Awjila language
| Awjila | |
|---|---|
| Native to | Libya |
| Region | Cyrenaica |
|
Native speakers
|
3,000 (2000) |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | awji1241 |
Awjila (also: Aujila, Augila, Aoudjila, Awgila, Awdjila, native name: Tawjilit) is a severely endangered (considered “moribund” by the Ethnologue) Eastern Berber language spoken in Cyrenaica, Libya, in the Awjila oasis. Due to the political situation in Libya, immediate data on the language have been inaccessible.
Awjila is a member of the Berber Language family, of the Eastern Berber branch. It is closely related to Ghadames of Libya though considerably more endangered, with an estimated 2000-3000 native speakers remaining.UNESCO considers Awjila to be seriously endangered as the youngest speakers have reached or passed middle age.
The Berber languages of Libya have faced severe oppression throughout the reign of Muammar Gaddafi which has likely been the cause of the demise of some varieties such as Sokna and the endangerment of others, including Awjila and Ghadames. Gaddafi effectively prohibited the usage of Berber/Amazigh languages and completely denied the existence of the Imazighen people, reportedly saying, “call yourselves whatever you want inside your homes – Berbers, children of Satan, whatever – but you are only Libyans when you leave your homes”. He repeatedly targeted Amazigh rights activists (including linguists from abroad) which can be attributed to the lack of current and updated information on the Libyan Berber languages and the relatively limited content available, even in Arabic, on the internet (as opposed to the more extensive resources found on Moroccan and Algerian Amazigh varieties).
Although Awjilah is listed as a moribund language on Ethnologue, there are informations from 2014, which contradict this classification. The language is regularly spoken on Facebook by Awjili members.
Because of the political issues in Libya, field work on Awjila has been limited. The earliest studies of the language were carried out by Müller in 1827, however, his work is difficult to analyze because there were no standard conventions such as the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA) for transcribing it at that time and because he failed to make distinctions for various sounds in Awjila (such the difference between as emphatic, pharyngeal consonants and their non-emphatic counterparts). Moritz von Beurmann also contributed a short word list but some forms contradict information found in later sources. The latest field work was done by Umberto Paradisi in 1960, whose data (in the form of texts) have become the basis for all future studies of the language, particularly that of contemporary scholar Marijn van Putten who has taken up the study of Awjila and other Eastern Berber varieties. Van Putten, who has published extensively on the language, relies heavily on the work of Paradisi and has used it to compile a dictionary and a grammar within his 2014 book A Grammar of Awjila Berber.
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