The Ancient Berber Word for Egg

By MAARTEN KOSSMANN (Leiden)

In Berber languages,1 the term for egg is highly unstable. In his 1928 article
Sur quelques termes berbres concernant la basse-cour, Andr Basset pointed
to the large number of lexical bases used within the Berber-speaking territory to
refer to eggs. At the time he wrote the article, six different terms were known
(leaving apart a few loans from Arabic), among which only two terms were
attested over a larger territory. In almost all languages, the term for egg doubles
as the term for testicle, playing on the visual similarity and on their shared im-
portance in procreation.
The first of these terms is derived from the causative form of the verb dl to
cover, which, in a number of languages, has the specialized meaning to brood
(Basset 1959[1928]: 143), e.g. Figuig ssdl (Benamara 2013: 370); Beni Snous
sl (Destaing 1914: 82); Ahaggar Tuareg sdl (Ritter 2009; II: 112) to
brood. In Kabyle, the verb has been reinterpreted as a regular non-causative
triradical verb: zdl to brood (Dallet 1982: 929). The corresponding noun has
a slightly different distribution over the Berber-speaking territory. In the Zenatic
dialects, it occurs in Mzab (tazdlt, Delheure 1984: 246), Gourara (tazzalt, Bou-
dot-Lamotte 1964: 528), as well as An Char (tazdlt, eastern Morocco, Basset
1939). In Tuareg, it is attested in the different dialectal forms tasdalt, tesdalt
and tasdalt (Ritter 2009, II: 171). In Libya, it occurs in Ghadames (tasadlt,
Lanfry 1973: 66) and in El Foqaha (tsadlt, Paradisi 1963: 124).
The second term is even more wide-spread, and refers to the color of the egg:
tamllalt, lit. the white one. This is found in a large number of varieties on the
north side of the Berber-speaking territory: Middle Atlas, Rif, Figuig, western
Algerian Berber, Kabylia (Basset 1959[1928]: 142). The metaphor behind this
term is the same as found in Arabic, where bay(a) egg, testicle is related to
the adjective abya white.2 Whether this is a simple case of parallel semantics
or a Berber calque on Arabic is impossible to say.
A third term identified by Basset also has a relatively large attestation, albeit
only in Morocco and immediately neighboring parts of Algeria. In Tashelhiyt

1
I should like to thank Marijn van Putten for his valuable input on an earlier version of
this paper, and Ahmad al-Jallad for discussing some of the issues treated here. Of
course all responsibility for errors and flaws in the argument are to be blamed on the
author.
2
Historically, in Arabic the term for white is probably derived from the term for egg
(Ahmad Al-Jallad, p.c.), cf. Cohen 1976: 63. In Berber white is clearly the basic
meaning of the root.
382 M. Kossmann

and in many Middle Atlas varieties a term taglayt, tiglit is used (Basset 1959
[1928]: 141), while in Beni Snous there is a form aglat meaning testicle
(Destaing 1914: 342). The etymological background of this term is not entirely
clear. Basset suggests that taglayt is a suffixed form from a biradical root GL,
which would include the widely attested verb agwl to hang and Chenoua
haglgults testicle (Laoust 1912: 144). The noun taglayt would be a euphe-
mism for testicle, meaning the hanging one, which spread to the meaning
egg (Basset 1959[1928]: 145). While not impossible, this solution is clearly
unsatisfactory, and has not been followed by others. Azdoud (2011: 183) and
Tafi (1991: 155) class taglayt as belonging to the same root as the Middle Atlas
verb gly to enclose probably assuming a basic meaning place where the
chick is enclosed; again, in spite of the perfect formal match, the semantics are
complicated to say the least. I would prefer a semantically more plausible possi-
bility, viz. a connection with Tuareg glllt to be round. The main caveat to
this solution is that the verb is not attested outside Tuareg, so its anciennity can-
not be confirmed. This term is unrelated to agwl to hang, but may very well
include Chenoua haglgults.
Three further terms with a less general distribution are discussed by Basset:
Ouargla and Mzab tamrt (Delheure 1984: 116; Delheure 1987: 186), Awjila
tis egg (van Putten 2014: 299), and Tuareg tekkitt, tikkit, tekkit, tekikit
(Ritter 2009, II: 171). Basset gives a plausible derivation of tamrt from (n)r
to fall, in the sense of to lay an egg (1959[1928]: 143, also Delheure 1987:
186), while he has no solution for the Awjila3 and the Tuareg forms.
The large number of terms for egg is remarkable, and it is also remarkable
that most terms are derived from verbal meanings such as to brood or to lay
(egg), or descriptive terms such as the white one or (possibly) the round one.
This strongly suggests that the word for egg has been the subject of euphemistic
substitution. As remarked by Basset (1959[1928]: 146), eggs play an important
role in northern African ceremonies, and the general association of eggs with
testicles makes it a logical target for euphemism anyhow.
This being said, one wonders what term could be the original word for egg
in Berber. Among the terms studied by Andr Basset, the only two that have no
clear relation to another root are Awjila tis and the Tuareg forms of the type
tekkitt. Their dialectal isolation makes a reconstruction of one of them as proto-
Berber entirely arbitrary.

