This article is a study of the use of character names in short stories produced by the Berber-speaking Kabyle people in northern Algeria. The short story genre is called tullist in Berber. This article examines the stylistic choices of Kabyle authors of the tullist genre in naming their characters. A character analysis isn't possible without first addressing the choice of character names. As Philippe Hamon explains: “The name of the character enables the critique of the narrative.”Footnote 1 The corpus of tullisin (books written in the tullist genre) that comprises the subject matter of this study consists of 64 works included in ten collections of short stories. Specifically, the study analyzes20 names of different characters of different stories, each of whose name is featured in the title of the work (out of the total of 64 stories), which speaks to the importance of character names in the presentation of the narrative. Since the name is typically the first aspect to be learned about a character, it is the first element of a character's characterization.
The present study takes a poetic approach to its subject. It is an inductive approach based on the analysis of a corpus of selected tullisin texts. This corpus consists of ten collections, with the selection being limited to collections published in the first decade of the publication of collections of this genre, namely the decade between 1998 and 2008.
The examination of the corpus has provided us with a set of data that has made it possible to develop the onomastic character analysis around two main axes. The first axis involves identifying the various processes that authors of the tullist genre employ to name their characters. The second axis addressesthe non-naming of anonymous characters.
The corpus analyzed in this study comprises ten collections of tullisin, or 64 texts, at a rate of one collection per author, except for the case of Mohand Ait Ighil, who has three collections: Allen n tayri (1999), Atlanta (2001)Footnote 2 and Tchekhov s teqbaylit (2003). The other titles include Nekkni d wiyiḍ: Tullizin by Kamal Bouamara (1998),Footnote 3 Tuɣalin d tullizin niḍen by Amar Mezdad (2003), Lǧerrat:Tullisin by Brahim Tazaghart (2003), Akli ungif by Ouslimani Remdane (2004), Tikli: Tullisin by Mourad Zimu (2005), Timsirin n yiḍ: Tullisin by Malek Houd (2008), and Gar zik d tura: Tullisin d yiḍrisen nniḍen by Said Chamakh (2008).
Named Characters
As David Lodge writes, “The naming of characters is always an important part of creating them.”Footnote 4 Meanwhile, Hamon insists on the value of the “label” represented by the name, which is a “social and institutionalized label” signifying information about the character's social and civil status.Footnote 5 Based on the nomenclature of character names examined for this study, we have noted similarities and differences in the attribution of names. We have organized these into three categories. The first category includes appellations that derive from Kabyle society, consisting either of a single word, generally a first name, or of compound or hyphenated names. The second category groups together the few character names that are unknown or foreign to the Kabyle region. The third category involves nicknamed characters, which are fewer in number.
Commitment to Names Hailing from the Kabyle Region
While reading the list of characters' names,Footnote 6 we noted the strong presence of names from the Kabyle region, including Amara, Houria, Djouher, Boussaad, Hemmama, Chabha, Ouali, Hamid, Lexḍer, Dehbia, Sliman, Zouina, Sekkoura, Bélaid, Mélaaz, Mennad, Lmouloud, Werdia, Tawes, Djedjiga, Chabane, Kaci, M'hand, Mohand, etc. We counted 97 first names (for primary and secondary characters). As a result of this survey, we were curious to see how frequently these first names were used in the texts of our corpus. This frequency varies from a single instance to a frequency of ten uses per name.
Moreover, based on this list of first names, we noticed that some Kabyle writers (e.g., Mohand Ait Ighil and Said Chemakh) designated their characters by using novel first names that are not common in (traditional) Kabyle society and borrowed from neighboring languages (e.g., Selma, Madjer, Anissa, Jamil, Litisia, Lynda, and Yanis) or from ancient Berber names (e.g., Tiziri, Tanina, Amnay, and Chachnaq).
