Shilha language

Shilha , now more usually known as Tashelhit , is a Berber language spoken in southwestern Morocco. The endonym is , and in recent English publications the name of the language is often rendered ''Tashelhit'', ''Tashelhiyt'' or ''Tashlhiyt''. In Moroccan Arabic the language is called , from which the English name ''Shilha'' is derived. When referring to the language, anthropologists and historians prefer the name "Shilha", which is in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED). Linguists writing in English prefer "Tashelhit" (or a variant spelling). In French sources the language is called , or .

Shilha is spoken in an area covering c. 100,000 square kilometres, making the language area approximately the size of Iceland, or the US state of Kentucky. The area comprises the western part of the High Atlas mountains and the regions to the south up to the Draa River, including the Anti-Atlas and the alluvial basin of the Souss River. The largest urban centres in the area are the coastal city of Agadir (population over 400,000) and the towns of Guelmim, Taroudant, Oulad Teima, Tiznit and Ouarzazate.

In the north and to the south, Shilha borders Arabic-speaking areas. In the northeast, roughly along the line Demnate- Zagora, there is a dialect continuum with Central Atlas Tamazight. Within the Shilha-speaking area, there are several Arabic-speaking enclaves, notably the town of Taroudant and its surroundings. Substantial Shilha-speaking migrant communities are found in most of the larger towns and cities of northern Morocco and outside Morocco in Belgium, France, Germany, Canada, the United States and Israel.

Shilha possesses a distinct and substantial literary tradition that can be traced back several centuries before the protectorate era. Many texts, written in Arabic script and dating from the late 16th century to the present, are preserved in manuscripts. A modern printed literature in Shilha has developed since the 1970s.

Name

Shilha speakers usually refer to their language as . This name is morphologically a feminine noun, derived from masculine "male speaker of Shilha". Shilha names of other languages are formed in the same way, for example "an Arab", "the Arabic language".

The origin of the names and has recently become a subject of debate (see Shilha people#Naming for various theories). The presence of the consonant in the name suggests an originally exonymic (Arabic) origin. The first appearance of the name in a western printed source is found in Mármol's (1573), which mentions the "indigenous Africans called Xilohes or Berbers" ().

The initial in is a Shilha nominal prefix (see ). The ending (borrowed from the Arabic suffix ) forms denominal nouns and adjectives. There are also variant forms and , with instead of under the influence of the preceding consonant . The plural of is ; a single female speaker is a (noun homonymous with the name of the language), plural .

In Moroccan colloquial Arabic, a male speaker is called a , plural , and the language is , a feminine derivation calqued on . The Moroccan Arabic names have been borrowed into English as ''a Shilh'', ''the Shluh'', and ''Shilha'', and into French as , , and or, more commonly, .

The now-usual names and in their endonymic use seem to have gained the upper hand relatively recently, as they are attested only in those manuscript texts which date from the 19th and 20th centuries. In older texts, the language is still referred to as or "Tamazight". For example, the author Awzal (early 18th c.) speaks of "a composition in that beautiful Tamazight".

Because Souss is the most heavily populated part of the language area, the name (lit. "language of Souss") is now often used as a pars pro toto for the entire language. A speaker of is an , plural , feminine , plural .

Number of speakers

Some authors mention a much higher number of Shilha speakers. Stroomer (2001a) estimated that there are "some 6 to 8 million" speakers, and he subsequently (2008) raised the number to "some 8 to 9 million". Stroomer does not refer to any published sources supporting his estimates, which are certainly too high.

Dialects

Dialect differentiation within Shilha, such as it is, has not been the subject of any targeted research, but several scholars have noted that all varieties of Shilha are mutually intelligible. The first was Stumme, who observed that all speakers can understand each other, "because the individual dialects of their language are not very different." This was later confirmed by Ahmed Boukous, a Moroccan linguist and himself a native speaker of Shilha, who stated: "Shilha is endowed with a profound unity which permits the Shluh to communicate without problem, from the Ihahan in the northwest to the Aït Baamran in the southwest, from the Achtouken in the west to the Iznagen in the east, and from Aqqa in the desert to Tassaout in the plain of Marrakesh."

There exists no sharply defined boundary between Shilha dialects and the dialects of Central Atlas Tamazight (CAT). The dividing line is generally put somewhere along the line Marrakesh-Zagora, with the speech of the Ighoujdamen, Iglioua and Aït Ouaouzguite ethnic groups belonging to Shilha, and that of the neighboring Inoultan, Infedouak and Imeghran ethnic groups counted as CAT.

Writing systems

Shilha has been written with several different alphabets. Historically, the Arabic script has been dominant. Usage of the Latin script emerged in the late 19th century. More recently there has been an initiative to write Shilha in Tifinagh.

Tifinagh

Latin script

Many Shilha texts from the oral tradition have been published since the 19th century, transcribed in Latin script. Early publications display a wide variety of transcription systems. Stumme (1899) and Destaing (1920, 1940) use an elaborate phonetic transcription, while Justinard (1914) and Laoust (1936) employ a transcription based on French orthographical conventions. A new standard was set by Aspinion (1953), who uses a simple but accurate, largely phonemic transcription with hyphenation.

Most academic publications on Berber languages of recent decades use a version of the Berber Latin alphabet, a transcription orthography in Latin script (as used in this article). The most unusual feature of this orthography is the employment of the symbol (Greek epsilon) to represent ( voiced epiglottal fricative); for example, "turban". Except with (= IPA ), the subscript dot indicates pharyngealisation; for example, "deaf person". Geminated and long consonants are transcribed with doubled symbols, for example, "needle", "flour". Word divisions are generally disjunctive, with clitics written as separate words (not hyphenated).

Arabic script

;Traditional orthography
Traditional Shilha manuscript texts are written in a conventionalized orthography in Maghribi Arabic script. This orthography has remained virtually unchanged since at least the end of the 16th century, and is still used today in circles of traditional Islamic scholars (). The main features of the traditional orthography are the use of two extra letters ( with three dots for , and with three dots for ) and full vocalization (vowels written with , and ). Clitical elements are written connected to a noun or verb form (conjunctive spelling).

;Modern orthography
Since the 1970s, a fair number of books in Shilha have been published inside Morocco, written in a newly devised, practical orthography in Arabic script. The main features of this orthography are the representation of vowels by the letters , and the non-use of vocalization signs other than (to indicate gemination of consonants) and (to indicate labialization of velar and uvular consonants). The consonant is written with , and is either written with ( with dot below) or not distinguished from . Word separations are mostly disjunctive.

Literature

Shilha possesses an old literary tradition. Numerous texts written in Arabic script are preserved in manuscripts dating from the past four centuries. The earliest datable text is a compendium of lectures on the "religious sciences" () composed in metrical verses by (Ibrāhīm ibn ʿAbd Allāh al-Ṣanhājī, died 1597). The best known writer in this tradition is Mḥmmd u Ɛli Awzal (Muḥammad ibn ʿAlī al-Hawzālī, died 1749), author of "The Cistern" (a handbook of Maliki law in verse), "The Ocean of Tears" (an adhortation, with a description of Judgment Day, in verse) and other texts.

Research

The first attempt at a grammatical description of Shilha is the work of the German linguist Hans Stumme (1864–1936), who in 1899 published his . Stumme's grammar remained the richest source of grammatical information on Shilha for half a century. A problem with the work is its use of an over-elaborate, phonetic transcription which, while designed to be precise, generally fails to provide a transparent representation of spoken forms. Stumme also published a collection of Shilha fairy tales (1895, re-edited in Stroomer 2002).

