Berber (Middle Atlas)

WALS coordinates: 33° N, 5° W

spoken in Morocco

Alternative Names

Ethnologue:
Ruhlen:
  • Tamazight
Routledge:
  • Tamazight
Other:
  • Berber (Ayt Ndhir Middle Atlas),
  • Tamazight (Ayt Ndhir),
  • Berber (Ayt Ayache Middle Atlas),
  • Tamazight (Middle Atlas)
ISO 639-3:

Features

Feature Value References
Phonology
Consonant Inventories Average
Vowel Quality Inventories Small (2-4)
Consonant-Vowel Ratio High
Voicing in Plosives and Fricatives In both plosives and fricatives
Voicing and Gaps in Plosive Systems Missing /p/
Uvular Consonants Uvular stops only
Glottalized Consonants No glottalized consonants
Lateral Consonants /l/, no obstruent laterals
The Velar Nasal No velar nasal
Vowel Nasalization Contrast absent
Front Rounded Vowels None
Syllable Structure Complex
Tone No tones
Fixed Stress Locations Ultimate
Weight-Sensitive Stress Fixed stress (no weight-sensitivity)
Weight Factors in Weight-Sensitive Stress Systems No weight
Absence of Common Consonants All present
Presence of Uncommon Consonants Pharyngeals
Morphology
Fusion of Selected Inflectional Formatives Ablaut/concatenative
Exponence of Selected Inflectional Formatives Monoexponential case
Inflectional Synthesis of the Verb 6-7 categories per word
Locus of Marking in the Clause Dependent marking
Locus of Marking in Possessive Noun Phrases Dependent marking
Locus of Marking: Whole-language Typology Dependent-marking
Prefixing vs. Suffixing in Inflectional Morphology Equal prefixing and suffixing
Reduplication Productive full and partial reduplication
Case Syncretism No case marking
Syncretism in Verbal Person/Number Marking Not syncretic
Nominal Categories
Number of Genders Two
Sex-based and Non-sex-based Gender Systems Sex-based
Systems of Gender Assignment Semantic and formal
Coding of Nominal Plurality Mixed morphological plural
Plurality in Independent Personal Pronouns Person-number stem + pronominal plural affix
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Independent Pronouns No inclusive/exclusive
Inclusive/Exclusive Distinction in Verbal Inflection No inclusive/exclusive
Third Person Pronouns and Demonstratives Unrelated
Gender Distinctions in Independent Personal Pronouns In 3rd person + 1st and/or 2nd person
Politeness Distinctions in Pronouns No politeness distinction
Person Marking on Adpositions Pronouns only
Number of Cases 2 cases
Asymmetrical Case-Marking Subtractive-quantitatively asymmetrical
Position of Case Affixes Case prefixes
Comitatives and Instrumentals Differentiation
Ordinal Numerals First, two-th, three-th
Position of Pronominal Possessive Affixes Possessive suffixes
Nominal Syntax
Obligatory Possessive Inflection Absent
Possessive Classification Two classes
Noun Phrase Conjunction 'And' identical to 'with'
Nominal and Verbal Conjunction Differentiation
Verbal Categories
Perfective/Imperfective Aspect Grammatical marking
The Past Tense No past tense
The Future Tense No inflectional future
The Perfect No perfect
Position of Tense-Aspect Affixes Mixed type
The Morphological Imperative Second singular and second plural
The Prohibitive Special imperative + normal negative
Imperative-Hortative Systems Neither type of system
The Optative Inflectional optative absent
Situational Possibility Verbal constructions
Suppletion According to Tense and Aspect None
Verbal Number and Suppletion None
Word Order
Order of Subject, Object and Verb VSO
Order of Subject and Verb VS
Order of Object and Verb VO
Order of Object, Oblique, and Verb VOX
Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase Prepositions
Order of Genitive and Noun Noun-Genitive
Order of Adjective and Noun Noun-Adjective
Order of Demonstrative and Noun Mixed
Order of Numeral and Noun Numeral-Noun
Order of Relative Clause and Noun Noun-Relative clause
Position of Polar Question Particles Initial
Position of Interrogative Phrases in Content Questions Initial interrogative phrase
Order of Adverbial Subordinator and Clause Initial subordinator word
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adposition and Noun Phrase VO and Prepositions
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Relative Clause and Noun VO and NRel
Relationship between the Order of Object and Verb and the Order of Adjective and Noun VO and NAdj
Simple Clauses
Alignment of Case Marking of Full Noun Phrases Nominative - accusative (marked nominative)
Alignment of Case Marking of Pronouns Neutral
Alignment of Verbal Person Marking Accusative
Expression of Pronominal Subjects Subject affixes on verb
Verbal Person Marking Both the A and P arguments
Third Person Zero of Verbal Person Marking No zero realization
Order of Person Markers on the Verb A precedes P
Ditransitive Constructions: The Verb 'Give' Indirect-object construction
Reciprocal Constructions Distinct from reflexive
Passive Constructions Present
Antipassive Constructions No antipassive
Applicative Constructions No applicative construction
Nonperiphrastic Causative Constructions Morphological but no compound
Negative Morphemes Negative particle
Symmetric and Asymmetric Standard Negation Asymmetric
Subtypes of Asymmetric Standard Negation A/Fin and A/Cat
Negative Indefinite Pronouns and Predicate Negation Predicate negation also present
Polar Questions Question particle
Predicative Adjectives Verbal encoding
Nominal and Locational Predication Different
Zero Copula for Predicate Nominals Possible
Comparative Constructions Locational
Complex Sentences
Relativization on Subjects Gap
Relativization on Obliques Gap
'Want' Complement Subjects Subject is expressed overtly
Purpose Clauses Balanced/deranked
'When' Clauses Balanced/deranked
Reason Clauses Balanced/deranked
Utterance Complement Clauses Balanced/deranked
Lexicon
Numeral Bases Decimal
M-T Pronouns No M-T pronouns
N-M Pronouns N-M pronouns, non-paradigmatic
Tea Others