Riff language

Tarifit (, ; ), also known as Riffian is a Zenati Berber language spoken in the Rif region in northern Morocco. It is spoken natively by some 1,200,000 Riffians, comprising 3.2% of the population, primarily in the Rif provinces of Nador, Al Hoceima and Driouch.

Name

The traditional autonym of the language is Thmaziɣt (Tamazight), a term that is widely used, albeit in different forms, among Berber speaking groups all over northern Africa. Tarifiyt (pronounced Tarifect in central dialects), as a linguistic term, is a new coinage, developed when it became more and more relevant to distinguish it from other Berber varieties.

Classification

Riffian is a Zenati Berber language which consists of various sub-dialects specific to each clan and of which a majority are spoken in the Rif region, a large mountainous area of Northern Morocco, and a minority spoken in the western part of neighbouring Algeria.

Geographic distribution

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Riffian is spoken mainly in the Moroccan Rif on the Mediterranean coast and in the Rif mountains, with a large minority in the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla. There are also speakers of Riffian in Morocco outside the Rif region, notably in the rest of Moroccan cities where they compose a minority. The neighbour state of Algeria is also home to Rif minorities. A Riffian-speaking community exists in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as to a lesser extent other European countries.

Morocco

There is a large amount of dialectal variation in Riffian Berber; this can easily be seen using the dialect Atlas (Lafkioui, 1997), however Riffian compose a single language with its own phonetical innovations distinct from other Berber languages. Majority of them are spoken in Northern Morocco, this includes the varieties of Al Hoceima, Temsamane, Nador, Ikbadene (including Iznasen) and the more southernly variety in the Taza province. Besides Riffian, two other related and smaller Berber languages are spoken in North Morocco: the Sanhaja de Srair and the Ghomara languages. They are only distantly related to Riffian and are not mutually intelligible with it.

Algeria

A few Riffian dialects are or used to be in the western part of Algeria, notably by the Beni Snouss tribe of the Tlemcen, as well in Bethioua but also in various colonial districts Riffians started to emigrate to since the 19th century.

Dialects

There is no consensus on what varieties are considered Riffian and not, the difference of opinion mainly lie in the easternmost dialects of the Iznasen and the westernmost dialects of Senhaja de Sraïr and Ketama. Dialects include West-Riffian (Al Hoceima), Central-Riffian (Nador) and East-Riffian (Berkane). Iznasen (Beni Znassen) is counted as a dialect in Kossman (1999), but Blench (2006) classifies it as one of the closely related Mzab–Wargla languages.

Lafkioui (2020) argues that the Berber varieties of the Rif area (North, Northwest, and Northeast Morocco), – including the varieties of the Senhaja (westernmost group) and of the Iznasen (easternmost group) – form a language continuum with 5 stable core aggregates:
*Western Rif Berber: cities such as Ketama and Taghzout.
*West-Central Rif Berber: cities such as Al Hoceima, Targuist, Imzouren.
*Central Rif Berber: cities such as Nador, Midar and Kassita.
*East-Central Rif Berber: cities such as Al Aaroui, Driouch and Ain Zohra.
*Eastern Rif Berber: cities such as Berkane and Ras Kebdana.

They cut across the traditionally used groupings of Senhaja, Rif, Iznasen which are in fact ethnonyms and hold no classification value of any kind, neither do they correspond to the sociolinguistic landscape of the Rif area, which shows considerable complexity.

Phonology

Vowels

* A mid-central vowel /ə/ can occur in lax positions.
* Lax allophones of /i, a, u/ are heard as �, æ, ʊ
* In the vicinity of pharyngealized consonants, /i, a, u/ are heard as �ˤ, ɑˤ, ʊˤ
* Vowels lengthen in closed final syllables, e.g. tisit �ɪsɪˑθ'mirror'.

Vocalized r

Consonants

All consonants except for /ŋ/, /tʃ/ and /ʔ/ have a geminate counterpart. Most of the time, a geminate is only different from its plain counterpart because of its length. Spirantized consonants have long stops as their geminate counterparts, e.g. yezḏeɣ 'he lives' vs. izeddeɣ 'he always lives'. There are only a few phonotactic exceptions to this, e.g. in verb suffixes before vowel-initial clitics, ṯessfehmeḏḏ-as . A few consonants have divergent geminated counterparts; ḍ (/dˤ/ and /ðˤ/) to ṭṭ (/tˤː/), w (/w/) to kkʷ (/kːʷ/), ɣ (/ʁ/) to qq (/qː/), and ř (/r/) to ǧ (/dʒː/). There are some exceptions to this. This is most common with ww, e.g. acewwaf 'hair', and rarely occurs with ɣɣ and ḍḍ e.g. iɣɣed 'ashes', weḍḍaạ 'to be lost'. /dʒ/ and /dʒː/ are allophonic realizations of the same phoneme, both are common.

