TEDA LANGUAGE

language spoken in Chad, Niger, and Libya. It is closely related to the Kanuri, Zaghawa, and Berti languages and belongs to the Saharan group of the Nilo-Saharan family of languages. Teda has northern and southern groups, and the term Teda is sometimes used for the northern grouping only, with Daza (Dasa), especially in French literature, the term for the southern. In an earlier classification system, Tubu (Tebu, Tibbu, or Toubou) designates the grouping as a whole or, alternatively, the southern alone, and Tuda the northern. See also Saharan languages.