Conjugated Adjectives and Participles in Senhaja Berber (Northwestern Morocco)

In Senhaja Berber (northwestern Morocco), unlike in many other Berber varieties, there is a distinct morphological class of adjectives, with two subclasses: native Berber, and borrowed Arabic adjectives. Adjectives have some common features with borrowed Arabic participles. Adjectives and participles behave differently across Senhaja varieties. In the varieties of Ketama and Hmed, adjectives are never conjugated, while in the Seddat variety, lexemes cognate to native Berber adjectives are obligatorily conjugated with the regular affixes, and are distinguished from verbs only by the lack of aspectual distinctions. In Taghzut, Bunsar, and Zerqet varieties, both conjugated and nonconjugated adjectives are found. Conjugated participles are found in Taghzut and Bunsar. Conjugation of adjectives may be special, different from the verbs (Taghzut, Bunsar, and parts of Zerqet), or regular (parts of Zerqet). Conjugated adjectives can be regarded as quasi-verbs – an intermediate category between adjectives and verbs. Adjectives differ from verbs in that they mark only gender and number (and not person) and in the lack of aspectual distinctions. Conjugated adjectives mark the person but still lack aspectual distinctions.