The Ghomara (, ''Ighmarn'') are a group of tribes in northern

Morocco Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria t ...

of about 12,000 people, living between the rivers

Oued Laou Oued Laou ( ar, واد لاو, Berber: Asif en Law) is a small town located in northern Morocco on the Mediterranean coast. The two main cities nearby are Tetouan to the northwest and Chefchaouen at the southwest. In 2004 the town had 8,383 in ...

and Ouringa, east of

Chefchaouen Chefchaouen ( ar, شفشاون, Shafshāwan, ), also known as Chaouen (), is a city in northwest Morocco. It is the chief town of the province of the same name and is noted for its buildings in shades of blue, for which it is nicknamed the "Blu ...

and south of Tetouan, in the Western

Rif The Rif or Riff (, ), also called Rif Mountains, is a geographic region in northern Morocco. This mountainous and fertile area is bordered by Cape Spartel and Tangier to the west, by Berkane and the Moulouya River to the east, by the Mediterrane ...

. The river Tiguisas runs through their territory.G. Camps & J. Vignet-Zunz, "Ghomâra", in ''Encyclopédie berbère'', vol. 20, 1998 Originally, Ghomaras were a Berber tribal group belonging to the

Masmuda The Masmuda ( ar, المصمودة, Berber: ⵉⵎⵙⵎⵓⴷⵏ) is a Berber tribal confederation of Morocco and one of the largest in the Maghreb, along with the Zanata and the Sanhaja. They were composed of several sub-tribes: Berghouat ...

confederacy. While most have shifted to speaking

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C. E.Watson; Walter ...

, a minority continue to speak the Berber

Ghomara language The Ghomara language is a Northern Berber language spoken in Morocco. It is the mother tongue of the Ghomara Berbers, who total around 10,000 people. Ghomara Berber is spoken on the western edge of the Rif, among the Beni Bu Zra and Beni Mansur ...

Tribes

The Ghomaras are traditionally divided into nine tribes: * Ziat * Zejel * Selman * Bu Zra, partially Berber speaking tribe * Mansur, partially Berber speaking tribe * Grir * Smih * Rezin * Khaled

Bibliography

* G. Camps & J. Vignet-Zunz
"Ghomâra"
''Encyclopédie berbère, vol.20'', 1998, pp. 3110–3119 * Jamal el Hannouche
"Arabic influence in Ghomara Berber"
Leiden University, 2010. * Jamal el Hannouche
"Ghomara Berber, a brief grammatical survey"
Leiden University, 2008. * Peter Behnsted
"''La frontera entre el bereber y el árabe en el Rif''"
''Estudios de dialectología norteafricana y andalusí'' vol. 6, 2002. * Georges Séraphin Colin, "Le parler berbère des Ghomara", ''Hesperis'' 9, 1929, pp. 43–58.

References

Arabized Berbers Berber peoples and tribes Rif Berbers in Morocco {{Africa-ethno-group-stub