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Historical Linguistics 2019: Selected papers from the 24th International Conference on Historical Linguistics, Canberra, 1–5 July 2019
Edited by Bethwyn Evans, Maria Kristina Gallego and Luisa Miceli
[Current Issues in Linguistic Theory 367] 2024
► pp. 283–329

Chapter 12
Food, contact phenomena and reconstruction in Oriental Berber

| Ecole Pratique des Hautes Etudes, Paris | CNRS Llacan
| University of Naples, “L’Orientale”
Berber subclassification is notoriously problematic, due to overlapping innovations and retentions across hypothesized sub-branches. Focussing on Oriental Berber, we analyze the lexicon of food, on the assumption that linguistic contacts within Berber and between Berber and Arabic are reflected in material and immaterial culture. An original method for the analysis of food terms and their denotations is proposed. We illustrate the method through a case-study of food preparation, in which various denominations are cognates of the stem *βazin, and which confirms most linguistic hypotheses about subgroupings and contacts, additionally exemplifying a case of levelling due to borrowing into Arabic followed by re-borrowing into Berber. Our results also point to further contacts across Berber language groups (best analyzed in terms of linkage), and confirm the relevance of the study of food culture in support of the historical reconstruction of Berber languages.
Keywords: Berber, Afro-Asiatic, contact, food, Zenati, classification, migrations, linkage, wave-model, culture
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Berber reconstruction and the Eastern Zenati-Eastern Berber question
    • 2.1Berber classification
    • 2.2Zenati and other Oriental Berber languages: History
  • 3.The language of food
    • 3.1Berber nominal morphology
    • 3.2Food in Berber culture
    • 3.3Method and hypotheses
    • 3.4*βazin (root √BZN)
      • 3.4.1Categories of preparations
        • a.Herb mash
        • b.Vegetable coarse-grained couscous
        • c.Vegetable sauce
        • d.Flour and water
      • 3.4.2Denotational shifts
      • 3.4.3The Libyan bazin’s ‘chaîne opératoire’: An instance of cultural memory
      • 3.4.4*βazin: Semantic shifts and bridging contexts
      • 3.4.5Perspectives
  • 4.Conclusion
  • Acknowledgements
  • Notes
  • References
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