| Tarifit | |
|---|---|
| Riffian, Tarifiyt | |
| Tmaziɣt ⵜⴰⵔⵉⴼⵉⵜ الريفية | |
| Pronunciation | [θmæzɪχt] |
| Native to | NorthernMorocco,Melilla |
| Region | Rif Mountains |
| Ethnicity | Riffians |
Native speakers | 1.2 million (2024)[1] |
| Latin,[2]Tifinagh,[2]Arabic[2] | |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | rif |
| Glottolog | tari1263 |
 | |
Tarifit (Tarifit:Tmaziɣt, ⵜⴰⵔⵉⴼⵉⵜ,pronounced[θmæzɪχt];Arabic:الريفية,romanized: ar-rīfīyah), also known asRiffian, is aZenati Berber language spoken in theRif region in northernMorocco. It is spoken natively by some 1,200,000[3][4]Riffians, comprising 3.2% of the population of Morocco,[1] primarily in theRif provinces ofNador,Al Hoceima andDriouch.
The traditional autonym of the language is Tmaziɣt (Tamazight), a term that is widely used, albeit in different forms, among Berber speaking groups all over northern Africa. Tarifiyt (pronounced Tarifect in central dialects), as a linguistic term, is a new coinage, developed when it became more and more relevant to distinguish it from other Berber varieties.[2][5]
Riffian is aZenati Berber language[6] which consists of various sub-dialects specific to each clan and of which a majority are spoken in theRif region, a large mountainous area of NorthernMorocco, and a minority spoken in the western part of neighbouringAlgeria.[7][8]
Riffian is spoken mainly in the MoroccanRif on the Mediterranean coast and in the Rif mountains, with a large minority in the Spanishautonomous city ofMelilla.[9] 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 ofAlgeria is also home to Rif minorities. A Riffian-speaking community exists in theNetherlands andBelgium as well as to a lesser extent other European countries.[10][11]
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 otherBerber languages. Majority of them are spoken in Northern Morocco, this includes the varieties ofAl Hoceima,Temsamane,Nador, Ikbadene (including Iznasen) and the more southernly variety in theTaza province. Besides Riffian, two other related and smaller Berber languages are spoken in North Morocco: theSanhaja de Srair and theGhomara languages. They are only distantly related to Riffian and are not mutually intelligible with it.[5]
A few Riffian dialects are or used to be in the western part ofAlgeria, notably by the Beni Snouss tribe of the Tlemcen, as well inBethioua but also in various colonial districts Riffians started to emigrate to since the 19th century.[12][13]
There is no consensus on what varieties are considered Riffian and not, the difference of opinion mainly lie in the easternmost dialects of theIznasen and the westernmost dialects ofSenhaja de Sraïr and Ketama.[5] Dialects include West-Riffian (Al Hoceima), Central-Riffian (Nador) and East-Riffian (Berkane).Iznasen (Beni Znassen) is counted as a dialect in Kossman (1999), but Blench (2006) classifies it as one of the closely relatedMzab–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.[14]
| Western | West-Central | Central | East-Central | Eastern | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cat | amcic | amcic | mucc | miccew | mucc |
| Chick | asiwsiw, afullus | afiǧus, fiǧus | fiǧus | iceḵʷcew, icewcew | iceḵʷcew, icewcew |
| Ram | abeɛɛac | abeɛɛac, iḵerri, iḵaari | icaari, acaari, acraa | iḵaari, aḵraa | iḵerri |
| Land | tamazirt | tamurt, tamuat | tammuat | tammuat, tamuat | tammurt |
| Woman | tameṭut, tamɣert | tamɣert, tamɣaat | tamɣaat, tameṭṭut, tameṭut | tamɣaat, tameṭut | tamɣert, tameṭṭut, tameṭut |
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| High | i | u | |
| Mid | (ə) | ||
| Low | a |
| Vocalization[5] | Example | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Phonemically | Phonetically | IPA | Originally | Translation |
| /iɾ/ | [ɛa] | [sːɛað] | ssird | to wash |
| /uɾ/ | [ɔa] | [ʊjɔa] | uyur | to walk |
| /aɾ/ | [a~æ] | [zəmːa~æ] | zemmar | to be able to |
| /iɾˤ/ | [ɪˤɑ] | [ɪˤɑðˤ] | iṛḍ | to dress |
| /uɾˤ/ | [ʊˤa] | [ʃːʊˤa] | ccuṛ | to fill |
| /aɾˤ/ | [ɑˤ] | [θɑˤmɣɑˤθ] | tamɣaṛt | woman |
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[jəzðəʁ] 'he lives' vs. izeddeɣ[ɪzədːəʁ] 'he always lives'. There are only a few phonotactic exceptions to this, e.g. in verb suffixes before vowel-initial clitics, ṯessfehmeḏḏ-as[θəsːfəɦməðːæs]. 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[æʃəwːæf] 'hair', and rarely occurs with ɣɣ and ḍḍ e.g. iɣɣed[ɪʁːəð] 'ashes', weḍḍaạ[wədˤːɑˤ] 'to be lost'. /dʒ/ and /dʒː/ are allophonic realizations of the same phoneme, both are common.[2]
| Labial | Dental | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | lab. | ||||||
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | ||||||||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | p | pˤ | t | tˤ | tʃ | k | kːʷ | q | ʔ | |||||
| voiced | b | d | dˤ | dʒ | g | gːʷ | |||||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | θ | s | sˤ | ʃ | ʃˤ | ç | x ~χ | ħ | |||||
| voiced | β | ð | ðˤ | z | zˤ | ʒ | (ʝ) | ɣ ~ʁ | ʕ | ɦ | |||||
| Approximant | l | lˤ | j | w | |||||||||||
| Flap | ɾ | ɾˤ | |||||||||||||
| Trill | r | rˤ | |||||||||||||
Notes:
There are quite a few assimilations that occur with the feminine suffixes t and ṯ.[2]
There are also other assimilations.
