speech.- It was . probably the language of all the northern
parts of Africa, before the earliest colonies ,of the Plicenecians
were settled on the coast, for we find no traces in history
of any subsequent change of great extent in the population
of that region, and although we ought not to place too
much reliance on etymologies, which have led to so many
absurd conclusions, it is impossible not to allow some weight
of evidence to the very successful attempt which has been
made to explain in the Berber language many names in the
ancient African topography.* In the time of Leo, we hay,e.
his assurance that it was the language of the north of Africa,
and even of many Moorish pities, where it has since become
disused, owing to the growing prevalence of the more cultivated
language which intercourse with the dominant race, and
the influence of Islfim must have rendered continually more
prevalent. It is only within a few years that it has attracted
much attention in Europe, though a ( dissertation was pu.hr?
lished upon it at the beginning of the last century,' as an
appendix to the Oratio Dominica of Chamberlayne, and ar
vocabulary of the dialect spoken by the Kabyles, a tribe of
the same race in the mountainous country behind Tunis,
appeared in the travels of Dr,_Shaw.
“ This language,” says M. Venture in a learned memoir
which was published by the celebrated M. Langlbs,<c is spoken
from the mountains of Souse, which border the Atlantic
Ocean, to those of the 011el6tys, which rise above the plains
of Kairoan in the kingdom of Tunis. The same-idiom, with
a slight difference, is likewise spoken in the isle of Girbeh,af
Monastyr, and in the greater number of the villages spread
through the Sahara, and among others in those of .the' tribe
• See Mr. Hodgson’s excellent Memoir on the Berber language in the fourth
volume of the Transactions of the American Philosophical Society, read October,
1829. In this paper, which contains much valuable information on other subjects
connected with the history of the Berbers, it has been, shown that a great number
of local names have a most appropriate meaning in the idiom of that people.
Among them are—Atlas, called by the Berbers merely Adhraar, a mountain ;
Thala, the name of a place mentioned by Sallust and still so termed from
Thala, a fountain; Ampsaga, by Pliny and Mela, a river in a forest country,
from Am-sagar, vXojStjg ; Augela, from Agela, wealth; Tipasa, Thapsus, from
Thefza, sandy.
of the Beni^Mosfab. The tribes who speak this language have
different names those of - the mountains belonging to Maroco
are termed. Shbulouhhs ;* those who inhabit the plains of
that empire, dwelling under tents in the maimer of the Arabs,
are named Berbers; and those of the mountains belonging to
Algiers and Tunis call themselves Cabaylis or Gebalis.” The
latter.-names, accordin^-to are properly Qab&ily,
meaning tribes, and Dj ebaly, mountaineers.
“ Many travellers,’ ’f continues1 ®L' Vent.ureyi‘ have already
given us some notices of this language, but these have not
been sufficient to enUbfe" cr$ to ferm a 'feUrr'eCt'Me#of UtS* extent.
Dr. Shaw, in his Travels iii Barbary; M. Hoest, Danish
Gonsuly in his Account Of 'Maroeo^;« and Mr. Chenien, in his
Researched concerning the Arabl^have rma'd#^6'mef“vocabularies,
which, for the want of corrfecf information in thdjcom-
pilerl|rhave been scanty' and incorrect: ,*
“ The basi^/of the Berber language j§:: only the>j B r a n of
a. savage people^ I t , has -no ~terms;for expressihg|^,^stpact
ideas, and fe^wli^fexl' to borrow from the Arabic. In
their idibin, man is not.said to be subject to sloth,■ to» death ;
he is slothful, he dies. They ilkild not fs'ky that a.ball ’ h®
the1 quality of rotundity, but oily that it«Ts round. Their
language furnishes only concrete terms to express qualities
as united to ‘their subjects, and ’such an idibnmhslall that is
requisite formen obliged by the <devastation?%fithe: plain Countries
to live always -on mountains, and whom* '|e|$lQtt§y and
inferel« keep id perpetual warfare with the*. «-weighttoaring5
mountaineers.
“ The Berbers use no conjunction#;' they- denote their
sensations by short and unconnected exprCs^rohs; - All words
relating to arts and to religion are borrowed from-the Arabid-i’
They give them a Berber* form, by cutting off the 1 initial
al and prefixing a t, and putting another t, pr the syllable
nit at the.end : thus they transform rnaqas into, temaqasi ojp.
temaqasnit.”
M.' Venture adds, that no alphabetic charadter^ have been
discovered to be in use among them except theArdbic, but
* Plural of Shilahhy by Mr. Jezreel Jones written SKilha.