Eastern Morocco Zenati

Eastern Morocco Zenati
Tmazight, Tamazight, Taznatit
Native to Morocco
Region Jerada Province
Native speakers
 (no estimate available)
Tifinagh, Arabic, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3 (included in rif)
Glottolog None

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Map of Riffian-speaking areas in northern Morocco: orange represents Eastern Morocco Zenati

Eastern Morocco Zenati dialects are a cluster of Berber dialects spoken in the Jerada Province, Morocco, to the soutwest of Oujda. They belong to the Zenati dialectal group and are closely related to the main Riffian dialects,[1] as well as to the Aït Snous dialect, spoken across the border in Algeria.[2]

Eastern Morocco Zenati is spoken among the tribes of Beni Bouzegou, Beni Ya'la, Zekara, Bekhata, Haddiyin, Meharez and Rwaba'.[3][4]

Formerly, these dialects were also spoken in the area between Debdou and Taourirt (to the west of their current speaking area) by the tribes of Beni Koulal, Oulad Mahdi and Beni Chebel ; these tribes are currently mainly Arabophone.[2][3][5][6]

References

  1. ↑ J. Bourrilly, Éléments d'éthnographie marocaine, p.42 (Larose, 1932)
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 G. P. Murdock, African Cultural Summaries, Volume 10 (Human Relations Area Files, 1958) : "The Zekara (Zkara), with whom are grouped the neighboring Bekhti (Oulad Bekhti), Chebel (Beni Chebel), Yala (Beni Yaala, Beni Yala), and Zeggu (Beni Bou Zeggou) of eastern Morocco and the Snus (Beni Snous) across the border of Algeria, belong to the Zenata division of the Berber branch of the Hamito-Semitic linguistic stock."
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 P. Behnstedt, La frontera entre el bereber y el arabe en el Rif, p.14 (E.D.N.A, volume 6, 2002)
  4. ↑ note: P. Behnstedt (2002) cites Derawesh ; the latter is actually a sub-tribe of Beni Bouzegou
  5. ↑ A. Bernard, Les confins algéro-marocains, p.30 (Larose, 1911)
  6. ↑ V. Picquet, Le peuple marocain: Le bloc Berbère, p.39 (Larose, 1925)