Ḥassāniyya Arabic

Catherine Taine-Cheikh

► To cite this version:

Catherine Taine-Cheikh. Ḥassāniyya Arabic. C. Lucas; S. Manfredi. Arabic and contact-induced change: a handbook, 1, Language Science Press, pp.245-263, 2020, Contact and Multilingualism, 978-3-96110-251-8 (Digital); 978-3-96110-252-5 (Hardcover). 10.5281/zenodo.3744523. halshs-03087952

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Submitted on 24 Dec 2020

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The area where Ḥassāniyya is spoken, located on the outskirts of the Arab world, is contiguous with those of several languages that do not belong to the Afro-Asiatic phylum. However, the greatest influence on the evolution of Ḥassāniyya has been its contact with Berber and Classical Arabic. Loanwords from those languages are distinguished by specific features that have enriched and developed the phonological and morphological system of Ḥassāniyya. In other respects, Ḥassāniyya and Zenaga are currently in a state of either parallel evolution or reciprocal exchanges.

# 1 Current state and historical development

## 1.1 Historical development of Ḥassāniyya

The arrival in Morocco of the Banī Maṣqil, travelling companions of the Banī Hilāl and Banī Sulaym, is dated to the thirteenth century. However, the gradual shift to the territories further south of one of their branches – that of the Banī Ḥassān, the origin of the name given to the dialect described here – began closer to the start of the subsequent century.

At that time, the Sahel region of West Africa was inhabited by different communities: on the one hand there were the “white” nomadic Berber-speaking tribes, on the other hand, the sedentary “black” communities.

Over the course of the following centuries, particularly during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the sphere of Zenaga Berber gradually diminished, until it ceased to exist in the 1950s, other than in a few tribes in the southwest of Mauritania. At the same time, Ḥassāniyya Arabic became the language of the nomads of the west Saharan group, maintaining a remarkable unity (Taine-Cheikh 2016; 2018a). There is virtually no direct documentation of the region's linguistic

<figure><img src="image_2.png" /></figure>
history during these centuries. This absence of information itself suggests a very
gradual transformation and an extended period of bilingualism.

Despite the lack of documentation of the transfer phenomenon, it seems highly
likely that bilinguals played a very important role in the changes described in this
chapter.

## 1.2 Current situation of Ḩassāniyya

The presence of significant Ḩassāniyya-speaking communities is recognized in six countries. With the exception of Senegal and especially of Niger, the regions occupied by these communities, more or less adjacent, are situated primarily in Mauritania, in the north, northeast and east of the country.

The greatest number of Ḩassāniyya speakers (approximately 2.8 out of a total of four million) are found in Mauritania, where they constitute the majority of the population (approximately 75%). The Ḩassāniyya language tends to fulfil the role of the lingua franca without, however, having genuine official recognition beyond, or even equal to, that which it has acquired (often recently) in neighbouring countries.

# 2 Contact languages

## 2.1 Contact with other Arabic varieties

The Islamization of the Ḩassāniyya-speaking population took place at an early
date, and Ḩassāniyya has therefore had lengthy exposure to Classical Arabic.
For many centuries this contact remained superficial, however, except among
the Marabout tribes, where proficiency in literary Arabic was quite widespread
and in some cases almost total. The teaching of Islamic sciences in other places
reached quite exceptional levels in certain *mḥāḍḍr* (a type of traditional desert
university).<fnref n="1" /> In the post-colonial era, the choice of Arabic as official language, and
the widespread Arabization of education, media and services, greatly increased
the Ḩassāniyya-speaking population's contact with literary Arabic (including in
its Modern Standard form), though perfect fluency was not achieved, even among
the young and educated populations.

Excluding the limited influence of the Egyptian and Lebanese-Syrian dialects
used by the media, the Arabic dialects with which Ḩassāniyya comes into contact

<footnote n="1">¹These may be referred to as universities both in terms of the standard of teaching and the length of students’ studies. They were, however, small-scale, local affairs, located either in nomadic encampments or in ancient caravan cities.</footnote>
most often today are those of the neighbouring countries (southern Moroccan and southern Algerian). Most recently Moroccan koiné Arabic has established a presence in the Western Sahara, since the region came under the administration of Morocco.

## 2.2 Contact with Berber languages

Ḥassāniyya has always been in contact with Berber languages. Currently, speakers of Ḩassāniyya are primarily in contact with Tashelhiyt (southern Morocco), Tuareg (Malian Sahara and the Timbuktu region) and Zenaga (southwest Mauritania). In these areas, some speakers are bilingual in Ḩassāniyya and Berber.

In Mauritania, where Zenaga previously occupied a much larger area, Berber clearly appears as a substrate.

## 2.3 Contact with languages of the Sahel

Contacts between Ḩassāniyya speakers and the languages spoken in the Sahel have varied across regions and over time, but have left few clearly discernible traces on Ḩassāniyya.

The contact with Soninke is ancient (cf. the toponym *Chinguetti* < Soninke *sí-n-gèdé* ‘horse well’), but the effects are hardly noticeable outside of the old cities of Mauritania. The contact with Songhay is both very old and still ongoing, but is limited to the eastern part of the region in which Ḩassāniyya is spoken (especially the region of Timbuktu).

