Azul,
Introduction
The release of the RIF2000 Dictionary is the result of the continuous concern of a small
group of people with Tamazight, especially its Rifian variant ³Tarifit², about its standardisation, its transfer to the electronic world and its emancipation among the languages by which it is surrounded.
AWB Computing took the initiative in 1992 to launch its first Tifinagh font for Windows with a wide variety of classical and new Tifinagh characters. In 1995 its initiative to discuss standardisation issues was kindly received by representatives from universities and cultural associations. Cadi Kaddour also participated in one of the sessions, while he was on a visit
to the Netherlands. These sessions concentrated mainly on the choice of characters, whereas the seminar organised by the universities of Tilburg and Utrecht in 1997 focused more on general guidelines for a standard notation of ŒTarifit¹ and was organised as a follow-up of the above-mentioned standardisation meetings and the work of the INALCO institute in Paris, which had earlier presented written guidelines for a standard notation of Tamazight. In this sphere and during this chain of events we began to work on the present RIF 2000!
In between we were able to produce the Tamazight Font Set for Mac and PC (Twiza & Itri) which enabled users to change documents smoothly from a notation in Tifinagh into a
notation in Latin characters and the other way around. The correct transfer of text files between Windows and Macintosh was also guaranteed by the use of these fonts.
In addition we introduced Tifinagh keyboard stickers which are a practical help in writing Tamazight on a computer.
While we were working on the database of words for the dictionary, we felt the increasing
need to bring unity into the use of Tifinagh characters. Maybe classical and new characters could be ordered more sensibly and revised into a new scheme for all variants of Tamazight and consequently be introduced into the ranks of the Amazigh World Congress. A committee called the ³Comité Provisoire pour la Standardisation de Tifinagh² was set up with members from various countries, a website was opened and a mailing to over two hundred cultural associations was executed. The initiative and the major part of the work and its financing was taken care of by the representatives from our company, but unfortunately, the committee was unable to bring continuity into its organisation and its task to meet the set goals.
Given this fact, we had no other choice than to work with the most popular set of Tifinagh
characters used in Morocco (published by practically all cultural associations), which consist largely of so-called Œneo-tifinagh¹ characters in contrast to the Œclassical tifinagh¹ which has been used by the Tuaregs over the centuries. We observe that the magazines in Morocco are beginning to use the Tifinagh font ³Twiza² in a more and more constructive way, leaving behind the stage in which Tifinagh was often used purely symbolically.
Rif 2000 is an important step forward in writing Tamazight because it makes a vocabulary of
over 5000 words in an easy and orderly fashion for a much greater public beyond the universities. *Its electronic form makes the implementation of future enhancements relatively simple. It can also be used as a center of discussion about the improvement of notation and spelling. We welcome constructive forms of criticism (please let us know if you find errors), preferably by e-mail, fax or mail. Most of all we wish you a profitable journey through the world of Tarifit with RIF 2000!
Overview
RIF 2000 can be regarded as a list of words in ‘Tarifit’ with their main meanings in Dutch, French, English and Spanish. In other words the main orientation of the dictionary should be seen as being from Tarifit into the European languages. However there is no doubt that it can also be used the other way around. In whatever direction it is used one should always be careful and alert because we have not been able in this version to cope with questions of contextual information and prepositions which accompany verbs. Searching facilities in European languages are especially helpful because so little of the spelling of Tarifit has been standardised, which means that looking for a word can pose problems because one can not always be sure about its precise spelling in Tarifit. We think that the present list of words will be very interesting for those who have
a dedicated interested in Tarifit as native speakers or as students.
RIF 2000 contains approx. 1350 verbs, 3300 nouns and adjectives, 100 adjectives, 95 numbers and 100 adverbs aas well as prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns and various other vocabulary. Additional information for verbs consists of 10 other fields giving the various tenses. The nouns and adjectives are classified according to their gender and accompanied by their plural forms and bound state forms for its singular and its plural. In a special information field users can trace whether a word has an origin in another language e.g. Latin or Arabic. In the same field we have incidentally given an expression or example which contains the Tarifit word that you are viewing on the screen with its translation (in version 1.0 translations in this field are only in Dutch). Sometimes a variant pronunciation of the word can be found in this field.
