Editing Siwi language (section)

==Literature==
Siwi is not a written language, in the sense that Siwi people normally write in Standard Arabic. It is, however, the vehicle of a little-documented [[Oral tradition|oral literature]]. Among the relatively few materials published, four genres are conspicuous: song lyrics or [[poetry|poems]], [[fairy tale]]s, [[riddle]]s, and [[proverb]]s.

===Verse===
Siwi verse is written in [[rhyme]], and is usually associated with song.  Sung poetry, or {{lang|siz|adyaz}}, is performed mainly in bachelors' gatherings and tends to relate to love, whereas religious poetry ({{lang|siz|ləqṣidət}}) is recited.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Souag|2013|pp=15–16, 276}}</ref>  Malim<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Malim|2001|pp=90–92, 96}}</ref> distinguishes songs, led by one man, from poems, shorter verse works recited antiphonally by groups at weddings; both are accompanied by the music of drums and horns.  In previous centuries these songs appear to have been of great symbolic importance to Siwi young men: a civil war in the oasis in 1712 was apparently terminated by a treaty including the stipulation that:

:: "if one of the Western {{lang|siz|zaggālah}} [bachelor farm workers] was singing in a garden, while doing his work there, and stopped, then one of the {{lang|siz|zaggālah}} of the Easterners should begin to sing and finish his song; the Westerner was not allowed to sing once more."<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Fakhry|1973|p=33}}</ref>

The earliest Siwi lyrics to be published are those gathered by Bricchetti-Robetti;<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Bricchetti-Robetti|1889}}</ref> others have been published in Jawharī<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Al-Jawhari|1949}}</ref> and Souag,<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Souag|2013|pp=274–278}}</ref> while Abd Allah<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Abd Allah|1917|pp=26–27}}</ref> and Malim<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Malim|2001|pp=92–97)}}</ref> provide several songs and poems in translation.  The songs were also studied from a musicological perspective by Schiffer.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Schiffer|1936}}</ref>  The following extract from a love song<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Souag|2013|p=275}}</ref> may give an idea of the genre:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| {{lang|siz|nəjʕə́l niráwa akəḅḅí}} || We thought we had born a boy;
|-
| {{lang|siz|nəssəlsíya af̣andí}} || We dressed him up as a gentleman;
|-
| {{lang|siz|wə́n géyfəl nə́ṃṃas ʕə́ẓẓṃas}} || Whoever passed by, we would tell him to salute him.
|-
| {{lang|siz|yáma iṣáṛi fəllas}} || How much has happened to me because of him,
|-
| {{lang|siz|landál d uli asəllás}} || The mean one with a dark heart!
|}

===Tales===
A Siwi tale ({{lang|siz|tanf̣ast}}) uses a specific opening formula:<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Schiattarella|2016|pp=21–22}}</ref>

: {{lang|siz|tixəṛxaṛén, tibəṛbaṛén, tiqəṭṭušén, g álbab n alħošə́nnax}}
: {{lang|siz|tixəṛxaṛen, tibəṛbaṛen}} 'at the door of our courtyard'

and closes with the formula:

: {{lang|siz|ħattuta, ħattuta, qəṣṣəṛ ʕṃəṛha. akəṃṃús n əlxér i ənšní, akəṃṃús n šáṛ i əntnə́n}}
: 'Tale, tale, it has shortened its span.  A bundle of goodness to us, a bundle of badness to them.'

They were typically told by old women to children on evenings to entertain and perhaps to educate them.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Schiattarella|2016|pp=25, 71–73}}</ref>  Since the arrival of television in the oasis, this practice has largely disappeared.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Schiattarella|2016|p=25}}</ref>  Apart from humans and (talking) animals, a common character in such tales is the [[ogre]] ({{lang|siz|amẓa}}) or ogress ({{lang|siz|tamẓa}}).  The first Siwi tales to appear in print were four short fables gathered from men ("The Jackal and the Ewe", "The Jackal and the Hyena", "The Hare, the Jackal, the Hyena, and the Lion", and "The Magic Ring") in Laoust.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Laoust|1932|pp=146–150}}</ref>  Malim gives two Siwi folk tales ("The Green Cow" and "The King's Daughter and the Three Beautiful Girls") in English translation.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Malim|2001|pp=100–104}}</ref> Schiattarella transcribes and translates fourteen tales, gathered from women.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Schiattarella|2016}}</ref>

===Riddles===
Malim describes riddles as "once the preferred pastime of Siwi women", who would meet at night to exchange them, but notes that they have largely been superseded by watching television.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Malim|2001|p=85}}</ref> Few Siwi riddles have been published; Malim gives some twenty,<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Malim|2001|pp=85–87}}</ref> while Schiattarella records four,<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Schiattarella|2016|p=117}}</ref> including:

{| class="wikitable"
|-
| {{lang|siz|itákəl g əlqášš,}} || It walks in the straw 
|-
| {{lang|siz|l-itə́ṃṃəl xášš}} || and it doesn't rustle.
|-
| Answer: {{lang|siz|tlá}} || The shadow
|}

===Proverbs===
Among existing publications on Siwi, only Malim discusses proverbs in any detail, drawing a distinction between "morals", timeworn advice in proverbial form, and proverbs proper.<ref>{{harvcoltxt|Malim|2001|pp=95-85, 87-90}}</ref>  Examples of the former include "Wear clothes that others prefer, but eat and drink what you prefer"; of the latter, "A man who sells a cow, and asks for more money for the insect on it" (in his transcription, {{transliteration|siz|Yzenz tfonst, eftash aflokrad ines}}), mocking excessive concern about small sums.