Kabyle language


Kabyle, or Kabylian , is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people in the north and northeast of Algeria. It is spoken primarily in Kabylie, east of the capital Algiers and in Algiers itself, but also by various groups near Blida, such as the Beni Salah and Beni Bou Yaqob.
Estimates of the number of Kabyle speakers range from five million to about seven million worldwide, the majority in Algeria, according to INALCO.

Classification

Kabyle is one of the Berber languages, a family within Afroasiatic. It is believed to have broken off very early from proto-Berber, although after the Zenaga language did so.

Spoken examples

Distribution

Kabyle Berber is native to Kabylie. It is present in seven Algerian districts.
Approximately one-third of Algerians are Berber-speakers, clustered mostly near Algiers, in Kabylian and Shawi, but with some communities in the west, east and south of the country. Kabyles are the largest Berber group in Algeria, but may not constitute a majority.
The populations of Béjaïa, Bouïra and Tizi Ouzou provinces are in majority Kabyle-speaking. Kabyle is mainly spoken in the provinces of Boumerdès, and as well as in Bordj Bou Arréridj, Jijel, and in Algiers where it coexists with Algerian Arabic.
Kabyle Berber is also spoken as a native language among the Algerian Kabyle-descended diaspora in European and North American cities. It is estimated that half of Kabyles live outside the Kabylian region.

Official status

After the 2001–02 widespread Kabyle protests known as the Black Spring, the Berber language was recognized as a 'national language' in the 2002 Algerian Constitution, but not as an 'official language' until 2016 after a long campaign by activists. The Arabic language is still the only de jure official language of Algeria. French is not recognized in any legal document of Algeria but enjoys a de facto position of an official language as it is used in every Algerian official administration or institution, at all levels of the government, sometimes much more than Arabic.
The Berber language faces an unfavourable environment, despite a public radio, as well as a public TV channel. Since private ownership of TV channels is illegal in Algeria, Kabyles have launched a private Kabyle speaking TV channel, called Berbère Television, that broadcasts from Montreuil, Seine-Saint-Denis in France.
In 1994, Kabyle pupils and students boycotted Algerian schools for a year, demanding the officialization of Berber, leading to the symbolic creation of the "Haut Commissariat à l'Amazighité" in 1995. Berber was subsequently taught as a non-compulsory language in Berber speaking areas. The course being optional, few people attend.
President Bouteflika has frequently stated that "Amazigh will never be an official language, and if it has to be a national language, it must be submitted to a referendum".
In 2005, President Bouteflika, stated that "there is no country in the world with two official languages" and "this will never be the case of Algeria".
Nevertheless, after four decades of pacific struggle, riots, strikes, and social mobilization, including the Berber spring and the Black Spring in 2001, President Bouteflika and his government stepped back and submitted to the Kabylie pressure by recognising Amazigh as a "national language" without a referendum.

Dialects

Many identify two dialects: Greater Kabylie and Lesser Kabylie, but the reality is more complex than that, Kabyle dialects constitute a dialect continuum that can be divided into four main dialects :
At the exception of Far-eastern dialect, much of the vocabulary of Kabyle is common among its dialects though some lexical differences exist, example for the word dream in english : bargu, argu, argu, bureg.

Phonology

The phonemes below reflect the pronunciation of Kabyle.

Vowels

Kabyle has three phonemic vowels:
FrontCentralBack
Close
Open

is used to write the epenthetic schwa vowel which occurs frequently in Kabyle. Historically it is thought to be the result of a pan-Berber reduction or merger of three other vowels.
The phonetic realization of the vowels, especially, is influenced by the character of the surrounding consonants; emphatic consonants invite a more open realization of the vowel, e.g. aẓru = 'stone' vs. amud = 'seed'. Often /a, i, u/ are realized as.

Consonants

Assimilation

In the Kabyle language there are various accents which are the result of assimilations. Some of these assimilations are present among all Kabyle "dialects" and some not. These assimilations are not noted in writing, such as:
Gemination affects the quality of certain consonants, turning semivowels and fricatives into stops; in particular, geminated ɣ becomes qq, geminated y becomes gg, and geminated w becomes bb.

