Beni Snous is a
Berber variety close to
Zenati languages
The Zenati languages are a branch of the Northern Berber language family of North Africa. They were named after the medieval Zenata Berber tribal confederation. They were first proposed in the works of French linguist Edmond Destaing (1915) (1920 ...
spoken near
Tlemcen
Tlemcen (; ar, تلمسان, translit=Tilimsān) is the second-largest city in northwestern Algeria after Oran, and capital of the Tlemcen Province. The city has developed leather, carpet, and textile industries, which it exports through the p ...
in
Algeria
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, capital = Algiers
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, relig ...
.
In the early 20th century, Beni Snous Berber was spoken in the villages of Kef, Tghalimet, Bou Hallou, Ait Larbi, Ait Achir, Adziddaz, and Mazzer; all speakers were bilingual in the
Arabic language
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; Walte ...
. The Beni Snous had no trouble conversing with their Berber-speaking neighbours among the
Beni Bou Said
is a Japanese R&B singer, who debuted in 2004 under the Avex Trax label. In 2008, Arashiro left Avex Trax and transferred to Universal Music Japan where she started to perform as simply Beni (stylized as BENI).
She was initially best known fo ...
just to the west, and (with some difficulty) could communicate in Berber with people from
Figuig
Figuig or Figig ( ar, فجيج; Figuig Berber: Ifeyyey) is an oasis town in eastern Morocco near the Atlas Mountains, on the border with Algeria.
The town is built around an oasis of date palms, called ''Tazdayt'', meaning "palm tree" in the ...
,
Beni Iznacen
Iznasen (Iznassen, Iznacen) is a Berber language, one of the Zenati languages. It is spoken in the extreme northeast of Morocco, in a speech area near the Berber languages of western Algeria
)
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, beside the border in Morocco. However, they found
Tashelhiyt (in southern Morocco) and
Kabyle (in central Algeria) almost unintelligible.
Today, only a few elderly people in the region still speak Berber. Most of the Beni Snous have shifted to Arabic, retaining only a few words from their ancestral language, such as ''tabɣa'' "blackberries" or ''azduz'' "pestle".
See also
*
Languages of Algeria
Bibliography
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References
External links
Extinction de tamazight à Béni snous- the interviewer (speaking in Arabic) elicits Berber vocabulary from some of the last elderly speakers of Beni Snous Berber, in Kef
Berber languages
Languages of Algeria
Riff languages
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