RIF 2000 contains Rif vocabulary which has been sofar less accessible for a wider public because
of its awkward notations for common language users and the lack of availability. We mention some persons who have made significant contributions: A. Renisio, K. Caddour, C. de Waard and L.V. Justinard. A variety of other sources has been used including magazines of cultural associations and literature.
We have included a limited amount of new words (neologisms). The main groups are:
(1) the grammatical terms as introduced by Mouloud Mammeri in his “Grammar of Tamazight” (Tajerrumt n Tmazight), (2) the Tamazight numbers as distinct from those that correspond largely with the Arabic equivalents and (3) some 150 terms which stem from a collection of new words by Manuel Suarèz Rosales in his “Amawal n Tmazight Tatrart - Tasbenyult - Tamazight” (Vocabulario de Mazigio Moderno - Español - Mazigio). In each case you can recognise the origin from a note in the field with Information and Notes.
RIF 2000 has very much oriented itself towards the guidelines for writing as fostered by Inalco (Mena Lafkiou) and those involved in the seminar in Utrecht in 1997. We have also listened to advice. However in this version you will find inconsistencies and imperfections in various ways. We will be interested in constructive and good criticism, but we feel that we have done what we could within the time limits, money and the available written guidelines for writing. It has been a great investment from our side without any financial help from outside and we hope you will appreciate the program despite its shortcomings.
RIF 2000 shows a flag for Tamazight or Tarifit which has become the flag of the Amazigh
Cultural Movement in all parts of Tamazgha since the Amazigh World Congress on the Canary Islands in 1997. It is a cultural flag, it is a nice flag and it is no more than a flag!
You can get it from the cultural associations.
Notation
Our choice of script is TIFINAGH. To help those who are accustomed to Latin script we have added a Latin transcription. For people who have a habit of using Arabic script we have not made an accommodation because of the technical issues involved.
We have opted for a character set which is slightly closer to the reality of spoken Tarifit than
the set proposed by Inalco and the Utrecht Seminar of 1996, which is regularly published in the magazine of Adrar (Nijmegen - NL). At the same time however we have remained as close as possible to their character sets that adaptions can easily be made - technically speaking - in order to enhance the conformity. We mention the following differences:
- we have kept the special character for the sound ‘dj’ as = or = (and not ‘ll’)
- wherever ‘r’ is pronouced which was originally the sound ‘l’ we write & or & (and not ‘l’)
- the spirant ‘t’ and ‘d’ have the same character as their non-spirant counter-parts (Inalco/Utrecht)
- the ‘tc’ sound at the end of words in Tarifit which is the result of an original ‘lt’ or ‘rt’, will be
represented by a special character being ` (and not ‘tc’ or ‘lt’ or ‘rt’). However word which
have ‘tc’ which does not result from ‘tl’ or ‘tr’ are written with ‘tc’ (e.g. ‘tcamma’ and ‘tcikli’)
- the ‘shwa’ will be used in accordance with the proposals of Inalco and the Utrecht Seminar .
- the labio-velarisation is written as ‘w’ but not often. It is required when a so-called minimal pair
exixts e.g. ‘ikkar - ikkwar’ en ‘tegga - teggwa’.
- the sound ‘p’ (mostly from Spanish loan words is represented by ‘b’
- punctuation is handled as in most modern scripts and capital characters are used at the beginning
of a phrase and for proper names. We do not use the dash in our notation.
The total number of characters of the Tarifit alphabet is 33, which are introduced to you in the table below. (please note that the Tamazight fonts set has a few additional
characters, but they should not be used any longer in the notation of Tarifit).
If you click here you will get a presentation of the Tarifit-Tamazight alphabet.
There are other issues concerning the notation of Tamazight such as assimilation, the succession of vowels, the bound state, dynamic spirantisation, emphasis and tension. We have not been able to deal with all these issues in a thorough and consistent way. We have studied the important proposals from Inalco and Mena Lafkiou who reported on the Utrecht Seminar and also we have asked some additional advice. The amount of work involved, the prevailing differences and views and the lack of thorough and detailed written standardisation proposals with sufficient backing, as well as the absence of any authoritative and permanent body that promotes the standardisation, these are all reasons which have led to the present result.