The influence of Wolof, albeit marginal, has always been more substantial in southwestern Mauritania, especially among the Awlād Banṣūg of the Rosso region. It peaked in the years 1950–70, in connection with the immigration to Senegal of many Moors (e.g. *gordighen* ‘homosexual’, lit. ‘man-woman’). In Mauritania, the influence of Wolof can still be heard in some areas of urban crafts (e.g. mechanics, electricity), but it is primarily a vehicle for borrowing from French.

Although Pulaar speakers constitute the second-largest linguistic community of Mauritania, there is very limited contact between Ḩassāniyya and Pulaar, with the exception of a few bilingual groups (especially among the Harratins) in the Senegal River valley.

Certain communities (particularly among the Fulani) were traditionally known for their perfect mastery of Ḩassāniyya. As a result of migration into major cities and the aggressive Arabization policy led by the authorities, Ḩassāniyya has gained ground among all the non-Arabic speakers of Mauritania (especially in the big cities and among younger people), but this has come at the cost of a sometimes very negative attitude towards the language.
## 2.4 Contact with Indo-European Languages

Exposure to French has prevailed in all the countries of the region, the only exception being the Western Sahara, which, from the end of the nineteenth century until 1975, was under Spanish occupation.

In Mauritania the French occupation came relatively late and was relatively insignificant. However, the influence of the colonizers' language continued well after the country proclaimed its independence in 1960. That said, French has tended to regress since the end of the twentieth century (especially with the rise of Standard Arabic, e.g. *minəstr* has been replaced by *wazir* 'minister'), whilst exposure to English has become somewhat more significant, at least in the better educated sections of the population.

# 3 Contact-induced changes in Ḩassāniyya

## 3.1 Phonology

### 3.1.1 Consonants

#### 3.1.1.1 The consonant /ḍ/

As in other Bedouin dialects, /ð/ is the normal equivalent of the <ض> of Classical Arabic (e.g. ḍmār 'to have an empty stomach' (CA <dāmira>) and ḍḥak 'to laugh (CA <dāhika>). Nonetheless, /ḍ/ is found in a number of lexemes in Ḩassāniyya.

The form [ḍ] sometimes occurs as a phonetic realization of /d/ simply due to contact with an emphatic consonant (compare ṣḍam 'to upset' and ṣadma 'annoyance', CA √ṣḍm). However, /ḍ/ generally appears in the lexemes borrowed from Standard Arabic, either in all words of a root, or in a subset of them, for example: *stāḥḍar* 'to be in agony' and *ḥaḍari* 'urbanite' but *ḥḍaẓr* 'to be present' and *maḥɔḍra* 'Quranic school'. The opposition /ḍ/ vs. /ð/ can therefore distinguish a classical meaning from a dialectal meaning: compare *stāḥḍar* to *stāḥḍaẓr* 'to remember'.

/ḍ/ is common in the vocabulary of the literate. The less educated speakers sometimes replace /ḍ/ with /ð/ (as in qāði for qāḍi 'judge'), but the stop realization is stable in many lexemes, including in loanwords not related to religion, such as ḍtīv 'weak'.

The presence of the same phoneme /ḍ/ in Berber might have facilitated the preservation of its counterpart in Standard Arabic loans, even though in Zenaga /ḍ/ is often fricative (intervocalically). Moreover, the /ḍ/ of Berber is normally devoiced in word-final position in Ḩassāniyya, just as in other Maghrebi dialects, for example: ṣayvat 'to say goodbye', from Berber √fd 'to send'.
### 3.1.1.2 The consonant /z/

/ẓ/ is one of the two emphatic phonemes of proto-Berber. This emphatic sibilant sound regularly passes from the source language to the recipient language when Berber words are used in Ḩassāniyya. For example: *aẓẓ ~ āẓẓ ‘wild pearl millet’* (Zenaga īẓi).

However, /z/ is also present in lexemes of a different origin. Among Ḩassāniyya roots also attested in Classical Arabic, *z often becomes /ẓ/ in the environment of /r/ (e.g. rāẓ ‘to try’, CA rāza; ṛaẓẓa ‘lightning’, CA rizz; zəbria ‘anvil’, CA zubra). Sometimes /z/ appears in lexemes with a pejorative connotation, e.g. zrať ‘fart; lie’ (CA daraťa), zagg ‘make droppings (birds)’ (CA zaqq).

### 3.1.1.3 The consonant /q/

The normal equivalent of the <š> of Classical Arabic is the velar stop /g/, as in other Bedouin dialects (e.g. *bagra* ‘cow’, CA *baqara*). However, /q/ is in no way rare.

First of all, /q/ appears, like /d/, in a number of words borrowed from Classical Arabic by the literate: Ṣaqʾd ‘religious marriage contract’; vassaq ‘to pervert’. The opposition /g/ vs. /q/ can therefore produce two families of words, such as *qibla* ‘Qibla, direction of Mecca’ and *gəbla* ‘one of the cardinal directions (south, southwest or west, depending on the region)’. It can also create a distinction between the concrete meaning (with /g/) and the abstract meaning (with /q/): θgāl ‘become heavy’, θqāl ‘become painful’.

