Notes on a Moroccan Arabic Secret Language: The X…RinC Family

Nasser Berjaoui
Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco

The present work analyses one category (family) of the Moroccan Arabic Secret Languages of the Tafilalet (TSLs), the south-east of Morocco. In this family, which involves thirty-three varieties, a consonant of the word is substituted by the consonant of the variety under usage. Then the new word is followed by the constant disguise element “rin” and the substituted consonant (that of the word). For instance, the word “ktab” (a book) is encoded in one variety of the TSLs as “stabrink” and as “wtabrink” in another one.

The present book involves eight chapters and a detailed bibliography for secret languages research. The first chapter presents major methodological backgrounds to our study. Chapter two introduces major sociolinguistic aspects of the TSLs with reference to such aspects as sex, age and locations, for example. Chapter three investigates the encoding operations of prefixless words, like nouns and adjectives, for example. Chapter four scrutinizes the encoding of prefixed items, like verbs and passive participles, and their negated versions. Chapter five is concerned with the encoding of long, short and lengthened parts of speech. Chapter six aims at a description of the encoding of sentences, phrases, clauses and negated sentences. Chapter seven mirrors the uses of the TSLs in everyday-like encounters. Chapter eight presents a detailed account of the rules governing the varieties of the x…rinC family of the TSLs.

ISBN 9783895863899. LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 17. 144pp. 2007.

Notes on a Moroccan Arabic Secret Language: The X…RinCa Family

Nasser Berjaoui
Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco

The present work analyses one category (family) of the Moroccan Arabic Secret Languages of the Tafilalet (TSLs), the south-east of Morocco. In this family, which involves thirty-three varieties, a consonant of the word is substituted by the consonant of the variety under usage. Then the new word is followed by the constant disguise element “rin”, the substituted consonant (that of the word) and the vowel “a”. For instance, the word “ktab” (a book) is encoded in one variety of the TSLs as “stabrinka” and as “wtabrinka” in another one.

The present book involves eight chapters and a detailed bibliography for secret languages research. The first chapter presents major methodological backgrounds to our study. Chapter two introduces major sociolinguistic aspects of the TSLs with reference to such aspects as sex, age and locations, for example. Chapter three investigates the encoding operations of prefixless words, like nouns and adjectives, for example. Chapter four scrutinizes the encoding of prefixed items, like verbs and passive participles, and their negated versions. Chapter five is concerned with the encoding of long, short and lengthened parts of speech. Chapter six aims at a description of the encoding of sentences, phrases, clauses and negated sentences. Chapter seven mirrors the uses of the TSLs in everyday-like encounters. Chapter eight presents a detailed account of the rules governing the varieties of the x…rinCa family of the TSLs.

ISBN 9783895863257. LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 18. 144pp. 2007.

Notes on a Moroccan Arabic Secret Language of the Tafilalet: The X…RinCu Family

Nasser Berjaoui
Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco

The present work analyses one category (family) of the Moroccan Arabic Secret Languages of the Tafilalet (TSLs), the south-east of Morocco. In this family, which involves thirty-three varieties, a consonant of the word is substituted by the consonant of the variety. Then the new word is followed by the disguise element “rin”, the substituted consonant (that of the word) and the vowel “u”. For instance, the word “ktab” (a book) is encoded in one variety of the TSLs as “stabrinku” and as “wtabrinku” in another one.

The present book involves eight chapters and a detailed bibliography for secret languages research. The first chapter presents major methodological backgrounds to our study. Chapter two introduces major sociolinguistic aspects of the TSLs with reference to such aspects as sex, age and locations, for example. Chapter three investigates the encoding operations of prefixless words, like nouns and adjectives, for example. Chapter four scrutinizes the encoding of prefixed items, like verbs and passive participles, and their negated versions. Chapter five is concerned with the encoding of long, short and lengthened parts of speech. Chapter six aims at a description of the encoding of sentences, phrases, clauses and negated sentences. Chapter seven mirrors the uses of the TSLs in everyday-like encounters. Chapter eight presents a detailed account of the rules governing the varieties of the x…rinCu family of the TSLs.

ISBN 9783895863264. LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 19. 144pp. 2007

Extraprosodicity and Syllable Structure in Berber

An Optimality-theoretic Analysis

Youcef Hdouch
Ibn Tofail University, Kenitra

The present study investigates the concept of Extraprosodicity and its relevance to Tamazight syllable structure. This notion has been hinted at in studies carried out within different frameworks: Prosodic Phonology (Ito 1986- 1989); Hayes (1993)); Autosegmental Phonology (Goldsmith (1990)); Prosodic Morphology (McCarthy (1985-1989) and Optimality Theory (McCarthy and Prince (1993); Prince and Smolensky (1993)). However, this notion still needs to be explored further. The reason for this maneuver is twofold: a) to determine what Extraprosodicity is and b) to exactly explain the principles that condition its use. Such limitations make of Extraprosodicity a principal research objective especially that it makes the formulation of rules having to do with Tamazight syllable structure an easy enterprise.

