Matmata Berber

Matmata
Tmaziγṯ Duwinna
Spoken in	Tunisia
Region	Matmâta
Native speakers	unknown (3,730[1] cited in 1975)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Berber Northern Zenati Matmata
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Linguist List	jbn-tam
	jbn-jba

Matmata Berber is the Zenati Berber dialect spoken around the town of Matmâta in southern Tunisia, in the villages of Zraoua, Taoujjout and Tamezret. According to Ben Mamou's lexicon,^[2] its speakers call it Tmaziγṯ, or dwi-nna "our language", while it is called Chelha or Jbali (جبالي) in local Arabic. The total population speaking it was estimated at 3,726 in 1975^[3]

Documentation of this variety is limited. A collection of fairy tales in this variety was published by Stumme in 1900^[4] Basset (1950)^[5] provides a few dialect maps of Tunisian Berber including this region, showing lexical variation, while Penchoen (1968)^[6] offers a general discussion of Tunisian Berber and the effects of schooling. Collins (1981)^[7] discusses its verbal morphology along with that of other Tunisian Berber varieties. The only general grammatical sketch and vocabulary available is the website put together by Larbi Ben Mamou, a native speaker of the language.^[8]

The Ethnologue treats it as part of Nafusi in Northwestern Libya, although the two belong to different subgroups of Berber according to Kossmann (1999)

References

1. ^ Sahli 1983
2. ^ Tamezret (Tunisie) et son dialecte berbère
3. ^ Sadok Sahli, 1983, "La population berbère devant les problèmes modernes en Tunisie", Démographie et destin des sous-populations: colloque de Liège, 21-23 septembre 1981 no. 1, Association internationale des démographes de langue française, INED, p. 373
4. ^ Hans Stumme, 1900, Märchen der Berbern von Tamzratt im Süd-Tünisien, Leipzig: J.C. Hinrichs Buchhandlung.
5. ^ André Basset, 1950, "Les parlers berbères". Initiation à la Tunisie. Paris: Adrien-Maisonneuve, pp. 220-226.
6. ^ Thomas Penchoen, 1968, "La langue berbère en Tunisie et la scolarisation des enfants berbérophones", Revue Tunisienne des Sciences Sociales, pp. 173-186.
7. ^ Ridwan Collins, 1981, " Un microcosme berbère. Système verbal et satellites dans trois parlers tunisiens ". Institut des Belles Lettres Arabes nos. 148, 149, pp. 287-303, pp. 113-129.
8. ^ Tamezret (Tunisie) et son dialecte berbère