Spirantized consonants become stops after the consonant 'n', this occurs between words as well.
The initial masculinea- prefix is dropped in certain words, e.g., afus 'hand' becomesfus, and afiɣaṛ 'snake' becomesfiɣạṛ. This change, characteristic ofZenati Berber varieties, distances Riffian from neighbouring dialects such asAtlas-Tamazight andShilha.[5]
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. The difference becomes clearer when they are preceded by a vowel, because only original r has a heightening effect on the vowel preceding it e.g. aři [æɾɪ] vs ari [aɾɪ]. 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.[5]
| Riffian letter | Riffian word | Original word | English meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ř ř | uř | ul | heart |
| aɣyuř | aɣyul | donkey | |
| awař | awal | speech / word | |
| Ǧ ǧ | azeǧif | azellif | head |
| yeǧa | yella | he is / he exists | |
| ajeǧid | ajellid | king | |
| Č č | wečma | weltma | my sister |
| tacemřač | tacemlalt | blonde / white | |
| taɣyuč | taɣyult | female donkey (jenny) |
Postvocalic/r/ preceding a consonantal coda is vocalized, as in taddart > taddaat 'house/home'. Thus in tamara 'hard work/misery' the/r/ 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.[5]
Like other Berber languages, Riffian has been written with several different systems over the years. Unlike the nearbyTashelhit (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. TheArabic script is not used anymore for writing Riffian Berber. TheBerber Latin alphabet continues to be the most used writing system online and in most publications in Morocco and abroad.[2]
Tarifiyt has two genders, masculine and feminine. In countable nouns with Berber affixes, gender is derivative: in principle, every masculine noun has a feminine counterpart. Gender derivation is relatively straightforward. The feminine is derived from the masculine form by adding an element /t-/ to the prefix, and a suffix /-t/, as in mostBerber languages. With humans and higher animals, masculine and feminine mark natural gender,[2] e.g.
For a few basic items there exist suppletive pairs, e.g.
Tarifiyt countable nouns distinguish a singular from a plural. Masculine plurals generally take the prefix /i-/, feminines /ti-/, and take the suffix /-en/ in the masculine and /-in/ in the feminine,[2] e.g.
A few nouns have suppletive plurals:
Nouns with Berber affixes distinguish two forms, which are related to the syntactic context and function of the noun, "Free State" and "Annexed State". The Annexed State is used for subjects placed after the verb, after all prepositions except ař and břa, as a posttopic put in extraposition to the central clause and after a few prenominal elements. The Annexed State is formed as follows: in masculines, initial /a/ becomes /we/ and initial /i/ becomes /ye/. In feminines, initial /ta/ usually becomes /te/ and initial /ti/ also usually becomes /te/,[2] e.g.
In the Annexed State of the masculine, the high vowels u and i are used instead of the semivowels w and y when the noun stem starts with a consonant followed by a vowel (including schwa). The feminine AS prefix does not have schwa under this condition. This has to do with the constraint on schwa in open syllables,[2] e.g.
| 1 | water | aman (plurale tantum) |
| 2 | nose | tinzaa (plurale tantum) |
| 3 | to run | azzeř |
| 4 | fire | timessi |
| 5 | mouth | aqemmum,imi |
| 6 | tongue | iřes |
| 7 | meat | aysum ~aksum |
| 8 | bone | iɣess |
| 9 | clothes | aṛṛud |
| 10 | word | awař |
| 11 | neck | iri |
| 12 | people | iwdan |
| 13 | why? | mayemmi,maɣaa |
| 14 | to eat | cc |
| 15 | to cut | qess ~qqes |
| 15 | to be scared | uggʷed |
| 16 | cold | aṣemmaḍ |
| 17 | room | axxam |
| 18 | to write | ari |
| 19 | dog | aqzin,aydi |
| 20 | when? | meřmi |
| 21 | to speak | siweř |
| 22 | cow | afunas |
Tarifit has loaned a fair amount of its vocabulary from Arabic, Spanish and French.[16] Around 51.7% of the vocabulary of Tarifit is estimated to have been borrowed (56.1% of nouns and 44.1% of verbs).[17] 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[dʒːɪrəθ] 'night' (Arabic: al-layla), hřec[ɦrəʃ] 'sick' (Arabic: halaka).
