Tarifit

Tarifit, also known as Riffian or locally as Tamazight (Tarifit: Tmaziɣt, pronounced [θmæzɪχt]; Arabic: الريفية) is a Zenati Berber language spoken in the Rif region in northern Morocco. It is spoken natively by some 1,200,000^[2][3] Rifians, comprising 3.2% of the population,^[1] primarily in the Rif provinces of Nador, Al Hoceima and Driouch.

Tarifit
Tarifiyt, Riffian, Tamazight, الريفية
Tmaziɣt
Pronunciation	[θmæzɪχt]
Native to	Northern Morocco
Region	The Rif (Regions of Tanger-Tétouan-Al Hoceïma and Oriental)
Ethnicity	Rifians
Native speakers	1.2 million (2024)[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Berber Northern Zenati Tarifit
Writing system	Latin, Arabic script, Tifinagh (symbolically)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	rif
Glottolog	tari1263

Name

In the Rif, the native name of this language is 'Tmaziɣt' (pronounced Tmazixt in most dialects). Speakers may specify by calling it 'Tarifiyt' (pronounced Tarifect in central dialects).^[4]

Classification

Young man speaking Riffian Berber, recorded in Cuba.

Riffian is a Zenati Berber language^[5] which consists of various sub-dialects specific to each clan and of which a majority are spoken in the Rif region, a large mountainous area of Northern Morocco, and a minority spoken in the western part of neighbouring Algeria.^[6][7]

Geographic distribution

Percent of Rif-Berber speakers in Morocco by census 2004 Based on data found Here

Riffian is spoken mainly in the Moroccan Rif on the Mediterranean coast and in the Rif mountains, with a large minority in the Spanish autonomous city of Melilla.^[8] 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 of Algeria is also home to Rif minorities. A Riffian-speaking community exists in the Netherlands and Belgium as well as to a lesser extent other European countries.^{[citation needed]}

Morocco

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 other Berber languages. Majority of them are spoken in Northern Morocco, this includes the varieties of Al Hoceima, Temsamane, Nador, Ikbadene (including Iznasen) and the more southernly variety in the Taza province. Besides Riffian, two other related and smaller Berber languages are spoken in North Morocco: the Sanhaja de Srair and the Ghomara languages. They are only distantly related to Riffian and are not mutually intelligible with it.^[9]

Algeria

Linguistic map of western Algeria showing Berber-speaking areas, including Riffian cluster of Bettioua, Marsa Ben-Mhidi, Aït Snous and Aït Bousaïd

A few Riffian dialects are or used to be in the western part of Algeria, notably by the Beni Snouss tribe of the Tlemcen, as well in Bethioua but also in various colonial districts Riffians started to emigrate to since the 19th century.^[10][11]

Dialects

Riffian dialectal groups according to Mena B. Lafkioui

Dialects distribution

1. Western 28.68 (28.7%)
2. Central 55.34 (55.3%)
3. Eastern 9.26 (9.26%)
4. Peripheral 6.72 (6.72%)

There is no consensus on what varieties are considered Riffian and not, the difference of opinion mainly lie in the easternmost dialects of the Znassia and the westernmost dialects of Senhaja de Sraïr and Ketama.^[12] 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 related Mzab–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:

• Western Rif Berber: cities such as Ketama, Targuist and Taghzout.
• West-Central Rif Berber: cities such as Al Hoceima, Bni Hadifa, Imzouren.
• Central Rif Berber: cities such as Nador, Midar and Kassita.
• East-Central Rif Berber: cities such as Al Aaroui, Driouch and Ain Zohra.
• Eastern Rif Berber: cities such as Berkane and Ras Kebdana.

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.^[13]

Lexical differences^[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

Phonology

Vowels

	Front	Central	Back
High	i		u
Mid		(ə)
Low		a

• A mid-central vowel /ə/ can occur in lax positions.
• Lax allophones of /i, a, u/ are heard as [ɪ, æ, ʊ].
• In the vicinity of pharyngealized consonants, /i, a, u/ are heard as [ɪˤ, ɑˤ, ʊˤ].
• Vowels lengthen in closed final syllables, e.g. tisit [θɪsɪˑθ] 'mirror'.

