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Ḥamid Ouyachi

@hamidouyachi.bsky.social

310 followers 110 following 180 posts

word matters, things related to language (focus on Moroccan Tamazight + Tashlḥiyt) translation, poetry, etc. words in: Rusted Radishes, Tamazgha Studies Journal, Words Without Borders. blog @ http://tagwrsa.blogspot.com

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Feb 25

A bit of news!
My translation from #Tamazight of Azergui's "Aghrum n Yihaqqarn", under contract with Georgetown U Press, to be published in their new "Amazigh Studies Series", Spring 2026!!

An early version of a short extract is available on @wwborders.bsky.social here:
buff.ly/3VfWXGf

Ravens' Bread - Words Without Borders

Fearlessness and determination are the means to go on in this excerpt from Azergui's novel "Ravens' Bread," set during Morocco's "Years of Lead."

buff.ly

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 2d

Forthcoming:

First two books to roll out of G'town U Press's Amazigh Studies Series:

1. Brahim Akhiate, The Amazigh Revival (translated by Paul Raymond)

2. Aksil Azergui, Bread of the Ravens (translated, revised & edited by Hamid Ouyachi)

Brahim El Guabli @ouldsahra.bsky.social · 3d

The first translations in the Amazigh Studies series published by Georgetown University Press! These stunning covers highlight our visual identity! Send us your proposals! If you are coming to MESA, stop by our booth at the book fair. We’ll have swags and literature to share!

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 2d

Words in the speech bubble:

if you cannot live with little, you cannot live with a lot...
satiety is in the heart... (slurp)
turn your eye away from that which your paw cannot reach...

Picture showing a cherry stained wooden table with a a blue glaze plate with grilled hamburgers. At the edge of the table peeks the head of a dog staring intently at the plate. A speech balloon pointing at the head at the dog was added with words in Tamazight (Berber)

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 7d

Tanemmirt! 🙏🏼🙏🏼😊

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 7d

griɣ-as i tzuɣi n ṛmman anšuš
isɣuyy-d bu-tayri yawi-d azwar
"aḥḥ-nns! tetšid-as i wsmun aggay!"
nniɣ-as : "hat ur-as swiɣ ɣas intmi !"

(transl. into Tamazight)
🙏🏼🙏🏼 to @arabicpoetry.bsky.social

Arabic Poetry @arabicpoetry.bsky.social · 8d

—Do I dare to eat a pomegranate—
🍑

I ate a red pomegranate
and someone
who thought it was his lover's cheek
scolded me.

He asked, are you eating
my beloved's cheek?
No, I said. Just a kiss
to suck out its juices.

— al-Khubzaruzzī (d. 938)

وقال أيضاً:
١- أكلت رمانةٌ فعاتبني فتى رٱها كخد معشوقه.
٢- فقال: خذ الحبيب تأكله؟ فقلت: لا؛ بل أمص من ريقه.

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 10d

Both Moroccan Tmz & Darija have 'šəʕkūk' for 'bushy untidy hair' and '(a)xənšuš' for 'snout, ugly mug'. Ḥaḍ. has close relatives:

> kaʕšūš : untidy hair

> naxšūš: nose (in C. Ar 'gill, branchia')

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 10d

From 'Qāmūs al-lahža al-Ḥaḍṛamiyya', a few words:

The word for water in Baby Talk in Moroccan Tamazight is: 'əmbuwwa' (same in Siwa, see Gutova). Ḥaḍ. has something very close:

> ambūh, ambuʷh (?)

There is a lot of consistency and overlap across a wide area. Thus, some BT terms are shared between Siwa Berber in Egypt and Middle Atlas Tamazight in Morocco, e.g. (Siwa~Tamazight/Tarifiyt) fuffu 'fire, hot', deddi~diddi 'pain, it hurts', kexx 'leave it, stop, dirty', dadda~daddaš 'walk, toddle', ḅabu~appa
'bread', (e)mbuwwa 'water', etc. The distance between Central Morocco and Siwa is around 3,000 kilometres, and speakers of these languages have not had contact for many centuries. Yet, they have BT terms in common. Such terms are probably very old. At the same time, Maghrebian BT is not entirely homogeneous. Certainly, some BT items do not enjoy a wide geographical distribution, but are region-specific.

E. Gutova, BABY TALK IN BERBER AND MAGHREBIAN ARABIC, EDB 2015

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 14d

Locust in Moroccan Tamazight = tamurġi
Darija = žžṛad

A locust ranging from the Canary Islands to South Kazakhstan was named Dociostaurus maroccanus (thanks to Thunberg 1815). Attempts to rename it Mediterranean didn't stick:

Ar. al-jarād al-murrākušī
Pers. malaḵ-e marākeši
Tur. Fas çekirgesi
etc

Map of the range of the Moroccan Locust.
Source: A. V. Latchininsky (1998), "Moroccan locust Dociostaurus maroccanus (Thunberg, 1815): a faunistic rarity or an important economic pest?"