3
Maybe one should compare Ghadames ese soleil (disque solaire) (Lanfry 1973:
326), which seems to be related to a well-attested Berber word for mirror, e.g. Figuig
tisyt mirror (Benamara 2013: 443). The latter term is also attested in Awjila tist n
agwal mirror, litt. tist of seeing (van Putten 2014: 299). Assuming that the basic
meaning was something like shining object, a reference to the whiteness of the egg
(as implicit in tamllalt used elsewhere) seems to be possible.
 The Ancient Berber Word for Egg 383

The great advances in Berber lexicography made since 1928 allow us to

tackle this problem anew. Two new terms have surfaced. The first term is as
isolated as the Awjila and Tuareg form, and can be added to the list of unetymo-
logized local terms: Zenaga twih ~ toih (Taine-Cheikh 2008: 562).4 The
second term is attested in a number of different varieties:
Ghomara tawfalt egg (Mourigh 2015)
Senhaja afil egg (Renisio 1932: 351; Ibez 1959)
Ayt Ammart Tarifiyt agfi( Renisio 1932: 351)
Asla (Sud oranais) tifult (pl. tifulin) testicle (Basset 1939, dossier
Asla, 54R)5
Tetserret toflt (pl. tfulin) egg (Lux 2013: 529)
Tetserret o often corresponds to or a in other languages (cf. pairs like Aorist
okrf, Perfective krof to hobble, whose vowels correspond to the proto-Berber
schemes and ; Lux 2013: 351), so toflt probably represents ancient
t/aflt. In view of its plural, it is reasonable to assume that the schwa is a reduc-
tion of ancient u (cf. Tetserret of hand corresponding to the general Berber
form afus). The ancestor of the Tetserret form would therefore be *tfult or
*tafult. This reconstruction is corroborated by the form taafult in the Northern
Songhay language Tadaksahak, spoken in the Mali desert, which is clearly a
loan from a Tetserret-type of language (Christiansen-Bolli 2010: 291). The re-
constructed Tetserret form closely resembles the form tifult from Asla.
The Ghomara and Senhaja terms have slightly different forms. Assuming
that Senhaja represents some kind of strengthening of w in a consonant clus-
ter,6 they point to tawfalt ~ tawfilt.7 The vocalic alternation may point to differ-
ent outcomes of ancient *e (on which, see Prasse 1990). In Ghomara, *e seems
to have developed into a, cf. the nominal feminine plural ending -an < *-en (e.g.

4
In fact, the term already appears in a publication by Masqueray from 1879 (Taine-
Cheikh 2008: 562), but Andr Basset does not mention it, probably because he
mistrusted the source.
5
The word for egg, tamllalt, is also used for testicle in this variety. Asla is a kar in
the Naama wilaya (Algeria), not far from Boussemghoun, and one of the northeastern
varieties of the kour du Sud oranais dialect group. As testicle is not among the
terms that Basset elicited consistently for the sud oranais varieties, its distribution
may be wider than Asla alone.
6
An alternative solution is to join the term to a small number of words with pan-
Berber w ~ g alternation, such as awuf ~ aguf (> akuf) ant; tawkkya ~
tagkkya (> takta) worm (Kossmann 1999: 209-210).
7
An alternative explanation is a metathesis from older *tafult. Within Ghomara
Berber, one finds dialectal variants such as tawfikt vs. tafukt sun (Mourigh 2015), in
which the latter variant corresponds to a generally attested Berber form. This would
have difficulty in explaining the Senhaja form, especially as no tawfikt-type forms
are attested for sun in these dialects (Lafkioui 2007: 47).
384 M. Kossmann

timaran women) and forms like asan tooth (cf. Tuareg esen). In Senhaja, as
elsewhere in Moroccan and (non-Tuareg) Algerian Berber, *e has become i, e.g.
feminine plural -in and, dialectally, isi tooth (Lafkioui 2007: 246). Thus, taw-
falt vs. afil could point to an original form *tawfelt. Ayt Ammart Tarifiyt is
the variety of Tarifiyt that is geographically closest to Senhaja. The form agfi
given by Renision is no doubt a loan from Senhaja; all other Tarifiyt varieties
have a form derived from *tamllalt.
The term tawfelt/tafult does not seem to belong to an otherwise known root
in Berber: among the forty-nine biradical roots with the consonants FL enumer-
ated in Nat-Zerrads Dictionnaire des racines berbres (Nat-Zerrad 2002: 55-
564), none has semantics that are readily compatible with eggs or testicles.8
While only sparsely attested, the term occurs in three entirely different regions,
in dialects that no serious linguistic grouping would put together to the exclusion
of others: Ghomara and Senhaja are probably closely related languages which
are spoken in the north-west corner of Morocco. They are historically closer to
Tashelhiyt than to Tarifiyt (cf. Kossmann fc.), but arguably constitute a sub-
group of Berber by themselves. Asla is part of the group of dialects that is
known as dialects of the kour of the Sud oranais (cf. Basset 1941), and, ex-
cept for this word, presents few surprises from the point of view of other dialects
of this group, such as Figuig. The sud oranais group is one of the core members
of Zenatic (cf. Kossmann 1999: 31-32). Tetserrt is a language spoken in Niger,
but different from Tuareg and, as shown by Lux (2013), closely related to Zena-
ga.
All in all, the absence of any other widely attested term, the absence of any
clear etymology, and the attestation of the term in widely different regions and
languages strongly suggest that tawfelt ~ tafult is the original term for egg in
Berber, which was substituted by other terms everywhere else.
The erratic distribution of tawfelt ~ tafult in languages that do not constitute
the core varieties used in Berber studies shows that any serious etymological
study has to follow the example of Andr Basset and take into account all attest-
ed varieties of Berber.

8
Only uffal ferula communis (giant fennel) would make some sense, as its umbel
somewhat resembles the shape of an egg. Metaphors suggest that in popular im-
agination uffal is rather associated with its stalk, which makes any connection to
roundness highly improbable, cf. Middle Atlas uffal giant fennel; stalk of a giant
fennel; thin, puny, fragile person (Tafi 1991: 112).
 The Ancient Berber Word for Egg 385

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