Evgeniya Gutova
Job description
I'm Evgeniya (Jenia) Gutova, a linguist interested in language structure and linguistic diversity around the world. My focus is particularly on non-Western (non-Indo-European) and underdescribed languages, especially from Africa and the Middle East. I am engaged in language description and documentation, grammar writing, and creation of annotated corpora to preserve linguistic heritage. In my research, I try to bring together insights from descriptive and theoretical linguistics, and currently also psycho- and neurolinguistics, with an overall goal to explore how language structure varies and how language diversity impacts human cognition.
I have worked on different aspects of Berber (Amazigh) linguistics, Arabic/Berber bilingualism, and different outcomes of language contact. As a MSCA postdoc at the UiT – the Arctic University of Norway and in collaboration with the C-LaBL (Centre for language, brain and learning), I am researching Arabic influence on Senhaja Berber Tense, Aspect, and Modality (see NABOR). I have previously researched multilingualism in the Moroccan diaspora community in Spain (Moroccan Arabic and Berber heritage speakers) as a researcher at the University of Navarra in Pamplona, Spain. My PhD thesis from the Sorbonne University (Paris, France), 2021, is a polylectal grammar of Senhaja Berber (northern Morocco), while my MA thesis from Leiden University (the Netherlands) investigated Kabyle Berber manuscripts from Algeria written in the Arabic script. I hold a BA in Cuneiform Studies (Languages and Cultures of Mesopotamia and Anatolia) from Leiden University. See my CV, ORCID, researchgate, and academia.edu profiles.
Publications outside Cristin
Publications in peer-reviewed scientific journals
2024. ‘Mood, Aspect, and Verbal Negation in Senhaja Berber’. International Journal of Berber/Amazigh Research (1): 159-199. >This paper discusses how mood, aspect, and verbal negation are expressed in Senhaja Berber. Special attention is paid to the contact-language phenomena – the influence of Arabic on the expression of mood, aspect, and negation.
2023. With Mohamed Meouak. ‘A note on Ghomara Berber in a 16th century legal textbook by the Moroccan writer Ibn ‘Arḍūn’. Études et Documents Berbères 49-50: 193-197. > This paper discusses a passage in a mix of Ghomara Berber and Arabic found in a Moroccan Arabic legal text from the 16th century. The paper places the text in its historical context and presents the text, its transcription, and translation.
2022. ‘Caractéristiques principales du berbère senhaja (nord-ouest du Maroc).’ Études et Documents Berbères 48 (2): 65-112. https://doi.org/10.3917/edb.048.0065. >This article presents a grammatical sketch of Senhaja Berber varieties (Morocco), highlighting the differences and common features between them. The article pays special attention to language-contact phenomena, as Senhaja is strongly influenced by Arabic. Comparisons with other Berber languages are provided.
2017. ‘Direct Object Clitic Pronouns in Ketama/Senhaja Berber (Northwestern Morocco)’. Études et Documents Berbères 37: 103-146. https://doi.org/10.3917/edb.037.0105. > This paper discusses direct object clitic pronouns in Ketama Berber (Senhaja) and provides comparisons with other Senhaja varieties, as well as with the neighboring Berber languages (Ghomara and Tarifit). The paper describes the contexts where two main series of clitic pronouns occur. The origin of the special forms of Ketama pronouns is explained.
2016. ‘The Sanusi Creed in Kabyle Berber: Manuscript KA 21 from the Lmuhub Ulahbib library (Béjaïa, Algeria)’. Études et Documents Berbères 35-36: 197-228. https://doi.org/10.3917/edb.035.0263. >This article presents a study of an 18/19th-century Kabyle Berber manuscript dealing with theology. The manuscript is placed in its historical and religious context, after which the structure of the text is presented and compared with the Arabic sources. Palaeographic, orthographic, and linguistic features of the document are discussed and illustrated by means of a passage.
2015. ‘Baby Talk in Berber and Maghrebian Arabic’. Études et Documents Berbères 34: 95-123. https://doi.org/10.3917/edb.034.0095. > This paper discusses baby talk (also known as child-directed speech) in North Africa, focusing on the similarities and differences between Arabic and Berber. The study is based on a corpus of 1,331 BT lexemes collected through fieldwork and elicitation.