Next, /q/ is present in several lexemes of non-Arabic origin, such as *bsaq* ‘silo’, *mzawraq* ‘very diluted (of tea)’, (in southwest Mauritania) *sərqəlla* ‘Soninke people’, (in Néma) *sasundaqa* ‘circumcision ceremony’, (in Walata) *raqansak* ‘decorative pattern’, *asankās* ‘pipe plunger’, *sayqad* ‘shouting in public’, and (in the southeast) *šayqa* ‘to move sideways’. These lexemes, often rare and very local in use, seem to be borrowed mostly from the languages of the Sahel region.<fnref n="2" />

Finally, /q/ is the outcome of *ɣ in cases of gemination, (/ɣɣ/ > [qq]): compare *raqqad* ‘to make porridge’ to *ryīda* ‘a variety of porridge’ (CA *rayīda*). This correlation, attested in Zenaga and more generally in Berber, can be attributed to the substrate.

Insofar as the contrast between /ɣ/ and /q/ is poorly established in Berber, the substrate could also explain the tendency, sometimes observed in the southwest, to velarize non-classical instances of /q/ (or at least instances not identified as

<footnote n="2">²I am currently unable to specify the origin of these terms except that *bsaq* (attested in Zenaga) could be of Wolof origin.</footnote>
classical): hence *yandīr* ‘candle’ for *qandīr* < CA *qandīl* – this is despite the fact
that the shift /ɣ/ > /ʔ/ is very common in Zenaga. However, the influence of
Berber does not explain the systematic shift of /ɣ/ to /q/ throughout the east-
ern part of the Ḩassāniyya region (including Mali): thus eastern *qlab* ‘defeat’ for
southwestern *ylab* (CA *yalaba*).<fnref n="3" />

3.1.1.4 Glottal stop

The glottal stop is one of the phonemes of Zenaga (its presence in the language
is in fact a feature that is unique among Berber varieties), however it is not found
in Ḩassāniyya, with the exception of words borrowed from Standard Arabic, e.g.
*tʔabbad* ‘to live religiously’, *danāʔa* ‘baseness’ and *taʔhīr* ‘postponement’. Very
rarely the glottal stop is also maintained when it occurs at the end of a word as
in *barraʔ* ‘to declare innocent’.

3.1.1.5 Palatalized consonants

There are three palatalized consonants: two dental (/tɣ/ and /dɣ/) and a nasal /nɣ/. Unlike the phonemes discussed above, these are very rare in Ḩassāniyya, especially /nɣ/.

The palatalized consonants are also attested in certain neighbouring languages
of the Sahel, as well as in Zenaga (but these are not phonemes of Common
Berber). They are rather infrequent in the Zenaga lexicon, occurring especially in
syntagmatic contexts (-d+y-, -n+y-) and in morphological derivation (formation
of the passive by affixation of a geminate /tɣ/).

In Ḩassāniyya, the palatalized consonants mostly appear in words borrowed
from Zenaga or languages of the Sahel. Interestingly, certain loanwords from
Zenaga are ultimately of Arabic origin and constitute examples of phonological
integration, as in tɣfāɣa, a given name and, in the plural, the name of a tribe
< Zenaga atɣfāɣa ‘marabout’ < CA al-faqīh, and ḫurūdɣ ‘leave (from Quranic
school)’ < Zenaga ḫurūdɣ < CA ḫuruğ ‘exit’.

One should also note the palatization of /t/ in certain lexemes from particular
semantic domains (such as the two verbs related to fighting tɣbəl ‘to hit hard’ and
kawtɣam ‘boxer’). This may suggest the choice of a palatalized consonant for its
expressive value (and would then be a marginal case of phonosymbolism).

<footnote n="3">³The regular passage from /ɣ/ to /q/ is a typical Bedouin trait, related to the voiced realization (/g/) of *q. It occurs especially in southern Algeria, in various dialects of the Chad–Sudanese area, and in some Eastern dialects (Cantineau 1960: 72).</footnote>
3.1.1.6 Labial and labiovelar consonants

The labiovelar consonants /mʷ, bʷ, fʷ, vʷ/ or /m̩, b, f, v/) are common in Ḩassān-
iyya, as they are in Zenaga. In both cases, they often come in tandem with a
realization [u] of the phoneme /ə/.

This phenomenon may have originally arisen in Zenaga, since the Ḩassān-
iyya of Mali (where it was most likely in contact with other languages) exhibits
greater preservation of a [u] vowel sound and, at the same time, less pronounced
labiovelarization of consonants.

The Ḩassāniyya of Mali also has a voiceless use of the phoneme /f/, where the
Ḥassāniyya of Mauritania is characterized by the use of /v/ in its place (Heath
2004; an observation that my own studies have confirmed). This phonetic trait
does not come directly from Zenaga (in which /v/ exists but is very rare). How-
ever, it could be connected with the preference for voiced phonemes in Berber
generally and in Zenaga in particular.

**3.1.2 Syllabic structures**

In Ḩassāniyya, Arabic-derived syllabic structures do not contain short vowels in
word-internal open syllables, with the exception of particular cases such as pas-
sive participles in *mu-* (*mudagdag* ‘broken’) and certain nouns of action (*hašy* >
*haši* ‘filling’). However, loanwords from literary Arabic and other languages (no-
tably Berber and French) display short vowels quite systematically in this con-
text: *abadan* ‘never’ and *hazīn* ‘sad’ (from Standard Arabic); *tamāt* ‘gum’ (from
Zenaga *ta?mað*); *tamāta* ‘tomato’. In fact, it may be noted that, unlike the ma-
jority of Berber varieties (particularly in the north), Zenaga has a relatively sub-
stantial number of lexical items with short vowels (including ə) in open syllables:
*ka?rað* ‘three’, *tuðu?ma?n* ‘a few drops of rain’ *awayan* ‘languages’, əgəðih ‘neck-
lace made from plants’.<fnref n="4" />

Furthermore, a long vowel ā occurs word-finally in loaned nouns which in
Standard Arabic end with -ā?: *vidā/vidāy* ‘ransom’. In other cases, underlyingly
long word-final vowels are only pronounced long when non-final in a genitive
construct.

