OP TirE BERBERS. -^63 



VI. 



Grammatical Structure of the Berber Language. — Translated 

 from the Mithridates, Vol. III. Part l, p. 51. 



1. Besides the letters of the Arabic alphabet, tlie Berber 

 languaiie has the sounds of the three Persian Utters. Gam- 

 ma (Ghiiin) and Thetn arc predotniimni sounds ; words with 

 kha, dhdd, and dha are not of Berberic origin. 



3. The substantives borrowed from the Arabic, after 

 throwing out the Arabic article, prelix the letter / or nit : 

 ex. el mukhal is ciianged into temukhalt or temukhalnit ,• 

 thimdint is derived from medinat, for which tlie lierbers liad 

 no word ; the letter /, moreover, is expressive of tlie femi- 

 nine gender : ex. emchich (in Morocco, mouch) a cat, in the 

 feminine is temchicht, and in Morocco tanioucht; mezzi sm<dl, 

 fem. tamziitt. To the Arabic adjectives the syllable da is 

 prefixed, as for qadi/m old, duqndijm. 



3. The formation of the plural of' nouns is very dilTicuU 

 in consequence of tlie many changes of tlie vowels in the 

 syllables of the words, of transpositions of the consonants, 

 and many additional terminations, whicli |)erliaps may l)c con- 

 sidered as the result of the intermixture of other languages. 

 The inflections or terminations are in^ awen, an, en. i, uen, 

 ain, er ; ex. einzid a cock, plm-. iouzad ; aidi dos;, plur. idan 

 (according to Verdure; according to Hnest, tlie singular of 

 tins word is aid. and idee accordinc; to Jones ,•) erghaz man, 

 plur. irghazen {Jones) or evges, plur, ern^essen (Shaiu ;) ikhf 

 or aqaroui head, plur. ikhfawen or iqnharouin (Jin^s ;) or 

 eaghph. jilur. eaghfan. tlie sinijular according to JJnest \saga- 

 yo ; edrar mountain, plur. idonrer ; or atlira'n\ [Shaw) plur. 

 ithournr, (the singular according to Iloest is adarar.) 



-l. The cases arc cx|)ressed by prepositions: the genitive 

 by en., mi, &, ghi. n. eh. vou. eghij ; the dative by /, ghcr, 

 se, es, ghi ; the ablative by zigh, ghaf and so ; ex. amouqran 



