Translation
Berber
Word origin
From Arabic barbar, which is usually traced back to Greek barbaros, the word for anybody whose speech sounded like bar-bar to a Greek ear. It has always been a name applied from outside.
- Origin
- Arabic, from Greek
- Root
- barbar
- English cognates
- Berber, barbarian, Barbary
Examples
.
She is learning the Berber language.
.
Berber families live in the mountains.
.
Berber culture is very old.
is the adjective and berbero is the person, which is Esperanto's regular pattern for a people: -o for the human being, -a for everything belonging to them. The full machinery, including the -ujo and - question for countries, is in countries and peoples.
The name is not theirs, and that is worth saying on the page rather than leaving in a footnote. Arabic is generally traced to Greek os, the Greek word for anybody whose speech sounded like meaningless bar-bar, and it has been applied from outside ever since, by Greeks, Romans, Arabs and Europeans in turn. The people's own name for themselves is Amazigh, plural Imazighen, meaning something close to free people, and it is increasingly what you will meet in print and on the flags.
So use berbero and as the words a general reader will recognise, reach for Amazigh with a gloss when precision matters, and do not reach for . That one is a medieval European label for Muslims from over there which lumps Berbers, Arabs and Iberian converts together indiscriminately, and it belongs in historical writing about al-Andalus and nowhere else.
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berbera: worksheet, infographic and listicle
Free printable study downloads for the Esperanto word "berbera" (Berber): a worksheet with the answer key built in, an infographic, and a sentence listicle. Open any one to view, print or save.
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Start your free weekThis word is part of lesson 48.