Fricatives vs. stops

Kabyle is mostly composed of fricatives, phonemes which are originally stops in other Berber languages, but in writing there is no difference between fricatives and stops. Below is a list of fricatives vs. stops and when they are pronounced.
ConsonantB D G K T
Fricative
Stop
Is a stop afterml,nb,j,r,z,ɛf,b,s,l,r,n,ḥ,c,ɛl,n
Is a stop in the words
ngeb, ngeḥ, ngeẓwer, angaẓ, ngedwi, nages, ngedwal

Writing system

The most ancient Berber writings were written in the Libyco-Berber script. Such writings have been found in Kabylie and continue to be discovered by archeologists.
Tifinagh alphabet disappeared in the seventh century, when Latin became the official and administrative language in North Africa, as in rest of the former Roman empire.
The first French–Kabyle dictionary was compiled by a French ethnologist in the 18th century. It was written in Latin script with an orthography based on that of French.
However, the Kabyle language really became a written language again in the beginning of the 19th century. Under French influence, Kabyle intellectuals began to use the Latin script. "Tamacahutt n wuccen" by Brahim Zellal was one of the first Kabyle books written using this alphabet.
After the independence of Algeria, some Kabyle activists tried to revive the Libyco-Berber script, which is still in use by the Tuareg. Attempts were made to modernize the writing system by modifying the shape of the letters and by adding vowels. This new version of Tifinagh has been called Neo-Tifinagh and has been adopted as the official script for Berber languages in Morocco. However, a majority of Berber activists prefer the Latin script and see the Tifinagh as a hindrance to literacy in Berber. Kabyle literature continues to be written in Latin script. The use of Tifinagh is limited to logos.
Mouloud Mammeri codified a new orthography for the Kabyle language which avoided using French orthography. His script has been adopted by all Berber linguists, the INALCO, and the Algerian HCA. It uses diacritics and two letters from the extended Latin alphabet: Čč Ḍḍ Ɛɛ Ǧǧ Ɣɣ Ḥḥ Ṣṣ Ṭṭ Ẓẓ.

Grammar

Nouns

Kabyle has two genders: masculine and feminine. As in most Berber languages, masculine nouns and adjectives generally start with a vowel, while feminine nouns generally start with t- and end with a -t, e.g. aqcic 'boy' vs. taqcict 'girl'.
Plurals generally are formed by replacing initial a- with i-, and either suffixing -en, changing vowels within the word, or both. Examples:
As in all Berber languages, Kabyle has two types of states or cases of the noun: free state and construct state. The free state is morphologically unmarked. The construct state is derived either by changing initial /a-/ to /u-/, loss of initial vowel in some feminine nouns, addition of a semi-vowel word-initially, or in some cases no change occurs at all:
As in Central Morocco Tamazight, construct state is used for subjects placed after their verbs, after prepositions, in noun complement constructions, and after certain numerals. Kabyle also places nouns in construct state when they head a noun phrase containing a co-referential bound pronoun earlier in the utterance.
Examples:
After a preposition, all nouns take their annexed state:
Verbs are conjugated for three tenses : the Preterite, intensive Aorist and the future. Unlike other Berber languages, the aorist alone is rarely used in Kabyle.
VerbPreteritead + aoristIntensive aorist
If ifeɣad ifeɣttifeɣ
Muqel muqleɣad muqleɣttmuquleɣ
Krez kerzeɣad kerzeɣkerrzeɣ

