Editing Judeo-Berber language

{{Short description|Group of Berber-language varieties}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Judeo-Berber
| altname          = Judeo-Shilha
| region           = [[Israel]], [[France]]
| speakers         = 200
| date             = 2023
| ref              = 
| familycolor      = Afro-Asiatic
| fam2             = [[Berber languages|Berber]]
| fam3             = [[Northern Berber languages|Northern]]
| fam4             = [[Atlas languages|Atlas]]
| fam5             = [[Shilha language|Shilha]]
| script           = [[Hebrew alphabet]]<br>(generally not written)
| iso3             = jbe
| glotto           = spurious
| glotto2          = jude1262
| glottorefname2   = Judeo-Berber
| map              = Judeo Berber map.svg
| mapcaption       = Map of Judeo Berber speaking communities in the first half of the 20th century
}}

'''Judeo-Berber''' also known as '''Judeo-Amazigh''', '''Judeo-Tamazight''', and '''Jewish Amazigh'''  ({{langx|ber|ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ ⵏ ⵡⵓⴷⴰⵢⵏ}} ''tamazight n wudayen'',{{Which|date=November 2024|reason=Which Berber language?}} {{Langx|he|{{Script/Hebrew|ברברית יהודית}}}} berberit yehudit) is any of several hybrid [[Berber languages|Berber]] [[Dialect|dialects]] traditionally spoken as a [[second language]] in [[Berber Jews|Berber Jewish]] communities of central and southern [[Morocco]], and perhaps earlier in Algeria. Judeo-Berber is a [[contact language]]; the first language of speakers was [[Judeo-Arabic]].<ref name=Chetrit2016>Chetrit (2016) "Jewish Berber", in Kahn & Rubin (eds.) ''Handbook of Jewish Languages'', Brill</ref> Speakers immigrated to [[Israel]] in the 1950s and 1960s. While mutually comprehensible with the [[Tamazight]] spoken by most inhabitants of the area (Galand-Pernet et al. 1970:14), these varieties are distinguished by the use of [[Hebrew language|Hebrew]] loanwords and the pronunciation of ''š'' as ''s'' , opposed to what is seen in [[Judeo-Moroccan Arabic]].

== History ==
Our first indication of Jews speaking any Berber language is only from the early 19th century and it's of rural Jews in [[Nafusa Mountains|Jebel Nefusa]] and Saharan [[Ghardaïa|Ghardaia]]. As of 1912 about 8,000 of Moroccan Jews spoke Judeo-Berber. the language was spoken in the country's [[Berbers|Berber]] or partly Berber rural and mountainous areas. <ref name=":0">{{Cite web |title=Judeo-Amazigh |url=https://www.jewishlanguages.org/judeo-amazigh |access-date=2024-09-29 |website=Jewish Languages |language=en}}</ref> According to a 1936 survey, approximately 145,700 of Morocco's 161,000 Jews spoke a variety of Berber (though not specifically Judeo-Berber), 25,000 of whom were reportedly monolingual in a Berber language.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Abramson |first=Glenda |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4Hp0DwAAQBAJ&q=161%2C000+bilingual+in+berber&pg=PT24 |title=Sites of Jewish Memory: Jews in and From Islamic Lands |date=2018-10-24 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-317-75160-1 |language=en}}</ref>  Due to the [[Migration of Moroccan Jews to Israel|mass migration of Moroccan Jews]] after the [[1948 Arab–Israeli War|1948 Arab-Israeli war]] the speaker count declined as the language wasn't passed down to new speakers, leaving it with only about 200 speakers left in France and Israel as of 2023.<ref name=":0" />

=== Geographic distribution ===
Communities in [[Morocco]] where Jews spoke Judeo-Berber included: [[Tinghir]], [[Ouijjane]], [[Asaka, Morocco|Asaka]], [[Imini]], [[Draa]] valley, [[Demnate]] and [[Ait Bou Oulli]] in the Tamazight-speaking [[Middle Atlas]] and High Atlas and [[Ifrane Atlas-Saghir|Oufrane]], [[Tiznit]] and [[Illigh]] in the Tashelhiyt-speaking [[Souss]] valley (Galand-Pernet et al. 1970:2). Jews were living among tribal Berbers, often in the same villages and practiced old tribal Berber protection relationships.

