User:Danquintin/Ghomara Language

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Ghomara
Native toMorocco
EthnicityGhomara
Native speakers
10,000 (2009)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3gho
Glottologghom1257
  Ghomara Berber

Ghomara, or Ghomara Berber, is a Afroasiatic language spoken by the Ghomara people of Morocco near Tetouan and Chanoeun, and on the Rif. There are approximately 10,000 speakers of all the Ghomara people, and it is typically spoken by elderly, specifically elderly women, but children are also learning this language at home. Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

General Information[edit]

History[edit]

During the third century, the Romans gave the tribes the name Berber, which comes from the Latin word "Barbarian." The Ghomara people are one of the Berber groups, which are a North African group of people who were conquered by the Muslim invaders during the seventh century. Ghomara is one of the smallest Berber tribe of Morocco. Today most of the Ghomara people speak Arabic and only around 10,000 are bilingual, speaking both Arabic and Ghomara Berber. Cite error: The <ref> tag has too many names (see the help page).

Current Status[edit]

Despite practices of elderly teaching children how to speak Ghomara Berber at home, the language is still considered threatened, with only 10,000 known speakers. A major reason for this situation can be attributed to the small geographical location that uses this language as well as the more common use of Arabic throughout Morocco.

Influences on the Language[edit]

In the nineteenth century, many Berber Languages adopted the Latin Alphabet and the Berber Latin Alphabet was created. This allowed several Berber languages to be written and printed. People who speak Northern Berber languages understand various dialects through mutual intelligibility [4].

Language Subgroups[edit]

There are several Northern Berber dialects within the Atlas tribe and the Zenati tribe.

Atlas: Central Atlas Tamazight, Tashelhit, Judeo-Berber, Sanhaja de Srair language, Ghomara, Gharbi

Zenati: Tarifit, Tabeldit, Eastern Middle Atlas Berber, Eastern Morocco Zenati

Dialect Comparison[edit]

Several Berber dialects show similar vocabulary and thus mutual intelligibility occurs. For example, here is the English word 'egg' in different dialects [5].

Ghomara: tawfalt

Senhaja: ṯaḡfilṯ

Tarifit: ṯagfiřṯ

Grammar[edit]

[6]

Nouns[edit]

For nouns in Ghomara Berber, there are several common trends. The prefix a-, i-, or u commonly identifies the masculine singular nouns in Ghomara Berber (i.e., arg'az “man”). For feminine singular nouns, there is both a prefix and a suffix such as ta-…-t (i.e., tarbat “girl”) and is the most common way to identify feminine singular nouns. Masculine plural nouns have are characterized by i-…-en or i-…-an (i.e., irg'azen “men”). For feminine plural nouns, ti-…-an (i.e., tirbatan “girls”) is the most common circumfix.

Pronouns[edit]

Much like English, Ghomara Berber uses personal, singular, and plural pronouns.

The first person singular pronoun nekkin is equivalent to "I" in English. The second person singular male pronoun kedžin and female pronoun kemmin is equivalent to "you" in English. Similarly, in Ghomara Berber, the third person singular male pronoun netta and female pronoun nettaθa is equivalent to him or her in English respectively.

The first person plural pronoun nuçna is equivalent to "we" or "us" in English and the second person plural pronoun kunna is equivalent to "you all" in English. Lastly, niçma is the third person plural pronoun equivalent to "they" in English, and is not distinguished by gender.

Adjectives[edit]

Adjectives have either suffix -ø, which characterizes masculine singular nouns or -θ, which characterizes both feminine singular and all plural nouns. For example:

Masculine singular: tayfur mellulø “the, a white table”

Feminine singular: tamγart mezziθ “the, a little woman”

Masculine plural: irgazen muqqreθ “(the) big men”

Feminine plural: timettutan muqqreθ “(the) big women”

Vocabulary[edit]

An example of common English words in Ghomara Berber [6]:

targat “dream”

ahlan “welcome, hello”

hemmam “bathroom”

tamuda “pig"

lmakla “food”

tanebdut “summer”

rriyada “sports”

kama “bed”

lmerra/merra “time”

rriyad “garden”

ssultan “king”

ššhar “month”

xarebbi “many”

leεziza “grandmother”

See Also[edit]

Berbers

Berber Languages

Berber Latin Alphabet

References[edit]

  1. ^ J. el Hannouche, 2010. [1]
  2. ^ Maarten Kossmann, Berber subclassification (preliminary version), Leiden (2011)
  3. ^ Sebastian Nordhoff et al., "Ghomara", in: Glottolog 2.2, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2013)
  4. ^ Berber Sub-Classification [2]
  5. ^ The Ancient Berber word for 'egg' [3]
  6. ^ a b J. el Hannouche, 2008. Ghomara Berber: A Brief Grammatical Survey

See Also[edit]

1) Mourigh, K. (2015, February 18). A Grammar of Ghomara Berber. Retrieved February 12, 2016, from http://www.hum.leiden.edu/lucl/research/dissertations/mourigh.html#information

2) Mourigh, Khalid. 2015. A Grammar of Ghomara Berber (pp.545). University of Leiden.

3) Gabriel Camps and J. Vignet-Zunz. 1998. Ghomâra (Ghumara, Ghmara). In Gabriel Camps (ed.), Gauda - Girrei, 3110-3119. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud.

4) Colin, Georges S. 1929. Le parler berbère des Ġmāra. Hespéris: (pp.43-58) archives berbères et bulletin de l'Institut des Hautes Etudes Marocaines.

5) Bynon, James. 1970. The Contribution of Linguistics to History in the Field of Berber Studies, in: David Dalby (ed.) Language and History in Africa (London: Frank Cass & Co. Ltd.) pp.64-77.

6) Maarten Kossmann. 2013. The Arabic influence on Northern Berber. (Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics 67). Leiden: Brill, xii+462 EUR 139

7) Putten, M. V., Dr. (2014, January 19). Ghadamès. Retrieved February 12, 2016, from http://eugeneslchan.com/Ghadames.htm

8) Sadiqi, F., Grammaire du berbère (Casablanca: Afrique Orient, 2004).

9) Kossmann, M.G., Grammaire du parler berbère de Figuig (Maroc oriental) (Paris etc.: Éditions Peeters, 1997).

10) Boogert, N. van den and H. Stroomer, Tashelhiyt Berber of South Morocco: a morphological survey (Leiden, 2004).


Category:Berber languages Category:Morocco Category:Language Category:Dialects Category:Afroasiatic