Introduction

 

Dazaga [dzg] is classified as Nilo-Saharan, Saharan, Western, Tebu.  There are over one million mother-tongue Dazaga speakers (2023 estimates) residing primarily in northern Chad and eastern Niger, as well as in Libya and Sudan.  The people are known as Dazagada, or sometimes simply as Daza; they are often called Gorane in Chad and Toubou in Niger.

Alternate names to refer to the language are Tubu, Toubou, Dasa, Daza, Dazza, and Gorane. Dazaga is closely related to Tudaga [tuq] (or Tedaga).  Dazaga serves as a trade language in northern Chad and in N’Djamena. In Chad especially, many speakers of Dazaga also speak Chadian Spoken Arabic [shu].

More and more books are being published in Dazaga and the language is used in television and radio news broadcasts.  In Chad, several schools are using Dazaga as the language of instruction at the primary levels.