== Phonology ==
{| class="wikitable"
|+Consonants<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last1=Hary |first1=Benjamin |title=languages in Jewish communities : past and present |last2=Benor |first2=Sarah Bunin |publisher=[[De Gruyter]] |year=2018 |isbn=978-1-5015-0463-1 |pages=82–86 |language=en}}</ref>
! colspan="2" |
![[Labial–velar consonant|Labial]]
![[Labial consonant|Bilabial]]
![[Denti-alveolar consonant|Dental-Alveolar]]
![[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
![[Postalveolar consonant|Post-Alveolar]]
![[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
![[Velar consonant|Velar]]
![[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
![[Pharyngeal consonant|Pharyngeal]]
![[Laryngeal consonant|Laryngeal]]
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Plosive]]
![[Voicelessness|Unvoiced]]
|
|[[Voiceless bilabial plosive|p]]
|[[Voiceless alveolar plosive|t]]
|
|
|
|[[Voiceless velar plosive|k]]
|[[Voiceless uvular plosive|q]]
|
|
|-
![[Voice (phonetics)|Voiced]]
|
|[[Voiced bilabial plosive|b]]
|[[Voiced dental and alveolar plosives|d]]
|
|
|
|[[Voiced velar plosive|g]]
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Nasal consonant|Nasals]]
|
|[[Voiced bilabial nasal|m]]
|[[Voiced alveolar nasal|n]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" |[[Fricative]]
!Unvoiced
|
|
|
|[[Voiceless alveolar fricative|s]]
|[[Voiceless postalveolar fricative|ʃ]]
|
|[[Voiceless velar fricative|x]]
|
|[[Voiceless pharyngeal fricative|ħ]]
|[[Voiceless glottal fricative|h]]
|-
!Voiced
|
|
|
|[[Voiced alveolar fricative|z]]
|[[Voiced postalveolar fricative|ʒ]]
|
|[[Voiced velar fricative|ɣ]]
|
|[[Voiced pharyngeal fricative|ʕ]]
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
|[[Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar trills|r]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" |[[Lateral consonant|Lateral]]
|
|
|
|[[Voiced dental, alveolar and postalveolar lateral approximants|l]]
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
![[Approximant]]
!Voiced
|[[Voiced labial–velar approximant|w]]
|
|
|
|
|[[Voiced palatal approximant|j]]
|
|
|
|
|}
{| class="wikitable"
|+Vowels<ref name=":1" />
!
![[Front vowel|Front]]
![[Central vowel|Central]]
![[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
![[Close vowel|Close]]
|[[Close front unrounded vowel|i]]
|
|[[Close back rounded vowel|u]]
|-
![[Mid vowel|Mid]]
|
|[[Mid central vowel|ǝ]]
|
|-
![[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
|
|
|
|-
![[Open vowel|Open]]
|[[Open front unrounded vowel|a]]
|
|
|}
Judeo-Berber is characterized by the following phonetic phenomena:<ref name=Chetrit2016/>

* Centralized pronunciation of /i u/ as [ɨ ʉ]
* Neutralization of the distinction between /s ʃ/, especially among monolingual speakers
* Delabialization of labialized velars (/kʷ gʷ xʷ ɣʷ/), e.g. nəkkʷni/nukkni > nəkkni 'us, we'
* Insertion of epenthetic [ə] to break up consonant clusters
* Frequent diphthong insertion, as in Judeo-Arabic
* Some varieties have q > kʲ and dˤ > tˤ, as in the local Arabic dialects
* In the eastern Sous Valley region, /l/ > [n] in both Judeo-Berber and Arabic

== Lexicon ==
The lexicon of Judeo-Berber is the same as that of regular Shilha except it has Hebrew and Judeo-Arabic loanwords. This lack of differentiation from Shilha means it is not a language but rather a dialect.<ref name=":1" /> Judeo-Berber lexicon also influenced Judeo-Arabic.<ref name=":0" />

==Usage==
Apart from its daily use, Judeo-Berber was used for orally explaining religious texts, and only occasionally written, using Hebrew characters; a manuscript [[Pesah]] [[Haggadah]] written in Judeo-Berber has been reprinted (Galand-Pernet et al. 1970.) A few prayers, like the Benedictions over the Torah, were recited in Berber.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.dayan.org/articles/JewsandBerbers.pdf |title=Jews and Berbers |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20081219184242/http://www.dayan.org/articles/JewsandBerbers.pdf |archivedate=2008-12-19 }}&nbsp;{{small|(72.8&nbsp;KB)}}</ref>

==Sample Text==
Taken from Galand-Pernet et al. 1970:121 (itself from a manuscript from Tinghir):

{{interlinear|indent=2
|top= יִכְדַמְן אַיְיִנַגָא יפּרעו גְמַצָר. יִשוֹפִגַג רבי נּג דְיְנָג שוֹפוֹש נִדְרע שוֹפוֹש  יִכיווֹאַנ
|ixəddamn ay n-ga i pərʿu g° maṣər.  i-ss-ufġ aġ əṛbbi ənnəġ dinnaġ s ufus ən ddrʿ, s ufus ikuwan.
|servants what we-were for Pharaoh in Egypt.  he-cause-leave us God our there with arm of might, with arm strong.
|Servants of Pharaoh is what we were in Egypt.  Our God brought us out thence with a mighty arm, with a strong arm.}}

==See also==
*[[Judeo-Arabic languages]]
*[[Judeo-Moroccan Arabic]]
*[[Berber Jews]]

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Bibliography==
* P. Galand-Pernet & Haim Zafrani. ''Une version berbère de la Haggadah de Pesaḥ: Texte de Tinrhir du Todrha (Maroc)''.  Compress rendus du G.L.E.C.S. Supplement I. 1970. {{in lang|fr}}
* Joseph Chetrit.  "Jewish Berber," ''Handbook of Jewish Languages'', ed. Lily Kahn & [[Aaron D. Rubin]].  Leiden: Brill.  2016.  Pages 118–129.

==External links==
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20040813230951/http://www.mondeberbere.com/juifs/judeoberbere.htm Judeo-Berber, by Haim Zafrani] {{in lang|fr}}
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20101110111121/http://www.mondeberbere.com/juifs/haggadah.htm Except from Haggadah]

{{Jewish languages}}
{{Berber languages|state=collapsed}}
{{Languages of Morocco}}
{{Maghrebi Jews topics}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Judeo-Berber Language}}
[[Category:Berber Jews]]
[[Category:Berber languages]]
[[Category:Berbers in Morocco]]
[[Category:Jews and Judaism in Morocco]]
[[Category:Maghrebi Jews topics]]
[[Category:Languages of Morocco]]
[[Category:Sephardi Jewish culture in North Africa]]
[[Category:Language contact]]
[[Category:Severely endangered languages]]
[[Category:Endangered diaspora languages]]
[[Category:Endangered Afroasiatic languages]]
[[Category:Jewish languages]]