The next author to grapple with Shilha is Saïd Cid Kaoui (Saʿīd al-Sidqāwī, 1859-1910), a native speaker of Kabyle from Algeria. Having published a dictionary of Tuareg (1894), he then turned his attention to the Berber languages of Morocco. His (1907) contains extensive vocabularies in both Shilha and Central Atlas Tamazight, in addition to some 20 pages of useful phrases. The work seems to have been put together in some haste and must be consulted with caution.

On the eve of the First World War there appeared a small, practical booklet composed by Captain (later Colonel) Léopold Justinard (1878–1959), entitled . It contains a short grammatical sketch, a collection of stories, poems and songs, and some interesting dialogues, all with translations. The work was written while the author was overseeing military operations in the region of Fès, shortly after the imposition of the French protectorate (1912). Justinard also wrote several works on the history of the Souss.

Emile Laoust (1876–1952), prolific author of books and articles about Berber languages, in 1921 published his (2nd enlarged edition 1936), a teaching grammar with graded lessons and thematic vocabularies, some good ethnographic texts (without translations) and a wordlist.

Edmond Destaing (1872–1940) greatly advanced knowledge of the Shilha lexicon with his (1920) and his (1940, with copious lexical notes). Destaing also planned a grammar which was to complete the trilogy, but this was never published.

Lieutenant-interpreter (later Commander) Robert Aspinion is the author of (1953), an informative though somewhat disorganized teaching grammar. Aspinion's simple but accurate transcriptions did away with earlier phonetic and French-based systems.

The first attempted description in English is ''Outline of the Structure of Shilha'' (1958) by American linguist Joseph Applegate (1925–2003). Based on work with native speakers from Ifni, the work is written in a dense, inaccessible style, without a single clearly presented paradigm. Transcriptions, apart from being unconventional, are unreliable throughout.

The only available accessible grammatical sketch written in a modern linguistic frame is "" (1988) by Lionel Galand (1920–2017), a French linguist and berberologist. The sketch is mainly based on the speech of the Ighchan ethnic group of the Anti-Atlas, with comparative notes on Kabyle of Algeria and Tuareg of Niger.

More recent, book-length studies include Jouad (1995, on metrics), Dell & Elmedlaoui (2002 and 2008, on syllables and metrics), El Mountassir (2009, a teaching grammar), Roettger (2017, on stress and intonation) and the many text editions by Stroomer (see also ).

Phonology

Stress and intonation

Stress and intonation in Shilha are the subject of a monograph by Roettger (2017), who used instrumental testing. He established the fact that Shilha does not have lexical stress (Roettger 2017:59), as noted earlier by Stumme (1899:14) and Galand (1988, 2.16).

Vowels

Shilha has three phonemic vowels, with length not a distinctive feature. The vowels show a fairly wide range of allophones. The vowel /a/ is most often realized as or � and /u/ is pronounced without any noticeable rounding except when adjacent to . The presence of a pharyngealized consonant invites a more centralized realization of the vowel, as in "three", "four", "six" (compare "one", "two", "five").

Additional phonemic vowels occur sporadically in recent loanwords, for example as in "restaurant" (from French).

Transitional vowels and "schwa"

In addition to the three phonemic vowels, there are non-phonemic transitional vowels, often collectively referred to as "schwa". Typically, a transitional vowel is audible following the onset of a vowelless syllable CC or CCC, if either of the flanking consonants, or both, are voiced, for example "house", "schoolboy". In the phonetic transcriptions of Stumme (1899) and Destaing (1920, 1940), many such transitional vowels are indicated.

Later authors such as Aspinion (1953), use the symbol to mark the place where a transitional vowel may be heard, irrespective of its quality, and they also write where in reality no vowel, however short, is heard, for example "owner of livestock", "he's eating". The symbol , often referred to as "schwa", as used by Aspinion and others, thus becomes a purely graphical device employed to indicate that the preceding consonant is a syllable onset: , . As Galand has observed, the notation of "schwa" in fact results from "habits which are alien to Shilha". And, as conclusively shown by Ridouane (2008), transitional vowels or "intrusive vocoids" cannot even be accorded the status of epenthetic vowels. It is therefore preferable not to write transitional vowels or "schwa", and to transcribe the vowels in a strictly phonemic manner, as in Galand (1988) and all recent text editions.

Treatment of hiatus

Hiatus does not occur within a morpheme, i.e. a morpheme never contains a sequence of two vowels without an intervening consonant. If hiatus arises when a morpheme-final vowel and a morpheme-initial vowel come together in context, there are several strategies for dealing with it. The first of the two vowels may be elided or, alternatively, the semivowel may be inserted to keep the vowels apart:
: → or "barley as well as maize"
: → or "set us free!"
Less commonly, vowels and may change into and : // "go ye!" (imperative plural masculine) is realized either as (with inserted ) or as .

Consonants

Shilha has thirty-three phonemic consonants. Like other Berber languages and Arabic, it has both pharyngealized ("emphatic") and plain dental consonants. There is also a distinction between labialized and plain dorsal obstruents. Consonant gemination or length is contrastive.

The chart below represents the consonants in IPA, with orthographical representations added between angled brackets when different. Note that the consonants /n t d s z l r/ and their pharyngeal forms are dental, not alveolar.

Additional phonemic consonants occur sporadically in recent loanwords, for example as in "(my) father" (from Moroccan Arabic), and as in "beach" (from French).

Semivowels

The semivowels and have vocalic allophones and between consonants (C_C) and between consonant and pause (C_# and #_C). Similarly, the high vowels and can have consonantal allophones and in order to avoid a hiatus. In most dialects, the semivowels are thus in complementary distribution with the high vowels, with the semivowels occurring as onset or coda, and the high vowels as nucleus in a syllable. This surface distribution of the semivowels and the high vowels has tended to obscure their status as four distinct phonemes, with some linguists denying phonemic status to /w/ and /j/.

Positing four distinct phonemes is necessitated by the fact that semivowels and high vowels can occur in sequence, in lexically determined order, for example "bee", "ewe" (not *, *). In addition, semivowels and , like other consonants, occur long, as in "wrap", "camel's hump". The assumption of four phonemes also results in a more efficient description of morphology.

In the examples below, and are transcribed phonemically in some citation forms, but always phonetically in context, for example "the sisters of", "he has two sisters".

Gemination and length

There is a phonemic contrast between single and non-single (geminated or long) consonants:
: "grass" vs. "testimony"
: "pool" vs. "sparrowhawk"
Gemination and degemination play a role in the morphology of nouns and verbs:
: "king", "kings" ( becomes )
: "he harvested", "he is harvesting" ( becomes )
All consonants can in principle occur geminated or long, although phonemic and do not seem to be attested. The uvular stops only occur geminated or long ().

