Chenoua language
Encyclopedia
Chenoua or Shenwa is the Berber language
of Jebel Chenoua in Algeria
, just west of Algiers
near Tipasa
and Cherchell
. The speech of Jebel Chenoua proper is mutually comprehensible with that of the nearby Beni Menacer, and the two are thus treated as a single language. According to the Ethnologue
(2004) (whose figure is taken from the World Christian Database, 2000), Shenwa has 4,764 speakers.
), Shenwa has the following sounds, given below with International Phonetic Alphabet
and, between angle brackets < >, the Algerian standard Latin orthography for Berber languages used in the rest of the article:
Comparison with other Berber languages suggests that Laoust's transcription may have failed to distinguish certain sounds, notably pharyngealized zˤ.
. Where Laoust's transcription uses o, he seems to be variously indicating labialization (/ʷ/) or an allophone of /u/.
Feminine nouns start with h- (originally t-), and usually end with -t or -t̠: hagmart̠ "mare", hesa "liver". A few feminine nouns have lost the h-: malla "turtledove". A masculine noun can be made diminutive
by adding the feminine affixes: afus "hand" > hafust "little hand". The plurals of feminine nouns fall into much the same types as masculine ones, but adding h- at the beginning and using -in rather than -en: hakt̠emţ "female" > hikt̠emin, harract "girl" > harracin, huqit̠ "stone" > huqay, hawlelit̠ "spider" > hiwlela.
Genitive constructions - English "X of Y" or "Y's X" - are formed as "X Y", in which the prefix of Y changes to u- (masc.) or n ţe- (fem.). Thus, for instance: aman n ţala "the water of the fountain", aglim uγilas "the skin of the panther". n "of" is also used with foreign words: hagmart̠ n elqayd̠ "the mare of the Caid
".
.
"First" and "last" are respectively amezgaru and aneggaru (regular adjectives). Other ordinals are formed with the prefix wis (f. his): wis sen "second (m.)", his t̠elat̠a "third (f.)", etc.
The basic demonstrative adjectives are -a "this" (also -ay, -ad̠; -ax for middle distance), -in "that", -enni "the aforementioned". The demonstrative pronouns include:
The standalone possessive pronouns ("mine", "yours", etc.) are formed by suffixing
the possessive pronouns to "this" (except that ha- is used instead of hax.) Similarly, the adjective "other" (invariable enniḍen) combines with "this" to make forms meaning "the other": unniḍen, henniḍen, id̠enniḍen, hid̠enniḍin.
The main interrogative pronouns are: maţa "what?", manţ "which", manay "who?", mi lan "whose?", miked̠ "with whom?", mid̠eg "in what?", mizeg "with what?", mifeg "on what?", miγer "at/for whom?"
The relative pronoun is i "which".
Indefinite pronouns include yeğ (f. yectenţ) "one, someone", cra "something". Negative forms are made using the Arabic loanword haţa (حتى); haţa d̠ yeğ "no one", haţa d̠ elḥabb "nothing".
(past) and aorist
(non-past, formed by the addition of a-.) There is also an imperative mood. The irregular imperative ia "come" is used with the aorist to form imperatives of the first person: iaw annaroḥet̠ "let's go". The pronoun affixes for these are given under Pronouns. The declarative mood is also accompanied by ablaut:
The participle is formed by adding -n to the 3rd person m. sg., sometimes with ablaut of final vowels: inziz "he sang" > inzizen; ayenziz "he will sing" > ayenzizen, yut̠a "he hit" > yut̠in.
The verb is negated by adding u... c around it: u ţinziz ec "don't sing", u huwired̠ ec "you didn't walk". "Not yet" is u rt̠uci εad̠ or ur uci, where rt̠uci and uci are verbs conjugated in the appropriate person: u rt̠uciγ εad̠ u d yuḍeγ ec "I haven't arrived yet", u hert̠ucid̠ εad̠ ... "you haven't yet..."
Derived verb forms include:
Continuous forms can be formed with aql- "see X" in the present tense, ţuγa "was" in the past tense: aqlay ţeţeγ "I am eating", ţuγay ţeţeγ"I was eating".
