Aidi wan n'Eezel: the loyal azawakh

The word “Azawakh” comes from the Djerma language, but it has nothing to do with dogs.

In Djerma azawa means north. Azawagh or azawad means land of to the north. The word the Djerma use for what we call the Azawakh dog is hansi or hanso (I’ve also seen it spelled hanshee and hanshii).

The really fascinating thing is that there are three gender forms. One for dog and two for bitch. The Djerma have a different conjugation of the word dog for a bitch who has given birth and one who has not.

• hansi daŋ: dog (male)
• hansi way: bitch [has not given birth]
• hansi nya: bitch [has given birth]

A little bit of digging revealed that this is a feature of the Djerma language. For all livestock there are three gender forms: one for male, one for female-that-has-not-produced-offspring and one for female-that-has-produced-offspring.

Chicken

• goroŋgari (rooster)
• goroŋo way (hen)
• goroŋo nya (hen)

Camel

• yo mali (camel bull)
• yo way (camel cow)
• yo nya (camel cow)

This must be a culture with a deep tradition of animal breeding.

reference: http://www.djerma.nl/