Zuwara Berber
Zuwara Berber or Twillult language (also: Zuara, Zwara, (Berber name: Twillult, ⵝⵡⵉⵍⵍⵓⵍⵝ) is a Berber dialect, one of the Berber Zenati languages. It is spoken in Zuwara city, located on the coast of western Tripolitania in northwestern Libya.
Zuwara | |
---|---|
Twillult | |
Native to | Libya |
Region | Zuwara |
Language codes | |
ISO 639-3 | None (mis ) |
Glottolog | tuni1262 |
Berber-speaking areas belonging to Kossmann's "Tunisian-Zuwara" dialectal group |
Several works of Terence Mitchell, notably Zuaran Berber (Libya): Grammar and texts,[1] provide an overview of its grammar along with a set of texts, based mainly on the speech of his consultant Ramadan Azzabi. Some articles on it were also published by Luigi Serra.[2]
The speakers refer to their specific variety of the language as twillult /t.ˈwil.lult/ ‘the language of Willul’, and the word "Mazigh" /ˈma.ziʁ/ may refer both to the wider Amazigh language or to any Amazigh person. .[3] Unusually for a Berber idiom, the masculine form is used to refer to the language.
Ethnologue treats it as a dialect of Nafusi, though the two belong to different branches of Berber according to Kossmann (1999).[4]
References
- Terence Frederick Mitchell, Zuaran Berber (Libya): Grammar and Texts, Rüdiger Köppe: Köln 2009
- Serra, L., 'Testi berberi in dialetto di Zuara', Annali dell'Istituto Orientale di Napoli, NS, 14, 1964 : 715-726.
- Gussenhoven, C. (2018). Zwara (Zuwārah) Berber. Journal of the International Phonetic Association, 48(3), 371-387. URL : http://gep.ruhosting.nl/carlos/zwara_zuwarah_berber.pdf
- Maarten Kossmann, Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère, Rüdiger Köppe:Köln, pp. 28, 32