Zenati languages

The Zenati languages, named after the medieval Zenata tribe, are a branch of the Northern Berber language family of North Africa, first proposed in Destaing (1915,^[1] 1920–23^[2]). They are distributed across the central Maghreb, from northeastern Morocco to just west of Algiers, and the northern Sahara, from southwestern Algeria around Bechar to Zuwara in Libya; in much of this range, they are limited to discontinuous pockets in a predominantly Arabic-speaking landscape. The largest languages are Riffian in NE Morocco and Shawiya in eastern Algeria, each with over a million speakers.

Languages

There is a large number of Zenati varieties, with the distinction between language and dialect ambiguous in many cases.

• Ghomara, in the northwestern part of the Rif in Morocco
• Riffian (Tarifit), in northern Morocco
  • Beni Snous (Tlemcen) dialect, in western Algeria near the border
  • Arzew dialect, in Arzew in western Algeria (extinct?)
• South Oran Berber, in the ksours along the Algerian–Moroccan border
  • Figuig dialect, in Figuig in southeastern Morocco
• Central Maghreb Berber
  • Achacha (extinct), north of Mostaghanem in Algeria
  • Ben Halima (extinct), west of Tiaret in Algeria
  • Ouarsenis (extinct?), in the Ouarsenis, east of El Asnam in Algeria
  • Harawa (extinct?), south of Ain Defla in Algeria
  • Shenwa (Haqbaylit; Beni Menacer, Djebel Bissa), between Tipasa and Ténès in north-central Algeria west of Algiers
• Shawiya (Chaouia), south of Constantine in northeastern Algeria
• Mzab–Wargla (northern Saharan varieties):
  • Mozabite (Tumzabt, Ghardaia) of the M'zab, Algeria
  • Wargla (Tagergrent) at Ouargla, Algeria
  • Oued Righ Berber (Ethnologue name "Temacine Tamazight") in Oued Righ, around Touggourt and Temacine, Algeria
  • Tuat of Touat, Algeria
  • Gurara of Gourara, Algeria
• Tidikelt
• Sened in Tunisia (extinct)
• Zuwara in northwestern Libya

Kossman (1999)

According to Kossmann (1999:28, 32),^[3] Zenati consists of the following varieties:

• Riff (northeastern Morocco), including Beni Iznasen
• Eastern Middle Atlas: Ait Seghrouchen and Ait Warain (north-central Morocco)
• South Oran and Figuig (southwestern Algeria and southeastern Morocco)
• Northwestern Algerian varieties: Beni Snous, Chenoua, Beni Menacer etc., Metmata^[4]
• Mozabite aka Tumzabt (northern Algerian Sahara, near Ghardaia) and Ouargli aka Teggargarent (northern Algerian Sahara, near Ouargla)
• Gourara Berber (southwestern Algeria, around Timimoun)
• Shawiya (around Batna and Khenchela in eastern Algeria)
• Matmata Berber (Matmata in southeastern Tunisia)
• Djerbi (Djerba in southeastern Tunisia)
• Zuwara Berber (Zuwara in northwestern Libya)

Oued Righ Berber, Touat, and Tidikelt are not discussed.

Ethnologue

The Ethnologue (16th edition)^[5] also includes Senhaja De Srair and Ghomara, along with an extra subgroup, the "East Zenati languages": Ghadamès, Nafusi, and Sened. These do not share all the innovations listed above.

Blench & Dendo (2006)

Blench & Dendo (ms, 2006) considers Zenati to consist of just three distinct languages, with the rest (in parentheses) dialects:^[6]

• Riff cluster (Shawiya, Tidikelt, Tuat, Tariifit/Riff, Ghmara, Tlemcen, Sheliff Basin)
• Mzab–Wargla (Gurara, Mzab, Wargla, Ghardaia, Tugurt, Seghrušen, Figuig, Senhaja, Iznacen)
• East Zenati (Tmagurt, Sened, Jerba, Tamezret, Taujjut, Nefusi, Zwara)

Shenwa is not addressed.