It means you will see ‘tarifit’ and ‘tarifect’, ‘aryaz’ and ‘argaz’, ‘tfuct’ and not ‘tfukt’, ‘ssired’ with double ‘s’ while ‘itkemmer’ is not written with double ‘t’. Also our use of the root for which we have a special field is vulnerable to criticism. Do not worry, you will find your way if you are really motivated to learn and if you have a good teacher! Also we advise you to read some books
or publications about the Tamazight language and its structure.
Under the section Cultural Information we will mention a number of publications, books and websites, which offer you valuable information. Also you can get in touch with one of the many cultural associations in North Africa, Europa, United States and other parts of the world and subscribe to their magazines to keep yourself posted. Amazigh Net is the internet community for Imazighen and you can easily subscribe through the internet.
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations can be found for languages in the program:
AR. = Arabic
ES. = Spain or Spanish
GR. = Greece or Greek
IT. = Italy or Italian
FR. = France or French
LAT. = Latin
NL. = Dutch or the Netherlands
TMZ. = Tamazight or Tamazgha
UK. = United Kingdom or English
In the information field you can find also:
COL. = collectives; also used for words which are not collectives,
but have only a plural form (e.g. ‘idammen’).
INFO. = information
LETT. = literally
EXPR. = expression
VAR. = variant
Vb. = example
ZM. = no plural
PAN-TMZ-No. = used for numbers which are not so well-known in Rif,
but which are widely used in other regions of Tamazgha.
Rosales = Manuel Suarèz Rosales “Amawal n Tmazight Tatrart - Tasbenyult - Tamazight”
(Vocabulario de Mazigio Moderno - Español - Mazigio).
Tajerrumt n Tmazight = book by Mouloud Mammeri (basic grammar of Tamazight including
a list of grammatical terminology in Tamazight
In the field word category you can find or input the following categories & abbreviations:
v = verb
n = noun
adj. = adjective (very often nouns can be used as adjectives in Tamazight)
adv. = adverb
conjunction = conjuction
number = number
misc. = miscellaneous
preposition = preposition
pronoun = pronoun
Other remarks
- we have used the semicolon (
to distinguish between different meanings of one word.
- when you find e.g. ‘iccur - iteccur’ in the Information & Notes field of a verb, this
represents a variant reading of the 3rd person of the perfect and imperfect singular.
- when you find a variant of a noun (VAR) we have often offered its singular and plural
e..g. ‘‘deblej - dbalej”
- when a word is considered vulgar, you will find ‘vulgair’ in the INFO field.
RIF 2000 Dictionary is an application based on FileMaker Pro, which is a very easy to use
and popular database program which allows for additions in sound, movie and images.
It is designed for 15” monitors with screen resolutions from 800 x 600 and higher.
Installation
On both Mac and PC you will first have to install the fonts that you find in your Fonts Folder
on the CD! Turn to your MacOS and Windows manual for instruction. For Macintosh
you will also have to install the keyboard driver. For Windows you need the English keyboard
driver for editing in the Tamazight font. After you have installed the fonts in the operating
system, you can simply drag the folder RIF2000 to your desktop and open it and click on the
icon RIF2000. You will be required to enter the password provided by your supplier. Later
you can change your password from the top left hand side of the main menu
(Change Password).
In the STARTUP screen you need to click on the flag to determine the language in which you
want to have all the buttons and field names. The main menu on top is only in English (but it
is very easy to understand and you do not really need it). The next screen is the STANDARD
screen. If you want to change the Tamazight from Tifinagh to Latin transcription you have to
do it now, by pressing the appropriate blue button TMZ-LATIN on the left-top side. You can
return to Tifinagh by pressing the blue TIFINAGH button. You can just click on the various
buttons to see what happens You will find it very easy to learn!
Main guidelines for using the program
Search You can use the blue buttons at the right side of each word and it will bring your
cursor immediately into writing position. However you can also search by using:
Command-F (Mac) or Ctrl-F (PC).
When your cursor is in the input position after you initiated a Search, just type the word
or the first characters of the word you want to look for. By using the TAB you can also enter
search conditions in other fields. E.g. you define a search for all nouns which have ‘a’ as first
character by writing ‘a’ in the Riffian field and ‘n’ (= noun) in the Word category field.
