| Ait Seghrouchen Berber | |
| Nativename: | Tmaziġt, Tamaziġt |
| States: | Morocco |
| Region: | Central Morocco – Middle Atlas |
| Speakers: | ? |
| Script: | Tifinagh, Latin |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Berber |
| Fam3: | Northern Berber |
| Fam4: | Zenati |
| Fam5: | Eastern Middle Atlas |
| Iso3: | none |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Linglist: | tzm-cen |
| Lingname: | (Seghrušen of Mzab-Wargla) |
| Glotto: | none |
| Notice: | IPA |
Ait Seghrouchen Berber, or Seghroucheni (Seghrusheni), is a Zenati Berber language of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster. It is spoken by the Ait Seghrouchen tribe inhabiting east-central Morocco.
Ait Seghrouchen Berber is commonly classed as Central Atlas Tamazight. It is reported to be mutually intelligible with the neighbouring Berber dialect of Ait Ayache. Genetically, however, it belongs to the Zenati subgroup of Northern Berber, rather than to the Atlas subgroup to which the rest of Central Atlas Tamazight belongs,[1] and are therefore excluded by some sources from Central Atlas Tamazight.[2]
Ait Seghrouchen is part of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster of Zenati dialects, which is spoken in the eastern Middle Atlas.
Ayt Seghrouchen is notable for having the lateral fricative pronounced as /[ɬ]/ as an allophone of the sequence pronounced as //lt//. /k, g/ are pronounced as stops, unlike the closely related Ayt Ayache dialect in which they are fricatives.
In the table below, when consonants appear in pairs, the one on the left is voiceless.
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyn- geal | Glottal | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||
| pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||
| (pronounced as /link/) | |||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Rhotic | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||
Ait Seghrouchen Berber has a typical phonemic three-vowel system, similarly to Classical Arabic:
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |
|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as /link/ | |||
These phonemes have numerous allophones, conditioned by the following environments:
(# denotes word boundary, X denotes C[−flat −{{IPA|/χ/}} −{{IPA|/ʁ/}}], C̣ denotes C[+flat], G denotes C, pronounced as //χ//, and pronounced as //ʁ//)
| Phoneme | Realization | Environment | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| pronounced as //i// | pronounced as /[i]/ |
| pronounced as //ili// | 'to exist' |
| pronounced as /[ɨ]/ |
| pronounced as //idːa// | 'he went' | |
| pronounced as /[ɪ] [e]/ | _G / G_ | pronounced as //dˤːiqs// | 'to burst out' | |
| pronounced as /[ɪj]/ | X_# | pronounced as //isːfrˤħi// | 'he made me happy' | |
| pronounced as //u// | pronounced as /[u]/ |
| pronounced as //umsʁ// | 'I painted' |
| pronounced as /[ʊ] [o]/ | _G / G_ | pronounced as //idˤurˤ// | 'he turned' | |
| pronounced as /[ʊw]/ | X(ː)_# | pronounced as //bdu// | 'to begin' | |
| pronounced as /[ʉ]/ | pronounced as /kː/_ / pronounced as /ɡː/_ | pronounced as //lːajɡːur// | 'he goes' | |
| pronounced as //a// | pronounced as /[æ]/ |
| pronounced as //azn// | 'to send' |
| pronounced as /[ɐ]/ | X(ː)_# | pronounced as //da// | 'here' | |
| pronounced as /[ɑ]/ | _C̣ / C̣_ | pronounced as //ħadˤr// | 'to be present' |
Phonetic Schwa
There is a predictable non-phonemic vowel inserted into consonant clusters, realized as pronounced as /link/ before front consonants (e.g. pronounced as //b t d ...//) and pronounced as /link/ before back consonants (e.g. pronounced as //k χ .../)/. These are some of the rules governing the occurrence of pronounced as /[ə]/:
(# denotes word boundary, L denotes pronounced as //l r m n//, H denotes pronounced as //h ħ ʕ w j//)
| Environment | Realization | Example | Pronunciation | Gloss | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| əC(ː) | pronounced as //ɡ// | pronounced as /[əɡ]/ | 'to be, to do' | |
| əLC or LəC | pronounced as //ns// | pronounced as /[əns] ~ [nəs]/ | 'to spend the night' | |
| CəC | pronounced as //tˤsˤ// | pronounced as /[tˤəsˤ]/ | 'to laugh' | |
| əCːəC | pronounced as //fːr// | pronounced as /[əfːər]/ | 'to hide' | |
| CCəC / C1C2 are not | pronounced as //χdm// | pronounced as /[χdəm]/ | 'to work' | |
| pronounced as //zʕf// | pronounced as /[zʕəf]/ | 'to get mad' | |||
| əCCəC or #CəCəC# / is | pronounced as //hdm// | pronounced as /[əhdəm] ~ [hədəm]/ | 'to demolish' | |
| CəCəC / C2C3 = | pronounced as //dˤmn// | pronounced as /[dˤəmən]/ | 'to guarantee' |
Word stress is non-contrastive and predictable — it falls on the last vowel in a word (including schwa).