Senhaja de Srair ("Senhaja of Srair") is a
Northern Berber language. It is spoken by the
Sanhaja
The Sanhaja ( ber, Aẓnag, pl. Iẓnagen, and also Aẓnaj, pl. Iẓnajen; ar, صنهاجة, ''Ṣanhaja'' or زناگة ''Znaga'') were once one of the largest Berber tribal confederations, along with the Zanata and Masmuda confederations. Man ...
Berbers
, image = File:Berber_flag.svg
, caption = The Berber ethnic flag
, population = 36 million
, region1 = Morocco
, pop1 = 14 million to 18 million
, region2 = Algeria
, pop2 ...
inhabiting the southern part of the
Moroccan Rif. It is spoken in the
Ketama area west of
Tarifit in the Taza-Al Hoceima-Taounate region.
Despite its speech area, the Sanhaja language belongs to the
Atlas
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geogra ...
branch of
Berber
Berber or Berbers may refer to:
Ethnic group
* Berbers, an ethnic group native to Northern Africa
* Berber languages, a family of Afro-Asiatic languages
Places
* Berber, Sudan, a town on the Nile
People with the surname
* Ady Berber (1913–19 ...
.
It has also been influenced by the neighbouring
Riffian language
Tmazight or Tarifit Berber, also known as Riffian ( rif, Tmaziɣt , ) is a Zenati Berber language spoken in the Rif region in northern Morocco. It is spoken natively by some 1,271,000 Rifians primarily in the Rif provinces of Al Hoceima, Nad ...
.
Dialects
Dialects of Senhaja Berber are Beni Ahmed, Beni Bechir, Beni Buensar, Beni Jennus, Beni Mesdui, Beni Seddat, Quetama (Ketama), Sarcat, and Tagsut
References
Bibliography
*
Peter Behnstedt, "La frontera entre el bereber y el árabe en el Rif", ''Estudios de dialectología norteafricana y andalusí'' vol. 6, 2002.
* Esteban Ibañez, ''Diccionario español-senhayi (dialecto beraber de Senhaya de Srair)'', 1959.
* Mena Lafkiou, ''Atlas linguistique des variétés berbères du Rif'' (Berber Studies vol.15), 2007.
* A. Renisio, ''Études sur les dialectes berbères des Beni Iznassen, du Rif et des Senhaja de Sraïr. Grammaire, textes et lexique''. PIHEM, vol. 12. Paris 1932.
Berber languages
Berbers in Morocco
Languages of Morocco
Rif
{{Berber-lang-stub