Hassâniyya

Studying hassâniyya at Inalco

This introductory course invites students to explore hassâniyya, a Bedouin Arabic that is particularly distinguished by its supranational character and the contributions of the Zenaga substratum, the national languages of Mauritania as well as French. The program covers the history of the language, as well as the Bedouin phonological aspects that mark its specificity. Students will become familiar with its most remarkable features at phonological, morphological and syntactic levels. They will also discover the lexical aspects through a sample of texts drawn from the vocabulary of daily life, but also from the very rich popular poetry composed in hassâniyya.