Notes:
* /ʝ/ has become /j/ in most of Central Riffian e.g. ayenduz instead of aɡ̠enduz 'calf'.
* /ç/ has mostly become /ʃ/ in Central Riffian and only occurs in a few words, e.g. seḵsu 'couscous'.
* Pharyngealization is a spreading feature, it may spread to a whole word.
* The only pharyngealized consonants common in Berber roots are /dˤ/, /ðˤ/, /zˤ/ and /rˤ/; the others seem to mainly occur in words of Arabic and Spanish origin.
* /ʃˤ/ seems to only occur in the nouns ucca 'greyhound' and mucc 'cat'.
* /ŋ/ occurs exclusively before the consonant /w/, it may be an assimilatory variant of n.
* Labialization only occurs with the geminates /kːʷ/ and /gːʷ/.

Assimilations

There are quite a few assimilations that occur with the feminine suffixes t and ṯ.

:ḇ + ṯ = fṯ/ft (e.g. tajeǧeft < tajeǧeḇṯ 'gown/djellaba')
:z + ṯ = sṯ/st (e.g. talwist < talwizṯ 'gold coin')
:ẓ + ṯ = ṣṯ/ṣt (e.g. tayạạẓiṣt < tayạạẓiẓṯ 'hare')
:j + ṯ = cṯ/ct (e.g. taɛejjact < taɛejjajṯ 'dust')
:ɣ + ṯ = xṯ/xt (e.g. tmazixt < tmaziɣt 'Berber language')
:ɛ + ṯ = ḥṯ/ḥt (e.g. tqubeḥt < tqubeɛṯ 'little bird')

There are also other assimilations.

:ḏ + ṯ = tt (e.g. tabritt < tabriḏṯ 'path')
:d + ṯ = tt (e.g. a t-tawi < a d-ṯawi 'she will bring here')
:ḍ + ṯ = ṭṭ (e.g. tyaẓiṭṭ < tyaẓiḍṯ 'hen')
:m + ṯ = nt (e.g. taxxant < taxxamṯ 'small room')
:ř + ṯ = č (e.g. tameǧač < tameǧařṯ 'egg')

Spirantized consonants become stops after the consonant 'n', this occurs between words as well.

:qqimen da < qqimen ḏa 'they sit here'
:tilifun tameqqṛant < tilifun ṯameqqṛant 'the big phone'

Sound shifts

Zenati sound shifts

The initial masculine ''a-'' prefix is dropped in certain words, e.g., afus 'hand' becomes ''fus'', and afiɣaṛ 'snake' becomes ''fiɣạṛ''. This change, characteristic of Zenati Berber varieties, distances Riffian from neighbouring dialects such as Atlas-Tamazight and Shilha.

L and ř

In the history of Western and Central Riffian /l/ has become /r/ in a lot of words. In most dialects there is no difference in this consonant (ř) and in original r, but in some dialects it is more clearly distinguished by the fact that ř is trilled while r is a tap. The difference becomes clearer when they are preceded by a vowel, because only original r has a heightening effect on the vowel preceding it e.g. aři �ɾɪvs ari ɾɪ This sound shift has affected other consonants as well.

* in other dialects corresponds to 'ř' (//) in Riffian (e.g. ''ul'' > ''uř'' 'heart')
* The geminate equivalent, () in other dialects corresponds to 'ǧ' (//) in Riffian (e.g. ''yelli'' > ''yeǧi'' 'my daughter'). It is underlyingly řř.
* in other dialects corresponds to 'č' () in Riffian (e.g. ''weltma'' > ''wečma'' 'my sister'). It is underlyingly řt.

These sound shifts do not occur in the easternmost Riffian dialects of Icebdanen and Iznasen and the westernmost dialects.

R vocalization

Postvocalic preceding a consonantal coda is vocalized, as in taddart > taddaat 'house/home'. Thus in tamara 'hard work/misery' the is conserved because it precedes a vowel. These sound shifts do not occur in the easternmost Riffian dialects of Icebdanen and Iznasen and the westernmost dialects beyond Ayt Waayaɣeř.

Writing system

Like other Berber languages, Riffian has been written with several different systems over the years. Unlike the nearby Tashelhit (Shilha), Riffian Berber has little written literature before the twentieth century. The first written examples of Riffian Berber start appearing just before the colonial period. Texts like R. Basset (1897) and S. Biarnay (1917) are transcribed in the Latin alphabet but they are transcribed in a rather deficient way. Most recently (since 2003), Tifinagh has become official throughout Morocco. The Arabic script is not used anymore for writing Riffian Berber. The Berber Latin alphabet continues to be the most used writing system online and in most publications in Morocco and abroad.

