záy

Verb vi.

Translations

Français: Jurer ; juron (pl. zayén)
English: to swear; swearword
العربية: يحلف؛ شتيمة

Source : Christiansen-Bolli (2010), annexe IV, p. 339 — French and Arabic meanings translated from English, to be checked by the community

Cite this word

Reference

Hamadine AG MOCTAR (n.d.). záy (to swear; swearword). Tadaksahak–French–English–Arabic dictionary. https://hamadine-services.net/en/dictionnaire/704-zay (accessed 2026-10-18)

BibTeX

@misc{moctarswear,
  author = {Hamadine AG MOCTAR},
  title = {{záy (to swear; swearword)}},
  howpublished = {Tadaksahak–French–English–Arabic dictionary},
  url = {https://hamadine-services.net/en/dictionnaire/704-zay},
  urldate = {2026-10-18}
}

This word in the works

Pages of the library’s works where this word appears.

… ve (41) read/study qaran seseɣra13 tuwaɣra ăɣru to read/study (42) say ci sesuwan tuwena14 ăṇṇu to say (43) see guna sekna ṭuweni ǝnǝy to see ‘show’ (44) steal zay ʃiʃukor tukur akǝr to steal 12Unused form. Such an action does not happen in the culture; one would rather say ‘he sent him something’ Aʃuwan ase he. 13Compare with “call”. The Tamasheq root has both meanings: call/read. 14Normally used for general truths, like proverbs.

Christiansen & Christiansen (2002), Some verb morphology features of Tadaksahak, or: Berber or Songhay, this is the question, p. 12
… h a Songhay and to words with a Tamasheq background. (21) Realization of /a/ preceding /y/ (Songhay cognates) singular plural [ˈzɛj] [zaːˈjɛn] [ˈjɛj] [jaːˈjɛn] záy yáy gloss ‘theft’ ‘freshness’ Etymologically Tamasheq nouns also follow the rule that /a/ is pronounced [ɛ] when followed by /y/. The following examples show the nominalization pattern /aCaCaC/ for two verbs with three consonants in the root. ‘to fill’ has a final /y/ in the root that provokes the different pronunc …

Christiansen-Bolli (2010), A Grammar of Tadaksahak, a Northern Songhay Language of Mali, p. 42
… ǝgu nín t-íʃu drink ăʃ(w)u ŋá t-ǝkʃa eat ikʃa zóɣ t-ǝkṇǝṣ fight (also verbally) ǝkṇǝs habá t-ǝfrǝd gather (food) ǝfrǝd ná t-ǝkfa give ăkfu kár t-ǝwǝt hit ǝwǝt záy t-úkuṛ steal akǝr gón t-ǝlmǝz swallow ǝlmǝẓ diní t-úbuẓ take ǝbǝẓ

Christiansen-Bolli (2010), A Grammar of Tadaksahak, a Northern Songhay Language of Mali, p. 84

záy

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