This study is thus concerned with the applicability of the notion of extraprosodicity in analysing aspects of syllable structure of a variety of Tamazight spoken in El ksiba . Ait Wirra Tamazight Berber (Henceforth AWTB). Extraprosodicity simply means that syllable-building rules are blind to incorporating certain edge constituents into the structures they build. In the case of syllable structure, the extraprosodicity model uses the notion of Extrasyllabicity.

Three reasons stand behind the exploration of Extraprosodicity. First, this concept has received little attention from Berberists. The works that have dealt with cases involving Extraprosodicity and its relevance to Tamazight syllable structure are Bader (1985), Adnour (1994) and Faizi (2002). Second, the treatments propounded in these studies have failed to come up with an account that is explanatorily adequate, since Extraprosodicity is considered a tool to account only for irregular cases where schwa epenthesis is blocked. Third, the analyses undertaken in these works consider Extraprosodicity a language-specific mechanism. Thus, they fail to recognize it as the result of the interaction of more general constraints pertaining to Universal Grammar.

In this book, beside relying on the assumptions of Standard Non-linear Generative Phonology, we basically assume the conception of grammar as proposed within Optimality Theory (henceforth OT). It is within the general framework of OT (McCarthy and Prince (op.cit.) and Prince and Smolensky (op.cit.) and later development, namely Correspondence Theory - that we attempt an analysis of some aspects of AWTB word morphophonology that motivate the use of Extraprosodicity. In fact, the basic principles of OT will be applied to explain the interaction between prosodic phenomena such as syllabification, epenthesis and affixation, a morphological process. To explain, some prosodic words’ final syllables end in a sequence of three consonants, a structure not permitted word internally. Monoconsonantal coronal nominal affixes and verbal clitics create these sequences. The second chunk of the feminine morpheme /t ----- t/, the third masculine / feminine object clitics /t/ and /tt/, the second part of the 2nd person pronoun /t --- d/ and the orientation index /d/ give rise to clusters of three consonants when attached to nominal and verbal stems respectively.

ISBN 9783895861383. LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Languages 20. 226pp. 2008.

Moroccan Secret Languages

Evidence from the ġuş

Nasser Berjaoui
Ibn Tofail University, Kénitra, Morocco

The present work, the eighths of a series of books on Moroccan secret languages (the ġuş) of the Tafilalet (TSLs), the south-east of Morocco, thoroughly investigates three broad categories of the languages in question. These are the x...xәrxәllәC, the x…Ca and the x…ŗaCi families. Each of these involves more than thirty varieties. In the x...xәrxәllәC category, a consonant of the word is substituted by the consonant of the variety under usage (x). Then the new word is followed by a second copy of the consonant of the variety (x) , the syllable "әr" , a third copy of the same consonant (x), the fragment "әllә" and the substituted consonant (that of the word), that is "C" . Thus, the final encoding strategy shows the fragment: x...xәrxәllәC.

For instance, the word "mat" (die) is encoded in one variety of the x...xәrxәllәC family as "sat sәrsәllәm" and as "wat wәrwәllәm" in another one. In the x…Ca category, a consonant of the word is substituted by the consonant of the variety under usage (x). Then the new word is followed by the substituted consonant (that of the word, "C") and the vowel "a". For instance, the word "ktab" (a book) is encoded in one variety of the x…Ca type as "stab ka" and as "wtab ka" in another one. In the x…ŗaCi family, a consonant of the word is changed by the consonant of the variety under usage (x). Then the newly created word is followed by the constant disguise syllable "ŗa", the substituted consonant (that of the word, "C") and the vowel "i". For example, the word "sarut" (a key) is secretised in one variety of the x…ŗaCi family as "warut ŗasi" and as "karut ŗasi" in another one. The present book contains three parts, with each separately investigating one family of the TSLs. This work addresses linguistic areas of main concern to graduate and post-graduate students, linguists, phonologists, morphologists, sociolinguists, arabicists, and sociologists, among others.

ISBN 9783895861796. Moroccan Arabic Secret Languages 08. LINCOM Studies in Afroasiatic Linguistics 24. 433pp. 2008.