Nafusi language

Nafusi (also spelt Nefusi; in Nafusi: Ažbali / Maziɣ / Mazoɣ) is a Berber language spoken in the Nafusa Mountains (Drar n infusen), a large area in northwestern Libya. Its primary speakers are the Ibadi communities around Jadu, Nalut (Lalut) and Yafran.

Nafusi
Ažbali;[1] Mazoɣ / Maziɣ[2] (Nafusi)
Native toLibya
RegionNafusa Mountains
Native speakers
300,000 (2020)[3]
Dialects
  • Jerbi
  • Zuwara
  • Tamezret (Duwinna)
Language codes
ISO 639-3jbn
Glottolognafu1238

The dialect of Yefren in the east differs somewhat from that of Nalut and Jadu in the west.[4] A number of Old Nafusi phrases appear in Ibadite manuscripts as early as the 12th century.[5]

The dialect of Jadu is described in some detail in Beguinot (1931).[6] Motylinski (1898) describes the dialect of Jadu and Nalut as spoken by a student from Yefren.[7]

Nafusi shares several innovations with the Zenati languages, but unlike these other Berber varieties it maintains prefix vowels before open syllables. For example, ufəs "hand" < *afus, rather than Zenati fus. It appears especially closely related to Sokni and Siwi to its east.[8]

Phonology

Vowels
Front Central Back
High i u
Mid ɛ ə ɔ
Low a
  • Vowels may also be shortened /ĭ, ɛ̆, ă, ɔ̆, ŭ/ or lengthened as /iː, ɛː, aː, ɔː, uː/.
  • /a/ can also be heard as [æ, ɒ] and /u/ as [ʊ] in different environments.[9]

Consonants
Labial Alveolar Post-alv./
Palatal		 Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal
plain phar. plain phar.
Plosive voiceless t tˤ k q ʔ
voiced b d dˤ g
Affricate voiceless ts tʃ
voiced dz dzˤ dʒ
Fricative voiceless f s sˤ ʃ χ ħ h
voiced z zˤ ʒ ʒˤ ʁ ʕ
Nasal m n
Lateral l ɫ
Trill r rˤ
Approximant w j

References
  1. Provasi, Elio. 1973. Testi berberi di Žâdo (Tripolitania). Annali dell’Istituto Orientale di Napoli 23, p. 503
  2. Beguinot, F. 1931. Il berbero Nefûsi di Fassâṭo. Grammatica. Testi raccolti dalla viva voce. Vocabolarietti. Roma. p. 220
  3. Nafusi at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022) closed access
  4. Beguinot 1931:VIII
  5. Tadeusz Lewicki, "De quelques textes inédits en vieux berbère provenant d'une chronique ibāḍite anonyme" and André Basset, "Note additionnelle", Revue des études islamiques VIII, 1934, pp. 277, 298
  6. Francesco Beguinot, Il berbero nefûsi di Fassâṭo: grammatica, testi raccolti dalla viva voce, vocabolarietti. Roma: Istituto per l'Oriente 1931
  7. p. 1, A. de Calassanti-Motylinski, Le Djebel Nefousa: transcription, traduction française et notes, avec une étude grammaticale, Paris: Ernest Leroux, 1898.
  8. Maarten Kossmann, 1999, Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère, Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, pp. 29-33
  9. Di Tolla, Anna Maria; Shinnib, Mohamed (2020). Grammatica di berbero nefusi. Ulrico Hoepli Editore.
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