VerbPreteritead + aoristIntensive aorist
Aru uriɣad aruɣttaruɣ



Verbs are conjugated for person by adding affixes. These suffixes are static and identical for all tenses. The epenthetic vowel e may be inserted between the affix and the verb. Verbs are always marked for subject and may also inflect for person of direct and indirect object.
Examples
Kabyle is a satellite-framed based language, Kabyle verbs use two particles to show the path of motion:
Examples:
Kabyle usually expresses negation in two parts, with the particle ur attached to the verb, and one or more negative words that modify the verb or one of its arguments. For example, simple verbal negation is expressed by « ur » before the verb and the particle « ara » after the verb:
Other negative words are used in combination with ur to express more complex types of negation. This system developed via Jespersen's cycle.
Verb derivation is performed by adding affixes. There are three types of derivation forms : Causative, reflexive and Passive.
Two prefixes can cancel each other:
Every verb has a corresponding agent noun. In English it could be translated into verb+er. It is obtained by prefixing the verb with « am- » or with « an- » if the first letter is b / f / m / w.
Verbal nouns are derived differently from different classes of verbal stems. Often a- or t- is prefixed:

Pronouns

Pronouns may either occur as standalone words or bound to nouns or verbs.
PersonSingularPlural
1st nekk / nekkininekni
1st nekk / nekkininekkenti
2nd kečč / kečči / keččinikunwi / kenwi
2nd kemm / kemmi / kemminikunnemti / kennemti
3rd netta / nettan / nettaninutni / nitni
3rd nettatnutenti / nitenti

Example : « Ula d nekk. » – "Me too."
Possessive pronouns are bound to the modified noun.
PersonSingularPlural
1st w / inunneɣ
1st w / inunnteɣ
2nd k / ineknwen
2nd m / inemnkent
3rd s / inesnsen
3rd s / inesnsent

Example : « Axxam-nneɣ. » – "Our house."
There are three demonstratives, near-deictic, far-deictic and absence. They may either be suffixed to nouns, or appear in isolation. Examples: « Axxam-a / Axxam-agi» – "This house.",, «Wagi yelha» – "This is nice.".

Prepositions

precede their objects: « i medden » "to the people", « si taddart » "from the village". All words preceded by a preposition take the annexed state.
Some prepositions have two forms : one is used with pronominal suffixes and the other form is used in all other contexts, e.g. ger 'between' → gar.
Some prepositions have a corresponding relative pronoun, for example:

Syntax

Negation
Predicative particle 'd'
The predicative particle 'd' is an indispensable tool in speaking Kabyle. "d" is equivalent to both "it is + adjective" and "to be + adjective", but cannot be replaced by the verb "ili". It is always followed by a noun in free state.
Examples:
The predicative particle "d" should not be confused with the particle of coordination "d"; indeed, the latter is followed by a noun at its annexed state while the first is always followed by a noun at its free state.

Vocabulary

Kabyle has absorbed some Arabic and Latin vocabulary. According to Salem Chaker, about a third of Kabyle vocabulary is of foreign origin; the number of French loanwords has not been studied yet. These loanwords are sometimes Berberized and sometimes kept in their original form. The Berberized words follow the regular grammar of Kabyle.
Examples of Berberized Arabic or French words:
Many loanwords from Arabic have often a different meaning in Kabyle:
All verbs of Arabic origin follow a Berber conjugation and verbal derivation:
Only the first two numbers are Berber; for higher numbers, Arabic is used. They are yiwen "one", sin "two". The noun being counted follows it in the genitive: sin n yirgazen "two men".

Sample text

In. Moulieras, les fourberies de si Djeh'a.
Aqerruy n tixsiEwe Head
Yiwen wass, Ǧeḥḥa yefka-yas baba-s frank, akken ad d-yaɣ aqerruy n tixsi. Yuɣ-it-id, yečča akk aksum-is. Yeqqim-d uceqlal d ilem, yewwi-yas-t-id i baba-s. Ihi, mi t-iwala yenna-yas: "acu-t wa?" yenna-yas: "d aqerruy n tixsi".
-A ccmata, anida llan imeẓẓuɣen-is?
-Anida llant wallen-is?
-Anida yella yiles-is?
-I weglim n uqerruy-is, anida yella?
-You vile, where are its ears ?
-Where are its eyes?
-Where is its tongue?
-And the skin of its head, where is it?
Note: the predicative particle d was translated as "it.is", the particle of direction d was translated as "here".

Websites in Kabyle

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    Online dictionaries

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