Four consonants have each two corresponding geminate or long consonants, one phonetically identical and one different:
: : and
: : and
: : and
: : and
In the oldest layers of the morphology, , , , always have , , , as geminated or long counterparts:
: "slaughter", "he is slaughtering" (compare "plough", "he is ploughing")
: "be red", "it is red" (compare "be black", "it is black")
Whether a non-single consonant is realized as geminated or as long depends on the syllabic context. A geminated consonant is a sequence of two identical consonants /CC/, metrically counting as two segments, and always separated by syllable division, as in a.md.da."sparrowhawk". A long consonant is a consonant followed by a chroneme /C:/, metrically counting as a single segment and belonging to one syllable, as in u.g:a."testimony". When a morpheme contains a non-single consonant, it can be either geminated or long, depending on the context:
: [] "run!" (geminate)
: [] "run ye!" (long)
It is also possible for two identical consonants to occur in sequence, both being released separately and constituting the onset and nucleus of a vowelless syllable. Such sequences are transcribed with an intervening apostrophe:
: [] "jackals"
: [] "he pondered"
: [] "bat"

Syllable structure

Shilha syllable structure has been the subject of a detailed and highly technical discussion by phoneticians. The issue was whether Shilha does or does not have vowelless syllables. According to John Coleman, syllables which are vowelless on the phonemic level have "schwa" serving as vocalic nucleus on the phonetic level. According to Rachid Ridouane on the other hand, Shilha's apparently vowelless syllables are truly vowelless, with all phonemes, vowels as well as consonants, capable of serving as nucleus. The discussion is summed up in Ridouane (2008, with listing of relevant publications), where he conclusively demonstrates that a perfectly ordinary Shilha phrase such as "you took it away" indeed consists of three vowelless syllables k.ks.tst:. each made up of voiceless consonants only, and with voiceless consonants (not "schwa") serving as nucleus. Many definitions of the syllable that have been put forward do not cover the syllables of Shilha.

Syllable types

The syllable structure of Shilha was first investigated by Dell and Elmedlaoui in a seminal article (1985). They describe how syllable boundaries can be established through what they call "core syllabification". This works by associating a nucleus with an onset, to form a core syllable CV or CC. Segments that are higher on the sonority scale have precedence over those lower on the scale in forming the nucleus in a core syllable, with vowels and semivowels highest on the scale, followed by liquids and nasals, voiced fricatives, voiceless fricatives, voiced stops and voiceless stops. When no more segments are available as onsets, the remaining single consonants are assigned as coda to the preceding core syllable, but if a remaining consonant is identical to the consonant that is the onset of the following syllable, it merges with it to become a long consonant. A morpheme boundary does not necessarily constitute a syllable boundary. Example:
*
:(they.went to one EA-orchard they.enter into-it to- they.eat EL-figs with EA-grapes)
:"they went to an orchard and entered it to eat figs and grapes"
Core syllabification:
:d (da) (ns) (ya) w (wu) r (ti) k (cm) (ni) s (sa) (dc) (ci) n (ta) (za) r (td) (wa) (ḍi) l
Coda assignment:
:(d:a) (ns) (ya) (w:ur) (tik) (cm) (ni) (s:a) (dc) (cin) (ta) (zar) (td) (wa) (ḍil)
Comparative diagram of the following:
Application of core syllabification produces the following Shilha syllable types:

Shilha syllable structure can be represented succinctly by the formula , in which C is any consonant (single/long), and X is any vowel or consonant (single) and with the restriction that in a syllable CXC the X, if it is a consonant, cannot be higher on the resonance scale than the syllable-final consonant, that is, syllables such as sk.and rz.are possible, but not * ks.and * zr.

Exceptional syllables of the types X (vowel or single/long consonant) and (vowel plus single/long consonant) occur in utterance-initial position:
: .glt."close it!" (syllable C)
: :.ɣat."go out!" (syllable C:)
: .wi.tid."bring it here!" (syllable V)
: c.kid."come here!" (syllable VC)
Another exceptional syllable type, described by Dell and Elmedlaoui (1985), occurs in utterance-final position, when a syllable of the type CC or CC: is "annexed" to a preceding syllable of the type CV or C:V, for example "be silent!" is s.samt.not * s.sa.mt.

Since any syllable type may precede or follow any other type, and since any consonant can occur in syllable-initial or final position, there are no phonotactical restrictions on consonant sequences. This also means that the concept of the consonant cluster is not applicable in Shilha phonology, as any number of consonants may occur in sequence:
*
:(I.am.glad by.means.of the.acquiantance of.you)
: r.ḥɣs.lm.ɛrf.tn.nk.(six syllables, fourteen consonants, no vowels)
:"I'm glad to make your acquaintance"

Metrics

The metrics of traditional Shilha poems, as composed and recited by itinerant bards (), was first described and analyzed by Hassan Jouad (thesis 1983, book 1995; see also Dell and Elmedlaoui 2008). The traditional metrical system confirms the existence of vowelless syllables in Shilha, and Jouad's data have been used by Dell and Elmedlaoui, and by Ridouane to support their conclusions.

The metrical system imposes the following restrictions:
*each line in a poem contains the same number of syllables as all the other lines
*each syllable in a line contains the same number of segments as its counterpart in other lines
*each line contains one particular syllable that must begin or end with a voiced consonant
*each line is divided into feet, with the last syllable in each foot stressed ("lifted") in recitation
Within these restrictions, the poet is free to devise his own metrical form. This can be recorded in a meaningless formula called which shows the number and the length of the syllables, as well as the place of the obligatory voiced consonant (Jouad lists hundreds of such formulae).

The system is illustrated here with a quatrain ascribed to the semi-legendary Shilha poet Sidi Ḥammu (fl. 18th century) and published by Amarir (1987:64):

Application of Dell and Elmedlaoui's core syllabification reveals a regular mosaic of syllables:

The poem is composed in a metre listed by Jouad (1995:283) and exemplified by the formula , , , (the in the last syllable indicates the position of the compulsory voiced consonant).

Grammar

Nouns

On the basis of their morphology, three types of Shilha nouns can be distinguished, two indigenous types and one type of external origin:
*inflected nouns
*uninflected nouns
*unincorporated loans
The relevant morpho-syntactic categories are gender, number and state.

Inflected nouns

Inflected nouns are by far the most numerous type. These nouns can be easily recognised from their outward shape: they begin with a nominal prefix which has the form :
: "daytime"
: "orphan"
: "hound"
: "evening"
: "marsh mallow (plant)"
: "ant"
Inflected nouns distinguish two genders, masculine and feminine; two numbers, singular and plural; and two states, conventionally referred to by their French names as ("free state") and ("annexed state") and glossed as EL and EA. Gender and number are all explicitly marked, but historical and synchronic sound changes have in some cases resulted in the neutralization of the difference between EL and EA.

The nominal prefix has no semantic content, i.e. it is not a sort of (in)definite article, although it is probably demonstrative in origin. It is made up of one or both of two elements, a gender prefix and a vocalic prefix. Singular feminine nouns may also have a gender suffix. For example, the noun "bee" has the feminine prefix , the vocalic prefix and the feminine singular suffix added to the nominal stem . While feminine inflected nouns always have the feminine prefix, masculine nouns do not have a gender prefix in the free state (EL); for example "fox" has no gender prefix, but only a vocalic prefix added to the nominal stem .

Gender is thus marked unambiguously, albeit asymmetrically. In just a handful of nouns, the morphological gender does not conform to the grammatical gender (and number): "sheep and goats" is morphologically masculine singular, but takes feminine plural agreement; "eyes" is morphologically masculine plural, but takes feminine plural agreement; "(someone's) children, offspring" is morphologically feminine singular, but takes masculine plural agreement.

