| Zuwara | |
|---|---|
| Awal m at-Willul | |
| Native to | Libya |
| Region | Zuwara |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | None (mis) |
| Glottolog | tuni1262 |
 Berber-speaking areas belonging to Kossmann's "Tunisian-Zuwara" dialectal group | |
Zuwara Berber orTwillult language (also:Zuara,Zwara, (Berber name: Awal m at-Willul,ⵝⵡⵉⵍⵍⵓⵍⵝ) is aBerber dialect, one of the BerberZenati languages. It is spoken inZuwara city, located on the coast of westernTripolitania in northwesternLibya.
Several works ofTerence Mitchell, most notablyZuaran Berber (Libya): Grammar and texts,[1] provide an overview of the language's grammar along with a set of texts, based mainly on the speech of his consultant Ramadan Azzabi. Some articles on this subject were also published byLuigi Serra.[2]
The speakers refer to their specific variety of the language asAwal m at-Willul ‘the language of Willul’, and the word "Mazigh" /ˈma.ziʁ/ may refer both to the wider Amazigh language or to anyAmazigh person.[3] Although rare for a Berber idiom, the masculine form is used to refer to the language.
Ethnologue considers this language a dialect ofNafusi, although the two belong to different branches of Berber according toKossmann (1999).[4]
By some estimates, 297,000 people speak Zuwara Berber or a similar dialect. Approximately 247,000 of these speakers reside inLibya.[5]
This language uses theNaskh variant of the Arabic script.[5]
Zuwara Berber has many consonants compared to vowels. However, words can end in both consonants and vowels. For instance, the Latinized words "ˈa.man" and "ˈa.nu" mean "water" and "water well" in English, respectively.[3]
Zuwara Berber has a total of 31 consonants.[3]
| Labial | Alveolar | Post-alv./ Palatal | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | ||||||
| Plosive | voiceless | t | tˁ | k | q | ||||||
| voiced | b | d | dˁ | g | |||||||
| Nasal | m | mˁ | n | nˁ | |||||||
| Fricative | voiceless | f | s | sˁ | ʃ | χ | ħ | ||||
| voiced | z | zˁ | ʒ | ʁ | ʁˁ | ʕ | ɦ | ||||
| Approximant | w | j | |||||||||
| Trill | r | rˁ | |||||||||
| Lateral | l | lˁ | |||||||||
Zuwara Berber has a total of four vowels: /i/, /u/, /ə/, and /a/.[3]
| Front | Central | Back | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | u | |
| Mid | ə | ||
| Open | a |
In roughly 85% of words, the stress goes on thepenultimate syllable, especially for native Zuwara Berber words. For instance, the Latinized word "a.ˈzi.zaw" means "green" in English and has three syllables. Thus, the stress is on the second syllable, "ˈzi".[3]
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