2015. ‘Voice, lability, and causatives in Berber’ (2). Études et Documents Berbère 33: 123-147. https://doi.org/10.3917/edb.033.0123. > This is the continuation of the article ‘Voice, lability, and causatives in Berber’. In this part, Berber morphological and analytic causatives are investigated. The study provides cross-linguistic comparisons and highlights typologically unusual features that are found in Berber.
2013. ‘Voice, lability, and causatives in Berber’ (1). Études et documents berbère 32: 105-121. https://doi.org/10.3917/edb.032.0105. > This is the first part of the article ‘Voice, lability, and causatives in Berber’. In this part, the linguistic categories of voice (active/passive) and verb lability across Berber are discussed.
Publications in conference proceedings
2024. ‘Arabic verb forms in Senhaja Berber (Northern Morocco)’. In Carmen Berlinches Ramos, Jairo Guerrero & Montserrat Benítez Fernández (eds.). AIDA Granada: A Pomegranate of Arabic Varieties. Collection Estudios de dialectología árabe. Prensas de la Universidad de Zaragoza. p. 275-287. >This paper discusses the borrowing of Arabic verb forms (base verbs and their derived counterparts) in Senhaja, and the influence of this borrowing on Senhaja morphology.
2022. ‘Partial clitic fronting and clitic repetition in Ketama Senhaja Berber (Northwestern Morocco)’. In Rainer Vossen, Kerstin Winkelmann, Dymitr Ibriszimow & Harry Stroomer (eds.). Études berbères IX. La linguistique et la documentation écrite en berbère et autres articles. Actes du 9. Bayreuth-Frankfurt-Leidener Kolloquium zur Berberologie, Francfort-sur-Main, 20-23 juillet 2016. (Berber Studies 58.) Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag. p. 63-89. > This chapter investigates the behavior of verbal clitics (pronominal, directional) in Ketama Berber (Senhaja). Specific contexts usually trigger clitic fronting in Berber. In Ketama, however, there is a rare phenomenon of partial clitic fronting and clitic repetition. There is a hierarchy as to what is found depending on the number and type of the clitics, and the dialect. The study describes the variation in Senhaja and provides hypotheses regarding the origin of this variation.
2018. ‘Clitic Pronouns in Ketama Berber (Western Rif)’. Proceedings of the colloquium CILB 2017 (Colloque International de Linguistique Berbère), en hommage à André Basset. Paris. > This study describes different types of clitic pronouns in Ketama Berber (Senhaja, Western Rif), their forms (allomorphs) and functions.
2016. ‘Baby Talk in the Maghreb’. George Grigore & Gabriel Bițună (eds.). Arabic Varieties: Far and Wide. Proceedings of the 11th International Conference of AIDA – Bucharest 2015. București: Editura Universității din București. p. 281-290. > This chapter discusses baby talk (BT, a special speech register used when addressing babies) in the Maghreb, especially from Morocco and Algeria, including its phonology, morphology, and syntax. The study shows that Maghrebian BT lexicon is conventionalized and rich, and is not always based on the corresponding adult speech lexemes.
Publication in edited volumes
2024. ‘Conjugated adjectives and participles in Senhaja Berber (Northwestern Morocco)’. In Alireza Korangy & Karim Bensoukas (eds.). The Handbook of Berber Linguistics. Springer Handbooks in Languages and Linguistics. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-99-5690-6_24. New York and Singapore. p. 523-545. > This chapter discusses conjugated adjectives and participles in Senhaja, which is rare phenomenon cross-linguistically and within Berber. While normally adjectives mark only gender and number, conjugated adjectives also mark the person, which makes them akin verbs. However, unlike verbs, conjugated adjectives lack aspectual distinctions. Hence, they can be seen as quasi-verbs – an intermediate category between adjectives and verbs.
Research interests
Descriptive linguistics, field linguistics, language documentation, multilingualism, bilingualism, language contact, grammatical borrowing, morphological borrowing, linguistic typology, grammar writing, polylectal grammars, African linguistics, languages of the Middle East, Afro-Asiatic languages, Berber (Amazigh), Arabic, dialectology.
CV
See CV here.