), f/fell- "on", γer/γ "towards", akid̠/d̠, "with", jar "among", zat̠ "in front of", awr "behind", i sawen/susawen "under", addu "over".
s precede the verb: ami yiwoḍ "when he arrived", qabel ma ţaγen "see if it's raining". Some important ones include: melmi "when?", ami, γassa(l), assγa, γir "when", ma, kagella, lukan, willa "if", (an)neγ "or".
Ţḥağen γir d̠eg iḍ They only tell stories at night.
Iroḥ uccen yaεd̠el iman es γer fwit̠ lami eqqoren iḍaren u iğim ec ayuwr.
Ikk ed sin iğ wumcic; innas uccen: "Sellek ay u c eţţγec." Iks as umcic hazra seg ḍarennes. Iroḥ uccen iwalla γer waḥzaw ič as elkul iγeṭṭen.
A jackal went and met a child plaiting a rope. The jackal asked the child: "What are you doing?" This child replied: "I'm plaiting a rope." The jackal said: "Make me some shoes." This child tied up his feet. When he was done he told him: "Go show your feet in the sun."
The jackal went and showed his own feet in the sun, and his feet dried and he couldn't walk.
A cat arrived and the jackal told it: "Help me, I won't eat you." The cat took the rope off his feet. The jackal went back to the child, and ate all his goats.
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
of Jebel Chenoua in Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
, just west of Algiers
Algiers
' is the capital and largest city of Algeria. According to the 1998 census, the population of the city proper was 1,519,570 and that of the urban agglomeration was 2,135,630. In 2009, the population was about 3,500,000...
near Tipasa
Tipasa
Tipaza is a Berber-speaking town on the coast of Algeria, capital of the Tipaza province. The modern town, founded in 1857, is remarkable chiefly for its sandy beach, and ancient ruins.-Ancient history:...
and Cherchell
Cherchell
Cherchell is a seaport town in the Province of Tipaza, Algeria, 55 miles west of Algiers. It is the district seat of Cherchell District. As of 1998, it had a population of 24,400.-Ancient history:...
. The speech of Jebel Chenoua proper is mutually comprehensible with that of the nearby Beni Menacer, and the two are thus treated as a single language. According to the Ethnologue
Ethnologue
Ethnologue: Languages of the World is a web and print publication of SIL International , a Christian linguistic service organization, which studies lesser-known languages, to provide the speakers with Bibles in their native language and support their efforts in language development.The Ethnologue...
(2004) (whose figure is taken from the World Christian Database, 2000), Shenwa has 4,764 speakers.
Sounds
Judging by Laoust (whose work on the language unfortunately predates systematic phonologyPhonology
Phonology is, broadly speaking, the subdiscipline of linguistics concerned with the sounds of language. That is, it is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning in any spoken human language, or the field of linguistics studying this use...
), Shenwa has the following sounds, given below with International Phonetic Alphabet
International Phonetic Alphabet
The International Phonetic Alphabet "The acronym 'IPA' strictly refers [...] to the 'International Phonetic Association'. But it is now such a common practice to use the acronym also to refer to the alphabet itself that resistance seems pedantic...
and, between angle brackets < >, the Algerian standard Latin orthography for Berber languages used in the rest of the article:
Consonants
| Bilabial Bilabial consonant In phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a consonant articulated with both lips. The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet are:... |
Dental | Alveolar Alveolar consonant Alveolar consonants are articulated with the tongue against or close to the superior alveolar ridge, which is called that because it contains the alveoli of the superior teeth... |
Palatoalveolar | Velar Velar consonant Velars are consonants articulated with the back part of the tongue against the soft palate, the back part of the roof of the mouth, known also as the velum).... |
Uvular Uvular consonant Uvulars are consonants articulated with the back of the tongue against or near the uvula, that is, further back in the mouth than velar consonants. Uvulars may be plosives, fricatives, nasal stops, trills, or approximants, though the IPA does not provide a separate symbol for the approximant, and... |
Pharyngeal Pharyngeal consonant A pharyngeal consonant is a type of consonant which is articulated with the root of the tongue against the pharynx.-Pharyngeal consonants in the IPA:Pharyngeal consonants in the International Phonetic Alphabet :... |
Glottal Glottal consonant Glottal consonants, also called laryngeal consonants, are consonants articulated with the glottis. Many phoneticians consider them, or at least the so-called fricative, to be transitional states of the glottis without a point of articulation as other consonants have; in fact, some do not consider... |
|
| Plosive | b | t d tˤ ⟨⟩ | k ɡ | q | ||||
| Affricate | ts ⟨ţ⟩ | tʃ ⟨č⟩ dʒ ⟨ğ⟩ | ||||||
| Approximant | w | l | j ⟨y⟩ | |||||
| Fricative | f | θ ⟨⟩ ð ⟨⟩ ðˤ ⟨⟩ | s z sˤ ⟨⟩ | ʃ ⟨c⟩ ʒ ⟨j⟩ | x ⟨⟩ | χ |
ħ ⟨⟩ ʕ ⟨⟩ | h |
| Nasal Nasal consonant A nasal consonant is a type of consonant produced with a lowered velum in the mouth, allowing air to escape freely through the nose. Examples of nasal consonants in English are and , in words such as nose and mouth.- Definition :... |
m | n | ||||||
| Trill Trill consonant In phonetics, a trill is a consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the place of articulation. Standard Spanish <rr> as in perro is an alveolar trill, while in Parisian French it is almost always uvular.... |
r |
Comparison with other Berber languages suggests that Laoust's transcription may have failed to distinguish certain sounds, notably pharyngealized zˤ.
