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Shilha people
The Shilha people (Berber languages: ⵉⵛⵍⵃⵉⵢⵏ, romanized: išelḥiyen, Arabic: الشلوح, romanized: aš-Chlūḥ), or Chleuh or Ichelhiyen, are a Berber ethnic group that inhabit and are indigenous to the Anti-Atlas, High Atlas and the Sous valley. The Shilha people are a part of Morocco's Berber-speaking community, and the southernmost residing Berber population.
The Shilha people traditionally call themselves ishelhien[citation needed] or Shlḥi. This endonym is rendered as Chleuh in French. The Ishelhien are also known as Shluh and Schlöh. Among Arabic speakers, Chleuh serves as an appellation for Berbers generally, although Imazighen is the proper Berber self-name for Berbers as a whole.
The origin of the names Aclḥiy and Taclḥiyt is still debated. The first appearance of this name in a western printed source is found in Mármol's Descripcion general de Affrica (1573, part I, book I, chapter XXXIII):
...y entre los Numidas, y Getulos dela parte occidental de Affrica se habla Berberisco cerrado, y alli llaman esta lengua, Xilha, y Tamazegt, q̃ son nõbres muy antiguos.
"...and among the Numidians and Getulians of the western part of Afri-ca, they speak Berber with marked local features, and there they call this language Xilha [ʃilħa] and Tamazegt [tamaziɣt], which are very old names."
Some sources attribute it an exonymic origin. According to James Alexander MacLellan, Josiah Clark Nott and George Robins Gliddon the shilha people, adopted a mythical lineage that linked them with the biblical character Casluhim, the shilha people pronounced his name as "Kah-shlouh-im". The word "shleuh" is the extract of the middle syllable.
The moroccan Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) states that it is of arabic origin, as the nominal stem šlḥ goes back to the Arabic noun šilḥ "bandit" (plural šulūḥ). But this meaning is only present in the eastern dialects of Arabic; it does not exist in Maghreb dialects, and this is the weakness of this thesis. Also, the majority of those who tried to search for the etymology of the word used foreign-language dictionaries, rather it was supposed to search for the relevant language first. This is mainly due to the fact that the proponents of this hypothesis were not Shilha speakers.
There are a lot of attempts to explain this name based on the language of Tachelhit. The most logical one of them is by the writer Mohammed Akdim, who emphasized in one of his contributions, that the name Shluh, in fact, is the original name given by the Masmuda in the High Atlas and the possessions of Marrakesh, Souss and the Anti-Atlas On themselves. In Shilha, the verb Ishlh means "to settle down, reside and live", which indicates that the name Shluh means "settled and settled residents or settled residents". He also added that there is no meaning and no use in resorting to searching for the significance of the word shalh and shluh in other languages, which is not crippling. As for going to its interpretation and explanation in the Arabic language, this is the height of linguistic prejudice in the right of the Amazigh.
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Shilha people
The Shilha people (Berber languages: ⵉⵛⵍⵃⵉⵢⵏ, romanized: išelḥiyen, Arabic: الشلوح, romanized: aš-Chlūḥ), or Chleuh or Ichelhiyen, are a Berber ethnic group that inhabit and are indigenous to the Anti-Atlas, High Atlas and the Sous valley. The Shilha people are a part of Morocco's Berber-speaking community, and the southernmost residing Berber population.
The Shilha people traditionally call themselves ishelhien[citation needed] or Shlḥi. This endonym is rendered as Chleuh in French. The Ishelhien are also known as Shluh and Schlöh. Among Arabic speakers, Chleuh serves as an appellation for Berbers generally, although Imazighen is the proper Berber self-name for Berbers as a whole.
The origin of the names Aclḥiy and Taclḥiyt is still debated. The first appearance of this name in a western printed source is found in Mármol's Descripcion general de Affrica (1573, part I, book I, chapter XXXIII):
...y entre los Numidas, y Getulos dela parte occidental de Affrica se habla Berberisco cerrado, y alli llaman esta lengua, Xilha, y Tamazegt, q̃ son nõbres muy antiguos.
"...and among the Numidians and Getulians of the western part of Afri-ca, they speak Berber with marked local features, and there they call this language Xilha [ʃilħa] and Tamazegt [tamaziɣt], which are very old names."
Some sources attribute it an exonymic origin. According to James Alexander MacLellan, Josiah Clark Nott and George Robins Gliddon the shilha people, adopted a mythical lineage that linked them with the biblical character Casluhim, the shilha people pronounced his name as "Kah-shlouh-im". The word "shleuh" is the extract of the middle syllable.
The moroccan Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) states that it is of arabic origin, as the nominal stem šlḥ goes back to the Arabic noun šilḥ "bandit" (plural šulūḥ). But this meaning is only present in the eastern dialects of Arabic; it does not exist in Maghreb dialects, and this is the weakness of this thesis. Also, the majority of those who tried to search for the etymology of the word used foreign-language dictionaries, rather it was supposed to search for the relevant language first. This is mainly due to the fact that the proponents of this hypothesis were not Shilha speakers.
There are a lot of attempts to explain this name based on the language of Tachelhit. The most logical one of them is by the writer Mohammed Akdim, who emphasized in one of his contributions, that the name Shluh, in fact, is the original name given by the Masmuda in the High Atlas and the possessions of Marrakesh, Souss and the Anti-Atlas On themselves. In Shilha, the verb Ishlh means "to settle down, reside and live", which indicates that the name Shluh means "settled and settled residents or settled residents". He also added that there is no meaning and no use in resorting to searching for the significance of the word shalh and shluh in other languages, which is not crippling. As for going to its interpretation and explanation in the Arabic language, this is the height of linguistic prejudice in the right of the Amazigh.