“ⵊⴰⵔ ⵜⵛⵔⵉ ⴷ ⵡⵟⵟⵓ” The first master’s thesis in the Amazigh language and with the Tifinagh letter
Student Sufyan Al-Darraz discussed a research within the specialty of the Master of Amazigh Arts and Culture at the Polytechnic College of Nador, under the supervision of Professor Jawad Al-Zawbaa, on November 7, making it the first master’s thesis in the Amazigh language and with the Tifinagh script.
In a statement by Professor Jawad Al-Zawbaa to the Amazigh newspaper Al-Alam, he said, “The student Sufyan Al-Darraz worked on the novel “ⵊⴰⵔ ⵜⵛⵔⵉ ⴷ ⵡⵟⵟⵓ”, by the writer Hassan Benaqia: a pragmatic study of the letters of the character Marius Caius, and he was able to produce the first academic scientific research using the Tifinagh letter, studying the phenomenon of speech acts with it. “.
He added in the same statement, “The idea of completing this dissertation did not come out of nowhere, but rather was the result of the researcher’s scientific accumulation, as he studied during his bachelor’s degree in the same college, specializing in Amazigh studies, and acquired a set of knowledge related to linguistics, literature, culture, history, and civilization... at the hands of his professors from within.” College, in addition to two years of training in the master’s degree, meaning that he achieved an accumulation of knowledge and was able to acquire the rules for editing and writing the Amazigh language, and this enabled him to produce research at this level.”
He added, “I supervised the bachelor’s research completed by the student Sufyan Al-Darraz, and he completed his academic scientific path with a master’s thesis in the Amazigh language. The researcher went through difficulties represented by the abundance of references in Arabic, French, and English, and their scarcity in the Amazigh language, which puts the researcher in front of the difficulty of dictionaries and their use. We have some dictionaries specialized in Linguistics, but we rely on other dictionaries, in addition to other personal efforts, with a focus on scientific standards to produce an innovative Amazigh translation and place it in its Amazigh context and template for use in scientific research.”
During his statement, Professor Al-Zawbaa asked, “Why, despite the fact that Amazigh has been taught at the Moroccan university from 2007 to 2023, that is, approximately 17 years, we still have fear of producing in the Amazigh language?” Since throughout this period, research in this specialty has been produced in foreign languages and the Arabic language, and this in itself is a major problem. There are new developments and developments in this field, including the demarcation of the Amazigh language in the 2011 constitution. There are regulatory laws... The status of the Amazigh language is constantly evolving and we are still liberating it in other languages. For me, this is an opportunity to encourage students to think and produce in the Amazigh language, and from here I call on actors and researchers in this field to think about producing references in the Amazigh language that will benefit researchers. I also call on the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture to produce research and studies in the Amazigh language instead of Arabic and foreign languages, because it is not possible to We are talking about an institute that has Amazigh researchers without Amazigh production. It is good to have research in multiple languages, but the time has come to provide references in the Amazigh language as well, to enrich ideas, concepts and terminology in the Amazigh language...”
The professor added to the Amazigh World newspaper, “We have the capabilities to overcome the problem of editing research in the Amazigh language. As a supervisor for this research, I was one of the first graduates of the Amazigh Studies Division, and during my master’s and doctorate I worked on Amazigh, in addition to the experience of teaching in the Amazigh language at the primary level, and the experience of training within training centers.” Professors of the Amazigh language, then the university stage, where all the tribal gains were crystallized and we tried to employ them so that our students could benefit from them.”
The professor continued, “This research will enrich the library and will benefit the researcher who will research the subject in the future, and if other students discuss their academic scientific research in various scientific branches in the Amazigh language, we will be able to reach the stage of forming a national Amazigh library of addition and value, and it will be a reference for researchers, and why not.” The level of production of doctoral dissertations in the Amazigh language, and we see the fruits of the lessons and rules we taught our students in the Amazigh language through their scientific productions and their enrollment in education and training courses, meaning that they become effective and informant of scientific research, and this is something that makes us very happy and we hope that this success will be an incentive for other students to complete their research. “In Amazigh, they often choose this language to do their work, even though they choose between Arabic, French, Spanish, and English.”
He stated in the same context, “The research produced in Moroccan universities, in foreign languages, on the Amazigh language, or within the Amazigh Studies Division, is no less important than the research produced in the Amazigh language, because it has created a very important accumulation, but the time has come to produce research in the Amazigh language so that students can recall their gains and work to employ them.” In their academic research.
While the student, Sufyan Al-Darraz, began his statement with the phrase, “I thank Al-Alam Al-Amazigh newspaper, which closely follows all developments in the Amazigh language. Indeed, I discussed a message in the Amazigh language with the letter Tifinagh, within the formation of the Master of Arts and Amazigh Culture at the Multidisciplinary College of Nador, and this came as a result of the solid formation that we received in this college on “The hand of its qualified professors since it joined the specialty of Amazigh studies in 2017, and they motivated us a lot to produce in the Amazigh language. We also benefited from the training and guidance of professors of other subjects, such as French and Spanish studies, and these professors are making tremendous efforts to provide research on Amazigh in several languages, as well as providing translations of international references for Amazigh.” .
He added, “Writing in Amazigh or with the Tifinagh script is not new at Nador College because there is bachelor’s degree research in this language, and my research was the first in the master’s degree, but soon dissertations in the Amazigh language will be discussed, and the experience of this research was inevitable because Amazigh is an official language, taught at the primary level.” And at the university level, it will be at the middle and high school levels in the coming years. Indeed, it is difficult to write an academic research in the Amazigh language in the absence of references in this language, and the necessity of translating from foreign references. That is, the researcher must make a double effort, in addition to analyzing the problem of the research, and despite the presence of some dictionaries, the most important of which is a dictionary. The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture and the Rif Dictionary of Hassan Benaqia, but the technical terminology needs research and more effort by specialists in this field. Finally, I hope that this experience will be generalized to all Moroccan universities and in all specializations.”
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