Vowels
/a/, /i/, /u/, /ə/Nouns
Masculine nouns start with a-, i-, u- (in the singular) - like all Berber languages - or more rarely with a consonant (often corresponding to a- in other languages.) Examples: ayd̠i "dog"; fus "hand"; iri "neck"; urt̠u"garden". Their plural is usually in i-...-en (e.g. ameţin "death" > imeţinen), but a variety of other plural forms (e.g. i-...-an, i-...-wen, i-...awen, i-...-en, i-...-a-), sometimes accompanied by internal ablaut, are also found: e.g. ijid̠er "eagle" > ijud̠ar, it̠ri "star" > it̠ran, afer "wing" > ifrawen, icer "fingernail" > icaren.Feminine nouns start with h- (originally t-), and usually end with -t or -t̠: hagmart̠ "mare", hesa "liver". A few feminine nouns have lost the h-: malla "turtledove". A masculine noun can be made diminutive
Diminutive
In language structure, a diminutive, or diminutive form , is a formation of a word used to convey a slight degree of the root meaning, smallness of the object or quality named, encapsulation, intimacy, or endearment...
by adding the feminine affixes: afus "hand" > hafust "little hand". The plurals of feminine nouns fall into much the same types as masculine ones, but adding h- at the beginning and using -in rather than -en: hakt̠emţ "female" > hikt̠emin, harract "girl" > harracin, huqit̠ "stone" > huqay, hawlelit̠ "spider" > hiwlela.
Genitive constructions - English "X of Y" or "Y's X" - are formed as "X Y", in which the prefix of Y changes to u- (masc.) or n ţe- (fem.). Thus, for instance: aman n ţala "the water of the fountain", aglim uγilas "the skin of the panther". n "of" is also used with foreign words: hagmart̠ n elqayd̠ "the mare of the Caid
CAID
Caid may refer to:* Caid , a type of governorship found in North Africa and Moorish Spain* Caid , a form of football popular in Ireland until the mid-19th century...
".
Adjectives
Adjectives agree in number and gender with the noun, and are formed in the same way: e.g. amellal "white", azegrar "long", azaim "good". The particle d̠ is used before adjectives in certain contexts (including as a copula), in the same way as in the Kabyle languageKabyle language
Kabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people north and northeast of Algeria. Estimates about the number of speakers range from 5 million to about 7 million speakers worldwide, the majority in Algeria.-Classification:The classification of Kabyle is Afro-Asiatic, Berber and...
.
Numbers
As in Kabyle, only the first two numbers are Berber; for higher numbers, Arabic is used. They are iğ (f. ict) "one", sen (f. senat̠) "two". The noun being counted follows it in the genitive: senat̠ n ţuwura "two doors"."First" and "last" are respectively amezgaru and aneggaru (regular adjectives). Other ordinals are formed with the prefix wis (f. his): wis sen "second (m.)", his t̠elat̠a "third (f.)", etc.
