Air Tamajeq language

Air Tamajeq (Tayiṛt) is a variety of Tamasheq, one of the Tuareg languages. It is spoken by the Tuareg people inhabiting the Aïr Mountains, in the Agadez Region of Niger.

Tayart
Tamajeq
Native to	Niger
Region	Sahara
Native speakers	250,000 (1998)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Berber Tuareg Southern Tayart
Dialects	Air (Tayiṛt) Tanassfarwat (Tamagarast)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	thz
Glottolog	taya1257

Ethnologue lists two dialects: Air (Tayert) and Tanassfarwat (Tamagarast/Tamesgrest). Blench (2006) considers these two varieties to be distinct languages. He lists Ingal and Gofat as dialects of Air/Tayirt and Azerori as a dialect of Tamesgrest.

Phonology

Vowels

Short Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i	ə	u
Mid	e	ă	o
Low		a

Phonetic vowel sounds

	Oral			Pharyngealized
	Front	Central	Back	Front	Central	Back
High	[i]	[ɨ ~ ə]	[u]	[ɪˤ]	[ɜˤ]	[ʊˤ]
Mid	[ɪ ~ e]	[ɜ ~ ɐ]	[ʊ ~ o]	[ɛˤ ~ æˤ]	[ɐˤ ~ aˤ]	[ɔˤ]
Low		[æ ~ a]			[aˤ ~ ɑˤ]

Consonants

		Labial		Alveolar		Palato- alveolar	Velar		Uvular	Glottal
		plain	phar.	plain	phar.		plain	phar.
Plosive	voiceless			t	(tˤ)	(č) [tʃ]	k	kˤ	q
	voiced	b	bˤ	d	dˤ	(ǧ) [dʒ]	g
Fricative	voiceless	f	(fˤ)	s	(sˤ)	š [ʃ]			χ	h
	voiced			z	zˤ	ž [ʒ]			ʁ
Nasal		m	(mˤ)	n	(nˤ)		ŋ
Lateral				l	(ɫ)
Trill				r	(rˤ)
Approximant		w				y [j]

• Sounds [tʃ] and [dʒ] mainly occur as allophones of /t/ and /d/ before front vowels. A velar /ŋ/ mainly appears when followed by a labio-velar /w/, or a uvular /q/.[2]

References

1. Tayart at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. Kossmann, Maarten G. (2011). A Grammar of Ayer Tuareg (Niger). Cologne: Rüdiger Köppe.