This way you can make all sorts of searches. Next you press ENTER and the search starts.
Every time you do a search on a field for Tamazight we advise you to start by typing first “.
This will make sure that all Tamazight characters you write will be matched properly.
If you do not do it, your search result may be misleading.
Cancel Search or Sorting
You can cancel the result of a search or sort at any time:
Command-J (Mac) or Ctrl-J (PC)
Add Word
You cannot change or delete words but you can add New Words by making a new record:
Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-N (PC)
You can change some of the settings on your screen from the icons on bottom left hand side
of your screen (e.g. maximize or minimize and display or do not display sidebar. Just try and
scroll through the menus on top of the screen. It is very easy.
System requirements
Apple Macintosh: Mac with MacOS 7.1 or above and installed fonts Palatino & Times
Windows: Pentium with Win’95, Win’98 or Win NT 4.0 with installed font Times New Roman.
Fonts & Characters & Keyboard Layout
To learn more about the use of the fonts press one of the two buttons below:
Cultural Information
To enhance your knowledge of Tamazight language and culture we provide you with some
important sources. We apologize for the fact that we sometimes have to present titles
which do not use the term ‘Tamazight’ but another term which is offensive at the present
stage of affairs. This may be due to an earlier stage in which the publication appeared
or to an inclination to help people who are not familiar with the better term or to ignorance
or lack of respect. We find this especially strong in the Francophone areas and insist on
a change. In new versions we may no longer endorse such titles if they are of a recent date.
Books about Tamazight
A.Aissati : Nessawal Tmazight (Tarifiyt) - Basic course book for Tarifiyt)
(written in Dutch and English)
M. Lafkioui : Propositions pour la notation usuelle a base latine du rifain.
(Inalco, February,1997) (French & Dutch)
M. Quittout : Grammaire Berbère (L’Harmattan, 1997) (French)
M. Chafiq : Forty-four lessons in the Tamazight language (1991) (in Arabic)
Th. G. Penchoen : The Tamazight of the Ayt Ndhir (Undena Publications, 1973)
(written in English)
A. Renisio : Études sur les Dialectes Berbères des Beni-Iznassen, du Rif et des Senhaja de Sraïr (Paris, Éditions Ernest Leroux, 1932) (FR)
C. de Waard : Woorden en woordgebruikt (Dutch book about Tarifit)
M. Mammeri : Tajerrumt n Tmazight (Tantala Taqbaylit) - (Maspero, Paris,
1976, written in Taqbaylit)
M. Mammeri : Précis de grammaire berbère (Kabyle) (Awal, Paris, 1987) (FR)
L.V. Justinard : Manuel de Berbère Marocaine, dialecte Rifain
(Paris, Geuthner, 1926, written in French)
M. Taïfi : Dictionnaire Tamazight-Français (parlers Maroc Central)
(Paris, L’Harmattan/Awal, 1992)
M. Chafiq : Arabic-Tamazight Dictionary (part 1 & 2)
(Royal Academy of Morocco, 1993 & 1996)
J.M. Dallet : Dictionnaire Kabyle-Français (Parler des AtMangellat/Algerie)
(Paris, Selaf, 1982)
Websites
Websites are a interesting sources of information. You can find information about:
(1) culture, (2) language courses, (3) addresses of university departments for Tamazight,
(4) addresses of cultural associations all over the world, (5) history & politics, etc
Amazigh.nl : www.amazigh.nl
Tawiza.com : www.tawiza.com
Syphax vereniging : www.syphax.nl
ABiN : www.abin.nu
Amazigh World Congress : www.worldlynx.net/tamazgha
Website with addresses : www.physics.mcgill.ca/~karim/tamazight
Website Inalco : www.inalco.fr
Website Edisud : www.ee.edisud.com/edisud/index.html
Riffian Bibliography : www.lps.ens.fr/~aguenaou/tamazight/biblio_rif.html
AWB Computing B.V : www.awbcomputing.nl (download a demo of RIF2000)
Zi _Arif
[ Edité par Zi_Arif le 30/12/2003 15:02 ]
Introduction
The release of the RIF2000 Dictionary is the result of the continuous concern of a small
group of people with Tamazight, especially its Rifian variant ³Tarifit², about its standardisation, its transfer to the electronic world and its emancipation among the languages by which it is surrounded.
