tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13177437.post3662336890923993942..comments2024-03-23T01:31:13.502+01:00Comments on Jabal al-Lughat: From Figuig to Igli: Berber in the Algerian-Morocco borderlandLameen Souag الأمين سواقhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00773164776222840428noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13177437.post-40267121187754314492014-11-05T20:29:31.027+01:002014-11-05T20:29:31.027+01:00If only those parents knew that the remedy is not ...If only those parents knew that the remedy is not in talking to their children in Arabic. They need to understand that mastering Berber well first is key to learning Arabic and many other languages afterward. This really hurts, I don't know what to do to reach out to those parents and tell them to use Berber with their kids.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13177437.post-31751751093749291222014-07-17T15:41:14.721+02:002014-07-17T15:41:14.721+02:00Yes, this dialect is Zenati.
I don't know in ...Yes, this dialect is Zenati.<br /><br />I don't know in detail how it's happened in these cases, but as I understand, the parents were already bilingual, and they heard that children coming into school speaking only Berber had trouble understanding the lessons, so they wanted to give them a better chance of success by speaking Arabic to them from the start.Lameen Souag الأمين سواقhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773164776222840428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13177437.post-17162523267384309792014-07-07T16:28:44.106+02:002014-07-07T16:28:44.106+02:00- How would you classify the Berber of Figig and I...- How would you classify the Berber of Figig and Igli and Busemghun? Zenati?<br /><br />- I still don't understand how parents "stop" speaking Berber to their kids. Do they just decide to stop or not speak Berber with their newborn? Or is it that parents were themselves brought up in a bilingual family or environment that emotionally and psychologically favored Arabic?<br /><br />- Do they teach Berber in western Algerian schools in places like Wehran and Tlemsan?<br /><br />Buzedjifnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13177437.post-71083867293835313282014-06-27T00:57:51.658+02:002014-06-27T00:57:51.658+02:00Well "Official Algeria" does not seem to...Well "Official Algeria" does not seem to care about language issues, as they're busier dealing with their various businesses (sigh). <br /><br />If the Tlemecen's dialect is kind of losing ground to the Oran one, maybe you can blame it on Rai music or the simple economic/cultural domination of Oran, which makes it "hip" and the old language quite obsolete or a "peasant thing". <br />It is even more strikingly illustrated for neo-Algerois pidgin (not the good old Algérois : I do not hear any of dyali these recent years but rather the Bedoui "Ta'") which takes every town away around : who really speaks Kabyle nowadays in inner Tizi-Ouzou ? Barely anyone (I speak for those under 30/25 years old). Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13177437.post-76319304111039940812014-06-25T09:23:30.611+02:002014-06-25T09:23:30.611+02:00I wouldn't worry too much about Tlemcen – ther...I wouldn't worry too much about Tlemcen – there's hardly another city in Algeria so conspicuously favoured by the government, and at least one genuinely good linguist working in Algeria, Zoubir Dendane, speaks the dialect natively and publishes on it. As for the Tuaregs, certainly there's been no recent language documentation, but they get their own radio and TV broadcasts, which is pretty good considering how small their number is. The problem, really, is that descriptive linguistics in general is missing from the Algerian scene. There isn't even any locally produced grammar of Algerian Arabic, much less of minority languages; the only real exception is Kabyle, and there the efforts are much more focused on neologism-creation and standardisation than on description.Lameen Souag الأمين سواقhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00773164776222840428noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13177437.post-89827623585603318482014-06-25T02:13:08.346+02:002014-06-25T02:13:08.346+02:00I'm under the impression that the "offici...I'm under the impression that the "official Algeria" is not interested in its fringes, they do not seem interested at all, in cultures such the one you mention+Tuaregs or even the culture of the Tlemcen area, where, very sadly, they seem to be increasingly losing their Arabic to an Oran-Style Arabic. (Same thing could be said of Fes vs Rabat-Casablanca but on a lesser scale). <br /><br />The academic/political mood in Algeria also seem to be suffering from remnants of pan-Arabic/Socialist ideals, with their normative attitudes.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com