Zenaga language

Zenaga (autonym: Tuẓẓungiyya or āwӓy ən uẓ̄nӓgӓn) is an Amazigh language spoken in Mauritania and northern Senegal by thousands of people. Zenaga Amazigh 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.

It shares its basic linguistic structure with other Amazigh idioms in Morocco and Algeria, but specific features are quite different. In fact, Zenaga is probably the most divergent surviving Amazigh 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 profusion of glottal stops with no correspondents in other Amazigh varieties that are interpreted as the only segmental survivor of a Proto-Berber *ʔ.

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