These first names are also attributed to other characters in other forms, either by combining them with kinship relations, as is the case with Baba-s n Selma (Salma's father), Yemma-s n Âziz (Aziz's mother), atmaten n Wakli (Akli's brothers), mmi-s n Yidir (Yidir's son), tameṭṭut n Dda Arezqi (Dda Arezki's wife), xalti-s n Jeǧǧiga, (Jedjiga's aunt), Jeddi Lhasen (my grandfather L'hacene), ɛemmi Mekran (my uncle Mokrane), etc.; or by preceding them with terms of respect or honorifics, such as “Dda,” “Nna,” “Zizi,” or “Lalla.” It is a Kabyle societal practice to use these terms before first names. The Kabyle social code requires using these words when addressing people for whom one feels respect and in particular for the elderly. In this regard, the significant presence of this naming process in this corpus is notable, with some examples being: Dda Meqran, Dda Qasi, Nna Malḥa, Nna Ɛini, Zizi Belɛid, Zizi Arezqi,and Lalla Faṭima. Moreover, it is interesting to expand on the name of a character in a text by Malek Houd, Zizi Belɛid, whose name also serves as the title of this text. For this author, he is the only example where we have noted irony in the naming and description of the character. As mentioned above, the qualifier “Zizi” is used to show respect, employed in particular in Kabyle society by marabouts as a synonym of “Dadda” or “Dda.” However, this character's actions do not reflect the meaning of Zizi. Helplessly attracted to women, his character has the reputation of being a “skirt chaser,” which explains the nickname of “Acacfal yeṭṭallayen” (the great gawker) that the narrator gives him, as shown in this passage.
The great gawker is a nickname that f“ts Zi”i Be “aid” ike a glove because he can't help but ogle the girls who were coming back from the fountain to go home, carrying jugs.Footnote 7
The naming of characters in tullist also appears as the combination of a Kabyle first name with a patronymic. The use of patronymics in naming characters has two functions. On the one hand, it plays a classificatory role. In this regard, Michel Erman specifies that “names (patronymic names) thus play the role of ‘class indicators’ by making it possible to differentiate individuals based on the family, clan, or tribe to which they belong.”Footnote 8 On the other hand, a name that is composed of a first name and a patronymic makes a character seem more realistic. The patronymic defines and anchors the protagonist in reality.
In this regard, two types of names with patronymics have been noted. The first takes on the form of a first name plus a noun, as is the case for Wediya Selman, Dda Σacur Uciban, Akli Iḥeddaden, etc. The second, meanwhile, is generated according to the pattern: first name plus “At” pluslast name. Within the corpus, this is the most common case, e.g.,Caɛban At Meẓyan, Nna Ṭawes At Wulmu, Yidir At Wakli, Faḍma At Ɛli, etc.
In Kabyle, the patronymic formed with “At” represents either the name of a family (Tawacult) or a clan (adrum), or the name of a village (taddart), or a tribe (lɛerc). Within this corpus of character names, we found about ten patronymics that are used in the text. In other words, in addition to being associated with a character, they are also mentioned alone, in reference to a family, village, tribe, etc., as with At yiɣil, At Lqalu, At Tewrirt, At Zeyyan, At Sliman,etc.
Some of these patronyms are composed on the basis of a place name, such as At Wakal ameqran, At Yiger, At Waman, At Yiɣil, At Uwrir, At Tewrirt, etc., andothers, on the basis of family names, such asAt Sliman, At Zeyyan, At Wakli, At Yidir, At Meqran, etc.
Other patronymics are designated by their initials, such as At C., which refers to Ɛzuzu's family and At Y., which also refers to Ɛziz's family in the text “Taqsiṭ n Ɛziz d Ɛzuzu” by Kamal Bouamara, as well as the Adrum At U. in the text “Yerra-tt yiman-i”” by Malek Houd. These truncated patronymic sproduce a heightened effect of reality in the story, particularly by creating a kind of suspense around the place and setting ofthese stories.
The names of marabouts, who occupya higher place in Kabyle society, are always preceded by the terms of respect Si, Lḥaǧ, and Ccix. The qualifier “Si” is a diminutive derived from the Arabic word sayyid, which roughly translates to “sir.” In Kamal Bouamara's text “Kra yella kra yerna,” there are four characters who bear this qualifier: Si Muḥ, Si Crif, Si Flan, and Si Warisem. Although the narrator's ironic tone colors these four characters, it is even more apparent in the naming of the latter two protagonists, Si Flanand Si Warisem.