The annexed state (EA) is regularly formed by reducing the vocalic prefix to zero and, with masculine nouns, adding the masculine gender prefix :
:EL "bee" → EA
:EL "fox" → EA
With some nouns, the original vocalic prefix has fused with a stem-initial vowel, to produce an inseparable (and irreducible) vowel:
:EL "moon, month" → EA (not *)
:EL "sun" → EA (not *)
With feminine nouns that have an inseparable vocalic prefix, the difference between EL and EA is thus neutralized.

While most inflected nouns have a vocalic prefix , some have (in some cases inseparable), and a few have (always inseparable). When a masculine noun has the vocalic prefix (separable or inseparable), the masculine gender prefix changes to . The table below presents an overview (all examples are singular; plurals also distinguish EL and EA):

The EA is not predictable from the shape of the noun, compare:
: "hand" → EA
: "knee" → EA
The phonological rules on the realization of /w/ and /j/ apply to the EA as well. For example, the EA of "chief" is /w-mɣar/, realized as after a vowel, after a consonant:
: "the chief went to see the judge"
: "the chief accompanied the judge"
Inflected nouns show a great variety of plural formations, applying one or more of the following processes:
*suffixation (masculine , feminine )
*vowel change (insertion or elision, or ablaut)
*consonant gemination or degemination
*stem extension (+, +, +, +, always in combination with a suffix)
There are also irregular and suppletive plurals. The feminine singular suffix is naturally lost in the plural.

Independent from these processes, the separable vocalic prefix is always replaced with . An inseparable vocalic prefix either remains unchanged, or changes as part of vowel change (but if the vocalic prefix is inseparable in the singular, it may be separable in the plural, as with "dune", and vice versa, as with "dog"; see table below).

Below is a sample of nouns, illustrating various plural formations.

The plural is generally not predictable from the shape of the singular, compare:
: "shoe", plural (vowel change and suffix)
: "utensil", plural (stem extension and suffix)
Many nouns have more than one plural, for example "knife", plural (vowel change) or (suffixation).

Many Shilha place-names are morphologically inflected nouns:
: "Anammeur"
: " Irhoreïsene"
: "Taroudant"
: "Tizegzaouine"
The same is the case with Shilha ethnic names:
: "the Ammeln" (singular )
: "the Achtouken" (singular )
: "the Ilallen" (singular )
: "the Isouktan" (singular )
Among the inflected nouns are found many incorporated loans. Examples include (see also ):
: "wax" (from Latin)
: "reeds" (from Punic)
: "vegetable plot, orchard" (from early Romance)
: "Muslim" (from Arabic)
: "letter, missive" (from Arabic)

Uninflected nouns

This is the least common type, which also includes some loans. Examples:
: "cuckoo"
: "thirst"
: "thumb"
: "tar" (from Arabic)
: "station" (from French)
: "index finger"
: "couscous"
: "cricket"
: "carrots"

It is probable that all uninflected nouns were originally masculine. The few that now take feminine agreement contain elements that have been reanalyzed as marking feminine gender, for example "kind of spider" (initial seen as feminine prefix), "bat" (not an Arabic loanword, but final analyzed as the Arabic feminine ending).

Many uninflected nouns are collectives or non-count nouns which do not have a separate plural form. Those that have a plural make it by preposing the pluralizer , for example "stations".

The uninflected noun or "people, humans" is morphologically masculine singular but takes masculine plural agreement.

Names of people and foreign place-names can be seen as a subtype of uninflected nouns, for example (man's name), (woman's name), "Fès", "Portugal". Gender is not transparently marked on these names, but those referring to humans take gender agreement according to the natural sex of the referent (male/masculine, female/feminine).

Unincorporated loans

These are nouns of Arabic origin (including loans from French and Spanish through Arabic) which have largely retained their Arabic morphology. They distinguish two genders (not always unambiguously marked) and two numbers (explicitly marked). A notable feature of these nouns is that they are borrowed with the Arabic definite article, which is semantically neutralized in Shilha:
:Moroccan Arabic "the pistol" → Shilha "the pistol, a pistol"
:Moroccan Arabic "the coffin" → Shilha "the coffin, a coffin"
The Arabic feminine ending is often replaced with the Shilha feminine singular suffix :
:Moroccan Arabic → Shilha "fruit"
:Moroccan Arabic → Shilha "tomb of a saint"
Arabic loans usually retain their gender in Shilha. The exception are Arabic masculine nouns which end in ; these change their gender to feminine in Shilha, with the final reanalyzed as the Shilha feminine singular suffix :
:Moroccan Arabic "the prophetic tradition" (masculine) → Shilha (feminine)
:Moroccan Arabic "death" (masculine) → Shilha (feminine)
Arabic plurals are usually borrowed with the singulars. If the borrowed plural is not explicitly marked for gender (according to Arabic morphology) it has the same gender as the singular:
: "domestic animal" (feminine), plural (feminine)
: "buckle" (masculine), plural (masculine)
Loanwords whose singular is masculine may have a plural which is feminine, and marked as such (according to Arabic morphology), for example "flag" (masculine), plural (feminine).

Use of the annexed state

The annexed state (EA) of an inflected noun is used in a number of clearly defined syntactical contexts:
*when the noun occurs as subject in postverbal position:
: (it.is.beautiful EA-country of.you) "your country is beautiful"
:compare:
: (EL-country of.you it.is.beautiful) " s foryour country, it is beautiful"
*after most prepositions (see also ):
: (EL-garlic with EA-onions) "garlic and onions" (EL )
: (EL-loaf of EA bread) "a loaf of bread" (EL )
*after numerals 1 to 10 and after the indefinite numeral (see also ):
: "three EA-dishes" (EL )
: "many EA-days" (EL )
*after some elements which require a following noun phrase (see also ):
: "the people of Agadir"
: "he with EA-reed: flute player" (EL )
*after "like, such as" (premodern, obsolete in the modern language)
: (like EA-milk which.is.cold) "like cold milk, such as cold milk"
Outside these contexts, the EL is used. Uninflected nouns and unincorporated loans, which do not distinguish state, remain unchanged in these contexts.

Semantics of feminine nouns

The formation of feminine nouns from masculine nouns is a productive process. A feminine noun is formed by adding both the feminine nominal prefix (and, if necessary, a vocalic prefix), and the feminine singular suffix to a masculine noun. The semantic value of the feminine derivation is variable.

For many nouns referring to male and female humans or animals (mainly larger mammals), matching masculine and feminine forms exist with the same nominal stem, reflecting the sex of the referent:
: "widower" → "widow"
: "Muslim" → "Muslima"
: "twin boy" → "twin girl"
: "cock, rooster" → "hen"
: "lion" → "lioness"
: "moufflon" → "female moufflon"
In a few cases there are suppletive forms:
: "man, husband" ― "woman, wife"
: "buck" ― "goat"
Feminine nouns derived from masculine nouns with inanimate reference have diminutive meaning:
: "stone" → "small stone"
: "cave" → "hole, lair"
: "room" → "small room"
: "box" → "little box"
: "garden" → "small garden"
Conversely, a masculine noun derived from a feminine noun has augmentative meaning:
: "lake" → "large lake"
: "house" → "large house"
: "fan palm" → "large fan palm"
Feminine nouns derived from masculine collective nouns have singulative meaning:
: "maize" → "a cob"
: "peppers" → "a pepper"
: "aubergines" → "an aubergine"
: "matches" → "a match"
Feminine derivations are also used as names of languages, professions and activities:
: "Dutchman" → "the Dutch language"
: "the French" → "the French language"
: "blacksmith" → "blacksmith's profession"
: "beggar" → "begging"
: "miser" → "avarice"
: "(my) brother" → "brotherhood"
There is an overlap here with feminine nouns denoting females:
: "Frenchwoman" and "the French language"
: "beggarwoman" and "begging"

Nominal deictic clitics

There are three deictic clitics which can follow a noun: proximal "this, these", distal "that, those" (compare ) and anaphoric "the aforementioned":
: " s forthis honey, it is not expensive"
: "the cold has badly afflicted that goat"
: "then he gave the bird to some children to play with"

Personal pronouns

There are three basic sets of personal pronouns:
*independent
*direct object clitics
*suffixes
In addition, there are two derived sets which contain the suffixed pronouns (except in 1st singular):
*indirect object clitics
*possessive complements
Gender is consistently marked on 2nd singular, and on 2nd and 3rd plural. Gender is not consistently marked on 3rd singular and 1st plural. Gender is never marked on 1st singular.

