nӓgӓn) is a Berber language on the verge of extinction currently spoken in Mauritania and northern Senegal by a few hundred people. Zenaga Berber is spoken as a mother tongue from the town of Mederdra in southwestern Mauritania to the Atlantic coast and in northern Senegal. The language is recognized by the Mauritanian government.^[2]

It shares its basic linguistic structure with other Berber idioms in Morocco and Algeria, but specific features are quite different. In fact, Zenaga 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 /x/ > /k/ as well as a difficult-to-explain^{[clarification needed]} profusion of glottal stops.

The name Zenaga comes from that of a much larger ancient Berber tribe, the Iznagen (Iẓnagen), who are known in Arabic as the Sanhaja. Adrian Room's African Placenames^[3] gives Zenaga derivations for some place-names in Mauritania.