This study is a basic functionalist phonological analysis of Tarifit Berber, a mostly unwritten language spoken in northeastern Morocco. It reveals this language’s phonological “boundaries” which “stretch” in language-specific ways.

Presentation is with two audiences in mind: the informed linguist who is already familiar with phonological principles and practices, and the interested student. For the latter, the author has defined technical terms, mainly in footnotes, and described in detail all of the steps used in analyses. Also, included is a short description of the grammar with morpheme-by-morpheme glosses of all examples. The purpose is two-fold: (1) to provide students and teachers a language description for use in undergraduate and graduate courses, and (2) to aid in the development of this language.

The government of Morocco is encouraging vernacular literacy and thus is involved in representing Berber in some sort of written form. To this end, a thorough phonological analysis is essential in order to formulate a practical set of phonemic characters, or alphabet, for maximal facility in future reading and spelling. Hopefully, this work can assist in this worthy effort.