North African Linguistics

Since I'm traveling to Spain in about a week for work, I've been trying to learn Catalan on Duolingo to prepare. Since I've already studied French, Spanish, and Portuguese I thought it wouldn't be too difficult to pick up the basics quickly, but a few things have surprised me. حيث أني سأسافر إلى اسبانيا بعد أسبوع بسبب عملي فأحاول تعلم اللغة الكاتالونية على دوولينجو استعدادا للسفر. كنت أظنه سيكون سهل حيث أنني قد درست الفرنسية والأسبانية والبرتغالية لكنه يوجد بعض الأشياء التي فاجئتني.  Although for the most part the vocabulary is all easy to connect to a Spanish of French cognate, and even some sentences sound exactly like their Castellano equivalents; I'm finding some of the peculiarities of the object pronouns and verb tenses a bit strange. مع أن معظم المفردات لها مقابل أسباني أو فرنسي بديهي وحتى بعض الجمل مثل المقابل الأسباني تماما فأستغرب بعض ميزات نظام الأفعال والضمائر المفعول. Although Catalan shares a construction GO + "to" + infinitive for making a p...

Azul fellawen! It's finally time for another lesson in Zuaran Berber. First off, some basic vocabulary, including masculine, feminine, and plural nouns. Note that masculine nouns typically start with /a/ and feminine nouns typically start and end with /t/. Masculine plurals typically begin with /i/ and end with /n/. Feminine plurals typically begin with /ti/ and end with /n/ but there may be some other plural patterns. أزول فلاون! إنه أخيرا وقت درس جديد بالتويلولت! أولا, بعض المفردات الأساسية ومنهم أسماء في صيغة المذكر والمؤنث والجمع. لاحظوا أن الاسم المذكر عادة يبدأ ب(ا) وأن الاسم المؤنث يبدأ وينتهي ب(ت). يبدأ الجمع المذكر ب(اِ أو اِي) وينتهي ب(ن) وبدأ جمع المؤنث ب(تِ أو تي) وينتهي ب(ن) كذلك ولكن قد توجد تراكيب أخرى للجمع. Twilult English تويلولت عربي afrux boy افروخ ولد tafruxt girl تافروخت بنت bushir older word for boy بوشير ولد (كلمة قديمة) ibushiren boys ايبوشيرن أولاد tibushiren girls تيبوشيرن بنات akshish young man اكشيش شاب takshisht young woman تاكشيشت شابة awal speech اوا...

 Vocabulary for this lesson: مفردات هذا الدرس: ⲧⲟ to boy تۆ ولد ⲓⲇ id man اِيد رجمل ⲅⲁⲣⲣⲓ garri bad جَرِّ سيء ⲙⲁ ma to be, copula مَ يكون ⲁϣⲓⲣ ashir beautiful اَشِر جميل ⲉ̄ⲛ een woman اێێن مرأة ⲃⲟⲩⲣⲟⲩ buru girl بُرُ بنت ⲉⲥⲥⲓ essi water اێسِّ ماء ⲉⲥⲥⲓ-ⲣ essir in the water اێسِّر في الماء ⲕⲁ ka house كَ بيت ⲕⲁ̄-ⲣ kaar in the house كار في البيت ⲉⲗⲟⲩⲙ elum crocodile اێلُم تمساح ⲇⲁ da there is, existential دَ هناك, يوجد, ثمة, فيه Kunuz Nubian is an SOV language, meaning that the verb always comes last. There is only a little flexibility, where the object can come first sometimes for emphasis (OSV). Two of the most important verbs to know are the copula (to be), and the existential (there is). To say that X is Y, all we need to say is X Y ma. See the examples below. النوبي المتوكي من اللغات التي تستخدم صيغة (فاعل - مفعول - فعل) وهذا يعني أن الفعل دائما يأتي في اخر الجملة. هناك بعض المرونة فقط ففي بعض الحالات نستطيع ونطق المفعول قبل الفعل للتشديد على أهميته (مفعول - فاعل - فعل). أهم فعلي ...

The term Yemeni Arabic actually comprises a bunch of different, really fascinating dialects. For example, the Zabidi dialect uses "am" for the definite article instead of the typical "al." It's generally difficult to find resources for Yemeni Arabic compared to more popular ones like Levantine and Egyptian. I personally found that Yemeni dialects are really difficult to understand, even if you know MSA and another dialect like Egyptian well. Dictionaries NTC's Yemeni Arabic Dictionary  this seems pretty good if you can find a copy. Deboo's English-German-Arabic lexicon is probably the most comprehensive, but lack examples and is all romanized. One of its best features is that is lists which region of Yemen words belong to. Yemeni Arabic Learner's Dictionary is an app I created. Though the number of entries is fairly small, it has quiz functionality. Textbooks By and large I've found most textbooks to not be of great quality for self-study. With...

I've been wanting to learn the two Nubian languages spoken in Egypt. Of course, there aren't very many resources for these languages, so I thought it might be helpful to others if I document what I learn as I go. I'm mainly relying so far on Abdel-Hafiz's A Reference Grammar of Kunuz Nubian . The author is a native speaker, and it seems really nice and thorough. I'll start with just the personal pronouns. Kunuz is also called Kenzi and Matokki. I don't yet know why it has these different names, but I'd like to find out. Kunuz is closely related to Dongolawi (also called Andaandi), spoken more on the Sudanese side of the border. The other major Nubian language is Nobiin which has an Egyptian variety called Fadija/Fadikka which is closely related to Mahas (spoken in Sudan). There seem to be more resources available for Sudanese varieties than Egyptian varieties. من زمان وانا نفسي اتعلم اللغتين النوبيين اللي موجودين في مصر. طبعا مفيش موارد كتيره لدراستهم فانا ج...

Palestinian varieties of Arabic can be difficult to find resources for, so I decided to put together a resource list and some basic info. I tried to find Palestinian specific things, but to be honest Jordanian Arabic resources will help you almost just as much, and Lebanese and Syrian resources aren't bad either. Jordanian and Palestinian Arabic are often grouped together as "Southern Levantine Arabic," but there are still many subtle local differences not just by country but by city, urban vs. rural setting, social class, etc.  Dictionaries  Lughatuna is the best online dictionary for Arabic dialects. Their Levantine dictionary contains plenty of examples from Palestinian varieties, although it's all mixed in with Jordanian, Syrian, and Lebanese. Of course, the varieties are close enough that it's usually still helpful to learn from those, especially Jordanian.  This book of proverbs may be a fun companion to the Arabic learner, but like many proverb collection...

I think it would be nice to make some information on Twilult more easily publicly available, so I'm going to start a series of posts about the language, starting with the basics that I know so far. As I learn more, I'll keep adding posts. أعتقد أنه سيكون من اللطيف أن اجعل بعض المعلومات ان لغة أهل زوارة أي تويلولت متاحة علنا بسهولة أكثر فسأبدأ سلسلة بوستات عن اللغة وسوف أبدأ بالأساسيات التي أعرفها. خلال رحلتي في تعلم هذه اللغة سأضل أكتب أكثر. Today will be something simple -- personal pronouns. بوست اليوم عن شيء بسيط وهو الضمائر الشخصية. A note about transliteration: I've used <e> to represent the schwa, which can sound like a schwa or often to my ears like a short /ɪ/ like the <i> in "bit." <ch> represents the /tʃ/ like in English "chair" and <sh> is /ʃ/ like in English "share." The Arabic transliteration is based on ways I've seen native speakers write informally. I tried my hand at a Tifinagh transliteration but I...