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Ait Seghrouchen Berber

Zenati Berber language of east-central Morocco From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

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Ait Seghrouchen Berber, or Seghroucheni (Seghrusheni), is a Zenati Berber language of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster. It is spoken by the Ait Seghrouchen tribe inhabiting east-central Morocco.

Quick Facts Native to, Region ...
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Classification

Ait Seghrouchen Berber is commonly classed as Central Atlas Tamazight. It is reported to be mutually intelligible with the neighbouring Berber dialect of Ait Ayache.[1] Genetically, however, it belongs to the Zenati subgroup of Northern Berber, rather than to the Atlas subgroup to which the rest of Central Atlas Tamazight belongs,[2] and are therefore excluded by some sources from Central Atlas Tamazight.[3]

Ait Seghrouchen is part of the Eastern Middle Atlas Berber cluster of Zenati dialects, which is spoken in the eastern Middle Atlas.

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Phonology

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Consonants

Ayt Seghrouchen is notable for having the lateral fricative [ɬ] as an allophone of the sequence /lt/.[4] /k, g/ are pronounced as stops, unlike the closely related Ayt Ayache dialect in which they are fricatives.[5]

In the table below, when consonants appear in pairs, the one on the left is voiceless.

More information Labial, Dental/ Alveolar ...
  1. mainly in Arabic borrowings
  2. /t/ is aspirated [tʰ][7]
  3. for a small number of speakers, /b/ is sometimes lenited to [β][7]
  4. realization of the sequence /lt/ for some speakers, e.g. ultma 'sister', altu 'not yet'
  5. Abdel-Massih refers to this as a "flap" produced with "vibration" of the tongue.

Vowels

Ait Seghrouchen Berber has a typical phonemic three-vowel system, similarly to Classical Arabic:

More information Front, Back ...

These phonemes have numerous allophones, conditioned by the following environments:

(# denotes word boundary, X denotes C[−flat −/χ//ʁ/], C̣ denotes C[+flat], G denotes C, /χ/, and /ʁ/)

More information Phoneme, Realization ...

Phonetic Schwa

There is a predictable non-phonemic vowel inserted into consonant clusters, realized as [ɪ̈] before front consonants (e.g. /b t d .../) and [ə] before back consonants (e.g. /k χ .../).[10] These are some of the rules governing the occurrence of [ə]:

(# denotes word boundary, L denotes /l r m n/, H denotes /h ħ ʕ w j/)

More information Environment, Realization ...

Stress

Word stress is non-contrastive and predictable — it falls on the last vowel in a word (including schwa).[12]

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References

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