Ghadamès (also called Ghadamsi or Ghadamsian) is an Eastern Berber language that is spoken in, and named after, the oasis town of Ghadames in the Nalut District of western Libya.

Research Ghadamès language materials have been gathered by two linguists. The first materials were published in 1903 and 1904 by Adolphe de Calassanti Motylinski (1854–1907). A more copious and reliable source is provided by the works of White Father Jacques Lanfry (1910-2000), who stayed in Ghadames from 1944 to 1945 and who published his main works in 1968 and 1973. No new research has been undertaken on location since then. Recently, Kossmann (2013) has published a modern grammar of Ghadamès based on Lanfry’s materials.

Number of speakers Lanfry mentions the number of c. 4,000 speakers as an optimistic estimate.Lanfry (1973:iv). The actual number of speakers is not known with certainty. Ethnologue cites a number of 13,100 speakers in 2016, including 2,000 living outside the area. However, this number reflects the total number of inhabitants of Ghadames, who are not all native speakers of Ghadamès, while the number of 2,000 emigrant speakers is based on a very old source.Encyclopaedia of Islam, 2nd edition, article Ghadāmis (1952): 2,000 persons with a background in Ghadames living in Tunis; quoted by Lanfry (1973:iv). Ethnologue classifies the language as 6b (Threatened).

The language Ghadamès is a Berber language on that preserves several unique phonological and morphological features, and the Ghadamès lexicon, as recorded by Lanfry, shows relatively little influence from Arabic. There is as yet no consensus on the classification of Ghadamès within the Berber language group. Aikhenvald and Militarev (1984) group it as Eastern Berber, and Kossmann (1999) specifically groups it together with the Awjila language. Ethnologue classifies it as East Zenatic.

Phonology Consonants Like other Berber languages, Ghadamès has both pharyngealized ("emphatic") and plain dental consonants. Gemination is contrastive. Consonants listed between brackets occur only very sporadically.

+ Consonant phonemes (IPA) Labial Inter-dental Dental Dentalphar. Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal Nasal Plosive () () Fricative () () Approximant Trill

Vowels Most Berber languages have just three phonemic vowels. Ghadamès, like Tamasheq, has seven vowels.

+ Vowel phonemes (IPA) Front Central Back Close Close-mid Mid Near-open Open

Basic vocabulary Below is the Leipzig-Jakarta list for Ghadames, extracted from Lanfry (1973). Lanfry's unconventional transcription has been adapted to modern usage. Symbols are equivalent to IPA . Lanfry's length notation on vowels probably represents lexical stress (Kossmann 2013: 5, 15).

1 fire 2 nose 3 to go with verbal deictic "thither" (cf. 11 to come)4 water (plurale tantum)5 mouth 6 tongue 7 blood (plurale tantum)8 bone 9 pronoun (), ()10 root "root of plant"11 to come with verbal deictic "hither" (cf. 3 to go)12 breast , 13 rain 14 pronoun 15 name 16 louse 17 wing 18 flesh/meat 19 hand/arm "hand", "arm"20 fly 21 night 22 ear 23 neck (cf. 47 back)24 far (not attested)25 to do/make "to do, achieve" < Arabic, "to put, to make"26 house , 27 stone/rock 28 bitter "to be bitter"29 to say 30 tooth "incisor", "molar", "canine"31 hair 32 big (not attested)33 one (), ()34 who? 35 pronoun (), ()36 to beat/hit 37 leg/foot 38 horn 39 this 40 fish (not attested)41 yesterday 42 to drink 43 black "to be black" (perfective stem; aorist stem not attested)44 navel 45 to stand "to be standing", "to stand up"46 to bite 47 back , (cf. 23 neck)48 wind "wind, odour"49 smoke 50 what? , 51 child (kin term) , 52 egg 53 to give 54 new (not attested)55 to burn (intr.) 56 not , 57 good < Arabic58 to know 59 knee 60 sand 61 to laugh 62 to hear 63 soil "earth, soil"64 leaf "leaf of tree"65 red "red one" (prob. )66 liver 67 to hide 68 skin/hide "animal skin"69 to suck 70 to carry "to carry, bring", "to carry, lift"71 ant 72 heavy "to be heavy" (perfective stem; aorist stem not attested)73 to take "to take", "to seize, hold"74 old , "to be old, elderly (human)"75 to eat 76 thigh 77 thick "to be thick"78 long "to be long"79 to blow 80 wood "(piece of) wood"81 to run 82 to fall 83 eye 84 ash 85 tail < Arabic?86 dog 87 to cry/weep 88 to tie 89 to see 90 sweet (not attested)91 rope 92 shade/shadow 93 bird 94 salt 95 small "to be small"96 wide (not attested)97 star 98 in , 99 hard (not attested)100 to grind/crush "to grind", "to crush (in a mortar)"

References

Cited works