Tafraout

Tafraout (Arabic: تافراوت‎, Shilha Berber languages: ⵜⴰⴼⵔⴰⵡⵜ) is a town in Tiznit Province, Souss-Massa region, Morocco, in the central part of the Anti-Atlas mountains. It had a population of 4,931 at the 2004 census.[1]

Tafraout Tafrawt / ⵜⴰⴼⵔⴰⵡⵜ تافراوت
Town
Tafraout Location in Morocco
Coordinates: 29°43′N 8°58′W
Country	Morocco
Region	Souss-Massa
Province	Tiznit Province
Population  (2004)
• Total	4,931
Time zone	UTC+0 (WET)
• Summer (DST)	UTC+1 (WEST)

Name and etymology

The basic meaning of the Shilha feminine noun tafrawt is "basin or cistern in which water drawn from a well is poured", with a derived meaning "valley".[2] The centre of the town of Tafraout is actually situated in a small valley, at the foot of Djebel Lekest, a pink granite mountain formed by erosion.[3] A male inhabitant is called in Shilha "u Tfrawt", (plural "ayt Tfrawt"); a female inhabitant is "ult Tfrawt", (plural "ist Tfrawt").[4]

See also

• Tughrassen

Notes

1. "World Gazetteer". Archived from the original on 2013-01-05.
2. See Laoust (1936:123) "bassin ; citerne où s'accumule l'eau tirée d'un puits ou amenée d'une source"; Destaing (1938:288) "vallée".
3. Scheffel, Richard L.; Wernet, Susan J., eds. (1980). Natural Wonders of the World. United States of America: Reader's Digest Association, Inc. p. 364. ISBN 0-89577-087-3.
4. Tfrawt is the annexed state of the noun Tafrawt; see the article Shilha language, section Prefixed nouns.

References

• Destaing, E. (1938). Etude sur la tachelḥît du Soûs. Vocabulaire français-berbère. Paris: Leroux.
• Laoust, E. (1936). Cours de berbère marocain. Dialectes du Sous du Haut et de l'Anti-Atlas. Deuxième édition revue et corrigée. Paris: Société d'éditions géographiques, maritimes et coloniales (first ed. Paris: Challamel, 1921).

External links

• Media related to Tafraout (Morocco) at Wikimedia Commons