Nafusi (also spelt Nefusi; ber, Ažbali / Maziɣ / Mazoɣ, script=Latn, label=in Nafusi) is a
Berber language spoken in the
Nafusa Mountains (), a large area in northwestern
Libya
Libya (; ar, ليبيا, Lībiyā), officially the State of Libya ( ar, دولة ليبيا, Dawlat Lībiyā), is a country in the Maghreb region in North Africa. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya bo ...
. Its primary speakers are the
Ibadite communities around
Jadu,
Nalut () and
Yafran.
The dialect of Yefren in the east differs somewhat from that of Nalut and Jadu in the west. A number of Old Nafusi phrases appear in Ibadite manuscripts as early as the 12th century.
The dialect of Jadu is described in some detail in Beguinot (1931). Motylinski (1898) describes the dialect of Jadu and Nalut as spoken by a student from Yefren.
Nafusi shares several innovations with the
Zenati languages, but unlike these other Berber varieties it maintains prefix vowels before open syllables. For example, ''ufəs'' "hand" < *''afus'', rather than Zenati ''fus''. It appears especially closely related to
Sokni and
Siwi to its east.
[Maarten Kossmann, 1999, ''Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère'', Köln: Rüdiger Köppe, pp. 29-33]
References
External links
Nafusi Swadesh List
Eastern Berber languages
Berbers in Libya
Languages of Libya
Tripolitania
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