Gurara (Gourara) is a ZenatiBerber language spoken in the Gourara (Tigurarin) region, an archipelago of oases surrounding the town of Timimoun in southwestern Algeria. Ethnologue gives it the generic name Taznatit ("Zenati"), along with Tuwat spoken to its south; however, Blench (2006) classifies Gurara as a dialect of Mzab–Wargla and Tuwat as a dialect of the Riff languages.
Characteristics
Gurara and Tuwat are the only Berber languages to change r in certain coda positions to a laryngeal ħ;[2] in other contexts it drops r, turning a preceding schwa into a,[3] and this latter phenomenon exists also in Zenata Rif-Berber in the far northern Morocco.
There is inconclusive evidence for Songhay influence on Gurara.[4]
^Basset, René (1887). "Notes de lexicographie berbère". Journal Asiatique. X (8): 390.
^Kossmann, Maarten (1999). "Cinq notes de linguistique historique berbère". Études et Documents Berbères. 17: 131–152. doi:10.3917/edb.017.0131. S2CID193269275.
^Kossmann, Maarten (2004). "Is there a Songhay substratum in Gourara Berber?". In Kossmann, Maarten; Vossen, Rainer; Ibriszimow, Dymitr (eds.). Nouvelles études berbères: Le verbe et autres articles. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. pp. 51–66.
^Mammeri, Mouloud (1984). L'Ahellil du Gourara. Paris: M.S.H.