Pronouns
The basic personal pronouns of Shenwa are as follows. Gender is distinguished in all cases except the first person.| English | Standalone form | Possessive | Direct object | Indirect object | Object of preposition | Subject of preterite Preterite The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past... verb |
Subject of aorist Aorist Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning... verb |
Subject of imperative Imperative mood The imperative mood expresses commands or requests as a grammatical mood. These commands or requests urge the audience to act a certain way. It also may signal a prohibition, permission, or any other kind of exhortation.- Morphology :... verb |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| I | neč, nečinţin | -inu | -i | -ay | -i | -egh | a-...-egh | |
| you (m. sg.) | cek, cekinţin | -nnek | -c, -ic, -icek | -ak | -ek | h-...-d̠ | ah-...-d̠ | - |
| you (f. sg.) | cem, cemminţin | -nnem | -cem, icem | -am | -em | h-...-d̠ | ah-...-d̠ | - |
| he | neţa, neţan | -nnes | -t̠, -it̠, -h | -as | -es | i- | ay- | |
| she | neţat̠ | -ennes | -ţ, -iţ | -as | -es | h- | ah- | |
| we | necnin | -nnegh | -negh, -ghen | -anegh, -aghen | -negh | n- | ann-...(-t̠) | |
| you (m. pl.) | kennim | -nnwen | -kem, -ikem | -awen | -wen | h-...-m | ah-...-m | -t̠ |
| you (f. pl.) | kennimţ | -nnwenţ | -kemţ, -ikemţ | -awenţ | -wenţ | h-...-mţ | ah-...-mţ | -mţ |
| they (m.) | nahnin | -nsen | -t̠en, -it̠en, -hen, -ihen | -asen | -sen | -n | a-...-n | |
| they (f.) | nahninţ | -nsenţ | -t̠enţ, -it̠enţ, -henţ, -ihenţ | -asenţ | -senţ | -nţ | a-...-nţ |
The basic demonstrative adjectives are -a "this" (also -ay, -ad̠; -ax for middle distance), -in "that", -enni "the aforementioned". The demonstrative pronouns include:
- "this": wa m. sg., hax f. sg., yid̠a m. pl., hid̠a f. pl.
- "this" (emphatic): wayek, hayek, id̠ad̠ik, hid̠ad̠ik
- "this" (in question): wenni, henni, id̠enni, hid̠enni
- "that": win, hin, yid̠in, hid̠in
The standalone possessive pronouns ("mine", "yours", etc.) are formed by suffixing
Affix
An affix is a morpheme that is attached to a word stem to form a new word. Affixes may be derivational, like English -ness and pre-, or inflectional, like English plural -s and past tense -ed. They are bound morphemes by definition; prefixes and suffixes may be separable affixes...
the possessive pronouns to "this" (except that ha- is used instead of hax.) Similarly, the adjective "other" (invariable enniḍen) combines with "this" to make forms meaning "the other": unniḍen, henniḍen, id̠enniḍen, hid̠enniḍin.
The main interrogative pronouns are: maţa "what?", manţ "which", manay "who?", mi lan "whose?", miked̠ "with whom?", mid̠eg "in what?", mizeg "with what?", mifeg "on what?", miγer "at/for whom?"
The relative pronoun is i "which".
Indefinite pronouns include yeğ (f. yectenţ) "one, someone", cra "something". Negative forms are made using the Arabic loanword haţa (حتى); haţa d̠ yeğ "no one", haţa d̠ elḥabb "nothing".
Verbs
The declarative mood is divided into two tenses: preteritePreterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
(past) and aorist
Aorist
Aorist is a philological term originally from Indo-European studies, referring to verb forms of various languages that are not necessarily related or similar in meaning...
(non-past, formed by the addition of a-.) There is also an imperative mood. The irregular imperative ia "come" is used with the aorist to form imperatives of the first person: iaw annaroḥet̠ "let's go". The pronoun affixes for these are given under Pronouns. The declarative mood is also accompanied by ablaut:
- Verbs whose imperative consists of two consonants or less (e.g. eğ "eat", eγr "read", ezr "see", enγ "kill") add -a to the stem in the 3rd person singulars and 1st person plural, and -i in all other forms: enγiγ "I killed", henγa "she killed".
- Verbs whose imperative begins with a- (e.g. adef "come in", ad̠er "go down", azen "send") change it to u-: thus ud̠efen "they came in", hud̠efed "you (sg.) came in. (Verbs such as af "find" belong to both this and the previous group.) awi "bring" and awd̠ "arrive" are exceptions, changing a- to i-: yiwi "he brought".
