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From Siwa to Goulmima: A Date Palm Lexicon

  Some time ago, while I was working on a previous blog entry devoted to date palm tree cultivation in Goulmima (from a text in the A. Roux archives) , I leafed through a number of dictionaries, looking for words relating to said tree. I found little that was specific to the date palm, compared to the doum palm ( Hyphaene thebaica ). Benamara’s Figuig dictionary could have offered more, but without knowing tifiyyeyt lexicon, I had no entry points. As for Amaniss’s unpublished dictionary, there is some date palm vocabulary, with some overlap with Goulmima’s, but sometimes with a different realization. I initially decided to build a spreadsheet, using the ar.wikipedia page for “ نخلة التمر ” as a source vocabulary list, search through Chafik, and map onto the bilingual list the vocabulary of my home region. Unfortunately, in Chafik, I found more doum than Phoenix dactylifera . The same goes for the IRCAM dictionary, as well.   With the recent publication of Valentina Schiattarella
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Azwu (Tamdyazt)

Hamid Ouyachi

Wind-God-Fujin-by-Ogata-Korin

AZWU

 

Some years back, while I was riding my bicycle across Bhutan, I took a break in Bumthang to let my legs and lungs recover, and to take in the celebrations of the Thangbi Mani festival. There, a fellow traveler left with me this koan: "where does the wind go, when the breath stops?" Many years later, this short playful poem is my response.



                azwu g usksl : ikzin

                istutu g usklu : abaylal

                isgurr g ufilal : tagwrramt

                azwu g lbab : aqbbab !

       mandi s itteddu adday ismar wunfus ?

                ad isgunfu tamijja isgidiyn awal— 

      waxxa ilxlx g trsway n tgẓiwin,

                 ad isirs tijji n umrdul

                 ġf taggayt n tuggamt n wul


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