In Amazigh, we say ⵜⴰⴳⵔⵙⵜ (tagrest) for winter, a particularly difficult season in the mountains.
All posts about Amazigh
There are many Gs in Amazigh, a letter that does not exist in classical Arabic. Morocco uses the Kaf with three dots above it to represent them.
According to the 2024 census and the Sunergia study, 25% of Moroccans speak Berber. However, very few write it, at least using the Tifinagh script.
A foreigner married into a Berber family is suddenly given the gift of understanding Amazigh. Is this a blessing?
In spite of being an official language in Morocco, Amazigh is not used in the administration and professional world. You can learn it, of course, but it's not as important as Arabic and French.
An educational magazine is publishing a special issue on Morocco, but its article on Moroccan languages is full of inaccuracies and fails to reflect the country's complex reality.
Autumn is called ⴰⵎⵡⴰⵏ (Amwan) in Berber. It's too short a season, but I think it's my favourite, as it gives us a break from the summer heat and allows us to see migratory birds!
The season of harvests and warm winds in summer is called Anbdou, ⴰⵏⴱⴷⵓ, and this is the same word in all Berber dialects in Morocco.
The goat that flies with its tuft of grass between its teeth, an Amazigh proverb known to all, the local substitute for the Milka marmot.
There are few translations of sardine in Amazigh; it's called sardine or fish. What if "sardine" was a Berber word?
Tafaska (Eid Al Adha in Amazigh) is celebrated throughout Morocco, "in the boondocks" (bled), in accordance with tradition.
Mediterranean languages have been mixing for a very long time, what Louis-Jean Calvet calls "mixed languages", with examples from Antiquity to the present day.
Morocco is Berber, even though many Berbers no longer speak Amazigh. And for good reason, despite real efforts, the Berber language is not really supported in Morocco.
The pomegranate, a fruit of the sun symbolising abundance, whose Berber name is Taṛemmant, very similar to the Arabic Arrouman.
The dromedary is an animal of the desert, of sand and stones. It cannot plough, and the ‘dromedary's furrow’ is a symbol of work that does not progress. Like much of the work in Morocco!
As in French, fireplace or foyer (almessi) defines the family. The oven (afarnou) gives its name to a much sought-after bread in Morocco, which every Berber housewife knows how to prepare!
