Eastern Middle Atlas Berber Explained

Eastern Middle Atlas Berber
Nativename:Tmazight, Tamazight
States:Morocco
Region:Central Morocco: Middle Atlas
Speakers:
Date:2013, est.
Script:Tifinagh, Arabic, Latin
Familycolor:Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:Berber
Fam3:Northern Berber
Fam4:Zenati
Dia1:Ait Seghrouchen
Dia2:Ait Warayn etc.
Iso3:none
Glotto:east2803
Map:Eastern Middle Atlas Berber.PNG

Eastern Middle Atlas Berber is a cluster of Berber dialects spoken in the eastern and north-eastern parts of the Middle Atlas, in Morocco. These dialects are those of the tribes of Ait Seghrouchen, Ait Warayn, Marmoucha, Ait Alaham, Ait Youb and Ait Mourghi.[1] [2] [3]

Despite the fact that they are mutually intelligible with neighbouring Central Atlas Tamazight dialects and are generally classified among them, these dialects actually belong to the Zenati languages and are intermediate dialects between the Riffian and Atlas languages.[4] [5] [6]

Among these Zenati dialects, those of Ait Seghrouchen and Ait Warayn were subject to most studies, while only a few studies were focused on the dialects of Ait Alaham and Marmoucha, and practically none focused on the dialects of Ait Youb and Ait Mourghi.

Notes and References

  1. Bernard . Augustin . Moussard . Paul . Arabophones et berbérophones au Maroc . . 275 . A. Colin . 1924-05-15 . 33 . 183 . 10.3406/geo.1924.9671 . 23439805 .
  2. Book: Bourrilly, J. . Éléments d'éthnographie marocaine . 42 . Larose . 1932.
  3. Web site: G. S. . Colin . Carte linguistique du Maroc . 1934 . https://web.archive.org/web/20230712065037/https://i55.servimg.com/u/f55/14/67/35/08/bbscan54.jpg . 2023-07-12.
  4. Revue d'ethnographie et des traditions populaires . 2 . 68 . Société française d'ethnographie . January 1921 . Bulletin bibliographique .
  5. Book: Kossmann, Maarten . Maarten Kossmann . The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber . Studies in Semitic Languages and Linguistics . 67 . 20–22 . Brill . 2013 . 978-90-04-25308-7.
  6. Maarten . Kossmann . Berber subclassification (preliminary version) . Chapter Proposed for the Oxford Handbook of African Languages, ed. By Rainer Vossen . January 2011 . 2–3.