Grammar

Nouns

Tarifiyt has two genders, masculine and feminine. In countable nouns with Berber affixes, gender is derivative: in principle, every masculine noun has a feminine counterpart. Gender derivation is relatively straightforward. The feminine is derived from
the masculine form by adding an element /t-/ to the prefix, and a suffix /-t/, as in most Berber languages. With humans and higher animals, masculine and feminine mark natural gender, e.g.
:aḥenjia (M) 'boy' → taḥenjiat (F) 'girl'
:ayyaw (M) 'grandson' → tayyawt (F) 'granddaughter'
:asaadun (M) 'male mule' → tasaadunt (F) 'female mule'
:afunas (M) 'ox' → tafunast (F) 'cow'
For a few basic items there exist suppletive pairs, e.g.
:aayaz (M) 'man' → tamɣaat (F) 'woman'
:amyan (M) 'he-goat' → tɣaṭṭ (F) 'she-goat'
:icarri (M) 'ram' → tixsi (F) 'ewe'
:yis (M) 'horse' → řɛawda (F) 'mare'

Tarifiyt countable nouns distinguish a singular from a plural. Masculine plurals generally take the prefix /i-/, feminines /ti-/, and take the suffix /-en/ in the masculine and /-in/ in the feminine, e.g.
:axxam (SG) 'room' → ixxamen (PL) 'rooms'
:tafunast (SG) 'cow' → tifunasin (PL) 'cows'
A few nouns have suppletive plurals:
:uma (SG) 'my brother' → ayetma (PL) 'my brothers'
:učma (SG) 'my sister' → issma (PL) 'my sisters'

Nouns with Berber affixes distinguish two forms, which are related to the syntactic context and function of the noun, "Free State" and "Annexed State". The Annexed State is used for subjects placed after the verb, after all prepositions except ař and břa, as a posttopic put in extraposition to the central clause and after a few prenominal elements. The Annexed State is formed as follows: in masculines, initial /a/ becomes /we/ and initial /i/ becomes /ye/. In feminines, initial /ta/ usually becomes /te/ and initial /ti/ also usually becomes /te/, e.g.
:asnus → wesnus 'donkey foal (M)'
:tasnust → tesnust 'donkey foal (F)'
:isnas → yesnas 'donkey foals (M)'
:tisnas → tesnas 'donkey foal (F)'

In the Annexed State of the masculine, the high vowels u and i are used instead of the semivowels w and y when the noun stem starts with a consonant followed by a vowel (including schwa). The feminine AS prefix does not have schwa under this condition. This has to do with the constraint on schwa in open syllables, e.g.
:afunas → ufunas 'bull'
:tafunast → tfunast 'cow'
:ifunasen → ifunasen 'bulls'
:tifunasin → tfunasin 'cows'

Lexicon

Basic vocabulary

Loanwords

Tarifit has loaned a fair amount of its vocabulary from Arabic, Spanish and French. Around 51.7% of the vocabulary of Tarifit is estimated to have been borrowed (56.1% of nouns and 44.1% of verbs). All loaned verbs follow Riffian conjugations, and some loaned nouns are Berberized as well. A lot of loans are not recognizable because of sound shifts that have undergone, e.g. ǧiřet 'night' (Arabic: al-layla), hřec 'sick' (Arabic: halaka).

Examples of words loaned from Classical/Moroccan Arabic

* ''ddenya'': 'world' (orig. ''al-dunyā'' )
* ''tayezzaat'': 'island' (orig. ''jazīra'' )
* ''řebḥaa'': 'ocean' (orig. ''al-baḥr'' )
* ''lwalidin'': 'parents' (orig. ''al-wālidayn'' )
* ''ḥseb'': 'to count' (orig. ''ḥasaba'' )

Examples of words loaned from Spanish

* : 'family' (orig. )
* : 'duck' (orig. ''pavo'')
* : 'hospital' (orig. )
* : 'to try' (orig. )
* : 'to land' (orig. )

Examples of words loaned from French

* ''maamiṭa'': 'pot' (orig. ''marmite'')
* ''furciṭa'': 'fork' (orig. ''fourchette'')
* ''ṣuṣis'': 'sausage' (orig. ''saucisse'')
* ''fumaḍa'': 'cream' (orig. ''pommade'')
* ''jjarḍa'': 'garden' (orig. ''jardin'')

Examples of words loaned from Latin

* ''faacu'': 'eagle' (orig. ''falco'')
* ''aqninni'': 'rabbit' (orig. ''cuniculus'')
* ''fiřu'': 'thread' (orig. ''filum'')
* ''aɣaṛṛabu'': 'boat' (orig. ''carabus'')
* ''asnus'': 'donkey foal' (orig. ''asinus'')

Sample text

From 'An introduction to Tarifiyt Berber (Nador, Morocco)' by Khalid Mourigh and Maarten Kossmann: ''Sirkuḷasyun (trafic)''

AS: annexed state
FS: free state
AD: the particle 'a(d)' "non-realized"

References

Sources

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External links

Tarifiyt Berber Vocabulary List
(from the World Loanword Database)


(fr)

{{Authority control

Berber languages
Languages of Morocco
Riff languages
Languages of Spain