Western Berber languages

In today's world, Western Berber languages has become a topic of great relevance and interest to a wide public. With the advancement of technology and globalization, Western Berber languages has taken a fundamental role in our society, impacting various aspects of daily life. Whether in the personal, work, social or political sphere, Western Berber languages has demonstrated its influence and has generated endless opinions and discussions. In this article, we will further explore the importance of Western Berber languages and discuss its implications in different contexts.

Western Berber
Geographic
distribution		Northwest Africa
Linguistic classificationAfro-Asiatic
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-3–
Glottologwest2724

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)[1] 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/ggʷ) and *w (elsewhere retained) as *b after consonants; of *x (elsewhere retained) as *k; of *ṭṭ as ḍḍ (elsewhere ṭṭ); and of *ẓ as a voiceless fricative ṣ (Tetserrét) or θ̣ (Zenaga).[2][3]

Notes

  1. ^ 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
  2. ^ Lux Cécile. Etude descriptive et comparative d’une langue menacée : le tetserret, langue berbère du Niger. Doctoral thesis, University of Lyon 2, 2011.
  3. ^ 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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