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Ait Seghrouchen Berber

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Ait Seghrouchen Berber, or Seghroucheni (Seghrusheni), is a Zenati Berber language of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster. It is spoken by the Ait Seghrouchen tribe inhabiting east-central Morocco.

Ait Seghrouchen Berber
Tmaziġt, Tamaziġt
Native toMorocco
RegionCentral Morocco – Middle Atlas
Tifinagh, Latin
Language codes
ISO 639-3None (mis)
tzm-cen (Seghrušen of Mzab-Wargla)
GlottologNone
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Classification

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Ait Seghrouchen Berber is commonly classed as Central Atlas Tamazight. It is reported to be mutually intelligible with the neighbouring Berber dialect of Ait Ayache.[1] Genetically, however, it belongs to the Zenati subgroup of Northern Berber, rather than to the Atlas subgroup to which the rest of Central Atlas Tamazight belongs,[2] and are therefore excluded by some sources from Central Atlas Tamazight.[3]

Ait Seghrouchen is part of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster of Zenati dialects, which is spoken in the eastern Middle Atlas.

Phonology

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Consonants

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Ayt Seghrouchen is notable for having the lateral fricative [ɬ] as an allophone of the sequence /lt/.[4] /k, g/ are pronounced as stops, unlike the closely related Ayt Ayache dialect in which they are fricatives.[5]

In the table below, when consonants appear in pairs, the one on the left is voiceless.

Ayt Seghrouchen consonants (Ayt Ayache)[5][6]
Labial Dental/
Alveolar 		Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn-
geal[a] 		Glottal
Nasal m nˤ
Plosive voiceless tˤ[b] k
voiced b[c] dˤ ɡ
Fricative zˤ ʒ ʁ ʕ
voiceless f sˤ ʃ χ ħ h
lateral (ɬ)[d]
Approximant lˤ j w
Rhotic[e] rˤ
  1. ^ mainly in Arabic borrowings
  2. ^ /t/ is aspirated [tʰ][7]
  3. ^ for a small number of speakers, /b/ is sometimes lenited to [β][7]
  4. ^ realization of the sequence /lt/ for some speakers, e.g. ultma 'sister', altu 'not yet'
  5. ^ Abdel-Massih refers to this as a "flap" produced with "vibration" of the tongue.

Vowels

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Ait Seghrouchen Berber has a typical phonemic three-vowel system, similarly to Classical Arabic:

Tamazight vowel phonemes[8]
Front Back
Close i u
Open a

These phonemes have numerous allophones, conditioned by the following environments:

(# denotes word boundary, X denotes C[−flat −/χ/ −/ʁ/], C̣ denotes C[+flat], G denotes C, /χ/, and /ʁ/)

Tamazight vowel allophony[9]
Phoneme Realization Environment Example Gloss
/i/ [i] #_X /ili/ 'to exist'
[ɨ] #_Xː / Xː_ /idːa/ 'he went'
[ɪ] [e] _G / G_ /dˤːiqs/ 'to burst out'
[ɪj] X_# /isːfrˤħi/ 'he made me happy'
/u/ [u] #_X / X(ː)_X /umsʁ/ 'I painted'
[ʊ] [o] _G / G_ /idˤurˤ/ 'he turned'
[ʊw] X(ː)_# /bdu/ 'to begin'
[ʉ] kː_ / ɡː_ /lːajɡːur/ 'he goes'
/a/ [æ] #_X(ː) / X(ː)_X /azn/ 'to send'
[ɐ] X(ː)_# /da/ 'here'
[ɑ] _C̣ / C̣_ /ħadˤr/ 'to be present'

Phonetic Schwa

There is a predictable non-phonemic vowel inserted into consonant clusters, realized as [ɪ̈] before front consonants (e.g. /b t d .../) and [ə] before back consonants (e.g. /k χ .../).[10] These are some of the rules governing the occurrence of [ə]:

(# denotes word boundary, L denotes /l r m n/, H denotes /h ħ ʕ w j/)

Tamazight schwa epenthesis[11]
Environment Realization Example Pronunciation Gloss
#C(ː)# əC(ː) /ɡ/ [əɡ] 'to be, to do'
#LC# əLC or LəC /ns/ [əns] ~ [nəs] 'to spend the night'
#CC# CəC /tˤsˤ/ [tˤəsˤ] 'to laugh'
#CːC# əCːəC /fːr/ [əfːər] 'to hide'
#CCC# CCəC / C1C2 are not {L H} /χdm/ [χdəm] 'to work'
/zʕf/ [zʕəf] 'to get mad'
#CCC# əCCəC or #CəCəC# / {C1 C3} is {L H} /hdm/ [əhdəm] ~ [hədəm] 'to demolish'
#CCC# CəCəC / C2C3 = {L H} /dˤmn/ [dˤəmən] 'to guarantee'

Stress

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Word stress is non-contrastive and predictable — it falls on the last vowel in a word (including schwa).[12]

References

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  1. ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:xiii)
  2. ^ Edmond Destaing, "Essai de classification des dialectes berbères du Maroc", Études et Documents Berbères, 19-20, 2001-2002 (1915)
  3. ^ Augustin Bernard and Paul Moussard, Arabophones et berbérophones au Maroc, Annales de Géographie 1924, Volume 33 Numéro 183, pp. 267-282.
  4. ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:19–20)
  5. ^ a b Abdel-Massih (1971b:4, 6, 19–20)
  6. ^ Abdel-Massih 1971b, p. 16.
  7. ^ a b Abdel-Massih (1971b:5)
  8. ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:11)
  9. ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:13–15, 20)
  10. ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:15)
  11. ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:15–17)
  12. ^ Abdel-Massih (1971b:17–18)

Bibliography

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  • Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971a). A Course in Spoken Tamazight. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. ISBN 0-932098-04-5.
  • Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. (1971b). A Reference Grammar of Tamazight. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan. ISBN 0-932098-05-3.
  • Bentolila, Fernand (1981). Grammaire fonctionnelle d'un parler berbère. Aït Seghrouchen d'Oum Jeniba (Maroc). Paris: Société d'Études Linguistiques et anthropologiques de France. ISBN 2-85297-107-0.
  • Destaing, Edmond (2001–2002) [1915]. "Essai de classification des dialectes berbères du Maroc". Études et Documents Berbères. 19–20.
  • Kossmann, Maarten G. (1995). "Les verbes à i final en zénète: étude historique" (PDF). Études et Documents Berbères. 13 (2): 99–104. doi:10.3917/edb.013.0099. S2CID 171171745. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2011-07-18.
  • Kossman, Maarten G. (1999). Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère. Köln: Köppe Verlag. ISBN 3-89645-035-2.
  • Pellat, Charles (1955). Textes berbères dans le parler des Aït Seghrouchen de la Moulouya. Paris: Larose.
  • "Le Tamazight (Maroc central) – Tamaziɣt". Centre de recherche berbère. Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales. Archived from the original on 2023-12-13.
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