Zur Verschriftung mündlich tradierter Sprachen in sozialen Netzwerken: Der Gebrauch des Tarifit auf Facebook

Abstract It isn’t particularly difficult to use one’s own language in computer-mediated communication, when the language has a written culture. However, the situation is different, when the language is only an orally transmitted language and one wants to use it for communication in New Media. There is a lack of unified rules, to which one can orientate oneself. The native speakers of Tarifit, who want to use their language in computer-mediated communication as well (like in Facebook groups), are in such a situation. There are many Facebook groups of Rifian Berbers, but the communication within these groups is usually not only in Tarifit. In groups with cultural topics on the other hand, a dominance of Tarifit can be observed. This includes groups, which have been created specifically for the culturally typical rhyme-songs of the Rif, the so-called “izran”. The analysed corpus of the present study originates from such a group. The initiated standardization processes for Berber in Morocco have not had any impact on the language use in social networks yet. The Berber script Tifinagh, introduced in Morocco’s education system in 2003, has never been used for communication between group members. The Arabic script is rarely used. This behavior can have different reasons, which are discussed below. It can be observed, that the Latin writing system is often chosen for the notation of Tarifit. Instead of using diacritics, the Latin characters are complemented by Arabic numerals when certain sounds have no corresponding graphemes. The choice of the writing system requires a constant assignment of graphemes to the sounds, but the notations are often characterized by the absence of uniform spelling and by neutralisations between phonemes.