Senhaja de Srair ("Senhaja of Srair") is a
Northern Berber language
The Northern Berber languages are a dialect continuum spoken across the Maghreb, constituting a subgroup of the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family. Their continuity has been broken by the spread of Arabic, and to a lesser extent by the Zen ...
. 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. Ma ...
Berbers inhabiting the southern part of the
Moroccan Rif
The Rif or Riff (, ), also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. This mountainous and fertile area is bordered by Cape Spartel and Tangier to the west, by Berkane and the Moulouya River to the east, by the Mediterrane ...
. It is spoken in the
Ketama
Ketama is a Spanish musical group in the new flamenco tradition. Fusing flamenco with other musical forms (salsa, Brazilian music, reggae, funk, jazz), they created a style that lies somewhere between flamenco and pop salsa. Their music drew as ...
area west of
Tarifit
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 ...
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 geograp ...
branch of
Berber.
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
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