AWB Computing took the initiative in 1992 to launch its first Tifinagh font for Windows with a wide variety of classical and new Tifinagh characters. In 1995 its initiative to discuss standardisation issues was kindly received by representatives from universities and cultural associations. Cadi Kaddour also participated in one of the sessions, while he was on a visit
to the Netherlands. These sessions concentrated mainly on the choice of characters, whereas the seminar organised by the universities of Tilburg and Utrecht in 1997 focused more on general guidelines for a standard notation of ŒTarifit¹ and was organised as a follow-up of the above-mentioned standardisation meetings and the work of the INALCO institute in Paris, which had earlier presented written guidelines for a standard notation of Tamazight. In this sphere and during this chain of events we began to work on the present RIF 2000!
In between we were able to produce the Tamazight Font Set for Mac and PC (Twiza & Itri) which enabled users to change documents smoothly from a notation in Tifinagh into a
notation in Latin characters and the other way around. The correct transfer of text files between Windows and Macintosh was also guaranteed by the use of these fonts.
In addition we introduced Tifinagh keyboard stickers which are a practical help in writing Tamazight on a computer.
While we were working on the database of words for the dictionary, we felt the increasing
need to bring unity into the use of Tifinagh characters. Maybe classical and new characters could be ordered more sensibly and revised into a new scheme for all variants of Tamazight and consequently be introduced into the ranks of the Amazigh World Congress. A committee called the ³Comité Provisoire pour la Standardisation de Tifinagh² was set up with members from various countries, a website was opened and a mailing to over two hundred cultural associations was executed. The initiative and the major part of the work and its financing was taken care of by the representatives from our company, but unfortunately, the committee was unable to bring continuity into its organisation and its task to meet the set goals.
Given this fact, we had no other choice than to work with the most popular set of Tifinagh
characters used in Morocco (published by practically all cultural associations), which consist largely of so-called Œneo-tifinagh¹ characters in contrast to the Œclassical tifinagh¹ which has been used by the Tuaregs over the centuries. We observe that the magazines in Morocco are beginning to use the Tifinagh font ³Twiza² in a more and more constructive way, leaving behind the stage in which Tifinagh was often used purely symbolically.
Rif 2000 is an important step forward in writing Tamazight because it makes a vocabulary of
over 5000 words in an easy and orderly fashion for a much greater public beyond the universities. *Its electronic form makes the implementation of future enhancements relatively simple. It can also be used as a center of discussion about the improvement of notation and spelling. We welcome constructive forms of criticism (please let us know if you find errors), preferably by e-mail, fax or mail. Most of all we wish you a profitable journey through the world of Tarifit with RIF 2000!
Overview
RIF 2000 can be regarded as a list of words in ‘Tarifit’ with their main meanings in Dutch, French, English and Spanish. In other words the main orientation of the dictionary should be seen as being from Tarifit into the European languages. However there is no doubt that it can also be used the other way around. In whatever direction it is used one should always be careful and alert because we have not been able in this version to cope with questions of contextual information and prepositions which accompany verbs. Searching facilities in European languages are especially helpful because so little of the spelling of Tarifit has been standardised, which means that looking for a word can pose problems because one can not always be sure about its precise spelling in Tarifit. We think that the present list of words will be very interesting for those who have
a dedicated interested in Tarifit as native speakers or as students.
RIF 2000 contains approx. 1350 verbs, 3300 nouns and adjectives, 100 adjectives, 95 numbers and 100 adverbs aas well as prepositions, conjunctions, pronouns and various other vocabulary. Additional information for verbs consists of 10 other fields giving the various tenses. The nouns and adjectives are classified according to their gender and accompanied by their plural forms and bound state forms for its singular and its plural. In a special information field users can trace whether a word has an origin in another language e.g. Latin or Arabic. In the same field we have incidentally given an expression or example which contains the Tarifit word that you are viewing on the screen with its translation (in version 1.0 translations in this field are only in Dutch). Sometimes a variant pronunciation of the word can be found in this field.