The independent ("overt") pronouns are used to topicalize the subject or the object.
*
:(wie not we.wear EL-sandals of EA-alfa)
:"as for us, we don't wear sandals adeof alfa"
*
:(EL-women they it.is.that who.is.building EL-coop of EA-chickens)
:"the women, they're the ones who (usually) build a chicken coop"
They are also used with certain pseudo-prepositions such as "like", "except":
*
:(why I I.am EL-ass like you)
:"why, s forme, am I an ass like you?"
*
:(not it.is.likely that he.steals except you.mpl)
:"no one could have stolen texcept you lot"
The direct object clitics are used with transitive verbs:
*''yuzn tn s tmzgida''
:(he-sent them to EA-Koranic.school)
:"he sent them to the Koranic school"
*
:(when me he.beats I.am.running.away)
:"when he beats me I run away"
The 3rd singular feminine variant is used after a dental stop, compare:
: "bring her here!" (imperative singular)
: "bring her here!" (imperative plural masculine)
The direct object clitics are also used to indicate the ''subject'' with pseudo-verbs, and with the presentative particle "here is, ":
: (alone me) "I alone"
: (all them) "they all, all of them"
: (absent him) "he's not there, he's disappeared"
: (where her) "where is she?"
: (here.is me) "here I am"
The pronominal suffixes are used with prepositions to indicate the object (see ), and with a closed set of necessarily possessed kinship terms to indicate possession (see ). The plural forms add an infix before the suffix with kinship terms, for example "our father" (never *); this infix also occurs with some prepositions as a free or dialectal variant of the form without the :
: or "on them"
: "with them" (never *)
The indirect object clitics convey both benefactive and detrimental meaning:
*
:(when he.died father-her he.left to.her hither EL-possessions of.him)
:"when her father died he left her his possessions"
*
:(EL-locust she.ate to.her EL-vegetable.patch of.her)
:"the locusts, they've eaten her vegetable patch"
The possessive complements follow the noun (see ).

Prepositions

Prepositions can have up to three different forms, depending on the context in which they are used:
*before a noun or demonstrative pronoun
*with a pronominal suffix
*independent in relative clause
The form before nouns and demonstrative pronouns and the independent form are identical for most prepositions, the exception being the dative preposition (independent , ).

Most prepositions require a following inflected noun to be in the annexed state (EA) (see ). Exceptions are "until", "toward" (in some modern dialects, and in premodern texts) and prepositions borrowed from Arabic (not in the table) such as "after" and "before".

The instrumental and allative prepositions "by means of" (with EA) and "toward" (with EL) were still consistently kept apart in premodern manuscript texts. In most modern dialects they have been amalgamated, with both now requiring the EA, and with the pre-pronominal forms each occurring with both meanings: "toward it" (now also "with it"), "with it" (now also "toward it").

The use of the different forms is illustrated here with the preposition "in":
* (with noun)
:(it.fell EA-rain in EA-beginning of October)
:"the first rain fell in the beginning of October"
* (with pronominal suffix)
:(the sit in.them the're.drinking coffee)
:"they sit in them .e., cafésdrinking coffee"
* (independent)
:(EL-orchard in.which they.exist trees that they.are.bearing.fruit it.is.irrigated)
:"an orchard in which there are fruit-bearing trees is usually irrigated"
Two prepositions can be combined:
*
:(it.exists EA-beetle that it.is.living in under EA-dung)
:"there is a ind ofbeetle that lives beneath the dung"
*
:(they.are.going to at.the.place.of EA-barber in EA-Tafraout)
:"they always go to a barber in Tafraout"
Spatial relations are also expressed with phrases of the type "on top of":
: "on top of the dung heap"
: "beside the road"
: "in the midst of the river"
The preposition "in" with pronominal suffixes, with all its free and dialectal variants, is presented below. The other prepositions display a much smaller variety of forms.

Numerals

The inherited cardinal numeral system consists of ten numerals (still in active use) and three numeral nouns (now obsolete) for "a tensome", "a hundred" and "a thousand". There is also an indefinite numeral meaning "several, many" or "how many?" which morphologically and syntactically patterns with the numerals 1 to 10. For numbers of 20 and over, Arabic numerals are commonly used.

Numerals 1 to 10, indefinite numeral

These are listed below. The formation of feminine "one" and "two" is irregular.

The numerals 1 to 10 are constructed with nouns (inflected nouns in the EA), the gender of the numeral agreeing with that of the noun:
: "one EA-horse"
: "one EA-cow"
: "two EA-horses"
: "two EA-cows".
The same obtains with the indefinite numeral:
: "several/many EA-horses, how many horses?"
: "several/many EA-cows, how many cows?"
Numerals , "one" also serve as indefinite article, for example "one Westerner, a Westerner", and they are used independently with the meaning "anyone" (), "anything" ():
: "he didn't see anyone"
: "I'm not afraid of anything"
The final of masculine "one" and "two" is often assimilated or fused to a following , or :
: → "one EA-day"
: → "one EA-year"
: → "a place"
: → "two EA-years"
: → "two EA-months"

Teens

The teens are made by connecting the numerals 1 to 9 to the numeral 10 with the preposition "with". In the premodern language, both numerals took the gender of the counted noun, with the following noun in the plural (EA):
: (two with ten EA-horses) "twelve horses"
: (two with ten EA-cows) "twelve cows"
In the modern language, fused forms have developed in which the first numeral is always masculine, while the following noun is in the singular, and connected with the preposition "of":
: (twelve of EA-horse) "twelve horses"
: (twelve of EA-cow) "twelve cows"

Tens, hundreds, thousands

There are three inherited nouns to denote "a tensome", "a hundred" and "a thousand". These now seem to be obsolete, but they are well attested in the premodern manuscripts. Morphologically, they are ordinary inflected nouns.

