Eastern Berber languages
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| Eastern Berber | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution: | Libya, Egypt |
| Linguistic classification: |
Afro-Asiatic
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| Subdivisions: | |
The Eastern Berber languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic family and are spoken in Libya and Egypt. They include Awjila, Sokna and Fezzan (El-Fogaha), Siwi, and Ghadamès,[1] though it is not clear that they form a valid genealogical group.
Classification
Kossmann (1999:29, 33)[2] divides them into two groups:
- one consisting of Ghadamès and Awjila. These two languages are the only Berber languages to preserve proto-Berber *β as β;[3] elsewhere in Berber it becomes h or disappears.
- the other consisting of Nafusi (excluding Zuwara and southern Tunisia), Sokna (El-Foqaha), and Siwi. This shares some innovations with Zenati, and others (e.g. the change of *ă to ə[4] and the loss of *β[5]) with Northern Berber in general.
The Ethnologue[6] excludes Ghadamès and Nafusi from Eastern Berber, and subgroups Sokna with Awjila in an "Awjila–Sokna group" rather than with Siwa.
Blench (ms, 2006) lists the following as separate languages, with dialects in parentheses; like Ethnologue, he classifies Nafusi as Eastern Zenati.[7]
Notes
- ↑ Aikhenvald, Alexandra Y. & A. Ju. Militarev. 1984. Klassifikacija livijsko-guančskih jazykov. In IV vsesojuznaja konferencija afrikanistov "Afrika v 80-e gody: itogi i perspektivy razvitija" (Moskva, 3-5 oktjabrja 1984 g.), vol. II, 83-85. (Tezisy Dokladov i Naučnyh Soobščenij IV). Moskva: Institut Afrika Akademii Nauk SSSR, as cited in Takács, Gábor. 1999. Development of Afro-Asiatic (Semito-Hamitic) Comparative-Historical Linguistics in Russia and the Former Soviet Union. (LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 02). München: LINCOM Europa, p. 130
- ↑ Maarten Kossmann, Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère, Rüdiger Köppe:Köln
- ↑ Kossmann 1999:61.
- ↑ Karl-G. Prasse. "The Reconstruction of Proto-Berber Short Vowels", in ed. James & Theodora Bynon, Hamito-Semitica, The Hague/Paris 1975.
- ↑ Kossmann 1999:61
- ↑ Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
- ↑ AA list, Blench, ms, 2006
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