Si Flan, as the narrator explains parenthetically, refuses to reveal his true identity, i.e., his real name. He is described as a “smuggler/contrabandist, street vendor.” The verb senz, which is a polysemic verb in the Kabyle language, perfectly translates this character's actions. Some examples of this polysemy include yessenz, which has at least three meanings: “to sell” (e.g., yessenz aɣrum) as well as “to sacrifice oneself” (e.g., Yessenz aqerru-s) as well as “to denounce and betray” (e.g., yessenz atmaten-is i Uṛumi). As for the character Si Flan, who is “a contrabandist, “his actions do in facttranslate the different meanings of the verb senz. Indeed, Si Flansold the Qurʾan in front of mosques, and he also handed over Berber militants to the gendarmerie, etc. The following passage is illustrative in this regard:
The fourth is Si such-and-such (he refused to give his name). He is a street vendor. He sells all sorts of odds and ends, the things people create for the most famous of kings. He sold volumes of the Qurʾan and djabadours at the threshold of mosques. He sold cassettes of the Qurʾan. He sold the green book in France. He sold his motherto the gendarmes, for free. He sold the Amazighs, secretly… But he never sold the Amazigh language (It's not that he wasn't aware of it ….), he didn't sell Tamazight because it's a different story.Footnote 9
As for the character Si Warisem, the irony is demonstrated from the outset in the name itself, in that it combines the qualifier “Si” with “Warisem ”meaning “the one who has no name.“Si Warisem's behavior confirms this ironic register. He is a journalist who attempts to glorify the work of political leaders while making viewers laugh with his Kabyle accent: “There is Si no-name, from the television of the republic. His job is to praise, glorify, and boast of his superiors, making the viewers laugh with his 'Kabyle accent.'”Footnote 10
The qualifier “Lḥaǧ” also is sometimes found preceding a character name. It is a loan word from Arabic, intended to address any person who has performed the pilgrimage, and it appears thricein our corpus: first, in the name with Lḥaǧ Qasi, a character from Said Chemakh's tullist “Tuɣalin”; second,in the combination of “Lḥaǧ” and “Si” to refer to a secondary character in the text “Taninna neɣ tudert n tlemẓit taqbaylit” by Said Chemakh; and third, to designate a murderous character in the text “Iḍ amcum” by Kamal Bouamara. This character named Lḥaǧ and Ucaɛban is part of a gang of assassins whom Lḥusin had commissioned to kill Ssaɛid:
Below the vegetable gardens, Lḥaǧ and his group were keeping watch, their guns loaded. . . After having contemplated the matter, Ucaɛban was already condemned. Indeed, they were paid to kill.Footnote 11
Another ironic use of the name “Lḥaǧ” is provided for a character in Mourad Zimu's text “Tikli.” The narrator shows that this character's walk is special in that for each step he takes in the direction of the mosque, the good lord provides him with a reward: “ḥasanat.” The irony is located in the profile of this character:
Lḥaǧ owns stores, gold, real estate. And he also likes to walk. But I don't want to cast the eye upon him, he is not like you, the mosque is his only direction. When he walks, the angels are happy, every step is a good deed.Footnote 12
The noun “Ccix” is borrowed from Arabic and designates a sort of individual with knowledge that he shares with his disciples. Used in Kabyle society to designate an Imam of the mosque, it has also been extended to designate a teacher. We have identified three characters whose names are preceded by this qualifier. These are Ccix Ḥend and Ccix Mḥend, both of whom are village imams, and Ccix Ssaɛid, a teacher in Malek Houd's “Temẓi n Caɛban.”
We would also like to note another unique example in this category of naming, preceded by the term “Mass.” In his text “Kra yella kra yerna,” Kamal Bouamara provides the playful appellation “Mass il faut.” From the outset, the irony in the naming of this character is apparent, with the combination of a neologism Mass, which means “Sir,” and “il faut,” a borrowing from the French language that is a verbal form and does not refer to any name or surname. The character is designated by this expression because, as a Berber activist defending his Amazigh language, he still has recourse to the French language when he speaks, as illustrated by the following excerpt:
They all passed by, with the last one beingmister “il faut.” As soon as he began to speak, his mouth was filled with froth. He spoke in “Tamazight,” the “national” language of the Amazighs educated in French (and before starting he even apologized for speaking in “Tamazight”), not in Kabyle. This is what he had heard, and what Masine remembered: we must decolonize the mindset!Footnote 13
We can identify two remarkable trends in this inventory of character names. The first trend concerns writers who choose to name almost all of their characters. These include Malek Houd, Said Chemakh, Mourad Zimu, and Kamal Bouamara. The writings ofMalek Houd serve as an illustrative example: Of the 23 characters in the tullist “Temẓi n Caɛban,” 18 characters have first names. Of the 12 characters in the text “Tadukli,” 10 are named. In the case of Kamal Bouamara, one example is provided by his text “Iḍ amcum,” in which all his characters (there are 12 total) are named. The text “Taninna neɣ tudert n temẓit taqbaylit” has 15 characters, all of whom have first names. In Mourad Zimu's “Tazebbujt n tafat,” all the characters are named.
