La négation en berbère tasahlit : à propos des éléments de négation verbale d’étymons arabes

Abstract

Tasahlit is a Northern Berber language spoken in the Babor Mountains, off the northeast coast of Algeria. It is spoken close to the linguistic area of Jijel Arabic: a Maghrebi Arabic variety considered to be “pre-Hilalian”, that is to say originated from the first wave of Arabization of North Africa (7th-9th century). Both of these languages belong to the Afro-Asian phylum (formerly Hamito-Semitic).This Berber-Arabic contact situation at the heart of Eastern Kabylia is the source of deep convergence in the two systems, at different linguistic levels. The morphosyntax of negation is one of the areas that are most affected by this contact in Tasahlit. The developments that we noted, more or less appropriable to convergence, by no means simplified the whole but rather caused a multiplication of forms and rules. Negation is one of the most studied morphosyntactic areas in both Berber languages and Maghrebi Arabic (Galand, 1994; Chaker & Caubet, 1996; Mettouchi, 1996, 2009; Lucas, 2007, 2013; Lafkioui & Brugnatelli, 2017, 2020), and it has often been discussed in relation to Berber-Arabic convergence (Brugnatelli, 2014; Lafkioui & Brugnatelli, 2020; Kahlouche, 2000; Mettouchi, 2012; Kossmann, 2013; Lucas, 2007, 2009, 2013, 2017; Souag, 2018). In this article, convergence is understood as a trans-linguistic change characterized by approximation between structures of different linguistic systems. This convergence is mainly observable in extensive contact situations (Thomason & Kaufman, 1988). The old and intense contact between Maghrebi Arabic and Berber is sometimes part of convergence dynamics, which vary in intensity from one contact area to another (Kossmann, 2013). Observable differences between Arabic-Berber contact situations provide us with valuable data about the diversity of their sociohistorical conditions (Souag, 2009).Negation presents a certain number of characteristics in Tasahlit: this language has the highest diversity of negation markers in Berber. Each of these varieties certifies the use of a series of preverbal and postverbal negators that are sometimes specific to a certain language. Among the latter, multiple borrowings from Arabic continue to be grammaticalized as markers which were added to the plurality of preexisting negation markers of Berber origin. Moreover, the syntax of negation in Berber presents variability in particular developments depending on the Berber language it concerns. Again, the different Tasahlit varieties show original results, marked by the erosion of the old system, more or less preserved.In the present work, we need to describe “neo-negators”, their origins through their grammaticalization path, as well as the changes that they cause on the morphosyntax of negation in Tasahlit Berber. This analysis is conducted by interrogating convergence between Northern Berber and Maghrebi Arabic. The Tasahlit Berber area (≈ 200,000 speakers) comprises close to fifteen varieties, most of which were never described. In March 2020, we investigated the issue of negation in Tasahlit through fieldwork, in addition to the data gathered since 2018 through multiple other fieldworks. During this investigation, we held some taped interviews with speakers originating from 9 Tasahlit-speaking confederations. The gathered data was then compared to that of other Berber languages, of Maghrebi Arabic, of Levantine Arabic, and of Classical Arabic.We have prepared the etymons of negation markers of Berber origin collected from the different varieties, along with two series of verbal negators grammaticalized through elements borrowed from Arabic: ṭḥu and xṭu. The first series comes from an original grammaticalization of the Arabic verb ʔaḍḥā “make/become in the morning (ḍuḥā)”.The second one is more predictable, since its value XṬ “lack” is already negative. We have shown that these grammaticalizations of words borrowed as modal/non-declarative verbal negation markers occurred through their use in emphatic or nominal and non-modal negation.These neo-negators cause or complement multiple morphosyntactic changes. These transformations result in forms that are closer to Arabic than to conservative Berber. This issue deserves to be studied from the perspective of convergence, even though most of the time internal motivations could be raised. We have noted that the use of neo-negators resulted in:- The reinforcement of the tendency to drop the negative perfect.- The erosion of the phenomenon of attraction of satellite verbs. - The emergence of the possibility of negatively flexing a statement in aorist + particle.- The reinforcement of verbal negation through one unique preverbal negator. Multiple noted phenomena correspond to simplifications of the system caused by an exhaustion of specific markings. In other Berber varieties, many syntactic evolutions caused by the use of neo-negators are known at different degrees, but their combination in Tasahlit constitutes a particularly original case. We believe that, in the event that these neo-negators totally replace their pan-berber correspondents, and in one that the syntactic erosions currently underway come to an end, one could speak about a typological shift of negation in Tasahlit Berber, marked by an approximation with data from Maghrebi Arabic.

Keywords

• Berber
• Arabic
• contact
• Tasahlit
• convergence