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The Ghadamès language
The Ghadamès language, also known as Ghadamsi or Ghadamsian, is a Berber language spoken primarily in the oasis town of Ghadames, located in the Nalut District of western Libya. It is a part of the Afro-Asiatic language family and belongs to the Berber branch, specifically the Eastern Berber group. While it shares some commonalities with other Berber languages, Ghadamès preserves unique phonological and morphological features that distinguish it from other languages in the Berber family. The Ghadamès language is spoken by an estimated 17,000 people, though this number is uncertain, and the language faces endangerment due to a steady decline in native speakers. The language has been the subject of…
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Zuwara Berber
Zuwara Berber, also known as Twillult, is a Berber dialect spoken by the people of Zuwara, a coastal city in western Tripolitania, northwestern Libya. The language is part of the Zenati branch of the Berber languages, which belong to the Afro-Asiatic language family. Zuwara Berber is unique in that it is considered a dialect of the Nafusi language by Ethnologue, although some scholars, such as Kossmann (1999), classify it as a distinct branch of Berber due to differences in its linguistic features. The term “Twillult” refers to the local variety of the language, and the word “Mazigh” is often used to refer both to the broader Amazigh language group and…
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The Eastern Berber languages
The Eastern Berber languages are a subset of the Berber language family, primarily spoken in parts of Libya and Egypt. These languages are part of the broader Afro-Asiatic language family, which includes languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Amharic. Eastern Berber languages include Awjila, Sokna, Fezzan (El-Fogaha), Siwi, and Ghadamès. While these languages share certain features, the precise classification and relationship between them are still subjects of debate among linguists. The Eastern Berber languages are generally considered part of the Zenatic Berber supergroup, which falls under the larger Northern Berber category. The Zenatic languages are spread across North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, with Eastern Berber representing the group found…
