User:Danquintin/Ghomara Language

Ghomara, or Ghomara Berber, is a Afroasiatic language spoken by the Ghomara people of Morocco near Tetouan and Chanoeun, and on the Rif. There are approximately 10,000 speakers of all the Ghomara people, and it is typically spoken by elderly, specifically elderly women, but children are also learning this language at home.

History
During the third century, the Romans gave the tribes the name Berber, which comes from the Latin word "Barbarian." The Ghomara people are one of the Berber groups, which are a North African group of people who were conquered by the Muslim invaders during the seventh century. Ghomara is one of the smallest Berber tribe of Morocco. Today most of the Ghomara people speak Arabic and only around 10,000 are bilingual, speaking both Arabic and Ghomara Berber.

Current Status
Despite practices of elderly teaching children how to speak Ghomara Berber at home, the language is still considered threatened, with only 10,000 known speakers. A major reason for this situation can be attributed to the small geographical location that uses this language as well as the more common use of Arabic throughout Morocco.

Influences on the Language
In the nineteenth century, many Berber Languages adopted the Latin Alphabet and the Berber Latin Alphabet was created. This allowed several Berber languages to be written and printed. People who speak Northern Berber languages understand various dialects through mutual intelligibility.

Language Subgroups
There are several Northern Berber dialects within the Atlas tribe and the Zenati tribe.

Atlas: Central Atlas Tamazight, Tashelhit, Judeo-Berber, Sanhaja de Srair language, Ghomara, Gharbi

Zenati: Tarifit, Tabeldit, Eastern Middle Atlas Berber, Eastern Morocco Zenati

Dialect Comparison
Several Berber dialects show similar vocabulary and thus mutual intelligibility occurs. For example, here is the English word 'egg' in different dialects.

Ghomara: tawfalt

Senhaja: ṯaḡfilṯ

Tarifit: ṯagfiřṯ

Nouns
For nouns in Ghomara Berber, there are several common trends. The prefix a-, i-, or u commonly identifies the masculine singular nouns in Ghomara Berber (i.e., arg'az “man”). For feminine singular nouns, there is both a prefix and a suffix such as ta-…-t (i.e., tarbat “girl”) and is the most common way to identify feminine singular nouns. Masculine plural nouns have are characterized by i-…-en or i-…-an (i.e., irg'azen “men”). For feminine plural nouns, ti-…-an (i.e., tirbatan “girls”) is the most common circumfix.

Pronouns
Much like English, Ghomara Berber uses personal, singular, and plural pronouns.

The first person singular pronoun nekkin is equivalent to "I" in English. The second person singular male pronoun kedžin and female pronoun kemmin is equivalent to "you" in English. Similarly, in Ghomara Berber, the third person singular male pronoun netta and female pronoun nettaθa is equivalent to him or her in English respectively.

The first person plural pronoun nuçna is equivalent to "we" or "us" in English and the second person plural pronoun kunna is equivalent to "you all" in English. Lastly, niçma is the third person plural pronoun equivalent to "they" in English, and is not distinguished by gender.

Adjectives
Adjectives have either suffix -ø, which characterizes masculine singular nouns or -θ, which characterizes both feminine singular and all plural nouns. For example:

Masculine singular: tayfur mellulø “the, a white table”

Feminine singular: tamγart mezziθ “the, a little woman”

Masculine plural: irgazen muqqreθ “(the) big men”

Feminine plural: timettutan muqqreθ “(the) big women”

Vocabulary
An example of common English words in Ghomara Berber :

targat “dream”

ahlan “welcome, hello”

hemmam “bathroom”

tamuda “pig"

lmakla “food”

tanebdut “summer”

rriyada “sports”

kama “bed”

lmerra/merra “time”

rriyad “garden”

ssultan “king”

ššhar “month”

xarebbi “many”

leεziza “grandmother”