Matmata Berber
Encyclopedia
Matmata Berber is the Zenati Berber dialect spoken around the town of Matmâta
in southern Tunisia
, in the villages of Zraoua, Taoujjout and Tamezret. According to Ben Mamou's lexicon, its speakers call it Tmaziγṯ, or dwi-nna "our language", while it is called Chelha or Jbali (جبالي) in local Arabic. The total population speaking it was estimated at 3,726 in 1975
Documentation of this variety is limited. A collection of fairy tales in this variety was published by Stumme in 1900
Basset (1950) provides a few dialect maps of Tunisian Berber including this region, showing lexical variation, while Penchoen (1968) offers a general discussion of Tunisian Berber and the effects of schooling. Collins (1981) discusses its verbal morphology along with that of other Tunisian Berber varieties. The only general grammatical sketch and vocabulary available is the website put together by Larbi Ben Mamou, a native speaker of the language.
The Ethnologue treats it as part of Nafusi in Northwestern Libya, although the two belong to different subgroups of Berber according to Kossmann (1999)
Matmâta
Matmata is a small Berber speaking town in southern Tunisia. Some of the local Berber residents live in traditional underground "troglodyte" structures. In 2004 it had a population of 2,116....
in southern Tunisia
Tunisia
Tunisia , officially the Tunisian RepublicThe long name of Tunisia in other languages used in the country is: , is the northernmost country in Africa. It is a Maghreb country and is bordered by Algeria to the west, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Its area...
, in the villages of Zraoua, Taoujjout and Tamezret. According to Ben Mamou's lexicon, its speakers call it Tmaziγṯ, or dwi-nna "our language", while it is called Chelha or Jbali (جبالي) in local Arabic. The total population speaking it was estimated at 3,726 in 1975
Documentation of this variety is limited. A collection of fairy tales in this variety was published by Stumme in 1900
Basset (1950) provides a few dialect maps of Tunisian Berber including this region, showing lexical variation, while Penchoen (1968) offers a general discussion of Tunisian Berber and the effects of schooling. Collins (1981) discusses its verbal morphology along with that of other Tunisian Berber varieties. The only general grammatical sketch and vocabulary available is the website put together by Larbi Ben Mamou, a native speaker of the language.
The Ethnologue treats it as part of Nafusi in Northwestern Libya, although the two belong to different subgroups of Berber according to Kossmann (1999)