Tarjumo language

Tarjumo, also known as Old Kanembu or Classical Kanembu, is a classical and sacred language created and used by Muslim scholars in the Kanem–Bornu Empire, located in the central Sahel. It likely emerged in the 15th century as a liturgical and scholarly language for Qur'anic exegesis and grammatical analysis of sacred texts in classical arabic. The name Tarjumo derives from the Arabic verb tarjama (ترجم), meaning "to translate."

It is classified within the Nilo-Saharan language family, although this classification is debated among linguists. Old Kanembu is an early form of the Kanuri language, which became fixed through its liturgical use before the dialectal split that led to the emergence of Kanembu, spoken in the northeast of Lake Chad in present-day Chad. As a result, it retains linguistic features shared with the Teda-Daza and Beria languages. The Tarjumo language uses the Arabic script, and represents a complementary practice to Ajami in vernacular languages. Scholars primarily used it for grammatical analysis and the Qur’anic exegesis of sacred texts in Classical Arabic. Today, Tarjumo is still used in glossing and Qur'anic exegesis (Tafsir) by a limited circle of Muslim scholars in Borno State, Nigeria, as well as in southeastern Niger, particularly in Zinder and Kribitoa, in the Diffa Region.