Choice of test sites Choice of translators

7 3 Methodology

3.1 Choice of test sites

Tasawaq is spoken only in Ingal and Teguidda-n-Tessoumt. The Bernuses 1972 indicate that most of the inhabitants of Teguidda-n-Tessoumt are just there seasonally to work the salt pans and have their permanent residences in Ingal. So, we went to Ingal. Since we wanted our samples of Tagdal and Tabarog to be as pure as possible, we looked for villages which were inhabited only by Igdalen or Iberogan, but not both. Ideally, we would have chosen villages which were not on a main road limiting their contact with other speech forms and which had primary schools for ease of test administration. However, we were constrained by the insecurity of the region between Abalak and Agadez to choose a village on the main road for our Tagdal sample. Tamaya was suggested to us by the Sub-Prefect of Abalak, and we had the good fortune to meet the village chief the following day in Abalak. A primary school was established there four years ago. The Igdalen chief, in turn, recommended Tofabayogh to us as an Iberogan village. Its relatively isolated location should ensure a stable linguistic community. There is no public school in any Iberogan village.

3.2 Choice of translators

Since no team members spoke any of the dialects in question, we had to rely on translators in order to accomplish this study. There are many young men in Ingal who have completed at least a primary education, so we had no trouble finding native Tasawaq speakers to translate from French for us. The chef de poste assigned one young man from his staff to help us during our stay, and other local men were available when we needed them. The very conservative Igdalen and Iberogan, however, have resisted sending any of their children to public schools until very recently, so very few of them speak French. The Representative of the Chief of the 7th Group of Tamajaq Peoples in Abalak was able to call upon Alassane Ntinicar, a young approximately 25 years old, black Agdal Kel Amdit who had grown up in Agadez and had completed three years of middle school. He and his younger cousin, Abdoulaye Islamane, translated for us in Tamaya and Tofabayogh. We can’t be sure whether their youth or their race influenced the data we collected. We did observe that, between themselves, they spoke more Hausa than Tagdal. Christiansen’s knowledge of Tadaksahak also helped in the translation process.

3.3 Interview schedules