From 'An introduction to Tarifiyt Berber (Nador, Morocco)' by Khalid Mourigh and Maarten Kossmann:Sirkuḷasyun (trafic)[2]
A:
A:
Teẓṛid
you(SG).saw
lakṣiḍa-nni
accident-that
yewqɛen?
happening
A: Teẓṛid lakṣiḍa-nni yewqɛen?
A: you(SG).saw accident-that happening
A: Did you see the (car) crash that happened?
B:
B:
Lla,
no
sřiɣ
i.heard
xas
on.it
waha.
only
B: Lla, sřiɣ xas waha.
B: no i.heard on.it only
B: No, I only heard about it.
A:
A:
Tewqeɛ
it(F).happened
deggʷ
in
brid
road(AS)
n
of
Wezɣenɣan.
zeghanghane(AS)
A: Tewqeɛ deggʷ brid n Wezɣenɣan.
A: it(F).happened in road(AS) of zeghanghane(AS)
A: It happened on the Zeghanghane road.
B:
B:
Wah,
yes
lakṣiḍa
accident
d
B: Wah, lakṣiḍa d tameqqṛant.
B: yes accident PRED big(F:SG:FS)
B: Yeah, it was a big (car) crash.
A:
A:
Abrid
road(FS)
ibelleɛ
it.is.closed
maṛṛa.
all
A: Abrid ibelleɛ maṛṛa.
A: road(FS) it.is.closed all
A: The whole road is closed.
B:
B:
Immut
he.died
din
there
ca
some
n
of
B: Immut din ca n yijjen?
B: he.died there some of one(M:AS)
B: Did anybody die there?
A:
A:
Wah,
yes
yemmut
he.died
ijjen
one
waayaz
man(AS)
d
and
mmi-s,
son-his
msakin.
poor.guys
A: Wah, yemmut ijjen waayaz d mmi-s, msakin.
A: yes he.died one man(AS) and son-his poor.guys
A: Yes, one man and his son died, the poor guys.
A:
A:
Yesḥạạq
he.burned
ssṭupp
traffic.light
uca
then
tudef
it(F).entered
daysen
in.them(M)
ijjen
one
ṭṭumubin.
car
A: Yesḥạạq ssṭupp uca tudef daysen ijjen ṭṭumubin.
A: he.burned traffic.light then it(F).entered in.them(M) one car
A: He crossed the red light and then a car hit them.
B:
B:
Tuɣa
itazzeř
he.runs
ɛini.
probably
Iwa,
well
a
ten-yạạḥem
them(M:DO)-he.has.mercy
sid-ạạbbi.
sir-lord
B: Tuɣa itazzeř ɛini. Iwa, a ten-yạạḥem sid-ạạbbi.
B: PAST he.runs probably well AD them(M:DO)-he.has.mercy sir-lord
B: He was probably speeding. Well, may them rest in peace.
A:
A:
Ttḥawař
be.careful!
waha,
only
din
there
aṭṭas
much(FS)
n
of
ṭṭumubinat.
cars
A: Ttḥawař waha, din aṭṭas n ṭṭumubinat.
A: be.careful! only there much(FS) of cars
A: Just be careful. There are many cars.
B:
B:
A
o
wah,
yes
yewseɣ
it(M).is.many
uqedduḥ.
tin.can(AS)
B: A wah, yewseɣ uqedduḥ.
B: o yes it(M).is.many tin.can(AS)
B: Yes, there are many tin cans (i.e. cars).
AS: annexed stateFS: free stateAD: the particle 'a(d)' "non-realized"
{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)It is estimated that roughly 60 to 80 % of the Moroccans in the Netherlands trace their roots back to the mountainous Rif area (Benali and Obdeijn 2005: 211) and speak a Berber language (Douwes et al. 2005: 29). [...] This has produced a rather heterogeneous Dutch-Moroccan population, which consists of Moroccan Berbers and non-Berbers, some speaking a Berber language and Moroccan-Arabic (and Dutch), others speaking only a Berber language (and Dutch), and later generations only speaking Dutch (Chafik 2004: 129). [...] The Berbers from the Rif speak Tarifit.
According to the most recent census data, Tarifiyt is spoken by 4.0 % of the Moroccan population, which amounts to about 1.35 million people. One may add to this number sizeable communities outside Morocco, especially in the Netherlands, Belgium, Germany and Spain.
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