RIF 2000 contains Rif vocabulary which has been sofar less accessible for a wider public because
of its awkward notations for common language users and the lack of availability. We mention some persons who have made significant contributions: A. Renisio, K. Caddour, C. de Waard and L.V. Justinard. A variety of other sources has been used including magazines of cultural associations and literature.
We have included a limited amount of new words (neologisms). The main groups are:
(1) the grammatical terms as introduced by Mouloud Mammeri in his “Grammar of Tamazight” (Tajerrumt n Tmazight), (2) the Tamazight numbers as distinct from those that correspond largely with the Arabic equivalents and (3) some 150 terms which stem from a collection of new words by Manuel Suarèz Rosales in his “Amawal n Tmazight Tatrart - Tasbenyult - Tamazight” (Vocabulario de Mazigio Moderno - Español - Mazigio). In each case you can recognise the origin from a note in the field with Information and Notes.
RIF 2000 has very much oriented itself towards the guidelines for writing as fostered by Inalco (Mena Lafkiou) and those involved in the seminar in Utrecht in 1997. We have also listened to advice. However in this version you will find inconsistencies and imperfections in various ways. We will be interested in constructive and good criticism, but we feel that we have done what we could within the time limits, money and the available written guidelines for writing. It has been a great investment from our side without any financial help from outside and we hope you will appreciate the program despite its shortcomings.
RIF 2000 shows a flag for Tamazight or Tarifit which has become the flag of the Amazigh
Cultural Movement in all parts of Tamazgha since the Amazigh World Congress on the Canary Islands in 1997. It is a cultural flag, it is a nice flag and it is no more than a flag!
You can get it from the cultural associations.
Notation
Our choice of script is TIFINAGH. To help those who are accustomed to Latin script we have added a Latin transcription. For people who have a habit of using Arabic script we have not made an accommodation because of the technical issues involved.
We have opted for a character set which is slightly closer to the reality of spoken Tarifit than
the set proposed by Inalco and the Utrecht Seminar of 1996, which is regularly published in the magazine of Adrar (Nijmegen - NL). At the same time however we have remained as close as possible to their character sets that adaptions can easily be made - technically speaking - in order to enhance the conformity. We mention the following differences:
- we have kept the special character for the sound ‘dj’ as = or = (and not ‘ll’)
- wherever ‘r’ is pronouced which was originally the sound ‘l’ we write & or & (and not ‘l’)
- the spirant ‘t’ and ‘d’ have the same character as their non-spirant counter-parts (Inalco/Utrecht)
- the ‘tc’ sound at the end of words in Tarifit which is the result of an original ‘lt’ or ‘rt’, will be
represented by a special character being ` (and not ‘tc’ or ‘lt’ or ‘rt’). However word which
have ‘tc’ which does not result from ‘tl’ or ‘tr’ are written with ‘tc’ (e.g. ‘tcamma’ and ‘tcikli’)
- the ‘shwa’ will be used in accordance with the proposals of Inalco and the Utrecht Seminar .
- the labio-velarisation is written as ‘w’ but not often. It is required when a so-called minimal pair
exixts e.g. ‘ikkar - ikkwar’ en ‘tegga - teggwa’.
- the sound ‘p’ (mostly from Spanish loan words is represented by ‘b’
- punctuation is handled as in most modern scripts and capital characters are used at the beginning
of a phrase and for proper names. We do not use the dash in our notation.
The total number of characters of the Tarifit alphabet is 33, which are introduced to you in the table below. (please note that the Tamazight fonts set has a few additional
characters, but they should not be used any longer in the notation of Tarifit).
If you click here you will get a presentation of the Tarifit-Tamazight alphabet.
There are other issues concerning the notation of Tamazight such as assimilation, the succession of vowels, the bound state, dynamic spirantisation, emphasis and tension. We have not been able to deal with all these issues in a thorough and consistent way. We have studied the important proposals from Inalco and Mena Lafkiou who reported on the Utrecht Seminar and also we have asked some additional advice. The amount of work involved, the prevailing differences and views and the lack of thorough and detailed written standardisation proposals with sufficient backing, as well as the absence of any authoritative and permanent body that promotes the standardisation, these are all reasons which have led to the present result.
