Sened language

Sened is an extinct East Zenati Berber language that was spoken in the nearby towns of Sened and Majoura (Berber Tmagurt) in southern Tunisia until the mid-20th century. In 1911, the whole town of Sened spoke Berber; by 1968, only the elderly did.

Sened
Native to	Tunisia
Region	Sened and Tmagourt
Extinct	1990[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Berber Northern Zenati East Sened
Dialects	Sened proper Tmagourt
Language codes
ISO 639-3	sds
Linguist List	sds
Glottolog	sene1271
Berber-speaking areas belonging to the Tunisia-Zuwara dialectal group

Sample

From a section translated from the epic Taghribat Bani Hilal, detailing the incursion of the Banu Hilal, in Provotelle's Etude sur la Tamazir't ou Zenatia de Qalaât Es-sned (Tunisie) (1911). The Arabic and French transcriptions of the text are reproduced unchanged; in the latter, r' represents a voiced uvular fricative, kh a voiceless uvular fricative, ch represents English sh, ou represents /u/ or /w/, i represents /i/ or /j/, and e represents schwa.

الوختي دياب الاَلاَلَي ينغاَ خليفا الزناتي يليس غيداء تني زنق نزيمل نبويس - ومان الاَلاَلي - تسكركوست تنغيتتش او يني زنق نزيمليس - يني دياب زنق نزيمليس - يونس باش اّينغيت.‎

El

When

Oukhti

Diab

Diab

El

Elalalia

Hilali

ienr'a

killed

Khlifa

Khlifa

Ezzenati

Ezzenati,

ill-is

daughter-his

R'ida

Ghida

tenni

rode

zenneg

top

n

of

ezzimmel

horse

n

of

ebboïs.

father-her.

Oumman

Said-they

El Alali,

the-Hilalis,

teskerkoust

you-have-lied

tenr'it-etch.

you-killed-him-not.

Aou

Here-he-is

ienni

rides

zenneg

top

n

of

ezziml-is.

horse-his.

Ienni

Rode

Diab

Diab

zenneg

top

n

of

ezziml-is,

horse-his,

ious-es

goes

bâch

to

aïenr'it.

kill-her.

El Oukhti Diab Elalalia ienr'a Khlifa Ezzenati ill-is R'ida tenni zenneg n ezzimmel n ebboïs. Oumman {El Alali}, teskerkoust tenr'it-etch. Aou ienni zenneg n ezziml-is. Ienni Diab zenneg n ezziml-is, ious-es bâch aïenr'it.

When Diab El Hilali killed Khlifa Ezzenati, daughter-his Ghida rode top of horse of father-her. Said-they the-Hilalis, you-have-lied you-killed-him-not. Here-he-is rides top of horse-his. Rode Diab top of horse-his, goes to kill-her.

When Diab El Hilali killed Khlifa Ezzenati, his daughter Ghida got on her father's horse. The Hilalis said "You lied; you didn't kill him!. There he is riding his horse." Diab mounted his horse and went forth to kill her.