The second trend concerns authors for whom the naming of characters is less frequent. This is the case for Mohand Ait Ighil, Ouslimani Remdane, Amar Mezdad, and Brahim Tazaghart. Almost all their characters are designated by their profession, attribute, or some other qualifier. This is the second category (“Unnamed characters”) for our analysis, and we will develop this later.
Non-societal or Specific Name
In this corpus of tullisin, there is another type of designation used to refer to the protagonists. This involves designations that are unfamiliar or even unknown within Kabyle society. They reflect the appellations specific to the wonder tale: MqidecandLunǧa. The choice of such designations is certainly not arbitrary. In Kamal Bouamara's “Tirgara,” the actions of the character Mqidec clearly justify this author's use of the appellation. In the tale, the character of Mqidec is known for his cunning and different strategies he uses to reach his goal. In the text “Tirgara,” Mqidec is Akli's enemy. He harbors a deep hatred towards Akli because the latter is better than him. Mqidec had feelings for Akli's wife. With the support of the At Lqalus, he manages to undoAkli's success and ingratiate himself with his wife, who helps him carry out this plan. This character's actions thus justify the choice of naming him “Mqidec.” Meanwhile, it is in Brahim Tazaghart's text “Lexmis” that we encounter the name Lunǧa, which in the tale is the name of the ogress's daughter. Nevertheless, this character does not take on any similarities with the character from the tale.
Other examples of unknown appellations attributed to the tullist characters are: Ɣerraq (Gherrak), Taxnanast (Takhnanast), àuččan (Chouchan), Merlot, and Giyyu (Guillaume). The first designation is attributed by Mohand Ait Ighilto a character who is a prosecutor in his text, “Tamacahut-nni n wučči.” This term is still currently used in dialectal Arabic to designate a prosecutor because the latter always tries to trap the accused. Mohand Ait Ighil also creates the second, Taxnanast, which is in his text “Agellid n yimelḥanen.” It is a derivative of the verb “xnunes” (to get dirty). This choice of first name perfectly reflects the story's plot. It is given to a girl of rare beauty when she is born, for fear that she will be murdered by the king, who hates beautiful people. She is named Taxnanast, literally “the uglyone,” so as not to attract the king's attention. In this same text by Mohand Ait Ighil, the author gives the king the first name of Gulu. This particular name may have a foreign origin: King Gulu is a character in the fairy tales and nursery rhymes of French literature.
The third name is Chouchan, which is also an unfamiliar name and has no explanation in the text. Said Chemakh attributes it to a character in the text “Ɛecrin duṛu.”Dda Čučanis a name given to the janitor of the building.
Two foreign-looking names are attributed to two other characters: the first is “Merlot,” the name of a French colonizer in the text “Temẓi n Caɛban.” During the colonial period, this character possessed all the olive lands. After independence, his name remained even after he left and was used to designate all the lands he'd held:
At the time of French colonization, Merlot, the colonizer, had in his possession all the land cultivated with olive trees that surrounded Tazerrajt.Who ever could observe Tazerrajt from the heights saw what looked like an island in the middle of an ocean of olive trees. The colonizer Merlot has left, and only the name remains.Footnote 14
The second of these names is Giyyu,which appears in Amar Mezdad's text “Yerra-tt i yiman-is.” This constitutes another name for which the meaning is, in our opinion, unknown. Nevertheless, in the French version of this text, the author explains that this name is that of a Germanic emperor.
Asmi imed cwiṭ i tekker tmes yessaɣ Walman d Uṛumi, tinna iwumi qqaren “ṭṭrad n Lḥaǧ Giyyu Bu-cclaɣem iwraɣen.”Footnote 15
Makhlouf was just out of adolescence when the conflict broke out between Germany and France, which was called “the war of Hadj-Guillaume, with the blond moustache, ”named after the Germanic emperor.Footnote 16
Nicknamed Characters
We observed a significant presence of nicknamed characters among the texts in this corpus. Generally speaking, the characters who are described the most are the ones who have nicknames. In other words, in addition to being named, they also have nicknames. The nickname provides a protagonist with a certain specificity in the sense that it makes him or her unique; this stands in contrast with a name, which can refer to several characters. In this regard, Michel Erman finds that the nick name “has a stronger characterizing value than a simple name, because it designates a character while referring to a speaker who sees him- or herself as a guarantor of the truth value. . . . The nickname thus plays the role of a metalinguistic commentary that explains the character while singling them out.”Footnote 17
We have chosen to discuss three examples of nicknames. The first example is mm-anzaren n lbaṭaṭa, the nickname for Ddayxa, the main character of in the eponymous “Ddayxa” by Malek Houd. The second example, is Acacfal yeṭṭallayen, the nickname for Zizi Belɛidin the story “Zizi Belɛid” also by Malek Houd. The third example includes the various nicknames referring to Akli, the main character of Kamal Bouamara's “Tirgara.”
