Locust in Moroccan Tamazight = tamurġi Darija = žžṛad A locust ranging from the Canary Islands to South Kazakhstan was named Dociostaurus maroccanus (thanks to Thunberg 1815). Attempts to rename it Mediterranean didn't stick: Ar. al-jarād al-murrākušī Pers. malaḵ-e marākeši Tur. Fas çekirgesi etc

To explain the Ar. 'ribq': "rope with multiple loops for tying animals", Ibn Sallām al-Ibāḍi (d. 273/887) gives the Berber word 'tas[a|e]ddit' 'as[a|e]ddi iz'. The word still exists today in CA & SE Tamazight w/ the meanings of: 1. 'restraining rope for multiple animals'= asəddi (Taïfi) 1/

Numbers in Amazigh: A quinary number system (base five) recorded by M. Letourneux around the oasis of Souf (Algeria), before 1860.

Word of the day: 'labor' In Tamazight (SE Morocco): - tawuri , tiwiri - a few from Ar : ššġʷl, lxdəmt, lhəmm (the latter oft used to refer to women's work) - (go into labor) : aẓbaṛ A saying: yan mi ur tmmiġ tadawt, ur ičči tiġṛad n təġʷrdin (a dry back will never earn a shoulder's wages)

One more book about Figuig and its wider region (it is a bit less general than the title suggests). By the infatigable Hassane Benamara! @hamidouyachi.bsky.social @lameensouag.bsky.social

Share your favourite words, etymologies, idioms, proverbs and riddles in African languages! stemmenvanafrika.nl/contact/

In Tamazight (CA & SE Morocco): > nnun (< Ar) > tizelmi (whether from SLM which gives 'asləm' fish, or ZLM which gives 'azəllum': wool thread, and 'bu-zəllum': sciatic nerve??) In Tashlḥiyt: > assisaġ : sea eel > irimml : fresh water eel > snnuṛ, ssanuṛ (< Ar)

Da man manchmal etwas Werbung in (halb)eigner Sache machen muss. Ahmad Ziani's Gedicht 3ellal gehört in den Weltliteratkanon. ⬇️

In “The Imam’s Anxiety” by Mohamed Akounad (tr. El Habib Louai), an imam debates whether to deliver a sermon in his congregants' native tongue. Read this story, from our collection of Amazigh literature, here: buff.ly/3BENxOf

A few years ago, Mansour Ghaki published a new Libyco-Berber text from Dougga, which consists of 7 lines of Libyan text, 1 line of (unrelated) Punic text, and two lines that are unreadable. In line 2, he reads SYN GLDT W MQLZ GLDT WTQN MWSNT "ŠYN the gld, son of MQLZ(?) the gld, son of ṬQN the mwsn"

Conflict over water was frequent between communities/tribes in Morocco. Stealing water is a serious breach (awttu) and "war" often follows. From Boulifa's collection (1913), a brief description of such a conflict in the Atlas. How does it go on D day? Translation below: 1/

In North. Amazigh dialects the most common word for ‘sling’ is some variant of ‘ildi’. In Yeou, I came across another word ‘kungari’. He gives it as only occurring in the Figuig dialect. ‘Kungara’ (also ‘Konjara’) can be found as ethnonym in the former Kordofan province of Sudan and in Darfur. 1/

"In the blink of an eye" > Moroccan Darija: f-ṛəmša > Tmz (CA & SE): 'aynna xf zggunt tluffaẓ'= the time it takes for spit to dry A colorful exp. allegedly said by a Moroccan sultan to a caïd: 'get here you and your ḥarka (retinue) such that if you wet your hair there you'll shave it here'

RESCHEDULED for July 17th, "Segmental Acoustics of Tashlhiyt Berber’s Infant-Directed Speech: How do Caregivers Modify Vowels and Consonants in a Complex Phonological System" with Abdellah Elouatiq at 6:00 PM IST / 2:30 PM CEST / 8:00 AM EDT. Join here: hu-berlin.zoom-x.de/j/62482000502

Friday bird bit: The Grey Catbird (Dumetella carolinensis) in my backyard sounds sometimes like R2D2 on the fritz, others like it is doing some serious 'birdsplaining'. This morning I am renaming it "the filibuster bird"! abcbirds.org/bird/gray-ca...

