Publication of "Diachronie berbère" by Salem Chaker

Diachronie berbère. Linguistique historique et libyque

Salem Chaker
University of Aix-Marseille, Presses universitaires de Provence, collection "Langues et langage", April 2024, 286 p.

Book published with the support of IREMAM

This book brings together and gives unity to a series of previously published studies in the historical linguistics of Berber. After an introduction that defines the scientific context and explains the methodology, it is organized into four main parts. The first consists of general studies on Berber origins and the ancient contacts of Berber with the languages of the Mediterranean region. This is followed by case studies focusing on the relationship between language, culture and society, which shed light on the origins of certain social, cultural and technical practices. The third part brings together studies on grammatical systems, which are methodically analyzed to shed light on the history of their formation. The last part is devoted to Libyque, the ancient form of Berber, through its epigraphic attestations. The book is strongly inspired by the approach of French Indo-European linguists, notably Antoine Meillet and Émile Benveniste. It firmly defends the need for intra-Berber reconstruction before any extra-Berber comparison. Most of these studies shed entirely new light on issues that have hitherto been addressed only incidentally or superficially, as there is no comparable work of synthesis in the field of Berber historical linguistics.

Salem CHAKER is professor emeritus at the University of Aix-Marseille (Berber language), director of L'Encyclopédie berbère and a member of Iremam.