Let's begin with Ddayxa. In addition to the comprehensive description spanning the length of the text, this character also has a derogatory nickname that focuses on her nose, a part of her face that is utilized to represent her. This nickname is mm-anzaren n lbaṭaṭa (she of the potato nose). In fact, Ddayxa's nose is acentral element of the story. The expression “anzaren n lbaṭaṭa” (the potato nose) is repeated several times in the text. On two occasions, it surfaces in the form of “Anzaren-ihin” (thatnose), and “mm-wanzaren” (she of the big nose).There is also a sentence that refers to the same nickname: lbaṭaṭa-nni inem (your potato).Footnote 18
Regarding the nickname “Acacfal yeṭṭallayen,” the narrator explains that this is what all the villagers called Zizi Belɛid. He explains the meaning of each word in detail. “Acacfal” is attributed to Zizi Belɛid thanks to his great height; though he is skinny, he is tall.The second termis “yeṭṭallayen” (the one who looks), and in this configuration it refers to the character who ogled the women passing by. Zizi Bélaid takes pleasure in contemplating women and cannot help it, as evidenced in the following passage:
The great gawker cannot lower his gaze, it's beyond him, he can't help it. It's as if there were an invisible force pushing him to ogle women. . . . He can't stop himself from ogling dresses with red or yellow floral motifs and their underwear to be at peace. It's clear that he's sick. The malady of the gaze.Footnote 19
The nickname Acacfal yeṭṭalayan is repeated in the text nine times. On two occasions, the narrator uses only the shortened nickname Acacfal. There is also a long phrase that serves as a nickname for this character: Zizi n twaɣit bu wudem azuran (Zizi the fat-faced disaster).Footnote 20
In contrast to the previous two examples, the characters Zizi Belɛid and Ddayxa have many nicknames. Akli, the main character in the story “Tirgara,” has about ten nicknames, specifically: Ssellum n yiɛdawenFootnote 21 because he sacrificed the village of At Lqalus to the At Tewrirt, allowing the latter to take revenge on their enemy village, Lqalus. Akli aḥeddadFootnote 22 is referred to in this text on several occasions to refer to his profession as a blacksmith. He is likewise addressed using several qualifiers, mainly by the two characters, Σini and Mqidec (e.g., “D Akli, d akli, dimneṭri, d amsebrid, d inebgi n Rebbi, d axennab, d amsaḥ.”Footnote 23 This character has also been presented as: d anebbac (the stinger), d akli (the slave), d agezzar (the butcher),d amattar (the beggar), bu tergin/wagi (the man with ashes), iɛiqer (the sterile one), and d abeṛṛani (the foreigner).Footnote 24
Anonymous Characters
An author may refrain from naming the characters in a text and designate them by generic names, such as tameṭṭut (woman), argaz (man), or aqcic(boy),or by their profession or other means of classification. In this case, the central character will have a separate value or estimation: “the personality as well as the psychological and social reality of the protagonist play a very small role, which affects the image that the story offers of the character.”Footnote 25 By examining the corpus of character names that we made for the 59 tullisin being analyzed, we were able to classify the characters who did not have names according to the criterion of their profession, status, gender, or age.
Designating a character based on profession and status
Design a ting characters based on their profession or status is one of the most common ways to designate anonymous characters. For this purpose, we offer the following examples: Afellaḥ /Ifellaḥen (farmer), Anehhar (driver), Aɛsekri (military man), ṭṭbib (doctor), Tafermasyant(pharmacist), Ineẓẓurfa (lawyers), and Amedyaz (poet), etc. The attribution of names based on profession differs from one author to another, and sometimes even with in work by the same author. There are those who use neological approaches, as is the case with AmejjayFootnote 26 for Brahim Tazaghart and Amer Mezdad, while others opt for borrowing, e.g.,ṭṭbib in Mohand Ait Ighil's work. Almost all the first names we have mentioned are borrowings from Arabic or French. Most have been identified in Mohand Ait Ighil's texts. This author also sometimes uses neologisms, as with Ineẓẓurafa and Aneẓẓarfu.
