Gurara language explained

Gurara
Nativename:Arabic: تازناتيت (Taznatit) /
States:Algeria
Region:Gourara (wilaya of Adrar)
Speakers:26,000, including Tuwat
Date:2014–2022
Ref:e26
Familycolor:Afro-Asiatic
Fam2:Berber
Fam3:Northern
Fam4:Zenati
Fam5:Mzab-Wargla
Iso3:grr
Iso3comment:(included)
Glotto:gour1247
Glottorefname:Gourara
Map:Gourara ksour - Linguistic map.PNG
Mapcaption:Map of the ksour of Gourara by spoken language

Gurara (Gourara) is a Zenati Berber language spoken in the Gourara (Tigurarin) region, an archipelago of oases surrounding the town of Timimoun in southwestern Algeria. Ethnologue gives it the generic name Taznatit ("Zenati"), along with Tuwat spoken to its south; however, Blench (2006) classifies Gurara as a dialect of Mzab–Wargla and Tuwat as a dialect of the Riff languages.

Characteristics

Gurara and Tuwat are the only Berber languages to change r in certain coda positions to a laryngeal ħ;[1] in other contexts it drops r, turning a preceding schwa into a,[2] and this latter phenomenon exists also in Zenata Rif-Berber in the far northern Morocco.

There is inconclusive evidence for Songhay influence on Gurara.[3]

Ahellil

The local tradition of ahellil poetry and music in Gurara, described in Mouloud Mammeri's L'Ahellil du Gourara,[4] has been listed as part of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO.

Notes and References

  1. Basset . René . René Basset . Notes de lexicographie berbère . Journal Asiatique . 8 . X . 1887 . 390.
  2. Maarten . Kossmann . Cinq notes de linguistique historique berbère . Études et Documents Berbères . 17 . 1999 . 131–152. 10.3917/edb.017.0131 . 193269275 .
  3. Book: Kossmann, Maarten . Is there a Songhay substratum in Gourara Berber? . Maarten . Kossmann . Rainer . Vossen . Dymitr . Ibriszimow . Nouvelles études berbères: Le verbe et autres articles . Rüdiger Köppe . Köln . 2004 . 51–66.
  4. Book: Mammeri, Mouloud . L'Ahellil du Gourara . M.S.H. . Paris . 1984.