Summary
Ait Seghrouchen Berber, or Seghroucheni (Seghrusheni), is a Zenati Berber language of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster. It is spoken by the Ait Seghrouchen tribe inhabiting east-central Morocco.
| Ait Seghrouchen Berber | |
|---|---|
| Tmaziġt, Tamaziġt | |
| Native to | Morocco |
| Region | Central Morocco – Middle Atlas |
Afro-Asiatic
| |
| Tifinagh, Latin | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
tzm-cen (Seghrušen of Mzab-Wargla) | |
| Glottolog | None |
Classification edit
Ait Seghrouchen Berber is commonly classed as Central Atlas Tamazight. It is reported to be mutually intelligible with the neighbouring Berber dialect of Ait Ayache.[1] Genetically, however, it belongs to the Zenati subgroup of Northern Berber, rather than to the Atlas subgroup to which the rest of Central Atlas Tamazight belongs,[2] and are therefore excluded by some sources from Central Atlas Tamazight.[3]
Ait Seghrouchen is part of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster of Zenati dialects, which is spoken in the eastern Middle Atlas.
Phonology edit
Consonants edit
Ayt Seghrouchen is notable for having the lateral fricative [ɬ] as an allophone of the sequence /lt/.[4] /k, g/ are pronounced as stops, unlike the closely related Ayt Ayache dialect in which they are fricatives.[5]
In the table below, when consonants appear in pairs, the one on the left is voiceless.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn- geal[a] |
Glottal | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | nˤ | ||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | tˤ[b] | k | |||||
| voiced | b[c] | dˤ | ɡ | |||||
| Fricative | zˤ | ʒ | ʁ | ʕ | ||||
| voiceless | f | sˤ | ʃ | χ | ħ | h | ||
| lateral | (ɬ)[d] | |||||||
| Approximant | lˤ | j | w | |||||
| Rhotic[e] | rˤ | |||||||
Vowels edit
Ait Seghrouchen Berber has a typical phonemic three-vowel system, similarly to Classical Arabic:
| Front | Back | |
|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u |
| Open | a | |
These phonemes have numerous allophones, conditioned by the following environments:
(# denotes word boundary, X denotes C[−flat −/χ/ −/ʁ/], C̣ denotes C[+flat], G denotes C, /χ/, and /ʁ/)
| Phoneme | Realization | Environment | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| /i/ | [i] | #_X | /ili/ | 'to exist' |
| [ɨ] | #_Xː / Xː_ | /idːa/ | 'he went' | |
| [ɪ] [e] | _G / G_ | /dˤːiqs/ | 'to burst out' | |
| [ɪj] | X_# | /isːfrˤħi/ | 'he made me happy' | |
| /u/ | [u] | #_X / X(ː)_X | /umsʁ/ | 'I painted' |
| [ʊ] [o] | _G / G_ | /idˤurˤ/ | 'he turned' | |
| [ʊw] | X(ː)_# | /bdu/ | 'to begin' | |
| [ʉ] | kː_ / ɡː_ | /lːajɡːur/ | 'he goes' | |
| /a/ | [æ] | #_X(ː) / X(ː)_X | /azn/ | 'to send' |
| [ɐ] | X(ː)_# | /da/ | 'here' | |
| [ɑ] | _C̣ / C̣_ | /ħadˤr/ | 'to be present' |
Phonetic Schwa
There is a predictable non-phonemic vowel inserted into consonant clusters, realized as [ɪ̈] before front consonants (e.g. /b t d .../) and [ə] before back consonants (e.g. /k χ .../).[10] These are some of the rules governing the occurrence of [ə]:
(# denotes word boundary, L denotes /l r m n/, H denotes /h ħ ʕ w j/)
| Environment | Realization | Example | Pronunciation | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| #C(ː)# | əC(ː) | /ɡ/ | [əɡ] | 'to be, to do' |
| #LC# | əLC or LəC | /ns/ | [əns] ~ [nəs] | 'to spend the night' |
| #CC# | CəC | /tˤsˤ/ | [tˤəsˤ] | 'to laugh' |
| #CːC# | əCːəC | /fːr/ | [əfːər] | 'to hide' |
| #CCC# | CCəC / C1C2 are not {L H} | /χdm/ | [χdəm] | 'to work' |
| /zʕf/ | [zʕəf] | 'to get mad' | ||
| #CCC# | əCCəC or #CəCəC# / {C1 C3} is {L H} | /hdm/ | [əhdəm] ~ [hədəm] | 'to demolish' |
| #CCC# | CəCəC / C2C3 = {L H} | /dˤmn/ | [dˤəmən] | 'to guarantee' |
Stress edit
Word stress is non-contrastive and predictable — it falls on the last vowel in a word (including schwa).[12]
References edit
- ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:xiii)
- ^ Edmond Destaing, "Essai de classification des dialectes berbères du Maroc", Études et Documents Berbères, 19-20, 2001-2002 (1915)
- ^ Augustin Bernard and Paul Moussard, Arabophones et berbérophones au Maroc, Annales de Géographie 1924, Volume 33 Numéro 183, pp. 267-282.
- ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:19–20)
- ^ a b Abdel-Massih (1971b:4, 6, 19–20)
- ^ Abdel-Massih 1971b, p. 16.
- ^ a b Abdel-Massih (1971b:5)
- ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:11)
- ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:13–15, 20)
- ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:15)
- ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:15–17)
- ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:17–18)
Bibliography edit
- Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971a). A Course in Spoken Tamazight. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. ISBN 0-932098-04-5.
- Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971b). A Reference Grammar of Tamazight. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. ISBN 0-932098-05-3.
- Bentolila, Fernand (1981). Grammaire fonctionnelle d'un parler berbère. Aït Seghrouchen d'Oum Jeniba (Maroc). Paris: Société d'Études Linguistiques et anthropologiques de France. ISBN 2-85297-107-0.
- Destaing, Edmond (2001–2002) [1915]. "Essai de classification des dialectes berbères du Maroc". Études et Documents Berbères. 19–20.
- Kossmann, Maarten G. (1995). "Les verbes à i final en zénète: étude historique" (PDF). Études et Documents Berbères. 13 (2): 99–104. doi:10.3917/edb.013.0099. S2CID 171171745. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18.
- Kossman, Maarten G. (1999). Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère. Köln: Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-89645-035-2.
- Pellat, Charles (1955). Textes berbères dans le parler des Aït Seghrouchen de la Moulouya. Paris: Larose.
- "Le Tamazight (Maroc central) – Tamaziɣt". Centre de recherche berbère. Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. Archived from the original on 2023-12-13.