<footnote n="4">⁴It is precisely for this reason that, regarding the loss of the short vowels in open syllables, I deem the hypothesis of a parallel evolution of syllabic structures in Maghrebi Arabic and Berber to be more convincing than the frequently held alternative hypothesis of a one-way influence of the Berber substrate on the Arabic adstrate.</footnote>
## 3.2 Morphology

### 3.2.1 Nominal morphology

#### 3.2.1.1 Standard forms

Nouns and adjectives borrowed from Standard Arabic may often be identified by the presence of: a) open syllables with short vowels, e.g. vadalāt ‘rest of a meal’, yaḍab ‘anger’, vasād ‘alteration’, htimāl ‘possibility’, b) short vowels /i/ (less frequently /u/) in a closed syllable: miḥrāb ‘mihrab’, muḥarrir ‘inspector; editor’.

Some syllables are only attested in loanwords, such as the nominal pattern CVCC, where the pronunciation of the double coda necessitates the insertion of a supporting vowel, in which case the dialect takes on the form CCVC: compare ṣaqḍ ‘religious marriage’ with ṣqal ‘wisdom’.

The most characteristic loanword pattern, however, is that of tahrīr ‘liberation; verification (of an account)’. In Ḥassāniyya the equivalent of the pattern taCCīC is təCCāC. For the root ḫrr, this provides a verbal noun for other meanings of the verb harrar: təḥrār ‘whipping of wool (to untangle it); adding flour to make dumplings’. As for the form taCaCCuC, the /u/ is sometimes lengthened: taḥammul ‘obligation’, but tavakkūr ‘contemplation’.

#### 3.2.1.2 Berber affixes

Nouns borrowed from Berber are characterized by the frequent presence of the vowels /a, ā, i, ī, u, ū/. These are of varying lengths, except that in a word-final closed syllable they are always long and stressed. Since these vowels appear in all types of syllables – open and closed – this results in much more varied syllabic patterns than in nouns of Arabic origin.

These loans are also characterized by the presence of affixes which, in the source language, are markers of gender and/or number: the prefix a/-ā- or i/-ī- for the masculine, to which the prefix t- is also added for the feminine or, more frequently (especially in the singular), a circumfix t-...-t. Compare iggīw ~ īggīw ‘griot’ with the feminine form tiggiwīt ~ tīggīwīt. A suffix in -(ə)n characterizes the plurals of these loanwords which, moreover, differ from the singulars in terms of their vocalic form: iggāwən ~ īggāwən ‘griots’, feminine tiggawātən ~ tīggawātən. The presence of these affixes generally precludes the presence of the definite article.

Though these affixes pass from the source language to the target language along with the stems, the syllabic and vocalic patterns of such loans are often particular to Ḥassāniyya: compare Ḥassāniyya āršān, plural īršyūn ~ īršīwən ‘shallow pit’ with Zenaga aʔraš, plural aʔraššan (see Taine-Cheikh 1997a).
Ḥassāniyya speakers whose mother tongue is Zenaga have most likely played a role in the transfer of these affixes and their affixation to nouns of all origins (including those of Arabic origin: a possible example being tasūvra ‘large decorated leather bag for travelling’, cf. sāvər ‘to travel’). The forms that these speakers use can also be different from those used by other Ḩassāniyya speakers – especially if the latter have not been in contact with Berber speakers for a long time.

It is not proven that Berber speakers are the only ones to have created and imposed these forms which are more Berberized than authentically Berber. However, it may be noted that the gender of nouns borrowed from Berber is generally well preserved in Ḩassāniyya, even for the feminine nouns losing their final -t, other than in special cases such as the collective tayšət ‘thorny tree (Balanites aegyptiaca)’ with a final -t (< Zenaga tayšaD for tayšađt).<fnref n="5" /> In fact, this indicates a deep penetration of the meaning of these affixes and of Berber morphology in general (up to and including the incompatibility of these affixes with the definite article).

The borrowing of the formants ən- ‘he of’ and tən- ‘she of’ (quasi-equivalents of the Arabic-derived bū- and ūm(m)-) is fairly widespread, in particular in the formation of proper nouns. It is also mostly in toponyms and anthroponyms that the diminutive form with prefix ay- and suffix -t is found, e.g. the toponym Agjoujt (< ay-žoʔž-t ‘small ditch’).

### 3.2.2 Verbal Morphology

#### 3.2.2.1 The derivation of sa-

The existence of verb forms with the prefix sa- is one of the unique characteristics of Ḩassāniyya (Cohen 1963; Taine-Cheikh 2003). There is nothing, however, to indicate that the prefix is an ancient Semitic feature that Ḩassāniyya has preserved since its earliest days. Instead, the regular correspondences between the three series of derived verb forms (causative-factitive vs. reflexive vs. passive) and the specialization of the morpheme t as a specific marker of reflexivity underlie the creation of causative-factitives with sa-. Neologisms with sa- generally appear when forms with the prefix sta- have a particular meaning: staslaš ‘to get worse (an injury)’ – saslaš ‘to worsen (injury)’; stabrak ‘to seek blessings’ – sabrak ‘to give a blessing’; stagwa ‘to behave as a griot’ – sagwa ‘to make someone a griot’; staqbal ‘to head towards the Qibla’ – saqbal ‘to turn an animal for slaughter in the direction of the Qibla’.

