A Literary and Linguistic Analysis of Nafusi Berber Based on Past Works

This article analyses the variety of Berber spoken in the Jebel Nafusa, Libya, and illustrates how past sources can be used as a starting point for further analysis, especially if more audio recordings of this language are made available. The introduction to the article offers a brief account of the history and geography of the Jebel Nafusa and of the texts that are currently available to scholars of the language. The second part of the article offers a linguistic analysis of demonstratives and their functions in Nafusi. The aim of the article is to show how more in-depth studies can be carried out based on texts collected in the past, but also to underline the necessity to learn more about this variety of Berber, and especially about the specific variety spoken in Yefren.