It means you will see ‘tarifit’ and ‘tarifect’, ‘aryaz’ and ‘argaz’, ‘tfuct’ and not ‘tfukt’, ‘ssired’ with double ‘s’ while ‘itkemmer’ is not written with double ‘t’. Also our use of the root for which we have a special field is vulnerable to criticism. Do not worry, you will find your way if you are really motivated to learn and if you have a good teacher! Also we advise you to read some books
or publications about the Tamazight language and its structure.
Under the section Cultural Information we will mention a number of publications, books and websites, which offer you valuable information. Also you can get in touch with one of the many cultural associations in North Africa, Europa, United States and other parts of the world and subscribe to their magazines to keep yourself posted. Amazigh Net is the internet community for Imazighen and you can easily subscribe through the internet.
Abbreviations
The following abbreviations can be found for languages in the program:
AR. = Arabic
ES. = Spain or Spanish
GR. = Greece or Greek
IT. = Italy or Italian
FR. = France or French
LAT. = Latin
NL. = Dutch or the Netherlands
TMZ. = Tamazight or Tamazgha
UK. = United Kingdom or English
In the information field you can find also:
COL. = collectives; also used for words which are not collectives,
but have only a plural form (e.g. ‘idammen’).
INFO. = information
LETT. = literally
EXPR. = expression
VAR. = variant
Vb. = example
ZM. = no plural
PAN-TMZ-No. = used for numbers which are not so well-known in Rif,
but which are widely used in other regions of Tamazgha.
Rosales = Manuel Suarèz Rosales “Amawal n Tmazight Tatrart - Tasbenyult - Tamazight”
(Vocabulario de Mazigio Moderno - Español - Mazigio).
Tajerrumt n Tmazight = book by Mouloud Mammeri (basic grammar of Tamazight including
a list of grammatical terminology in Tamazight
In the field word category you can find or input the following categories & abbreviations:
v = verb
n = noun
adj. = adjective (very often nouns can be used as adjectives in Tamazight)
adv. = adverb
conjunction = conjuction
number = number
misc. = miscellaneous
preposition = preposition
pronoun = pronoun
Other remarks
- we have used the semicolon (
to distinguish between different meanings of one word. - when you find e.g. ‘iccur - iteccur’ in the Information & Notes field of a verb, this
represents a variant reading of the 3rd person of the perfect and imperfect singular.
- when you find a variant of a noun (VAR) we have often offered its singular and plural
e..g. ‘‘deblej - dbalej”
- when a word is considered vulgar, you will find ‘vulgair’ in the INFO field.
RIF 2000 Dictionary is an application based on FileMaker Pro, which is a very easy to use
and popular database program which allows for additions in sound, movie and images.
It is designed for 15” monitors with screen resolutions from 800 x 600 and higher.
Installation
On both Mac and PC you will first have to install the fonts that you find in your Fonts Folder
on the CD! Turn to your MacOS and Windows manual for instruction. For Macintosh
you will also have to install the keyboard driver. For Windows you need the English keyboard
driver for editing in the Tamazight font. After you have installed the fonts in the operating
system, you can simply drag the folder RIF2000 to your desktop and open it and click on the
icon RIF2000. You will be required to enter the password provided by your supplier. Later
you can change your password from the top left hand side of the main menu
(Change Password).
In the STARTUP screen you need to click on the flag to determine the language in which you
want to have all the buttons and field names. The main menu on top is only in English (but it
is very easy to understand and you do not really need it). The next screen is the STANDARD
screen. If you want to change the Tamazight from Tifinagh to Latin transcription you have to
do it now, by pressing the appropriate blue button TMZ-LATIN on the left-top side. You can
return to Tifinagh by pressing the blue TIFINAGH button. You can just click on the various
buttons to see what happens You will find it very easy to learn!
Main guidelines for using the program
Search You can use the blue buttons at the right side of each word and it will bring your
cursor immediately into writing position. However you can also search by using:
Command-F (Mac) or Ctrl-F (PC).
When your cursor is in the input position after you initiated a Search, just type the word
or the first characters of the word you want to look for. By using the TAB you can also enter
search conditions in other fields. E.g. you define a search for all nouns which have ‘a’ as first
character by writing ‘a’ in the Riffian field and ‘n’ (= noun) in the Word category field.