<footnote n="5">⁵In Zenaga, non-intervocalic geminates are distinguished not by length, but rather by tension, and it is this that is indicated by the use of uppercase for the final D.</footnote>
Furthermore, the influence of Berber has certainly played a role, since the pre-
fix s(a)- (or one of its variants) very regularly forms the causative–factitive struc-
ture in this branch of the Afro-Asiatic language family.

In Zenaga, the most frequent realization of this prefix is with a palato-alveolar shibilant, but a sibilant realization also occurs, particularly with roots of Arabic origin. For example: Hass. sādəb (variant of ddəb) – Zen. yassiʔðab ‘to train an animal (with a saddle)’ < CA √ʔdb (cf. ʔaddaba ‘educate, carefully bring up’); Hass. sasla – Zen. yassaslah ‘to let a hide soak to give it a consistency similar to a placenta’ and Hass. stasla – Zen. staslah ‘start to lose fur (of hides left to soak)’ < CA √sly (cf. salā ‘placenta’).

Parallel to these examples where the Berber forms (at least those with the pre-
fix st(a)-) are most likely themselves borrowed, we also find patterns with sa-/ša-
which are incontestably of Berber origin: compare Ḥassāniyya niyyər 'to have a
good sense of direction', sanyar 'to show the way', stanyar 'to know well how
to orient oneself' and Tuareg ener 'to guide', sener 'to make guide'. Typically,
however, when Ḥassāniyya borrows causative forms from Berber, it usually in-
tegrates the Berber prefix as part of the Ḥassāniyya root, making it the first radi-
cal of a quadrilateral root, e.g. Hass. sadba - Tuareg sidou 'to make s.o. leave in the
afternoon' and Hass. ssadba (< tsadba) - Tuareg adou 'to leave in the afternoon'.

The parallelism between Arabic and Berber is not necessarily respected in all
cases, but the forms with initial s-/š- are usually causative or factitive in both
cases. The only exception concerns certain Zenaga verbal forms which have be-
come irregular upon contact with Ḥassāniyya: thus yassəðbah 'to leave in the
afternoon' or yišnar 'to orient oneself' (a variant of yinar), of which the original
causative value is now carried by a form with a double prefix (ž+š): yažəšnar 'to
guide'.

3.2.2.2 The Derivation of u-

The existence of a passive verbal prefix *u-* for quadrilateral verbs and derived forms constitutes another unique feature of Ḥassāniyya. For example: *udagdag*, passive of *dagdag* ‘to break’; *utabbab*, passive of *tabbab* ‘to train (an animal)’; *udāya*, passive of *dāya* ‘to cheat (in a game)’.

The development of passives with *u-* was most likely influenced by Classical
Arabic, since here the passives of all verbal measures feature /u/ in the first syl-
lable in both the perfect and the imperfect, e.g. *fušila*, *yufšalu*; *fuššila*, *yufaššalu*;
and *fūšila*, *yufāšalu*, the respective passives of *fašala*, *faššala* and *fāšala*.

However, influence from Berber cannot be excluded here since, in Zenaga, the
formation of passives with the prefix *Tɣ* is directly parallel to those of the passives
with *u-* in Ḩassāniyya. Moreover, this prefix is *t(t)u-* or *t(t)w-* in other Berber varieties (especially those of Morocco) and this could also have had an influence on the emergence of the prefix *u*.

## 3.3 Syntax

### 3.3.1 Ḩassāniyya–Zenaga parallelisms

Ḥassāniyya and Zenaga have numerous common features, and this is especially true in the realm of syntax. In general, the reason for these common traits is that they both belong to the Afro-Asiatic family and remain conservative in various respects; for example, in their lack of a discontinuous negative construction.

There are, however, also features of several varieties of both languages documented in Mauritania that represent parallel innovations. Thus, corresponding to the diminutive forms particular to Zenaga, we have in Ḩassāniyya mutatis mutandis a remarkably similar extension to verbs of the diminutive pattern with infix -ay-, e.g. mayllas, diminutive of mallas ‘to smooth over’ (Taine-Cheikh 2008a: 123–124).

In the case of aspectual-temporal forms, there are frequent parallels, such as Ḩassāniyya mā tla and Zenaga war yiššiy ‘no longer’, Ḩassāniyya ma-zāl and Zenaga yaššiy ‘still’, Ḩassāniyya tamm and Zenaga yuktay ‘to continue to’, Ḩassāniyya Ṣgab and Zenaga yaggara ‘to end up doing’. One of the most notable parallel innovations, however, concerns the future morpheme: Ḩassāniyya lāhi (invariable participle of an otherwise obsolete verb, but compare ltha ‘to pass one’s time’) and Zenaga yanhāya (a conjugated verb also meaning ‘to busy oneself with something’, in addition to its future function). In both cases we have forms related to Classical Arabic lahā ‘to amuse oneself’, with the Zenaga form apparently being a borrowing. It seems, therefore, that this borrowing preceded the lāhi of Ḩassāniyya and likely then influenced its adoption as a future tense marker. Note also that in the Arabic dialect of the Jews of Algiers, lāti is a durative present tense marker (Cohen 1924: 221; Taine-Cheikh 2004: 224; Taine-Cheikh 2008a: 126–127; Taine-Cheikh 2009: 99).