The tens, hundreds and thousand were formed by combining the numerals 1 to 10 with the numeral nouns:
: (two EA-tensomes) "twenty"
: (two EA-hundreds) "two hundred"
: (two EA-thousands) "two thousand"
The numeral nouns are connected with the preposition "of" to a noun, which is most often in the singular:
: (EL-hundred of EA-horse) "a hundred horses"
: (two EA-hundreds of EA-horse) "two hundred horses"
: (EL-thousand of EA-cow) "a thousand cows"
: (two EA-thousands of EA-cow) "two thousand cows"
In the modern language the Arabic tens are used, which have developed a separate feminine form:
: (twenty of EA-horse) "twenty horses"
: (twenty of EA-cow) "twenty cows"
The numerals between the tens are most frequently made with the Arabic numerals 1 to 10:
: (five and twenty of EA-horse) "twenty-five horses"
: (five and twenty of EA-cow) "twenty-five cows"
The Arabic hundreds and thousands are used in the modern language, taking the places of the original numeral nouns while the original syntax is maintained:
: (hundred of EA-horse) "a hundred horses"
: (two PL hundred of EA-horse) "two hundred horses"
: (thousand of EA-cow) "a thousand cows"
: (two EA-thousands of EA-cow) "two thousand cows"
There is also a vigesimal system built on the Arabic numeral "twenty, score", for example (two PL score of EA-cow) "forty cows".

Ordinal numerals

''First'' and ''last'' are usually expressed with relative forms of the verbs "to be first" and "to be last":
: (page which.is.first) "the first page"
: (days which.are.last) "the last days"
There are also agent nouns derived from these verbs which are apposed to a noun or used independently:
: (furrow the.first.one) "the first furrow"
: (she.arrived hither the.last.one) "she arrived last"

The other ordinals are formed by prefixing masc. , fem. to a cardinal numeral, which is then constructed with a plural noun in the usual manner:
: (ORD-three EA-days) "the third day"
: (ORD-three EA-times) "the third time"
The ordinal prefixes is also used with Arabic numerals and with the indefinite numeral:
: "the 25th ayof he monthDhū al-Qaʿda"
: "the how-manieth time?"

Because four of the numerals 1 to 10 begin with , the geminated that results from the prefixation of , (as in , , etc.) is often generalized to the other numerals: , , , etc.

Verbs

A Shilha verb form is basically a combination of a person-number-gender (PNG) affix and a mood-aspect-negation (MAN) stem.

Sample verb

The workings of this system are illustrated here with the full conjugation of the verb "to give". The perfective negative goes with the negation "not". The imperfective goes with the preverbal particle (except usually the imperative, and the relative forms).

The verb "give" has the full complement of four different MAN stems:
*Aorist ― in 1st, 2nd and 3rd singular, 1st plural, and the imperatives, but in 2nd and 3rd plural
*Perfective ― in 1st and 2nd singular, but with the other forms
*Perfective negative ― all forms
*Imperfective (an irregular formation) ― all forms

Person-number-gender affixes

There are two basic sets of PNG affixes, one set marking the subject of ordinary verb forms, and another set marking the subject of imperatives.

Two suffixes (singular , plural ) are added to the 3rd singular and masculine 3rd plural masculine verb forms respectively to make relative forms (also known as "participles"), as in "who gives", "who give".

Mood-aspect-negation stems

A few verbs have just one MAN stem. The majority of verbs have two, three or four different MAN stems. The Aorist stem serves as the citation form of a verb. The list below offers an overview of MAN stem paradigms. Around 15 paradigms of non-derived verbs can be recognized, based on the formation of the Perfective and the Perfective negative. Further subdivisions could be made on the basis of the formations of the Imperfective. All sections in the list contain a selection of verbs, except sections 12, 14, and 15, which contain a full listing.

Uses of MAN stems

The table below is adapted from Kossmann (2012:40, table 2.12 Uses of MAN stems in Figuig Berber).

Stative verbs

Shilha has around twenty stative verbs which are still recognizable as a separate type of verb on the basis of their MAN stem paradigms. In earlier stages of the language, these verbs had their own separate set of PNG markers, which are sporadically found in premodern manuscripts:
: "the night, it is long" (cf. modern )
: "medicines are bitter" (cf. modern )
In the modern language, these verbs take the regular PNG markers. Only the original singular relative form without prefix may still be encountered, for example or (mountain which.is.big) "big mountain". Stative verbs do not have a separate Perfective negative form. The table shows a selection of stative verbs.

Verbal deictic clitics

There are two deictic clitics which are used with verbs to indicate movement toward or away from the point of reference: centripetal "hither" and centrifugal "thither":
*
:(not he.knew which EL-day hither they-return)
:"he knew not on which day they would return (toward him)"
*
:(I.killed father-your I.threw tither EL-head of.him in EA-waterhole)
:"I killed your father and threw his head (away from me) into a waterhole"
The use of these clitics is compulsory (idiomatic) with certain verbs. For example, the verb "come" almost always goes with the centripetal particle, and "find" with the centrifugal clitic:
*
:(he.came hither one EA-messenger from Ali Oumhaouch))
:"a messenger came to their place from Ali Oumhaouch"
*
:(he.descended to EA-waterhole he.finds tither EL-head of EA-ram)
:"he descended into the waterhole and found the head of a ram"
When the verbal deictic clitics occur after an object pronoun, they change to and :
*
:(he.put them hither in one EA-pouch)
:"he put them in a pouch"
*
:(them tither we.are.putting in EA-jar)
:"we usually put them in a jar"

Possession

Within a noun phrase

A possessive construction within a noun phrase is most frequently expressed as Possessee Possessor. The preposition "of" requires a following inflected noun to be in the annexed state. This kind of possessive construction covers a wide range of relationships, including both alienable and inalienable possession, and most of them not involving actual ownership:
: "Daoud's waterhole"
: "the entrance of the grain silo"
: "Brahim's children"
: "pots of clay"
: "a little salt"
: "the price of maize"
: "after lunch"
: "the city of Istanbul"
: "the rising of the sun"
: "the road to school"
: "the religion of the Jews"
: "the story of Joseph"
Many such possessive constructions are compounds, whose meaning cannot be deduced from the ordinary meaning of the nouns:
: "road of straw: the Milky Way"
: "mouth of jackal: a length measure"
: "ravine of lice: nape, back of the neck"
: "needle of hedges: kind of bird"
The possessor can itself be a possessee in a following possessive construction:
: "the era of the reign of Moulay Lahcen"
: "the time of the giving birth of the sheep and goats"
As a rule, the preposition assimilates to, or fuses with, a following , , or :
: → "the language of the Arabs"
: → "horse-doctor"
: → "the season of rain"
: → "the king of the Muslims"
: → "orange tree"
: → "maize of Egypt"
The possessor can also be expressed with a pronominal possessive complement. This consists of a pronominal suffix added to the preposition, which then takes the shape (see ). The form of the 1st singular possessive complement is anomalous: after a vowel, and after a consonant (or, in some dialects, ):
: "my head"
: "my hands"
: "my leg"
: "your (sg.m.) pouch"
: "your (sg.f.) affairs"
: "his clothes"
: "her opinion"
: "its smell"
: "our neighbours"
: "your (pl.m.) occupation"
: "your (pl.f.) friends"
: "their (m.) livelihood"
: "their (f.) locks of hair"

Within a clause

There are two ways to express possession within a clause. The most common way is to use the "exist with" construction:
*
:(she.exists with.him one EA-pumpkin)
:"he has a pumpkin"
*
:(not with.me it.exists EA-anything what thither I.wear)
:"I've got nothing to wear"
The verb "exist" (perfective ) is usually omitted, leaving a verbless clause:
*
:(with.us EL-argan it.is.growing in EA-forest)
:"we have an argan tree growing in the forest"
*
:(question not with.you something other)
:"don't you have something different?"
Alternatively, the verb "hold, possess" can be used:
*
:(he.possesses one EA-donkey he.travels with.it)
:"he has a donkey which he travels with"
*
:(I not I.possess papers of.me)
:" s forme, I haven't got my papers"
In addition, there is the verb "possess" (perfective ), whose use is restricted to (inalienable) part-whole relationships and kinship relationships:
*
:(I.possess EL-eyes which.are.good)
:"I have good eyes"
*
:(they.possess six EA-children)
:"they have six children"
In al its usages can be replaced with or the "exist with" construction, but not the other way around:
* , or
:(EL-hand-mill it.possesses one EA-handle)
:"a hand-mill has one handle"
* , not *
:(I.possess two EA-houses)
:"I have two houses"

Possessed nouns

These are a subtype of uninflected nouns. As with proper names, gender is not transparently marked on possessed nouns, which take gender agreement according to the natural sex of the referent. Plurals are either suppletive or made with the preposed pluralizer . Most possessed nouns are consanguinal kinship terms which require a possessive suffix (the table contains a selection).