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 19d

Tetserret is very close to Tamazight (CA & SE Morocco):

> aman : water
> idammǝn : blood
> aman n tasa : urine (literally: liver water. There is also: abǝẓẓid, uggʷadǝn)

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 25d

There is a children's story (The Story of the Egg) told using fingers. It doesn't end with a life plan, but starts with an injustice and ends without a remedy (some get, some don't): dissembling, hierarchy of power, justice denied.

Michel Peyron, Contes et légendes de la montagne amazighe (Maroc), IRCAM, (2020)

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 27d

NuMaCa sounds like Chewbacca's cousin :)

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 27d

From a pure stats standpoint, Numidian hits the center. From Chabot's 1,124 inscriptions, 1,073 come from Numidia. But, is this distribution representative, or does it reflect the 'Roman Africa' bias of colonial epigraphy?

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · 27d

In Tmz (SE Morocco):

> ad as issəlwiġ Ṛəbbi asəlmed (or 'tussna')

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 14

2. 'collar (with hanging ornaments)'= ̣[t]asəddiy[t] (Taïfi, Azdoud, me :)

PS: Meouak's translation needs to be amended: "... même d'un empan..."
Meouak also cites Prasse & Alojaly, etc. : 'esəddi,...' (Aïr, Niger)

</>

M. Meouak, Langue Berbère au Maghreb Médiéval, Foornote, p.346

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 14

To explain the Ar. 'ribq': "rope with multiple loops for tying animals", Ibn Sallām al-Ibāḍi (d. 273/887) gives the Berber word 'tas[a|e]ddit' 'as[a|e]ddi iz'.

The word still exists today in CA & SE Tamazight w/ the meanings of:

1. 'restraining rope for multiple animals'= asəddi (Taïfi)

1/

Ibn Sallām al-Ibāḍi, "Bad’ al-islām wa-šarā'i` ad-dīn", 1986, p.79

M. Meouak, Langue Berbère au Maghreb Médiéval, pp.345-346

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 8

Any sources?
I am curious whether it survived (as code) from earlier emergence as a system for trading (with base five systems to the south)? Also, Souf being a palm tree cultivation hub, labor came from 'ḥaraṭin', slaves... the system could have traveled North?? IOW a contact system?

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 8

Numbers in Amazigh:

A quinary number system (base five) recorded by M. Letourneux around the oasis of Souf (Algeria), before 1860.

A Berber base five number system collected by M. Letourneux around Souf (Algeria)

Source:
Notices sur les dictionnaires géographiques arabes, et sur le système primitif de la numération chez les peuples de race berbère / par M. Reinaud (1861)

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 4

In Tmz (SE Morocco):

For stone : aggun / taggunt

For pile of stones (or other matter): agudi (aggudi)

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 2

Great! Thank you

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 1

There is a use that remains very close to this medieval usage, though the verb 'fsu' does not mean 'say, tell...'

FSU: detangle, stretch, unravel (wool, etc.)

From Haddachi:

'iwda ġif-nġ tfəssum awal'
(stop spreading words (telling tales) about us)

What is your source for medieval Tmz? Thanks

Definition of FSU in Haddachi's Dictionary of Tamazight

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Sep 1

Word of the day: 'labor'

In Tamazight (SE Morocco):

- tawuri , tiwiri

- a few from Ar : ššġʷl, lxdəmt, lhəmm (the latter oft used to refer to women's work)

- (go into labor) : aẓbaṛ

A saying:

yan mi ur tmmiġ tadawt, ur ičči tiġṛad n təġʷrdin

(a dry back will never earn a shoulder's wages)

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Reposted by Ḥamid Ouyachi

Maarten Kossmann @maartenkossmann.bsky.social · Sep 1

One more book about Figuig and its wider region (it is a bit less general than the title suggests). By the infatigable Hassane Benamara!
@hamidouyachi.bsky.social
@lameensouag.bsky.social

Hassane Benamara. 2025 Dictionnaire de toponymie berbère. Paris: L'Harmattan

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Reposted by Ḥamid Ouyachi

Hilde Gunnink @hildegunnink.bsky.social · Aug 29

Share your favourite words, etymologies, idioms, proverbs and riddles in African languages!
stemmenvanafrika.nl/contact/

Contact – Stemmen van Afrika

stemmenvanafrika.nl

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Aug 28

😂 Well hoping you'll grab just one or two...

Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Aug 28

Most certainly my pleasure!

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Ḥamid Ouyachi @hamidouyachi.bsky.social · Aug 28

In Tamazight (CA & SE Morocco):

> nnun (< Ar)

> tizelmi (whether from SLM which gives 'asləm' fish, or ZLM which gives 'azəllum': wool thread, and 'bu-zəllum': sciatic nerve??)

In Tashlḥiyt:

> assisaġ : sea eel
> irimml : fresh water eel
> snnuṛ, ssanuṛ (< Ar)

Alex an Sows @ansows.bsky.social · Aug 28

Eel in.......

Cornish - sylli
Jèrriais - andgulle
Manx- astan
Anglo-Romani - sap (same as snake)
Aranese - anguila
Gagauz - yılan balıı

The Guardian @theguardian.com · Aug 28

Activists blend science and folklore as they try to revive Somerset’s eel population

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