The Phonetics of Tarifit

Some words in Tarifit, an Amazigh language of northern Morocco, can be spoken with no vowel at all. Mohamed Afkir and Georgia Zellou show this through acoustic analysis of native speakers talking in clear and fast styles. They trace how the three full vowels, a, i and u, are realised and how schwa varies, and they find that vowelless forms are rare but permitted, especially in words with several voiceless obstruents.

The authors also follow a sound change under way: the dropping of r after vowels, which is more frequent among women. A perception study tests how well native speakers tell words apart, and the closing discussion links the findings to models of phonetic variation, individual differences and sound change theory. It is a short, focused Cambridge Element for phoneticians, Amazigh specialists and anyone curious about how a little-studied language is changing.