Nafusi language
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Nafusi | ||
|---|---|---|
| Spoken in: | Libya and Tunisia | |
| Total speakers: | 167,000 | |
| Language family: | Afro-Asiatic Berber Northern Zenati East Nafusi |
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| Language codes | ||
| ISO 639-1: | none | |
| ISO 639-2: | – | |
| ISO 639-3: | jbn
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Nafusi is a Berber language from Libya and Tunisia. It is also known as Djerbi, Nefusi, Jabal Nafusi, Jebel Nefusi, Jbel Nafusi, Tunisian Berber, and Shilha. The Nafusi people are very proud of their language, speaking it amongst themselves in Nafusi villages and at home. There are preschool-age children monolingual in Nafusi.
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[edit] Classification
Nafusi is from the large Afro-Asiatic family, consisting of about 375 languages. It is further classified as a Berber language.
[edit] Geographic Distribution
Nafusi is spoken by 141,000 people in Libya in the areas of Tripolitania, western Libya, the isolated area around the towns of Nalut and Yafran, in the Jabal Nafusah region, the coastal area around Zuara, and west of Tripoli. In Tunisia, it is known as Shilha, which is a blanket term for all Berber languages. It is spoken by 61,000 people in Tunisia in the southeast, on the Mediterranean islands (auch as Jerba/Djerba), in some isolated villages south of Jerba, Pacha, old Medina, and Bab Souika streets in Tunis, in Tamezret village near Zeraoua and Taoujjout, and to the south of Gabès .
[edit] Dialects
There are several dialects of Nafusi, in both Libya and Tunisia. The Libyan dialects are Zuara, also known as Zouara, Zuwarah, Zwara, and Zuraa, Tamezret, also known as Duwinna, and Jerbi, also known as Jerba. The Zuara dialect is well known in the Jebel Nafusa area and in the Jerba area of Tunisia. Speakers who live in the Zuara areas and Jebel areas understand Jerba stories.
[edit] References
Gordon, Jr., Raymond G. (2005). Ethnologue report for Nafusi. Ethnologue: Languages of the World, fifteenth edition.. SIL International. Retrieved on August 19, 2007.
