Tarifit Berber, also known as Riffian or locally as Tamazight 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 Nador, Al Hoceima and Driouch.

Name

In the Rif, the native name of this language is 'Tmaziɣt' (pronounced Tmazixt in most dialects). Speakers may specify by calling it 'Tarifiyt' (pronounced Tarifect in central dialects).

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

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 (Berkan). Iznasen (Iznacen, Beni Snassen) 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: 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

Vocalized r

Consonants

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. 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 phonatactic expeceptions 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:

Assimilations

There are quite a few assimilations that occur with the feminine suffixes t and ṯ. There are also other assimilations. Spirantized consonants become stops after the consonant 'n', this occurs between words as well.

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.

Letter ř

In the history of Western and Central Riffian /l/ has become /r/ in a lot of words, this sound shift has affected other consonants as well. These sound shifts do not occur in the easternmost Riffian dialects of Icebdanen and Iznasen and the westernmost dialects.

Postvocalic r

Postvocalic preceding a consonantal coda is dropped, 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.

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

Examples of words loaned from Spanish

Examples of words loaned from French

Examples of words loaned from Latin

Sample text

From 'An introduction to Tarifiyt Berber (Nador, Morocco)' by Khalid Mourigh and Maarten Kossmann: Sirkuḷasyun (trafic) A: Ssalamuɛlikum. A: Hello. B: Waɛlikumssalam. B: Hello. A: Teẓṛid lakṣiḍa-nni yewqɛen? A: Did you see the (car) crash that happened? B: Lla, sřiɣ xas waha. B: No, I only heard about it. A: Tewqeɛ deggʷ brid n Wezɣenɣan. A: It happened on the Zeghanghane road. B: Wah, lakṣiḍa d tameqqṛant. B: Yeah, it was a big (car) crash. A: Abrid ibelleɛ maṛṛa. A: The whole road is closed. B: Immut din ca n yijjen? B: Did anybody die there? A: Wah, yemmut ijjen waayaz d mmi-s, msakin. A: Yes, one man and his son died, the poor guys. B: Mamec temsaa? B: How did it happen? A: Yesḥạạq ssṭupp uca tudef daysen ijjen ṭṭumubin. A: He crossed the red light and then a car hit them. B: Tuɣa itazzeř ɛini. Iwa, a ten-yạạḥem sid-ạạbbi. B: He was probably speeding. Well, may them rest in peace. A: Ttḥawař waha, din aṭṭas n ṭṭumubinat. A: Just be careful. There are many cars. B: A wah, yewseɣ uqedduḥ. B: Yes, there are many tin cans (i.e. cars).

<section begin="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/> AS: annexed state FS: free state AD: the particle 'a(d)' "non-realized" <section end="list-of-glossing-abbreviations"/>

Sources