Berber Morphology. Introductory Notes

Research Paper (undergraduate) from the year 2016 in the subject Speech Science / Linguistics, course: Morphology, language: English, abstract: Berber, an Afro-asiatic language spoken in North Africa, is one of the endangered languages in the area. The reason for this is that globalisation has turned attention towards hyper-central and super-central languages like English and French. Therefore, it is judicious to present a synopsis of its linguistic aspects inviting scholars from different schools to investigate issues relating to segmental, suprasegmental and word formation processes. In particular, this article aims to shed light on aspects of Berber nominal and verbal morphology and affixation. As far as the former is concerned, gender and number will be highlighted. As to second, verb structure will be analysed, peculiarities of aspectual stems and derivation pointed out. Finally, we conclude by considering the different affixes that attach to verb stems.