Ghomara language
The language of the Ghomara is a Northern Berber language spoken by at least 10,000[1] people in Morocco near Tetouan and Chaouen. While included in the Zenati subgroup by some sources (such as the Ethnologue), it is probably more closely related to southern Moroccan languages, such as Central Atlas Tamazight and Shilha. Ghomara Berber is spoken on the western edge of the Rif in Morocco. Contrary to the Ethnologue, it is not extinct; Peter Behnstedt reports that it is spoken in at least the douar of Amtiqan and its immediate neighborhood, just west of Oued Ouringa. However, it is spoken by only a small minority of the Ghomara; even in 1931, according to Carleton Coon, only one of their eight tribes, the Beni Bu Zra, continued to speak it. It is relatively similar to the so-called Senhadja de Srair Berber varieties, spoken around Ketama, but s probably difficult to understand for a speaker of the mainstream dialects of Riff.
Some typical features which show the difference with Riff language are the use of the preposition dar instead of general Riff ghar, the feminine plural ending -an instead of -in, and the absence of spirantisation in word-initial position (as witnessed by the texts in Colin 1929).
Bibliography and references
- ^ Ghomara speakers in Morocco
- (English) Jamal el Hannouche, "Arabic influence in Ghomara Berber", Leiden University, 2010.
- (English) Jamal el Hannouche, "Ghomara Berber. A Brief Grammatical Survey", Leiden University, 2008.
- (Spanish) Peter Behnstedt, "La frontera entre el bereber y el árabe en el Rif", Estudios de dialectología norteafricana y andalusí vol. 6, 2002.
- (French) Georges Séraphin Colin, "Le parler berbère des Ghomara", Hesperis 9, 1929, pp. 43–58.