VOWELS:
/a/ Like English /a/ in /hare/

/u/ Like English /oo/  /book/

/i/ Like English /ee/ in /meet/ 

/e/ (short vowel -schwa /e/ like in english  /often/)

CONSONNANTS:
a
at the begining of a word pronounce Like English /a/ in /apple/
|aman (water)

b
pronounce Like English /b/
berra (outside)

c
pronounce Like English /sh/
ulac(there is not)

d
pronounce like english /th/ in/the/
(spirant) or like in /bad/(occlusive)
spirant:adrar(mountain)
occlusive:amendil(scarf)

e
silent vowel at the begining of a word
ecc'(eat)

f
pronounce Like English f
fus (hand)

g
pronounce like English/g/ in /give/ dans (occlusiv) or like English/y/(spirant)
spirant:yega (he did))


8 (gamma,gh)
pronounce Like  parisian r
a8r'um(bread) or aghr'um(bread)

h
pronounce like English /h/ in /he/:
ahyuy (child)

i
at the begining of a word pronounce Like English /ea/in /eat/:
ini (say)

j like french /j/ :

tajerrumt(grammar) 

k
pronounce Like English k (occlusif) or german /ch/  (spirant):
yuker(he stole)

l
pronounce Like English l:
walu (nothing)

m
pronounce Like English m
tamemt (honey)

n
pronounce Like English n
anu (well)



3 (epsilon, a')
like arabic 3ayn
qa3/ga3(all) or qaa'/gaa'(all)

q
pronounce  like arabic qaf
qim (sit)

r
pronounce like English/ r/ in /write/
irar (play)

s
pronounce Like English s
sew (drink)

t
pronounce like English / th/ (spirant)in/ thanks/ or english h or  Like English t(occlusif) :
tazeggwa8t (the red one)

u
at the begining of a word pronounce Like English oo :
ul (heart)

w
pronounce like English/w/ in /we/:
-awal (word)

x
pronounce like Arabic /kha/:
axxam (house)

y
pronounce pronounce like English/ y/ in /yes/:
imma (my mother)

z
pronounce Like English z
|izi (fly)

 EMPHATICS:
the emphatics of  t, d, r, z,s,h are written traditionally with a dot underneath but on the internet with an apostrophe :t', d', r', z' s',h'

In case of double-emphatics we put the apostrophe after the second letter:

tt', ss', zz' etc...


DIPHTONGUES:
The  two shawi diphtongues of cc and  gg are written traditionally with a diatric sign above them but on the internet with an apostrophe after the second letter:
/cc'/:cc'i$(I ate)
/gg'/:gg'i$ ou jj'i$ (I let)

SEMI-OCCLUSIVE DIPHTONGUES:

k' pronounce sh in chawi but k in kabyle
g'  pronounce j in chawi but g in kabyle
kk'  pronounce tch in chawi but kk in kabyle



LABIO-VELARS:
THEY ARE DOUBLE LETTERS FOLLOWED WITH A SUPERSCRIPTED /W/:

kkw,

bbw,

mmw,

ggw.

ggw pronounce oogg ex: /ggwede$/(I am frigtened)
kkw(pronounce ookk) ex:/akkwl/(all)
mmw(pronounce oomm) ex:/yemmwa/(it is ripe. It is cooked)
bbw'(pronounce oobb) ex:/3ebbwa/ (diminutive of the name abdella)

 GRAMMAR
.1 Nouns and adjectives
1.1 Gender
1.2 Pluralization
1.3 Free and annexed state
.2 Verbs
.3 Conjugation
.4 Verb framing
.5 Negation
.6 Verb derivation
.7 Agent noun
.8 Action noun
.9 Predicative particule "d" 
2 Pronoun
2.1 Personal pronouns
2.2 Possessive pronouns
2.3 Pronouns of the verb
2.4 Demonstratives
2.5 Numerotation
2.6 Prepositions
2.7 Conjunctions 
3 Vocabulary 
4 Sample text 
5 Sources used for this article 
 
 

Nouns and adjectives
Gender
 As in all Berber dialects, Tacawit has only two genders, Masculine and Feminine. Like most Berber dialects, masculine nouns and adjectives generally start with a vowel (a-, i-, u-), while the feminine nouns generally start with ta, ti or t (t often pronounced h like in Tacenwit) and end with a -t (there are some exceptions, however). Note that most feminine nouns are in fact feminized versions of masculine nouns.
Examples:

Ahyuy "a boy", tahyuyt "a girl".
Am8ar "an old man", tam8art "an old woman".
Afunas "a bull", Tafunast "a cow". 