These kinship terms cannot occur without pronominal suffix. Example:

If these nouns are part of an NP-internal possessive construction, possession must be indicated twice:
: (father-her of EA-bride) "the father of the bride"
: (son-his of brother-my) "my brother's son"
: (daughter-its of EA-river) "the daughter of the river: fever" (compound)
The suffix must also be added when possession is expressed in a clause:
*
:(not he.possesses except one sister.his)
:"he only has one sister"
Some kinship terms are not possessed nouns but inflected nouns which take possessive complements (see examples above).

Another group of possessed nouns require a following noun phrase, occurring only in an NP-internal possessive phrase. A following inflected noun must be in the EA.

These four possessed nouns occur as first element in compound kinship terms (see above; then becomes in "the brother of"). They also serve to indicate descent, origin and ethnicity:
: "Ahmed son of Moussa" (name of a famous saint)
: "member of the Aït Brayyim ethnic group"
: "native of outside: a foreigner"
: "a native of Taroudant"
: "the natives of Aguercif"
: "native woman of Aglou"
: "the women of Tafraout"
When is followed by another (phonemic) the result is :
: → "native of Ouijjane" (also surname: Gouijjane)
: → "a man, son of a man: a man of virtue"
occurs in many Shilha ethnonyms:
: "the Sons of Boubker" (Aït Boubker), singular
: "the Sons of Ouafka" (Aït Ouafka), singular →

Proprietive and privative elements

The proprietive elements masc. "he with, he of" and fem. "she with, she of" are borrowed from Arabic (original meaning "father of", "mother of"). They are used as formative elements and require a following inflected noun to be in the annexed state. The plural is formed with the pluralizer :
: (he of seven EA-words) "a liar"
: (he of EA-forest) "wild boar"
: (he with EA-letters) "postman"
: (PL he with EA-bucket) "French soldiers (wearing a képi)"
In many cases, fuses with a following nominal prefix:
: (he with EA-poetry) → "a poet"
: (he with EA-frogs) → " Biougra" (place-name)
The feminine is encountered less frequently:
: (she with EA-mats) "prayer room in a mosque"
: (she with delusion) "the world, worldly existence"
: (PL she with EA-threads) "needles"

The privative elements masc. "he without" and fem. "she without" are made up of a gender prefix (masculine , feminine ) and an element which is probably related to the negation "not". They do not require the annexed state, and should probably be translated as "who does not have", with the following noun phrase as object:
: (he without EL-partner) "God"
: (PL he without EL-job) "the unemployed"
: (she without EL-daylight) "wide-brimmed hat"
: (she without certainty) "the world, worldly existence"

Lexicon

Shilha retains a large native (non-borrowed) lexicon, supplemented by borrowings from the languages with which its speakers came into contact.

Sources

The main available lexicographical sources for the modern language are: Stumme 1899 (contains Shilha–German wordlist, pp. 155–246) ; Destaing 1920 (French–Shilha); Cid Kaoui 1907 (French-Shilha, not entirely reliable); Jordan 1934 (Shilha–French, extracted from Laoust 1921); Destaing 1940 (a collection of texts with copious lexicographical notes and a Shilha index); Ibáñez 1954 (Spanish–Shilha); Boumalk and Bounfour 2001 (Shilha-French). An indigenous source for the premodern language is in van den Boogert (1998). These sources will be made accessible, with much additional data, in Stroomer's (forthcoming). No reliable wordlist in Shilha and English is available in print.

Basic vocabulary

Below is the Leipzig-Jakarta list for Shilha, extracted from Destaing (1920, dialects of the central Anti-Atlas). As far as can be determined, there are only five borrowed items in the list, all loans from Arabic. Note that the first item in the list, the most stable (least borrowed) item among the world's languages, is actually a loan in Shilha.

Loanwords

The earliest identifiable loanword in Shilha is "dates" (cf. Tamasheq , Ghadamès ), from Egyptian-Coptic (cf. Coptic "date palm-tree; dates").

Phoenician-Punic, a Northwest-Semitic language, was spoken in parts of North Africa, especially in what is now Tunisia, up to the 5th century CE. Punic loans are found in several Berber languages, among them Shilha. Examples (etymons are cited from Hebrew, another Northwest-Semitic language which is closely related to Phoenician-Punic, but much better attested):
: "fortress" (cf. Hebrew "wall")
: "onions" (cf. Hebrew )
: "reeds" (cf. Hebrew )
: "flax, linen" (premodern Shilha, cf. Hebrew )
The verb "to learn" is probably also a Punic loan (cf. Hebrew ''lāmad'').

The noun "Jew" probably came to the Berber languages from the Aramaic language spoken by early Jewish immigrants in North Africa (cf. Aramaic-Syriac vs. Hebrew , Arabic ; the Aramaic noun is also the source of Greek , Latin ).

It has been noted that the numerals 5 to 9 seem to be Semitic loans. The corresponding numerals in Phoenician-Punic and in Arabic, the historically most likely origin, do not seem to be the source. A comparison:

A variety of Latin/Romance was spoken in parts of northern Morocco right up to the advent of Islam. Loans from Latin and early Romance include:
: "cock, rooster" (Latin "young animal, chick")
: "oven" (cf. Latin )
: "ass's foal" (Latin "ass")
: "pennyroyal" (plant, cf. Latin )
: "chickpeas" (Latin )
: "peel, spade" (Latin )
: "file" (Latin )
: "yoke, pair" (cf. Latin plural , singular "yoke")
: "garden" (cf. Tarifit , Latin )
: "thing" (Latin )
: "wax" (Latin )
: "beets" (cf. Latin singular )
: "pears" (cf. Latin plural , singular "pear")
Later Romance loans can be distinguished by the fact that original becomes instead of as in the earlier loans. Presumably, the later loans originated from Ibero-Romance, with which Berber speakers came into contact in al-Andalus (Islamic Spain). Examples include:
: "axe" (cf. Spanish , Latin )
: "hat" (cf. Spanish )
: "rye" (cf. Spanish ; the Spanish word naturally developed into a Shilha feminine plural , from which masculine singular was back-formed)
Another probable loan from a Romance language is "tobacco".

Also borrowed from Romance are the names of the months of the Julian calendar:

Most Spanish and French loanwords in Shilha came via Arabic, as shown by the presence of the Arabic definite article:
: "feast" (Spanish )
: "school" (Spanish )
: "package" (French )
: "car" (French )
There are sporadic loans from other languages, such as tæj"tea" from Dutch ej "drum", from an unidentified Sub-Saharan African language, and "artilleryman", from Ottoman Turkish .