This way you can make all sorts of searches. Next you press ENTER and the search starts.
Every time you do a search on a field for Tamazight we advise you to start by typing first “.
This will make sure that all Tamazight characters you write will be matched properly.
If you do not do it, your search result may be misleading.
Cancel Search or Sorting
You can cancel the result of a search or sort at any time:
Command-J (Mac) or Ctrl-J (PC)
Add Word
You cannot change or delete words but you can add New Words by making a new record:
Command-N (Mac) or Ctrl-N (PC)
You can change some of the settings on your screen from the icons on bottom left hand side
of your screen (e.g. maximize or minimize and display or do not display sidebar. Just try and
scroll through the menus on top of the screen. It is very easy.
System requirements
Apple Macintosh: Mac with MacOS 7.1 or above and installed fonts Palatino & Times
Windows: Pentium with Win’95, Win’98 or Win NT 4.0 with installed font Times New Roman.
Fonts & Characters & Keyboard Layout
To learn more about the use of the fonts press one of the two buttons below:
Cultural Information
To enhance your knowledge of Tamazight language and culture we provide you with some
important sources. We apologize for the fact that we sometimes have to present titles
which do not use the term ‘Tamazight’ but another term which is offensive at the present
stage of affairs. This may be due to an earlier stage in which the publication appeared
or to an inclination to help people who are not familiar with the better term or to ignorance
or lack of respect. We find this especially strong in the Francophone areas and insist on
a change. In new versions we may no longer endorse such titles if they are of a recent date.
Books about Tamazight
A.Aissati : Nessawal Tmazight (Tarifiyt) - Basic course book for Tarifiyt)
(written in Dutch and English)
M. Lafkioui : Propositions pour la notation usuelle a base latine du rifain.
(Inalco, February,1997) (French & Dutch)
M. Quittout : Grammaire Berbère (L’Harmattan, 1997) (French)
M. Chafiq : Forty-four lessons in the Tamazight language (1991) (in Arabic)
Th. G. Penchoen : The Tamazight of the Ayt Ndhir (Undena Publications, 1973)
(written in English)
A. Renisio : Études sur les Dialectes Berbères des Beni-Iznassen, du Rif et des Senhaja de Sraïr (Paris, Éditions Ernest Leroux, 1932) (FR)
C. de Waard : Woorden en woordgebruikt (Dutch book about Tarifit)
M. Mammeri : Tajerrumt n Tmazight (Tantala Taqbaylit) - (Maspero, Paris,
1976, written in Taqbaylit)
M. Mammeri : Précis de grammaire berbère (Kabyle) (Awal, Paris, 1987) (FR)
L.V. Justinard : Manuel de Berbère Marocaine, dialecte Rifain
(Paris, Geuthner, 1926, written in French)
M. Taïfi : Dictionnaire Tamazight-Français (parlers Maroc Central)
(Paris, L’Harmattan/Awal, 1992)
M. Chafiq : Arabic-Tamazight Dictionary (part 1 & 2)
(Royal Academy of Morocco, 1993 & 1996)
J.M. Dallet : Dictionnaire Kabyle-Français (Parler des AtMangellat/Algerie)
(Paris, Selaf, 1982)
Websites
Websites are a interesting sources of information. You can find information about:
(1) culture, (2) language courses, (3) addresses of university departments for Tamazight,
(4) addresses of cultural associations all over the world, (5) history & politics, etc
Amazigh.nl : www.amazigh.nl
Tawiza.com : www.tawiza.com
Syphax vereniging : www.syphax.nl
ABiN : www.abin.nu
Amazigh World Congress : www.worldlynx.net/tamazgha
Website with addresses : www.physics.mcgill.ca/~karim/tamazight
Website Inalco : www.inalco.fr
Website Edisud : www.ee.edisud.com/edisud/index.html
Riffian Bibliography : www.lps.ens.fr/~aguenaou/tamazight/biblio_rif.html
AWB Computing B.V : www.awbcomputing.nl (download a demo of RIF2000)
Zi _Arif
[ Edité par Zi_Arif le 30/12/2003 15:02 ]