Pluralization
Singular nouns generally start with an a-, and do no have a suffix. Plural nouns generally start with an i- and often have a suffix such as -en. There are three types of plural : external, Internal, mix:

External or "regular": consists in changing the initial vowel of the noun, and adding a suffix -n, :
am8ar "an old man" → im8aren "old men".

argaz → irgazen "men"

Internal: involves only a change in the vowels within the word:
adrar → idurar "mountain"

Mix:

combines a change of vowels (within the word) with the suffix -n:

-fus → ifassen "hands"

ul → ulawen "hearts"

izi → izan "fly"

 Free and annexed state
As in all Berber dialects, Tacawit has two types of states or cases of the noun, organized ergatively: one is unmarked, while the other serves as the subject of a transitive verb and the object of a preposition, among other contexts. The former is often called free state, the latter construct state. The construct state of the noun derives from the free state throu8 one of the following rules:

The first involves a vowel alternation, whereby the vowel a become u :

amazi8 → umazi8 "Berber"

ameqqran → umeqqran "big"

adrar → udrar "mountain"

The second involves the loss of the initial vowel in the case of some feminine nouns :

tam8art → tm8art "old women"

tamdint → tmdint "town"

tamurt → tmurt "country"

The third involves the addition of a semi-vowel (w or y) word-initially:

 iles → yiles "tongue"

uccen → wuccen "jackal"

Finally, some nouns do not change for free state:

tuccent → tuccent "female jackal"

Depending on the role of the noun in the sentence, it takes either its free or annexed state:

Free: Yuta ahyuy. "He has beaten a boy". (Verb-Object)
Annexed: Yuta uhyuy. "The boy has been  beaten". (Verb-Subject)
After a preposition (at the exception of "ar" and ""), all nouns take their annexed state:

Free state: Aman (water), n waman ( of water).

Verbs
There are three tenses : the Preterite (past), intensive Aorist (present perfect, present continuous, past continuous) and the future (Ad+Aoriste).  the aorist alone is rarely used in Tacawit (In the other languages it is used to express the present).

"Weak verbs" have a preterite form that is the same as their aoriste.

Examples of weak verbs that follow are conjugated at the first person of the singular:

 Verb: Krez (to plough)
 Preterite: kerze8 ''i ploughed''
 ad + aorist: ad kerze8 ''i will plough''
 Intensive aorist:kerrze8 '' i am ploughing''
 

Conjugation
As in all Berber dialects, Conjugation in Tacawit is done by adding suffixes (prefixes, postfixes or both). These suffixes are static and identical for all tenses (only the theme changes)(note the neutral vowel /e/ is not taken into account when analyzing verbal themes as it is not a real vowel in Berber:
 
1st
singular: — 8
 plural: n —
 
2nd (m)
singular: t —d
plural: t — m
 
2nd (f)
 singular:t — d
plural: t — mt
 
3rd (m)
 singular:y —
plural: — n
 
3rd (f)
singular: t—
 plural: — nt
 

/t/ in all prefixes above is pronouned [h] in eastern tacawit ..

Example: verb af (to find) with its four themes : uf (preterite), uf (negative preterite), af (aorist), ttaf (intensive aorist).

Verb framing
Berber is a satellite-framed based language and  Tacawit verbs use one  particle of location to show the path of motion towards the speaker:

Idd(long form fter verb) or dd(short form before verb) orientates toward the speaker, and could be translated as "here".
Examples:

/yusa-idd ''he came''

/a dd-yas ''he will come''
 

Negation

Tacawit usually expresses negation in two parts: by « ur » before the verb and the particle « c » after the verb:

« irare8 » ("I played") → « Ur irare8 c » ("I didn't play") .

 /ur/ is sometimes pronounced [oorr], sometimes [oodh], sometimes [oo], depending on which tribe and region of Numidia.

 Verb derivation
Verb derivation is done by adding suffixes. There are three types of derivation forms : Causative, reflexive and Passive.

Causative:

obtained by prefixing the verb with the instrumental preposition /s/,/ ss/ : 
 irid "to be washed" → ssired "to wash".

Reflexive:

 obtained by prefixing the verb with m- :
zer "to see" → mzer "to see each other"

ex:

a nemzer ''we will see each other'' 

Passive:

it  is obtained by prefixing the verb with ttu- / ttwa-
krez "to plough" → ttwakrez "to be ploughed"

etc "to eat" → ttwacc' "to be eaten".

ex:

ttwacc'en '' they were eaten''

Agent noun
Every verb has a corresponding agent noun. In English it could be translated into verb+er. It is obtained by prefixing the verb with « ma- » or internal doubling:

Examples:
sreh'  "to graze" → aserrah "shepherd"

 ker  "to steal" → makar "thief"

Action noun
Every verb has a corresponding action noun, which in English it could be translated into verb+ing:

ffer "to hide" → tuffra "hiding" (stem VI), 

There are 6 regular stems of forming action nouns, and the 7th is for quality verbs : (C for consonant, V for vowel)

 
I
 cvcv
 acvcv
 
II
 c(c)vc(c)
 ac(c)vc(c)v
 
III
 c(c)cc
 ac(c)cci
 
IV
 (c)cac(c)
 a(c)cac(c)i
 
V
 c1c2c3
 accc
 
VI
 ccc
 tuccca
 
VII
 ic1c2vc3
 tec1c2c3
 

Examples: 

rwel "to flee'', tarewla ''flight''

utlay"to speak" → tutlayt  ''speech, language''

Predicative particule "-d"
As in all Berber dialects, The predicative particule "-d" is an indispensable tool in speaking Tacawit, "-d" is equivalent to both "it is + adjective" and "to be + adjective", but cannot be replaced by the verb "ili" (to be). It is always followed by a noun (free state).

Examples:

-d tahyuyt, "it's a girl". 
d- necc', "it's me".
Necc' -d argaz, "I'm a man". 
Muh'end -d aqeddac, "Muh'end is a student". 
Muh'end yella d aqeddac, "Muh'end was a student".