Ḥassāniyya and Zenaga also display common features with regard to complex phrases. For example, concerning completives, Zenaga differs from other Berber languages in its highly developed usage of *ad ~ að*, and in particular in the grammaticalized usage of this demonstrative as a quotative particle after verbs of speaking and thinking (Taine-Cheikh 2010a). This may have had an influence on the usage of the conjunctions *an(n)-* and *ʃan-* (the two forms tend to be confused) in the same function in Ḩassāniyya.
Finally, regarding the variable appearance of a resumptive pronoun in Ḩassān-
iyya object relative clauses, if influence from Berber (where a resumptive pro-
noun is always absent) has played any role here, it has simply been to reinforce
a construction already attested in the earliest Arabic, whereby the resumptive
pronoun is absent if the antecedent is definite, as in (1).

(1) nṛədd ῶlī-kum ər-ṛwāye lli ṛadd-Ø ῶlī-ya
tell.IMPF.1SG on-2PL DEF-story REL tell.PRF.3SG.M-Ø on-OBL.1SG
muḥammad
Mohammed

‘I am going to tell you the story that Mohammed told me.’

3.3.2 Regional influence of Maghrebi Arabic

The Ḩassāniyya spoken in the south of Morocco is rather heavily influenced by
other Arabic varieties spoken in the region. Even among those who conserve
virtually all the characteristic features of Ḩassāniyya (preservation of interdent-
als, synthetic genitive construction, absence of the pre-verbal particle *kā* - or *tā* -,
absence of discontinuous negation, absence of the indefinite article), particular
features of the Moroccan Arabic koiné appear either occasionally or regularly
among certain speakers. The most common such features are perhaps the gen-
itive particle *dyal* (Taine-Cheikh 1997b: 98) and the preverbal particle *kā* (Aguadé
1998: 211, §37; 213, §42).

In the Ḩassāniyya of Mali, usage of a genitive particle remains marginal, al-
though Heath (2004: 162) highlights a few uses of genitive (n)tāš in his texts.

3.4 Lexicon

3.4.1 Confirmed loanwords

3.4.1.1 Loanwords from Standard Arabic

Verbs loaned from Standard Arabic are as common as nominal and adjectival
loans. Whatever their category, loans are often distinctive in some way (whether
because of their syllabic structure, the presence of particular phonemes or their
morphological template), since the lexeme usually (though not always) has the
same form in both the recipient language and the source language. Examples of
loans without any distinctive features are *barṣar* ‘to justify’ and *ḍahbi* ‘golden’.

A certain number of Standard Arabic verbs with the infix -t- or the prefix sta-
are borrowed, but these verbal patterns can be found elsewhere in Ḩassāniyya.
Certain lexical fields exhibit a particularly high degree of loans from Standard Arabic: anything connected with Islamic studies or abstract concepts (religion, rights, morality, feelings, etc.) and, more recently, politics, media and modern material culture. These regularly retain the meaning (or one of the meanings) of the source-language item.

### 3.4.1.2 Loanwords from Berber

There are many lexical items that are probable loans from Berber, with a number of certain cases among them.

Here we may point to several non-Arabic-origin verbs with cognates across a wide range of Berber languages, such as *kraṭ* ‘to scrape off’ (Zenaga *yugrað*); šayðað ‘to make a lactating camel adopt an orphaned calf from another mother’ (Zenaga *yaṣṣuðað* ‘to breastfeed’, *yuḍḍað* ‘to suckle’); *santa* ‘to begin’ (Zenaga *yassanta* ‘to begin’, Tuareg *ent* ‘to be started, to begin’); *gaymar* ‘to hunt from a distance’ (Berber *gmər* ‘to hunt’).

Other verbs are derived from nouns loaned from Berber. Hence, *yawba* ‘to restrain a camel, put it in an *ayāba*’ (Tuareg *ayaba* ‘jaws’). Sometimes there is both a verb and an adjective stemming from a loaned root, as in *gaylal* ‘to have the tail cut’ and *agīlāl* ‘having a cut tail’ (Tuareg *gilel* and *agilal*).

Some loaned Ḩassāniyya nouns are found with the same root (or an equivalent root) in Berber languages other than Zenaga. For example: *agayš* ‘male bus-tard’ (Tuareg *gayəs*); *āškər* ‘partridge’ (Kabyle *tasekkurt* in the feminine form); *tayffārət* ‘fetlock (camel)’ (Zenaga *tišffart*, Tuareg *téffart*); *azāyər* ‘wooden mat ceiling between beams’ (Zenaga *azayri* ‘lintel, beam (of a well)’, Tuareg *əzgər* ‘to cross’, *ăzəgər* ‘crossbeam’); *talawmāyət* ‘dew’ (Zenaga *taya{ut, Tuareg *tālāmut*); *(n)>tūrža* ‘Calotropis procera’ (Zenaga *turžah*, Tuareg *tərza*).

Most of the loanwords cited above are attested in Zenaga (sometimes in a more innovative form than is found in other Berber varieties, such as *yaggīyay* ‘to have a cut tail’ where /y/ < *l*). However, there are numerous cases where a corresponding Berber item is attested only in Zenaga. In such cases it is difficult to precisely identify the source language, even if the phonology and/or morphology seems to indicate a non-Arabic origin.