By far the most numerous group of loans is from Arabic. As with most languages spoken in the Islamic cultural sphere, Shilha has adopted many hundreds of words from Arabic, which now permeate the entire lexicon (except body parts and other basic vocabulary). Loans include verbs and nouns as well as numerals, prepositions, conjunctions and adverbs. Borrowed verbs are completely absorbed into the Shilha verbal system. Many of the borrowed nouns were not incorporated into the nominal morphological system, thus constituting a subgroup of their own (see above, ).

Although some nouns denoting typically Islamic concepts such as "mosque", "ritual prayer", "fasting", which certainly belong to the very oldest layer of Arabic loans, are fully incorporated into Shilha morphology, many equally central Islamic concepts are expressed with unincorporated nouns, for example "Islam", "pilgrimage to Mecca", "alms tax". It is possible that during the early stages of islamization such concepts were expressed with native vocabulary or with earlier, non-Arabic loans. One such term which has survived into the modern era is "ewe for slaughter on the (Islamic) Feast of Immolation", from , the Latinized name of the Jewish festival of Passover (''Pesaḥ'') or, more specifically, of the paschal lamb (''qorbān Pesaḥ'') which is sacrificed during the festival. Another example is "sins", obsolete in the modern language, but attested in a premodern manuscript text, whose singular is borrowed from Romance (cf. Spanish , Latin ; modern Shilha uses "sins", from Arabic).

Secret languages

Destaing mentions a secret language (argot) called or which is spoken by "some people of Souss, in particular the descendants of Sidi Ḥmad u Musa." He quotes an example: "do you speak the secret language?"

Two secret languages used by Shilha women are described by Lahrouchi and Ségéral (2009). They are called (cf. Shilha "deaf-mute person") and or . They employ various processes, such as reduplication, to disguise the ordinary language.

Sample text

;Text Podeur (1995:140–141).
(1)
:, feminine noun, "story" (Arabic loan)
:, preposition, "of"
:, masculine numeral, "one, a"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "man"
:, relative pronoun, "who" (Arabic loan)
:, singular relative verb form, "who is selling" (causative < "be sold")
:, feminine noun, free state, "honey"
:, preposition, "in"
:, masculine noun, "market" (Arabic loan)

(2)
:, masculine numeral, "one, a"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "man"
:, 3sg.m. perfective, "he filled" (Arabic loan)
:, masculine indefinite numeral, "several, many"
:, masculine plural noun, annexed state, "skins, leather bags"
:, preposition, "of"
:, feminine noun, annexed state, "honey"
:, preposition, "in"
:, masculine noun, "market" (Arabic loan)

(3)
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he came"
:, directional particle, centripetal, "thither"
:, preposition + 3sg. suffix, "with him"
:, masculine numeral, "one, a"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "man"
:, 3sg.m. perfective, "he wanted"
:, prospective preverbal particle
:, preposition + 3sg. suffix, "with him"
:, 3sg.m. aorist, "he buys"
:, feminine noun, free state, "honey"

(4)
:, 3sg.m. perfective, "he said"
:, inserted consonant (hiatus breaker)
:, 3sg. indirect object clitic, "to him"
:, question word, "how much?"
: , "is-it-that"
:, 2sg. aorist, "you sell" (causative < "be sold")
:, feminine noun, free state, "honey"
:, demonstrative particle, distal, "that"

(5)
:, 3sg.m. perfective, "he said"
:, inserted consonant (hiatus breaker)
:, 3sg. indirect object clitic, "to him"
:, imperative singular, "taste!"
:, 3sg.f. object clitic, "it"
:, conjunction, "if"
:, 2sg.m. indirect object clitic, "to you"
:, 3sg.f. perfective, "it pleased" (Arabic loan)
:, imperfective preverbal
:, preposition + 3sg. suffix, "in it, about it"
:, 2sg. imperfective, "you talk, you can talk"

(6)
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he picked up"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "man"
:, demonstrative particle, distal, "that"
:, masculine numeral, "one, a"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "skin, leather bag"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he poured out"
:, 3sg.m. object clitic, "it"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he tasted"
:, feminine noun, free state, "honey"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he gave"
:, 3sg.m. object clitic, "it"
:, preposition, "to"
:, masculine noun, "owner"
:, 3sg. possessive complement, "of it"

(7)
:, 3sg.m. perfective, "he said"
:, 3sg. indirect object clitic, "to him"
:, imperative singular, "hold!"
:, preposition, "until"
:, conjunction, "when"
:, 1sg. perfective, "I tasted"
:, masculine singular, "another one"

(8)
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he held"
:, 3sg.m. object clitic, "it"
:, preposition, "with"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "hand"
:, 3sg. possessive complement, "of him"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he picked up"
:, adverb, "also"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "buyer" (agent noun < sɣ "buy")
:, demonstrative particle, anaphoric, "the aforementioned"
:, masculine singular, "another one"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he poured out"
:, 3sg.m. object clitic, "it"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he tasted"
:, feminine noun, free state, "honey"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he gave"
:, 3sg.m. object clitic, "it"
:, adverb, "also"
:, preposition, "to"
:, masculine noun, "owner"
:, 3sg. possessive complement, "of it"

(9)
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he held"
:, 3sg.m. object clitic, "it"
:, preposition, "with"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "hand"
:, 3sg. possessive complement, "of him"
:, "other"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he picked up"
:, masculine agent noun, annexed state, "buyer"
:, masculine numeral, "one, a"
:, masculine noun, annexed state, "skin, leather bag"
:, preposition, "of"
:, feminine noun, annex state, "honey"
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he fled"

(10)
:, 3sg.m. aorist (consecutive), "he was incapable of"
:, masculine proprietive element, "he of" (Arabic loan)
:, feminine noun, annexed state, "honey"
: , "what it-is-that"
:, imperfective preverbal particle
:, 3sg.m. imperfective, "he is doing, he can do"
:, preposition, "to"
:, masculine plural noun, annexed state, "skins, leather bags"
:, relative pronoun, "which" (Arabic loan)
:, 3sg.m. perfective, "he held"

(11)
:, imperfective preverbal
:, 3sg.m. "he is calling, he starts calling"
: , preposition, "to"
:, masculine plural noun, "people"
: , prospective preverbal particle
:, 3sg.m. object clitic, "him"
:, 3pl.m. aorist, "they liberate" (Arabic loan).

;Free translation
(1) The story of the man who sold honey in the souk. (2) A man had filled several leather bags of honey in the souk. (3) There came another man to him, who wanted to buy honey. (4) He said: "At how much do you sell that honey?" (5) He (the seller) said to him: "Just taste it, and if it pleases you, you can make a bid." (6) He (the man) took a bag, poured out some, tasted the honey and gave it back to its owner. (7) He said: "Hold it, until I have tried another one". (8) He (the seller) held it in his hand, while the buyer took another bag, poured out some, tasted the honey and gave it back to its owner. (9) He held it in his other hand; then the buyer took one bag of honey and ran away. (10) He (the seller) could not do anything because of the bags he held. (11) He started calling out to people to liberate him.

Notes and references

Cited works and further reading

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Various online articles

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*John Coleman
"Epenthetic vowels in Tashlhiyt Berber"
(includes sound samples)

External links

World atlas of language structures (WALS) – Tashlhiyt
(data not entirely accurate)

{{Languages of Morocco

Berber languages
Berbers in Morocco
Languages of Morocco