Tamashekn.

1885 Encycl. Brit. XVIII. 778/2 The principal dialects [of Berber] are the Kabyle, the Shilha, and the Tuarek or Tamashek, corresponding nearly to the ancient Numidian, Mauretanian and Gætulian respectively.

1896 A. H. Keane Ethnol. xiv. 384 This word [sc. Tamahu] still exists under various dialectic forms (Tamahéeg, Tamashek, Tamazigt) applied collectively to the Hemitic languages of the Sahara and Mauritania. The form T-amazig-t, when stripped of its fem. prefix and postfix particle t, is seen to be identical with the Maxyes of Herodotus (later Masices, Mazices), i.e. Amzigh, pl. Imazighen, ‘freemen’, the most general name of the Mauritanian Berbers.

1908 T. G. Tucker Introd. Nat. Hist. Lang. 173 Thus old Egyptian annuk..= ‘I’, for which the Berber Tamashek has nek... ‘He’ is in old Egyptian entuf, in Tamashek it is enta.

1908 T. G. Tucker Introd. Nat. Hist. Lang. 174 Berber languages are still spoken in the Western Sahara (where is to be found the Tamashek, which is usually treated as the most representative dialect).

1974 Encycl. Brit. Macropædia VIII. 596/2 Tamashek has several verbal tenses.

1978 D. Bagley Flyaway xiii. 94 Assekrem is a Tamachek word—it means, ‘The End of the World’.