Vocalized r^[15]

Vocalization		Example
Phonemically	Phonetically	IPA	Originally	Translation
/iɾ/	[ɛa]	[sːɛað]	ssird	to wash
/uɾ/	[ɔa]	[ʊyɔa]	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

Consonants

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 phonatactic expeceptions to this, e.g. in verb suffixes before vowel-initial clitics, ṯessfehmeḏḏ-as [θəs:fəɦməð:æs]. 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.^[16]

Consonants (Iqeřɛiyen variety)^[17]

		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:

• /ʝ/ has become /j/ in most of Central Riffian e.g. ayenduz [æjəndʊz] instead of aɡ̠enduz [æʝəndʊz] 'calf'.
• /ç/ has mostly become /ʃ/ in Central Riffian and only occurs in a few words, e.g. seḵsu [səçsʊ] 'couscous'.
• Pharyngealization is a spreading feature, it may spread to a whole word.
• The only pharyngealized consonants common in Berber roots are /dˤ/, /ðˤ/, /zˤ/ and /rˤ/; the others seem to mainly occur in words of Arabic and Spanish origin.
• /ʃˤ/ seems to only occur in the nouns ucca [ʊˤʃˤ:ɑˤ] 'greyhound' and mucc [mʊˤʃˤ:] 'cat'.
• /ŋ/ occurs exclusively before the consonant /w/, it may be an assimilatory variant of n.
• Labialization only occurs with the geminates /kːʷ/ and /gːʷ/.

Assimilations

There are quite a few assimilations that occur with the feminine suffixes t and ṯ.^[18]

ḇ + ṯ = fṯ/ft (e.g. tajeǧeft < tajeǧeḇṯ 'gown/djellaba')

z + ṯ = sṯ/st (e.g. talwist < talwizṯ 'gold coin')

ẓ + ṯ = ṣṯ/ṣt (e.g. tayạạẓiṣt < tayạạẓiẓṯ 'hare')

j + ṯ = cṯ/ct (e.g. taɛejjact < taɛejjajṯ 'dust')

ɣ + ṯ = xṯ/xt (e.g. tmazixt < tmaziɣt 'Berber language')

ɛ + ṯ = ḥṯ/ḥt (e.g. tqubeḥt < tqubeɛṯ 'little bird')

There are also other assimilations.

ḏ + ṯ = tt (e.g. tabritt < tabriḏṯ 'path')

d + ṯ = tt (e.g. a t-tawi < a d-ṯawi 'she will bring here')

ḍ + ṯ = ṭṭ (e.g. tyaẓiṭṭ < tyaẓiḍṯ 'hen')

m + ṯ = nt (e.g. taxxant < taxxamṯ 'small room')

ř + ṯ = č (e.g. tameǧač < tameǧařṯ 'egg')

Spirantized consonants become stops after the consonant 'n', this occurs between words as well.

qqimen da < qqimen ḏa 'they sit here'

tilifun tameqqṛant < tilifun ṯameqqṛant 'the big phone'

Sound shifts

Zenati sound shifts

The initial masculine a- prefix is dropped in certain words, e.g., afus 'hand' becomes fus, and afiɣaṛ 'snake' becomes fiɣạṛ. This change, characteristic of Zenati Berber varieties, distances Riffian from neighbouring dialects such as Atlas-Tamazight and Shilha.^[19]

L and ř

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.

• /l/ in other dialects corresponds to 'ř' (/r/) in Riffian (e.g. ul > uř 'heart')
• The geminate equivalent, (/lː/) in other dialects corresponds to 'ǧ' (/dʒː/) in Riffian (e.g. yelli > yeǧi 'my daughter'). It is underlyingly řř.
• /lt/ in other dialects corresponds to 'č' (/tʃ/) in Riffian (e.g. weltma > wečma 'my sister'). It is underlyingly řt.