Loanwords from Berber seem to be particularly common in the lexicon of fauna, flora, and diseases, as well as in the field of traditional material culture (objects, culinary traditions, farming practices, etc.; Taine-Cheikh 2010b; 2014). Unlike the form of the loans, which is often quite divergent from that of the source items, their semantics tends to remain largely unchanged. However, there are some exceptions, notably when the verbs have a general meaning in Berber
(cf. above 'to breastfeed' vs. 'to make a lactating camel adopt an orphaned calf from another mother').

### 3.4.1.3 Loanwords from Sahel languages

Rather few Ḥassāniyya lexical items seem to be borrowed directly from African languages, and the origin of those that are is rarely known precisely. We may note, however, in addition to *gad}* y ‘dried fish’ (< Wolof) and *d}* ÿ *ngra* ‘warehouse’ (< Soninke), a few terms which appear to be borrowed from Pulaar: *t}* ÿ *hli* ‘roof on pillars’ and *kīri* ‘boundary between two fields’.

In some regions we find a concentration of loans in particular domains in relation to specific contact languages. For example, in the ancient town of Tichitt, we find borrowings from Azer and Soninke (Jacques-Meunié 1961; Monteil 1939; Diagana 2013): *kā* ‘house’ (Azer *ka*(ny), Soninke *kâ*) in *kā n laqqe* ‘entrance of the house’; *killen* ‘path’ (Azer *kille*, Soninke *killé*); *kunyu* ~ *kenyen* ‘cooking’ (Azer *knu* ~ *kenyu*, Soninke *kīnŋú*).

A significant list of loanwords from Songhay has been compiled by Heath (2004) in Mali, including e.g.: *ṣawṣab* (< *sosom* ~ *sosob*) ‘pound (millet) in mortar to remove bran from grains’; *daydi* ~ *dayday* (< *deydey*) ‘daily grocery purchase’; *ākārāy* (< *kaarey*) ‘crocodile’; *sari* (< *seri*) ‘millet porridge’. Only *sari* has been recorded elsewhere in Mauritania (in the eastern town of Walata). On the other hand, all authors who have done field work on the Ḥassāniyya of Mali (particularly in the region of Timbuktu and the Azawad), have noted loanwords from Songhay. This is true also of Clauzel (1960) who, as well as a number of Berber loanwords, gives a small list of Songhay-derived items used in the salt mine of Tāwdenni, such as *titi* ‘cylinder of saliferous clay used as a seat by the miners’ (< *tita*) and *t}* y *ar* ‘adze’ (< *t}* y *ara*).

### 3.4.1.4 Loanwords from Indo-European languages

The use of loanwords from European languages tends to vary over time. Thus, a large proportion of the French loanwords borrowed during the colonial period have more recently gone out of use, such as *b}* ṛ *t)māla* or *q}* ṛ *t)māl* ‘wallet’ (< *porte-monnaie*), *dabbīš* ‘telegram’ (< *dévêche* ‘dispatch’) or *ṣ}* a ṛ *wṣ* ‘to be very close to the colonizers’ (< *service* ‘service’). This is true not only of items referring to obsolete concepts (such as the currency terms *sūvāya* ‘sou’ or *ft}* n/v̈ *vt}* n ‘cent’, likely < *fifteen*), but also of those referring to still-current concepts which are, however, now referred to with a term drawn from Standard Arabic (e.g. *min}* a *str* ‘minister’,
replaced by *wazîr*). This does not, however, eliminate the permanence of some old loanwords such as *wata* ‘car’ (< *voiture*) or *maṣṣa* ‘market’ (< *marché*).<fnref n="6" />

Although not unique to Ḩassāniyya, the frequency of the emphatic phonemes (especially /ṣ/ and /t/) in loans from European languages is notable. Consider, in addition to the treatment of *service*, *porte-monnaie* and *marché* as noted above, that of *baṭrūn* ‘boss’ (< *patron*), which gives rise to *tbaṭran* ‘to be(come) a boss’ *tawn* ‘ton’ (< *tonne*).

3.4.2 More complex cases

3.4.2.1 Wanderwörter

Various Arabic lexical items derive from Latin, Armenian, Turkish, Persian, and so on. In the case of, for example, the names of calendar months, or of items such as trousers (*sərwāl*), these terms are not borrowed directly from the source language by Ḩassāniyya and are found elsewhere (e.g. *balbūza* ‘eyeball’ < Latin *bulbus*, attested throughout the Maghreb). The history of such items will not be dealt with here. We can, however, mention the case of some well-attested terms in Ḩassāniyya that appear to have been borrowed from sub-Saharan Africa.

One such is *māru* ‘rice’, which seems to come from Soninke (*máarò*), although it is also attested in Wolof (*maalo*) and Zenaga (*mārih*). Another term, which is just as emblematic, is *mbūru* ‘bread’, whose origin has variously been attributed to Wolof, Azer, Mandigo, and even English *bread*.

To these very everyday terms, we may also add *mutri* ‘pearl millet’ and *makka* ‘maize’, which have the same form both in Ḩassāniyya and in Zenaga. The first is a loanword from Pulaar (*muutiri*). The second is attested in many languages and seems to have come from the placename Mecca.

As for *garta* ‘peanut’, *lālọ* ~ *lālụ* ‘pounded baobab leaves that serve as a condiment’ (synonym of *taqya* in the southwest of Mauritania) and *kəddu* ‘spoon’, these appear to be used just as frequently in Pulaar as they are in Wolof.

