A Grammar of Ghomara Berber

Abstract

This dissertation provides a

grammatical description of Ghomara Berber, a Berber language spoken in

North-Western Morocco by about 10.000 people. The grammar consists of a

description of the phonology, the morphology and the syntax. In the appendices a number of texts and a wordlist are included. Ghomara Berber has been thoroughly influenced by Arabic resulting in parallel systems. In the phonology the consonants, the vowels, assimilations and labialisation are treated. Ghomara Berber has a number of spirantised consonants. In the morphology the parallel systems are most evident. The Berber and Arabic systems are treated separately in most chapters. Arabic diminutive patterns have been borrowed and applied to native Berber-morphology nouns extending the already existing diminutive formation. Many Arabic verbs can only be conjugated using Arabic morphology. Different from many Berber languages, the adjective forms a word class of its own. Arabic active and passive participles are taken over unchanged in Ghomara Berber. In the syntax the interaction between the Arabic and Berber in the relative clause and in mood and aspect presents interesting cases of language contact. This study is of interest to specialists of Berber, Arabic and Afro-Asiatic languages. It provides many interesting language contact phenomena.