This article studies a number of questions in the reconstruction of the Berber deictic system. Based on a comparative analysis informed by historical phonology, it is shown (1) that the variation of the form of the singular proximal deictics can be understood from a basic form a, which could be expanded by a complementary element d, and, possibly, also by an element Ɂ; (2) that the proximal system of deictics originally had a number difference, even among adnominal deictics; (3) that the Ghadames (Libya) Anaphoric series sg -e, pl -id has clear parallels in other varieties, especially in Kabyle (Algeria), and that, as a consequence, it can be reconstructed for proto-Berber.

This article provides an overview of the various forms of the numeral 'one' in Berber. It proposes a reconstruction of the original form based on sound changes also attested in other words. Moreover, the many analogical reformations that took place in the different dialects are described and, where possible, explained.

The second-century BCE Libyco-Berber inscriptions from Dougga (present-day Tunisia) have seven different signs for sibilants. In this article the sibilant system of these inscriptions and of the language they represent is studied in detail. It is shown that the different signs are not just graphemic variants but represent different pronunciations. It is also shown that there is a possibility that the seven signs in fact represent three or four articulations with a length contrast, even though the evidence is very weak. As Proto-Berber has been reconstructed with only three sibilants (+ length opposition), the choice of how to analyze the seven Libyco-Berber sibilant signs has important implications as to how the relationship between Libyco-Berber and Proto-Berber is to be assessed.

Erin Shay (in collaboration with Lazare Wambadang): A Grammar of Pévé. (Grammars and Sketches of the World's Languages. Africa.) ix, 359 pp. Leiden and Boston: Brill, 2020. €110. ISBN 978 90 04 40915 6. - Volume 83 Issue 2

Over the last decades, our insights in the phonological history of Berber and the reconstruction of its earlier stages greatly evolved. This is thanks to an emergent discussion and to new data on a number of languages that are crucial to reconstructing Proto-Berber, most importantly the works by Catherine Taine-Cheikh on Zenaga. In this article, I will provide an overview of the results and challenges in the reconstruction of Proto-Berber phonology.

This chapter provides an overview of the study of multi-ethnolects and a discussion of the various labels under which these linguistic practices occur in studies of the phenomenon. It is proposed that two types of mechanism are at work in youth languages. The first type is a stylization of one (or more) L2 varieties of the dominant language, characterized by its specific phonetics, and some morphological and syntactic simplifications. The second type is characterized by lexical insertions of – mostly – referential words. These insertions are often adopted from one or more (heritage) languages in the community, but may also be new formations based on existing words.

Abstract Dutch Straattaal is often described as a multiethnolect that is not only used among members of several different heritage groups, but also marks new identities. In this article, the focus is on the position of Straattaal among Moroccan youth, based on data from internet exchanges. The general observation is confirmed that Surinamese elements in Straattaal are used by Moroccan youth, and mixed with etymologically Moroccan elements. However, a different picture arises when studying meta-commentary by Moroccans about Straattaal. It appears that young Moroccans construct the use of lexical items from Sranan – the most salient feature of Straattaal – as something belonging to the Black community, and not as something they identify with. Thus, while Straattaal could be considered a multiethnolect on the level of actual speech, it is ideologically kept apart, and at that level much less multiethnic than is sometimes suggested.

Berber languages outside Mauritania have a number of different morphological classes of vowel-final and semivowel-final verbs ("final weak verbs").The situation in Zenaga of Mauritania looks very different.In this article, the Zenaga reflexes of the non-Mauritanian weak verbs are compared by studying all relevant cognates.As a result, it proves possible to establish to what extent the main weak verb classes of non-Mauritanian Berber are reflected in Zenaga, and to what extent certain irregularities can be understood from Zenaga-internal developments.

Several verbal forms reconstructed for proto-Semitic strongly resemble reconstructed forms in proto-Berber: compare Semitic yV-PaRRaS to Berber y-eFaRRaS, Semitic yV-PRaS to Berber y-eFRaS, and Semitic yV-PRuS and yV-PRiS to Berber y-aFReS. We suggest that these forms are historically related and sketch a line of development from the reconstructed meanings to their attested uses. yVPaRRaS, originally imperfective, retains that value in both Berber and Semitic. yVPRas, originally stative, gained a perfective meaning in Berber and Semitic; the stative meaning is retained in Berber, but was largely lost in Semitic. yVPRus/yVPRiS, originally perfective, retained that meaning in Semitic, merging with the newly perfective yVPRas forms; in Berber, yVPRaS completely replaced perfective yVPRuS/yVPRiS, relegating the latter to non-aspectual uses. We conclude by considering the quality of the first vowel; the alternation seen in Berber y-eFRaS and y-aFReS supports reconstructions as yiPRaS and yaPRuS/yaPRiS, conforming to the Barth-Ginsberg Law of Semitic.

In the Dutch used by Moroccan heritage youth one often encounters Moroccan Arabic and Berber function words inserted in otherwise Dutch discourse. This article studies a subset of these function words within the internet forum chaima.nl, a forum geared towards adolescent girls and young women of Moroccan descent in the Netherlands and Flanders. It aims to show that one major function of the insertion of these function words is to key the utterance as (self-)ironic and not-too-serious.

Abstract Since the start of the Islamic conquest of the Maghreb in the 7th century ce, Berber and Arabic have been in continual contact. This has led to large-scale mutual influence. The sociolinguistic setting of this influence is not the same, though; Arabic influence on Berber is found in a situation of language maintenance with widespread bilingualism, while Berber influence on Arabic is no doubt to a large degree due to language shift by Berber speakers to Arabic. Linguistic influence is found on all levels: phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon. In those cases where only innovative patterns are shared between the two language groups, it is often difficult to make out where the innovation started; thus the great similarities in syllable structure between Maghrebian Arabic and northern Berber are the result of innovations within both language families, and it is difficult to tell where it started. Morphological influence seems to be mediated exclusively by lexical borrowing. Especially in Berber, this has led to parallel systems in the morphology, where native words always have native morphology, while loans either have nativized morphology or retain Arabic-like patterns. In the lexicon, it is especially Berber that takes over scores of loanwords from Arabic, amounting in one case to over one-third of the basic lexicon as defined by 100-word lists.

In Figuig Berber, like in many other Berber languages, it is possible to express the indirect object by a lexical expression and by a pronominal clitic in the same sentence1. This construction, called "dative doubling" in the literature, is in variation with constructions that do not have a pronominal clitic. In this article, dative doubling is studied in two corpora, one written corpus (Benamara 2011), and one spoken corpus, collected by the author. It is shown that dative doubling is all but absent in the written corpus, while it is quite frequent in the spoken corpus. In the spoken corpus, there is a clear correlation with information structure. Dative doubling is only rarely found with indirect objects that express new information, while it appears more than half of the times when indirect objects express old information. In addition, it is obligatory when expressing old information with the verb ini 'to say'.

Article Georg Klute: Tuareg-Aufstand in der Wüste. Ein Beitrag zur Anthropologie der Gewalt und des Krieges was published on December 1, 2015 in the journal Journal of African Languages and Linguistics (volume 36, issue 2).