Names based on “status of the characters” means referring to them by their identity or attributes, as is the case, for example with Talmat (German) and Taqbaylit (Kabyle), or physical condition, as is the case with Aciban (person with grey hair). We also mention, by way of example, the status of a character who is a prisoner, as is the case with Aneḥbus, Ineḥbas (prisoner), or passenger, as with the example of Amsebrid (truck driver).
Designating characters by using the combination of gender and age
The variables of the character's gender and age constitute another method the authors of Kabyle tullist employed to designate their characters. In the manner of fairy tales, several characters are designated only by their gender, as with: argaz/tameṭṭut (man/woman), amɣar/tamɣart (old (f.))/old (m.)), or with reference to their age: argaz/amɣar (man/old man), tameṭṭut/timɣarin (woman/old woman). Examples found in this corpus include: Argaz (the man) (which occurs in five different texts), Amɣar (old man), Tameṭṭut (the woman), tamɣart (old woman), Aqcic (boy), Ilmeẓyen (young people), and Tiḥdayin (girls).
Designating animal and fantastical characters
A minimal number of animal characters are depicted by the authors of our corpus, those being: Aserdun (horse), Aqjun (dog), taserdunt (mare), Aɣyul (donkey), taɣaṭ (goat), aqelwac (billy goat) and tagerfa(raven). The only animal character with a name is Mḥend's dog Damkain Mohand Ait Ighil's text “Ajewwaq.”
As for the naming of fantastical or surreal characters, the only character of this type that we have noted in this corpus is a star. This star does not have a name, and Mohand Ait Ighil refers to it as “Itri.” It is the character who has fulfilled Tiziri's dream of visiting his village.
As for unnamed/anonymous characters, Kabyle authors resort to compound descriptions based on profession, status, gender, orage as with Yiwen n umezdaɣ, Yiwen n urgaz, Tameṭṭut tamezwarut, yiwen seg wuḥricen-nni, etc.; or from combining a noun complement, such as Argaz n tfermasyant (husband of the pharmacist),imɣaren n taddart (old men of the village), Anemhal n lḥebs (warden of the prison), Bab n tḥanut (storekeeper or owner of the store) etc.; or from adding an adjective, as with Aɛsekri awessar (fat military man), Aneẓẓarfu afeylasuf (eloquent lawyer), or Tamsiwt tameqrant (tall maiden).
Certain results and observations can be made about the naming of characters within the tullist genre. While there is no rule for naming tullist character(s), this does not mean that characters are named in an arbitrary way. Instead, two trends are clearly discernible. The first relates to writers who name all of their characters (Houd, Chemakh, Zimu, and Bouamara). The second involves writers who rarely name their protagonists (Mezdad, Tazaghart, Ouslimani, and Ait Ighil). However, these tendencies do not necessarily define an author one way or the other because it differs from one text to another, even for the same author. In addition, the primary or secondary status of the character in the text does not influence the naming: there are primary characters without names and secondary characters with names. The opposite is also true.
Generally speaking, characters' names in tullist serve to heighten the sense of reality. Indeed, Kabyle authors use many Kabyle first names for their characters. Almost one hundred characters in the corpus (approximately one-third) were designated simply by appellations consisting solely of a first name (Akli, Meqran, Ṭawes Jeǧǧiga, etc.), a combination of first names and patronyms (Yidir At Wakli, Faḍma At Ɛli, etc.), or by titles that precede the given names, namely the signifying appellatives: Si, Lḥaǧ, Ccix, and Mass, as well as Ddda, Nna. In addition to these procedures, authors of Kabyle tullist address their protagonists distinctly via kinship names (or by prefacing a character's first name by a kinship relation, as with Yemma-s n Lexḍer, Tameṭṭut n Dda Arezqi, and Mmi-s n Ba-Mexluf,etc.). The use of nicknames and pseudonyms is the least substantive naming procedure among Kabyle writers, given its scarcity in the literature reviewed.
Moreover, there are other ways intervene in the addressing of unnamed characters. The most recurrent are the designation, in the manner of a tale, either by the character's sex (Argaz, tameṭṭut, ilmeẓyen, tamɣart, etc.), profession (Tafermasyant, amejjay, ineẓẓurfa,etc.), or status (Aneḥbus, talmant, amsebrid, etc.). In addition, characters are sometimes named via compound designations, combining one of the preceding processes with number nouns, noun complements, and adjectives (e.g., Tameṭṭut tamezwarut, yiwen urgaz, Aneẓẓarfu afeylasuf, Aɛsekṛi ilemeẓi, lall n tḥanut, anemhal n uɣerbaz, etc.).
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