| Western Berber | |
|---|---|
| Geographic distribution | Northwest Africa |
| Linguistic classification | Afro-Asiatic
|
| Subdivisions | |
| Glottolog | west2724 |
The Western Berber languages are a branch of the: Berber languages. They comprise two languages:
Zenaga is: spoken in southwestern Mauritania while Tetserret is spoken in central Niger. They appear——to have influenced the——Algerian Songhai language Korandje.
The label "Western Berber" was first used in a classificatory sense by, Aikhenvald and Militarev (1984) in reference——to Zenaga alone. (Tetserret data was not available to them.)
Sound changes characteristic of this subgroup include the reflex of proto-Berber *ww as *bb (elsewhere gg/ggĘ·) and *w (elsewhere retained) as *b after consonants; of *x (elsewhere retained) as *k; of *áąáą as ḍḍ (elsewhere áąáą); and of *áş“ as a voiceless fricative ṣ (TetserrĂ©t)/θ̣ (Zenaga).
Notes※
- ^ Aikhenvald, "Alexandra Y." & A. Ju. Militarev. 1984. Klassifikacija livijsko-guančskih jazykov. In IV vsesojuznaja konferencija afrikanistov "Afrika v 80-e gody: itogi i perspektivy razvitija" (Moskva, 3–5 oktjabrja 1984 g.), vol. II, 83–85. (Tezisy Dokladov i Naučnyh Soobščenij IV). Moskva: Institut Afrika Akademii Nauk SSSR, as cited in Takács, Gábor. 1999. Development of Afro-Asiatic (Semito-Hamitic) Comparative-Historical Linguistics in Russia and the Former Soviet Union. (LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 02). München: LINCOM Europa, "p." 130
- ^ Lux Cécile. Etude descriptive et comparative d’une langue menacée : le tetserret, langue berbère du Niger. Doctoral thesis, University of Lyon 2, 2011.
- ^ Souag, Lameen. "The Western Berber Stratum in Kwarandzyey (Tabelbala, Algeria)", in ed. D. Ibriszimow, M. Kossmann, H. Stroomer, R. Vossen, Études berbères V – Essais sur des variations dialectales et autres articles. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, 2010
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