Monday, July 9, 2007

PS- one of my favorite things about Tamazight is when what turns into a sentence in English is encapsulated in one small word.

Take, "mqar." It loosely translates as "despite this" or "it doesn't matter, despite what you just said" And it's used, as many words in Tam are used, as a one-word statement.

For example:

"Katy, come dance the aheyduss in front of everyone."

"But I don't know how."

"Mqar! Mqar!"

There are a lot of one-word "phrases." Another example: alaqas. This essentially means "leave it/her/him alone!" This is used mainly with kids. What would be "Hey! Don't torment your sister like that! Put her down!" turns into "alaqas! alaqas!"

I also like "ghuri." It's translated but it's similar to "chez" in French. My place. My area. You can stay "qim ghuri" which means "stay with me," you can say, "come to my house, "adud ghuri," you can say "I like someone a lot" by saying "tehla/ihla ghuri" (literally: good with me/good my place)... it's nice. Feels very intimate.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

That's really cool. I like your "leave sis alone" example.

Unknown said...

awesome