Ghomara language

Ghomara
Native to Morocco
Ethnicity Ghomara
Native speakers
 10,000 (2009)[1]
Language codes
ISO 639-3 gho
Glottolog ghom1257

  Ghomara Berber

Ghomara, or Ghomara Berber, is a Afroasiatic language spoken by the Ghomara people of Morocco near Tetouan and Chanoeun, and on the Rif. There are approximately 10,000 speakers of all the Ghomara people, and it is typically spoken by elderly, specifically elderly women, but children are also learning this language at home.[4]

General Information

History

During the third century, the Romans gave the tribes the name Berber, which comes from the Latin word "Barbarian." The Ghomara people are one of the Berber groups, which are a North African group of people who were conquered by the Muslim invaders during the seventh century. Ghomara is one of the smallest Berber tribe of Morocco. Today most of the Ghomara people speak Arabic and only around 10,000 are bilingual, speaking both Arabic and Ghomara Berber.[5]

Current Status

Despite practices of elderly teaching children how to speak Ghomara Berber at home, the language is still considered threatened, with only 10,000 known speakers. A major reason for this situation can be attributed to the small geographical location that uses this language as well as the more common use of Arabic throughout Morocco.

Influences on the Language

In the nineteenth century, many Berber Languages adopted the Latin Alphabet and the Berber Latin Alphabet was created. This allowed several Berber languages to be written and printed. People who speak Northern Berber languages understand various dialects through mutual intelligibility.[6]

Language Subgroups

There are several Northern Berber dialects within the Atlas tribe and the Zenati tribe.

Atlas: Central Atlas Tamazight, Tashelhit, Judeo-Berber, Sanhaja de Srair language, Ghomara, Gharbi

Zenati: Tarifit, Tabeldit, Eastern Middle Atlas Berber, Eastern Morocco Zenati

Dialect Comparison

Several Berber dialects show similar vocabulary and thus mutual intelligibility occurs. For example, here is the English word 'egg' in different dialects.[7]

Ghomara: tawfalt

Senhaja: ṯaḡfilṯ

Tarifit: ṯagfiřṯ

Phonology

Vowels

Like Arabic, Ghomara and the other Berber dialects have three vowels: a-, i-, u-.[8]

Grammar

Nouns

For nouns in Ghomara Berber, there are several common trends. The prefix a-, i-, or u commonly identifies the masculine singular nouns in Ghomara Berber (i.e., arg'az “man”). For feminine singular nouns, there is both a prefix and a suffix such as ta-…-t (i.e., tarbat “girl”) and is the most common way to identify feminine singular nouns. Masculine plural nouns have are characterized by i-…-en or i-…-an (i.e., irg'azen “men”). For feminine plural nouns, ti-…-an (i.e., tirbatan “girls”) is the most common circumfix.[8]

Pronouns

Much like English, Ghomara Berber uses personal, singular, and plural pronouns.

The first person singular pronoun nekkin is equivalent to "I" in English. The second person singular male pronoun kedžin and female pronoun kemmin is equivalent to "you" in English. Similarly, in Ghomara Berber, the third person singular male pronoun netta and female pronoun nettaθa is equivalent to him or her in English respectively.

The first person plural pronoun nuçna is equivalent to "we" or "us" in English and the second person plural pronoun kunna is equivalent to "you all" in English. Lastly, niçma is the third person plural pronoun equivalent to "they" in English, and is not distinguished by gender.

Verbs

In Ghomara verbs contain certain affixes that characterize singularity, plurality, and point of view (POV). The following is an example of the verb conjugations for the English word "to write" or ara in Ghomara Berber:

Singular:

First POV: ara-x

Second POV: t-ara-t

Third Masculine POV: y-ara

Third Feminine POV: t-ara

Plural:

First POV: n-ara

Second POV: t-ara-m

Third POV: ara-n

Adjectives

Adjectives have either suffix -ø, which characterizes masculine singular nouns or -θ, which characterizes both feminine singular and all plural nouns. For example:

Masculine singular: tayfur mellulø “the, a white table”

Feminine singular: tamγart mezziθ “the, a little woman”

Masculine plural: irgazen muqqreθ “(the) big men”

Feminine plural: timettutan muqqreθ “(the) big women”

Vocabulary

An example of common English words in Ghomara Berber:[8]

targat “dream”

ahlan “welcome, hello”

hemmam “bathroom”

tamuda “pig"

lmakla “food”

tanebdut “summer”

rriyada “sports”

kama “bed”

lmerra/merra “time”

rriyad “garden”

ssultan “king”

ššhar “month”

xarebbi “many”

leεziza “grandmother”

Numbers

Ghomara Berber uses a numerical system similar many other languages. Below is a list of the Cardinal numbers

1. yan (masculine), yat (feminine)

2. zuž

3. tlata

4. rebεa

5. xemsa

6. setta

7. sebεa

8. tmenya

9. tesεud

10. εašara

11. hdaš

12. tenεaš

13. teltaš

14. rbaεtaš

15. xemstaš

16. settaš

17. sbeεtaš

18. tmentaš

19. tseεtaš

20. εišrin

21. wahduεišrin

30. tlatin

40. rebεin

50. xemsin

60. settin

70. sebεin

80. tmanin

90. tesεin

100. miya

1000. alf

See also

Berbers

Berber Languages

Berber Latin Alphabet

References

  1. ↑ J. el Hannouche, 2010
  2. ↑ Maarten Kossmann, Berber subclassification (preliminary version), Leiden (2011)
  3. ↑ Sebastian Nordhoff et al., "Ghomara", in: Glottolog 2.2, Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology (2013)
  4. ↑ The Endangered Languages Project
  5. ↑ The Joshua Project
  6. ↑ Berber Sub-Classification
  7. ↑ The Ancient Berber word for 'egg'
  8. 1 2 3 J. el Hannouche, 2008. Ghomara Berber: A Brief Grammatical Survey

Further reading

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