Exploring Sufi shrines in Morocco (Photo: Emily O'Dell)
Speak a new language so that the world will be a new world…
— Rumi
As a linguist, I’ve long been tempted to learn a Berber language–even though they’re impossibly difficult to understand. For a short time, I had a Berber tutor back home in Harlem, but nothing she taught me seemed to stick. So when I was in Morocco this past October, I tried to just enjoy the sounds of different dialects–instead of trying to grasp the mechanics of Berber grammar (Moroccan Arabic is hard enough!).
Morocco has the largest population of Berbers in North Africa. Ten years ago, a census showed that 8.4 million Moroccans were speaking an Amazigh dialect daily–which is about a quarter of the population. Though the Amazigh-language was officially recognized in 2011, the Berber people in Morocco are still fighting to have their voices heard, in the wake of the so-called Arab Spring…
