Swadesh in the Sahara: Lexicostatistical Lists in Berber/Amazigh Languages and Their Loan Components

This study examines the Swadesh lists for a number of Berber/Amazigh languages and demonstrates that the degree of borrowing (mostly from Arabic), while it is not as massive as in the vocabulary as a whole, is nonetheless very great (reaching over a third of the items in some varieties), and highlights the importance that Berber languages have for informing a solidly empirical basis for the elucidation of the possibilities of contact-induced linguistic change.