Features

According to Kossmann (1999:31-32, 86, 172),^[3] common innovations defining the Zenati languages include:

• The vowel a- in nominal prefixes is dropped in a number of words when it precedes CV, where C is a single consonant and V is a full (non-schwa) vowel. For example, afus "hand" is replaced with fus. (A similar development is found in some Eastern Berber languages, but not Nafusi.)
• Verbs whose original aorist forms end in -u while their perfect forms end in -a end up with -a in the aorist as well, leaving the aorist / perfect distinction unmarked for these verbs. For example, *ktu "forget", Siwi ttu, becomes Ouargli tta. (This also affects Nafusi.)
• Verbs consisting (in the aorist) of two consonants with no vowel other than schwa fall into two classes elsewhere in Berber:^[7][8] one where a variable final vowel appears in the perfect form, and one which continues to lack a final vowel in the perfect. In Zenati, the latter class has been entirely merged into the former in the perfect, with the single exception of the negative perfect of *əγs "want". For example, Kabyle (non-Zenati) gər "throw", pf. -gər (int. -ggar), corresponds to Ouargli (Zenati) gər, pf. -gru. (This change too also affects Nafusi; Basset (1929:9) gives examples where it appears not to occur in Chenoua.)
• Proto-Berber *-əβ has become -i in Zenati.^[9] For example, *arəβ "write" becomes ari. (This change also occurs in varieties including the Central Atlas Tamazight dialect of the Izayan, Nafusi, and Siwi.)
• Proto-Berber palatalised k´ and g´, corresponding to k and g in non-Zenati varieties, become š and ž in Zenati (although a fair number of irregular correspondences for this are found.) For example, k´ăm "you (f. sg.)" becomes šəm. (This change also occurs in Nafusi and Siwi.)

In addition to the correspondence of k and g to š and ž, Chaker (1972),^[10] while expressing uncertainty about the linguistic coherence of Zenati, notes as shared Zenati traits:

• A proximal demonstrative suffix "this" -u, rather than -a
• A final -u in the perfect of two-consonant verbs, rather than -a (e.g. yə-nsu "he slept" rather than yə-nsa elsewhere)

These characteristics identify a more restricted subset of Berber than those previously mentioned, mainly northern Saharan varieties; they exclude, for example, Chaoui^[11] and all but the easternmost Riff dialects.^[12]

References

1. ↑ Edmond Destaing, "Essai de classification des dialectes berbères du Maroc", Etudes et Documents Berbères 19-20, 2001-2002 (1915)
2. ↑ Edmond Destaing, "Note sur la conjugaison des verbes de forme C1eC2", Mémoires de la Société Linguistique de Paris, 22 (1920/3), pp. 139-148
3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Maarten Kossmann, Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère, Rüdiger Köppe:Köln
4. ↑ Kossmann identifies this as the Matmata Berber of Tunisia, but the source he cites for it, Destaing (1914), is for the Matmata of northwestern Algeria.
5. ↑ Ethnologue: Zenati language tree
6. ↑ AA list, Blench & Dendo, ms, 2006
7. ↑ Maarten Kossmann, "Note sur la conjugaison des verbes CC à voyelle alternante en berbère", Etudes et Documents Berbères 12, 1994, pp. 17-33
8. ↑ André Basset, La langue berbère. Morphologie. Le verbe.-Étude de thèmes. Paris 1929, pp. 9, 58
9. ↑ See also Maarten Kossmann, "Les verbes à i finale en zénète", Etudes et Documents Berbères 13, 1995, pp. 99-104.
10. ↑ Salem Chaker, 1972, "La langue berbère au Sahara", Revue de l'Occident musulman et de la Méditerranée 11:11, pp. 163-167
11. ↑
    1. Penchoen, Th.G., 1973, Etude syntaxique d'un parler berbère (Ait Frah de l'Aurès), Napoli, Istituto Universitario Orientale (= Studi magrebini V). p. 14
12. ↑ Lafkioui, Mena. 2007. Atlas linguistique des variétés berbères du Rif. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe. pp. 207, 178.