Tarifit language
Rifi redirects here, for the place that is called Rifi in Greece, see Rifi, GreeceTarifit is a
Northern Berber language of the
Zenati subgroup, spoken mainly in the
Moroccan Rif by about 2 million people.
Tarifit is a
Berber language, belonging to the
Zenati subgroup of
Northern Berber, and possibly the
Rif subgroup of Zenati.
Tarifit is spoken mainly in the
Moroccan Rif by about 2 million people, with a few speakers across the border in
Algeria. There is also a substantial Tarifit-speaking community in the
Netherlands. Its own speakers simply call it
thamazighth, or
Tamazight, a term also often applied in a broader sense to
Berber languages in general.
Tarifits most noticeable differences from other
Berber languages are that:
* /l/ becomes /r/ as in
ul (heart) ->
ur* /r/ after a vowel but not followed by a vowel is dropped, as in
taddart (house/home) ->
taddat. In e.g.
tamara the /r/ is conserved because it is followed by a vowel.
* /ll/ (geminated (double) /l/) becomes /dj/ as in
ylli (daughter) ->
ydji.
* /lt/ becomes /tch/ as in
ultma (sister) ->
utchma.
* Most /k/ becomes /ch/ while in some local sub-accents just a softened /k/.
* Also, the initial masculin
a- prefix gets dropped in certain words, like
afus (hand) becomes
fus, and
afighar (snake) becomes
fighar. This change, characteristic of
Zenati Berber varieties, further distances Tarifit from neighbouring dialects such as Atlas-Tamazight and
Tashelhiyt.
Like other Berber languages, it has been written with several different systems over the years. Most recently (since 2003),
Tifinagh has become official throughout Morocco, while the
Arabic alphabet and
Latin alphabet continue to be used unofficially online and in various publications. However, unlike the nearby
Tachelhit (Tasusit), Tarifit has little written literature before the twentieth century.
*
List of Mzab-Wargla languages*
List of Zenati languages*
List of Northern Berber languages*
Ghomara language*
Rif languages*
Senhaja De Srair language*
East Zenati languages*McClelland, Clive.
The Interrelations of Syntax, Narrative Structure, and Prosody in a Berber Language (Studies in Linguistics and Semiotics, V. 8). Lewiston, NY: Edwin Mellen Press, 2000. (ISBN 0773477403)
*
Ethnologue report on Tarifit
