# Tarifit

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

## 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).

## Classification

Riffian is a Zenati Berber language 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.

## Geographic distribution

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. 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.

### 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.

### Algeria

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.

## Dialects

There is no consensus on what varieties are considered Riffian and not, the difference of opinion mainly lie in the easternmost dialects of the Iznasen and the westernmost dialects of Senhaja de Sraïr and Ketama. 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 and Taghzout.
* West-Central Rif Berber: cities such as Al Hoceima, Targuist, 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.
Lexical differences :
| | 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

| Vocalization | Vocalization | Example | Example | 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 'he lives' vs. izeddeɣ 'he always lives'. There are only a few phonatactic expeceptions to this, e.g. in verb suffixes before vowel-initial clitics, ṯessfehmeḏḏ-as. 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 'hair', and rarely occurs with ɣɣ and ḍḍ e.g. iɣɣed 'ashes', weḍḍaạ 'to be lost'. /dʒ/ and /dʒː/ are allophonic realizations of the same phoneme, both are common.
Consonants (Iqeřɛiyen variety) :
| | | Labial | Labial | Dental | Dental | Alveolar | Alveolar | Post- alveolar | Post- alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Velar | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal |
| | | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | plain | phar. | Palatal | plain | lab. | Uvular | Pharyngeal | Glottal |
| Nasal | Nasal | m | | | | n | | | | | ŋ | | | | |
| Plosive | voiceless | p | pˤ | | | t | tˤ | tʃ | | | k | kːʷ | q | | ʔ |
| Plosive | voiced | b | | | | d | dˤ | dʒ | | | g | gːʷ | | | |
| Fricative | voiceless | f | | θ | | s | sˤ | ʃ | ʃˤ | ç | x ~ χ | x ~ χ | x ~ χ | ħ | |
| Fricative | voiced | β | | ð | ðˤ | z | zˤ | ʒ | | (ʝ) | ɣ ~ ʁ | ɣ ~ ʁ | ɣ ~ ʁ | ʕ | ɦ |
| Approximant | Approximant | | | | | l | lˤ | | | j | | w | | | |
| Flap | Flap | | | | | ɾ | ɾˤ | | | | | | | | |
| Trill | Trill | | | | | r | rˤ | | | | | | | | |
Notes:
* /ʝ/ has become /j/ in most of Central Riffian e.g. ayenduz instead of aɡ̠enduz 'calf'.
* /ç/ has mostly become /ʃ/ in Central Riffian and only occurs in a few words, e.g. seḵsu '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 'greyhound' and mucc '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.
    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.

#### 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.
| Riffian letter | Riffian word | Original word | English meaning |
| Ř ř | uř | ul | heart |
| Ř ř | aɣyuř | aɣyul | donkey |
| Ř ř | awař | awal | speech / word |
| Ǧ ǧ | azeǧif | azellif | head |
| Ǧ ǧ | yeǧa | yella | he is / he exists |
| Ǧ ǧ | ajeǧid | ajellid | king |
| Č č | wečma | weltma | my sister |
| Č č | tacemřač | tacemlalt | blonde / white |
| Č č | 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.

## 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.

## 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, 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, 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/, 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, e.g.
    afunas → ufunas 'bull'
    tafunast → tfunast 'cow'
    ifunasen → ifunasen 'bulls'
    tifunasin → tfunasin 'cows'

## Lexicon
### Basic vocabulary

| 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

Tarifit has loaned a fair amount of its vocabulary from Arabic, Spanish and French. Around 51.7% of the vocabulary of Tarifit is estimated to have been borrowed (56.1% of nouns and 44.1% of verbs). 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 'night' (Arabic: al-layla), hřec '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)
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"