These sound shifts do not occur in the easternmost Riffian dialects of Icebdanen and Iznasen and the westernmost dialects.^[20]

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)

R vocalization

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.^[21]

Writing system

Like other Berber languages, Riffian has been written with several different systems over the years. Unlike the nearby Tashelhit (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. The Arabic script is not used anymore for writing Riffian Berber. The Berber Latin alphabet continues to be the most used writing system online and in most publications in Morocco and abroad.^[22]

Grammar

Nouns

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 most Berber languages. With humans and higher animals, masculine and feminine mark natural gender^[23], e.g.

aḥenjia (M) 'boy' → taḥenjiat (F) 'girl'

ayyaw (M) 'grandson' → tayyawt (F) 'granddaughter'

asaadun (M) 'male mule' → tasaadunt (F) 'female mule'

afunas (M) 'ox' → tafunast (F) 'cow'

For a few basic items there exist suppletive pairs, e.g.

aayaz (M) 'man' → tamɣaat (F) 'woman'

amyan (M) 'he-goat' → tɣaṭṭ (F) 'she-goat'

icarri (M) 'ram' → tixsi (F) 'ewe'

yis (M) 'hore' → řɛawda (F) 'mare'

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^[24], e.g.

axxam (SG) 'room' → ixxamen (PL) 'rooms'

tafunast (SG) 'cow' → tifunasin (PL) 'cows'

A few nouns have suppletive plurals:

uma (SG) 'my brother' → ayetma (PL) 'my brothers'

učma (SG) 'my sister' → issma (PL) 'my sisters'

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/^[25], e.g.

asnus → wesnus 'donkey foal (M)'

tasnust → tesnust 'donkey foal (F)'

isnas → yesnas 'donkey foals (M)'

tisnas → tesnas 'donkey foal (F)'

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^[26], e.g.

afunas → ufunas 'bull'

tafunast → tfunast 'cow'

ifunasen → ifunasen 'bulls'

tifunasin → tfunasin 'cows'

Lexicon

Basic vocabulary^[27][28]

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

Loanwords^[29][30]

Tarifit has loaned a fair amount of its vocabulary from Arabic, Spanish and French.^[31] Around 51.7% of the vocabulary of Tarifit is estimated to have been borrowed (56.1% of nouns and 44.1% of verbs).^[32] 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).

Examples of words loaned from Classical/Moroccan Arabic

• ddenya: 'world' (orig. al-dunyā الدنيا)
• tayezzaat: 'island' (orig. jazīra جزيرة)
• řebḥaa: 'ocean' (orig. al-baḥr البحر)
• lwalidin: 'parents' (orig. al-wālidayn الوالدين)
• ḥseb: 'to count' (orig. ḥasaba حسب)

Examples of words loaned from Spanish

• familiya: 'family' (orig. familia)
• tpabut: 'duck' (orig. pavo)
• ṣpiṭạạ: 'hospital' (orig. hospital)
• pṛubaa: 'to try' (orig. probar)
• arrimaa: 'to land' (orig. arrimar)

Examples of words loaned from French

• maamiṭa: 'pot' (orig. marmite)
• furciṭa: 'fork' (orig. fourchette)
• ṣuṣis: 'sausage' (orig. saucisse)
• fumaḍa: 'cream' (orig. pommade)
• jjarḍa: 'garden' (orig. jardin)

Examples of words loaned from Latin

• faacu: 'eagle' (orig. falco)
• aqninni: 'rabbit' (orig. cuniculus)
• fiřu: 'thread' (orig. filum)
• aɣaṛṛabu: 'boat' (orig. carabus)
• asnus: 'donkey foal' (orig. asinus)

Sample text

From 'An introduction to Tarifiyt Berber (Nador, Morocco)' by Khalid Mourigh and Maarten Kossmann: Sirkuḷasyun (trafic)^[33]

A:

A‍:

Ssalamuɛlikum.

peace.upon.you(PL)

A: Ssalamuɛlikum.

A‍: peace.upon.you(PL)

A: Hello.

B:

B‍:

Waɛlikumssalam.

and.upon.you(PL).peace

B: Waɛlikumssalam.

B‍: and.upon.you(PL).peace

B: Hello.

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

PRED

tameqqṛant.

big(F:SG:FS)

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

yijjen?

one(M:AS)

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.

B:

B‍:

Mamec

how

temsaa?

it(F).happened

B: Mamec temsaa?

B‍: how it(F).happened

B: How did it happen?

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

PAST

itazzeř

he.runs

ɛini.

probably

Iwa,

well

a

AD

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 state FS: free state AD: the particle 'a(d)' "non-realized"