In his article on Berber origins in the Encyclopédie Berbère, the great Salem Chaker assumes linguistic continuity from the late Neolithic. One of the arguments he adduces is the lack of evidence for substrate toponyms - so the absence of traces of pre-Berber languages. What can we say about this?

A flowery blessing in Tamazight (CA & SE Morocco): > ad isbǝdd Ṛbbi alǝdžžig afǝlla n uʕkkʷaz-nnk! (May God flower your walking stick)

Carte 3/3 : Le Maroc, un pays à l'étroit après son indépendance

Carte 2/3 La mobilisation marocaine en faveur de la déposition du sultan Mohammed V (1953)

Je vous ai déjà montré les cartes réalisées pour ma thèse ? Le Protectorat marocain au début du règne de Mohammed V (années 1930)

La grenouille qui craignait l’eau. Jocelyne Laâbi - Avec la rivière mon conte s’en est allé. Contes du Maroc 🇲🇦

On not giving when giving: > tamḷḷaẓt: 'a bit of something that does not satisfy (does the opposite)' > amḷḷaẓu : 'miser' "afus n umḷḷaẓu ur iki ġas tamḷḷaẓt" = 'a miser's hand only kindles hunger' Both words from the root LẒ that gives the word for 'hunger' = 'ḷaẓ'

#Numismatics A few words for money/coin in Amazigh lects (Tmz, Tash, Morocco): Some, historically obvious: lflus, idrimn, aṣoldi, tawqqiyt, iqaṛiḍn (linked by Chafik under Ar. ‘quṛṣ’ to the word for ‘(round) loaf of bread’; round silver qirāṭ were indeed issued under the Almoravids. 👇🏽

Here is the cover of the inaugural book of the Amazigh Studies series published by Georgetown University Press! ‎سعيد بمشاركتكم غلاف أول كتاب سيصدر عن سلسلة الدراسات الأمازيغية التي تنشرها دار نشر جامعة جورجتاون!

Watching RTVE (Spanish TV) now : "cabeza de turco" for "scapegoat"

Issue 3 of Tamazgha Studies Journal is now live: lnkd.in/gCKYVnsK. I hope you will enjoy the contents of this issue which features, in addition to the editors’ introduction, several peer-reviewed articles, translations, interviews, and book reviews. Always happy to hear from prospective authors!

Critical Amazigh Studies Summer Institute: June 30 - July 11 (Université Internationale, Rabat) www.jadaliyya.com/Details/4656...

I have been working a bit on a construction in Tmazight of Figuig that I think is really nice. A typical feature in Amazigh are non-initial aspects, that is, finite verb forms that express close connection an earlier verb. One such form is the Bare Aorist, which takes the aspectual interpretation of

Naming a lemonade "Limonade Hamoud" is like naming an absinthe "Absinthe Chibani" :)

A bit of news! My translation from #Tamazight of Azergui's "Aghrum n Yihaqqarn", under contract with Georgetown U Press, to be published in their new "Amazigh Studies Series", Spring 2026!! An early version of a short extract is available on @wwborders.bsky.social here: buff.ly/3VfWXGf

Touching. Had to translate it into Tamazight: "ak asiġ ġf twẓ̌ẓ̌a-nw amm tmsuḍṭṭ*; ak grġ gr yiffan-inw amm taṛmmant; ad mmuydġ mmatrġ-k iḍ mayd ila; s wass ad-ak kġ aġu; tifawt ad id-k hḍrġ, naġ 'han kukku**...' ad ur ttggʷdt a yagnduz-inw, a wnna ssgmiġ" * nursemaid ** a tickling game

Now available in open access under the Leiden Repository: my article “the use of the bare aorist in Figuig Berber (Eastern Morocco)”. Unfortunately some very irritating errors were added during the editing process (Springer 🤦) scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/handle/1887/...

Looking @ topography of North Africa's megalakes (postulated to have existed, details in ALT txt), it is not hard to imagine how Crocodylus succus (desert croc), Egyptians' sacred croc spread across NA: fossil records attest same species in Mauritania, Morocco, Algeria, Libya, Niger, Mali, Tchad...

