Arabe choa
The Arabic of the Lake Chad shores, the common language of Logone-et-Chari
Family : Afro-Asiatic, Semitic: Sudanese-Chadian Arabic
Also called : Arabe tchadien, Shuwa Arabic, Chadian Arabic, Arabe choua
Where and by whom it is spoken
Shuwa Arabic is the Cameroonian form of Chadian Arabic, a variety of Arabic spoken across the Sahel from Chad to Sudan, and around Lake Chad in Cameroon, Nigeria and Niger. In Cameroon it is mainly spoken in the Far North, in the Logone-et-Chari division, where most people speak it. It is the language of the Shuwa Arabs and the common language of Kousséri, across the river from N'Djamena.
History and writing
It is not known when Arabs reached the Lake Chad region; they probably came in numbers in the 18th century. The name "Shuwa" comes from the Kanuri language, and the term "Shuwa Arabic" spread among scholars after a grammar published in 1920 by the British administrator Gordon Lethem. To write it, SIL Chad has published a spelling guide and a Chadian Arabic-French lexicon.
Where to hear it today
- The lingua franca of Logone-et-Chari, where it dominates, whereas Fulfulde is the common language in the rest of the North.
- The language of trade in Kousséri, a market town turned towards trade with Chad, whose language it shares.
- The mother tongue of the Shuwa Arabs, herders settled in the cantons of Kousséri, Kolofata, Limani and Boundéri.
What sources disagree on
No reliable figure for the number of speakers in Cameroon could be verified. The term "Shuwa" was originally used only by non-Arabs in Nigeria's Borno: speakers themselves simply call their language "Arabic".