Ouargli language
Zenati Berber language spoken in Algeria
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Ouargli, or Teggargrent (also Twargrit, Təggəngusit), is a Zenati Berber language. It is spoken in the oases of Ouargla (Wargrən) and N'Goussa (Ingusa) in Algeria.
As of 1987, Ouargli had no more than 10,000 speakers.[2] Ethnologue estimated only 5,000 speakers as of 1995.[3]
There are some differences between the dialects of Ouargla (Təggargrənt) and N'Goussa (Təggəngusit), notably in the position of pronominal clitics; within Ouargla, there are minor differences between the three tribes At-Brahim, At-Sisin and At-Waggin.[4]
Speakers from Ouargla regard the varieties of Ouargla, N'Goussa, Tugurt/Temacine and Tumzabt/Mozabite, and possibly other Zenati varieties, as dialects of a single language they call Twargrit.[5] According to Delheure (1987:355), at Wargrən fəhhəmən d awəḥdi tawsint, "the Ouarglis understand Temacine very well."
The principal grammatical study is Biarnay (1908);[6] a less detailed sketch is provided in Basset (1893).[7] Its lexicon is fairly extensively documented in Delheure's (1987) dictionary.[8] The bilingual texts in Biarnay and Basset are more recently supplemented by the texts on daily life in Delheure (1988)[9] and the folk tale collection in Delheure (1989);[10] the latter, unlike other work on Ouargli, includes texts from N'Goussa as well.