Tamazight (SE Morocco) word of the day: > iriz : conjoined twin "iriz is a creature born with two heads, or two creatures with one head, or one creature with eight legs, or six, or three, or (just) two legs: one front leg and one hindleg." (Source: Bynon)

In Tamazight (C & SE Morocco) the common word for 'raven' is: 'ahaqqar', but there is a parallel word: 'aɛqqay'. In passing, the raven also has a prp. name in common lore: 'hamuš', and its call is: ġġġ! ġġġ!

Translating onomatopoeias is tricky. Few from Tamazight (Morocco) swimming: abb abb stone in water: ggabb wind: wžž wžž thunder: ddaddaddaddadd explosion: ggaw heavy rain/tears: bxx bxx physical labor: ttax ttax building wall/house: ddah ddah forge sounds: qqabbuqqibbi copulation: ččakk ččakk

Excerpt from a Tamazight poem (c. 1933 CA Morocco). A lament, in the face of the colonial power terraforming the landscape to build roads, tunnels. Even the genies of the land are powerless, yet always keen to battle with the locals if they trespass on their realm. Close to the text transl. 👇🏽 1/

When life is a weight: In Spanish (Sp), to say "I am surviving" in response to "how are you?", one can say: "voy tirando!" In Tamazight (Morocco SE), a parallell expression: "da nẓẓuɣur!" (v. 'ẓẓuɣr = pull)

Postprint online now: "Argan as a substratum word" shs.hal.science/halshs-04867... (pic by Daniel*D from WP)

Répartition mondiale de quelques mythes d'origine de la mort…

In this excerpt from Azergui’s “Raven’s Bread” (tr. @hamidouyachi.bsky.social ) a journalist imprisoned for criticizing the government is released into uncertainty during Morocco’s “Years of Lead.” Read the excerpt on WWB: https://buff.ly/49WZKua

Botany Thursday: A plant with a peculiar Mediterranean distribution. Athamanata Sicula (or Tinguara Sicula), known in Tamazight (Amzmiz, Morocco) as ‘tafifran’ (likely a compound of ‘3.sg:f-af:ao’: find + ‘ifran’ : caves; it also grows on damps rocks). 1/ powo.science.kew.org/taxon/urn:ls...

This fascinating Sufi brotherhood music from northeastern Morocco, featuring sung poetry carried by two spellbinding flutes weaving eerie sonorities and trance-like rhythms, is available for Flac and MP3 download on my blog: music-republic-world-traditional.blogspot.com/2023/03/moro... #Maroc #sufi

Leafing thru J. Robichez "Paroles Berbères de la Résistance: Maroc Central 1935-40"(ed. B. Benachir), got me thinking, there are many administrative borrowings from the French, as expected, but names of weapons are mainly borrowed from Arabic, with some in local Tamazight. A few examples: 1/

Fearlessness and determination are the means to go on in this excerpt from Azergui's novel "Ravens' Bread," set during Morocco's "Years of Lead." You can read it on WWB in @hamidouyachi.bsky.social 's translation from Tamazight:

In “The Imam’s Anxiety” by Mohamed Akounad (tr. El Habib Louai), an imam debates whether to deliver a sermon in his congregants' native tongue. Read this story, from our collection of Amazigh literature, here: https://buff.ly/49yO3Kh

Excited to see my translation of an excerpt from Azergui's novella "Aɣrum n Yihaqqarn" up on @wwborders.bsky.social. You can read the translation side by side with the original, if you are so inclined. Thanks WWB 🙏🏽

Excited to see my translation of an excerpt from Azergui's novella "Aɣrum n Yihaqqarn" up on @wwborders.bsky.social. You can read the translation side by side with the original, if you are so inclined. Thanks WWB 🙏🏽

Surprisingly, this is cognate to English assegai, a loanword via Spanish from Berber. (Cf. Tamajeq tazɣayt "sharp blade". Zenaga regularly changes ɣ > ʔ, and Tetserret drops it altogether.)

Homophonic translation: Heidegger's 'Zeit und Sein' was translated into Arabic in 1988 as 'al-kaynūna wa-zzaman'. I don't know, but "زيت و زين" sounds better :)