3.4.2.2 Berberized items

Despite the absence of any Berber affixes in the loanwords listed in §3.4.2.1, only *kəddu* ‘spoon’ is regularly used with the definite article. In this regard, these loanwords act like words borrowed from Berber, or more generally, those with Berber affixes.

<footnote n="6">⁶Ould Mohamed Baba (2003) gives an extensive list of loanwords from French and offers a classification by semantic field.</footnote>
It is, in fact, difficult to prove that a noun with this kind of affix is definitely of
Berber origin, since we find nouns of various origins with Berber affixes. Some
of them are loanwords from the languages of the sedentary people of the val-
ley, such as adabāy ‘village of former sedentary slaves (hṛātīn)’ (< Soninke dèbé
‘village’); iggīw ~ īggīw ‘griot’ (Zenaga iggiwi, borrowed from Wolof geewel or
from Pulaar gawlo). Others are borrowed from French: agārāž ‘garage’; təm-
bīskit ‘biscuit’. Even terms of Arabic origin are Berberized, as is likely the case
with tasūvra ‘large decorated leather bag for travelling’ (cf. sāvər ‘to travel’) or
tāẓəẓmīt ‘asthma’ (cf. CA zağma ‘shortness of breath when giving birth’).

3.4.2.3 Reborrowings

Instances of back and forth between two languages – primarily Ḥassāniyya and Zenaga – seem to be the reason for another type of mixed form, illustrated previously in §3.2.2.1 by the Zenaga verbs yassəðbah ‘to leave in the afternoon’ and yišnar ‘to orient oneself’.

Ḥassāniyya saynan ‘to mix gum with water to make ink’ provides another
example, where this time the points of departure and arrival seem to be from
the Arabic side. In fact, this loanword is a borrowing of Zenaga yassuynan ‘to
thicken (ink) by adding gum’, a verb formed from əssayan ‘gum’. This noun in
turn appears to be an adaptation of the Arabic samya ‘ink’.

In the case of sla ‘placenta’, there is a double round-trip between the two lan-
guages, this time without metathesis: after a passage from Arabic to Zenaga (> əs(s)la), there is return to Ḥassāniyya with the causative verb sasla ‘to soak a hide’, and a second loan into Zenaga with the reflexive form (yə)stasla ‘to start to lose fur (of soaked hides)’.

3.4.2.4 Calques

Calques are undoubtedly common, but they are particularly frequent in locutions
such as ræggət əž-žəll ‘susceptibility’ and bū-damła ‘rinderpest’ (literally ‘thin-
ness of skin’ and ‘the one with a tear’). These are exact calques of their Zenaga
equivalents taššəddi-n əyim and ən-andi (Taine-Cheikh 2008a).

3.4.2.5 Individual variation

Receptivity to loanwords differs from one individual to another. This is natural
when we are dealing with bilingual speakers and this probably explains the spe-
cial features of the Ḥassāniyya of the Awlād Banýūg (often bilingual speakers of
Ḥassāniyya and Wolof) or the Ḥassāniyya of Mali (where Arabic speakers often
speak Songhay and sometimes Tamasheq). However, it also depends on the individuals in question in terms of what we might call their “loyalty” to the language, whether the language is under pressure from Moroccan Arabic koiné in Morocco (Taine-Cheikh 1997b; Heath 2002; Paciotti 2017), or whether it is imposed as a lingua franca in Mauritania (Dia 2007).

## 4 Conclusion

The principal domain affected by contact in Ḩassāniyya is that of the lexicon (though an assessment in percentage terms is not at present possible). However, the integration of loanwords – in particular those from Standard Arabic and Berber – has resulted in a significant enrichment of the phonological system and of the inventory of nominal patterns. The effects of contact on the verbal morphology and syntax of the dialect are more indirect. The major developments in Ḩassāniyya seem most likely to instead be a product of internal evolution. In certain cases, Zenaga has probably had an influence; in others, we rather witness instances of parallel evolution.

In future, by studying the vehicular Ḩassāniyya of Mauritania and of the border regions (southern Morocco, southern Algeria, Senegal, Niger, and so on) we will perhaps discover new developments as a result of contacts triggered by the political and societal changes of the twenty-first century.

## Further reading

Links between Ḩassāniyya and other languages are particularly complex at the level of semantics and lexicon. On these topics, beyond the available Ḩassāniyya and Zenaga dictionaries (Heath 2004; Taine-Cheikh 1988–1998; 2008b), readers may consult the available studies of specific fields (Monteil 1952; Taine-Cheikh 2013) or particular templates (Taine-Cheikh 2018b).

## Abbreviations

<table><tr><td>1, 2, 3</td><td>1st, 2nd, 3rd person</td></tr><tr><td>CA</td><td>Classical Arabic</td></tr><tr><td>DEF</td><td>definite</td></tr><tr><td>Hass.</td><td>Ḥassāniyya</td></tr><tr><td>IMPF</td><td>imperfect</td></tr><tr><td>M</td><td>masculine</td></tr></table>

<table><tr><td>OBL</td><td>oblique</td></tr><tr><td>PL</td><td>plural</td></tr><tr><td>REL</td><td>relativizer</td></tr><tr><td>SG</td><td>singular</td></tr><tr><td>Zen.</td><td>Zenaga</td></tr></table>
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