- Verbs with -a- in the middle (e.g. laz "be hungry", nam "have the habit of", ğal "judge") change it to -u-: elluzeγ "I was hungry".
- Verbs with a final vowel usually behave like the two-consonant ones: arji "dream" > ourjiγ "I dreamt", yurja "he dreamt"; egmi "teach" > egmiγ "I taught", igma "he taught". But there are exceptions: erni "be born" > irni "he was born".
The participle is formed by adding -n to the 3rd person m. sg., sometimes with ablaut of final vowels: inziz "he sang" > inzizen; ayenziz "he will sing" > ayenzizen, yut̠a "he hit" > yut̠in.
The verb is negated by adding u... c around it: u ţinziz ec "don't sing", u huwired̠ ec "you didn't walk". "Not yet" is u rt̠uci εad̠ or ur uci, where rt̠uci and uci are verbs conjugated in the appropriate person: u rt̠uciγ εad̠ u d yuḍeγ ec "I haven't arrived yet", u hert̠ucid̠ εad̠ ... "you haven't yet..."
Derived verb forms include:
- a causativeCausativeIn linguistics, a causative is a form that indicates that a subject causes someone or something else to do or be something, or causes a change in state of a non-volitional event....
in s-: azeg "boil" > sizeg "make something boil". - a "reciprocal" middle voice in m-: zer "see" > mzer "be seen"
- a passive voice in ţwa-: abba "carry" > ţwabba "be carried".
- Various habitual forms.
Continuous forms can be formed with aql- "see X" in the present tense, ţuγa "was" in the past tense: aqlay ţeţeγ "I am eating", ţuγay ţeţeγ"I was eating".
Prepositions
Prepositions precede their objects: i medden "to the people", sgi Bazar "from Tipaza". Some of the main ones are: i "to" (dative), n "of", d̠eg/d̠i/eg/i "in(to)", seg/zeg-/si "from", s "using" (instrumentalInstrumental
An instrumental is a musical composition or recording without lyrics or singing, although it might include some non-articulate vocal input; the music is primarily or exclusively produced by musical instruments....
), f/fell- "on", γer/γ "towards", akid̠/d̠, "with", jar "among", zat̠ "in front of", awr "behind", i sawen/susawen "under", addu "over".
Conjunctions
ConjunctionGrammatical conjunction
In grammar, a conjunction is a part of speech that connects two words, sentences, phrases or clauses together. A discourse connective is a conjunction joining sentences. This definition may overlap with that of other parts of speech, so what constitutes a "conjunction" must be defined for each...
s precede the verb: ami yiwoḍ "when he arrived", qabel ma ţaγen "see if it's raining". Some important ones include: melmi "when?", ami, γassa(l), assγa, γir "when", ma, kagella, lukan, willa "if", (an)neγ "or".
Sample text
Qaren midden: Unni ayḥağen d̠ug ass, adeffeγen arraw ennes d̠iferd̠asen. They say: he that tells stories in the daytime, his children will turn bald.Ţḥağen γir d̠eg iḍ They only tell stories at night.
Uccen aked̠ waḥzaw/The jackal and the child
Iğ wuccen iroḥ iggur lami g ufa iğ waḥzaw iţellem i hezra. Innas uccen i warrac enni: "Maţa hellid̠ hegared̠." Arrac enni innas: "Ţellemeγ d̠i hezra." Innas uccen: "Ad̠el ay hirkasin." Arrac enni iţxiyeḍ as iḍaren nes. Lami iqaḍa innas: "Roḥ, aεd̠el iḍaren ennek̠ γer fwit̠."Iroḥ uccen yaεd̠el iman es γer fwit̠ lami eqqoren iḍaren u iğim ec ayuwr.
Ikk ed sin iğ wumcic; innas uccen: "Sellek ay u c eţţγec." Iks as umcic hazra seg ḍarennes. Iroḥ uccen iwalla γer waḥzaw ič as elkul iγeṭṭen.
A jackal went and met a child plaiting a rope. The jackal asked the child: "What are you doing?" This child replied: "I'm plaiting a rope." The jackal said: "Make me some shoes." This child tied up his feet. When he was done he told him: "Go show your feet in the sun."
The jackal went and showed his own feet in the sun, and his feet dried and he couldn't walk.
A cat arrived and the jackal told it: "Help me, I won't eat you." The cat took the rope off his feet. The jackal went back to the child, and ate all his goats.