1.6 Fieldwork and other data 9As noted above, around Menaka we get Tamajak instead of Tamashek
proper. In that zone, straddling the Mali-Niger border, there is also an
important nomadic group of cultural Tuaregs known as Daoussahak who speak
Tadaksahak. This language has a Songhay base (pronouns, inflectional
particles, maybe 250 items of core vocabulary), but most of the lexicon
(including some "core" items) is from Tuareg, and Tuareg influence in
grammatical categories, syntax, and prosody is conspicuous. There are also
some Fulfulde-speaking groups near the Niger River south of Menaka.
Of these non-Tuareg languages, Arabic has had by far the greatest
influence on Tamashek, but the influence seems to be largely confined to
lexical borrowing. Of course loanwords in areas related to Islam and sharia law
(prayer, holy days, days of the week, lunar months, divorce) are very common,
but there are also some loans in other domains, sometimes from vernacular
rather than classical Arabic. Arabic loans may have spread within the Tuareg
domain, from dialect to dialect, or they may have entered different Tuareg
varieties independently. Many of the Arabic loans also occur in other regional
languages (e.g. Songhay, Fulfulde), and in some cases there are phonological
indications that an Arabic term passed first into Tuareg and from there into
languages farther south.
1.6 Fieldwork and other data
I have worked in northern Mali since 1986, including annual visits since 1989.
In 1986 and 1989 I worked chiefly on Hassaniya Arabic. From 1990 to 1998 I
concentrated on Songhay languages, and am still finishing up this work. From
1999 to 2003, however, I focused on Tamashek. I am simultaneously
completing a Tamashek-English-French dictionary which I expect to be
published by Karthala, Paris. I have put great emphasis on lexicography in this
project, and I have drawn heavily on lexical data in this grammar. I am
considering the best way to make my textual data available, perhaps in an
electronic format, in the next few years.
In the field, the first order of business was compiling a decent working
lexicon. I undertook systematic lexical elicitation, primarily in Timbuktu in
summer 1999 and autumn 2000, with emphasis on ecological vocabulary
(natural species and related terminology). With a lexicon of about 2500 items I
then undertook analysis of dialogue tapes that I had recorded over the years in
Timbuktu (T-ka and others), Gao (speakers from the Kidal areas), and
Hombori (speakers living in the Gourma, most of whom were ultimately of
Timbuktu or Goundam origin). I also made some recordings of Tamajak (and
Tadaksahak) speakers in Menaka. I commissioned preliminary transcriptions
and French translations of several of the tapes from government applied
linguists in Bamako, namely Rhali Ag Mohamed of DNAFLA (native of
Kidal) and Mahmoud Ag Oyett of IPN (native of Menaka). I later took these