Lions and ogres

While doing research on ogres in anthropology and world mythology, I found something interesting.

A Kabyle creation story, as recounted in “Female Monsters in Kabyle Myths and Folktales: their Nature and Functions” by Sabrina Zerar, describes a wild cannibal couple becoming the first lion (izem) and first ogress or witch (teryel). The pairing here is a bit odd because you would expect the latter to become the first lioness (tizemt). So I did some research into the Berber languages and discovered some interesting bits of etymology.

Etymology of teryel

I have seen various transliterations of the word: the T may be spelled as t, ţ, ts, tt, or ţţ; the Y as i or y. Berber is a branch of the Afroasiatic language family, which derives words by affixing to a consonantal root. So I checked a dictionary to get my facts straight. The printed Dictionnaire kabyle-français by J.M. Dallet provides several roots for words meaning ogre or ogress: lɣul, lɣula from ƔL or ƔWL (probable cognate to Arabic ghoul); tteryel/ţţeryel from TRYL; awaɣzniw/waɣzen from WƔZN.

I could not trace the etymology further, but the initial t had me wondering. Berber languages generally indicate the feminine form of a word by adfixing t (e.g. t- + izem “lion” + -t produces tizemt “lioness”), so I checked if RYL was attested a valid root. The Dictionnaire kabyle-français only lists it as a type of currency, so no luck there.

The online Diccionari Amazic-Català lists three different roots written as RYL: RYL₁ “basket, coffin, cabbage”, RYL₂ “ogress, bad fairy; mandrake (mandragora autumnalis)”, and RYL₃ “ral (old currency); five cents coin”. Again, no luck.

The online Amawal - Le dictionnaire de la langue Amazighe lists two words, aryal and rayal, as synonyms for tiẓgi “forest.” (The printed Dictionnaire kabyle-français claims the latter derives from the root ZGW.) These two do seem inflections of a shared root RYL. Success!

Could teryel therefore be a compound of t- + aryal? I cannot confirm whether this is actually the correct etymology, but I think it makes sense. If the speaker was trying to indicate a woman who lived in the woods, then feminizing the word for forest seems logical.

Lion and lioness, ogre and ogress

Amawal lists several words and synonyms for ogres and ogresses: ameẓ (“to take, seize, hold; ogre”), amẓa (“ogre; ogress”), amẓiw (“monster; ogre”), hamẓa (“ogress”), lweḥc (“monster”), tamẓa (“ogress; spider”), tergu (“ogress”), waɣzen (“ogre”).

Such monsters a common feature of Berber fairytales as they are in European. Although man-eating is typically implied, it is not always the case. The Veil of Silence by Djura told a story in which an old woman, who went mad after the loss of her son, was referred to as a “sorceress” (tseryel) by the other villagers.

There are two things to take note of from this list. Firstly, that hamẓa and tamẓa are the feminine of amẓa. Secondly, that ameẓ, amẓa, and amẓiw all derive from the the root MẒ. Marijn van Putten’s “An Aujila Berber Vocabulary” ascribes additional meanings to amẓa “ogre; strong, smart person; (rare) lion.” So at some point in time, the root MẒ related to lions.

This perhaps descends from the Proto-Berber root *MZ “to seize, grasp, catch hold of, collect, impound,” according to G. Marcy’s "Notes linguistiques: autour du periple d'Hannon." It may ultimately descend from the Proto-Afroasiatic *ʔam- “to seize, grasp,” or it could be related to the Ancient Egyptian root mꜣj “lion.”

As stated above the Kabyle word is izem, which Dallet lists as an inflection of the root ZM. The Berber languages have multiple words for lion with distinct etymologies. Putten’s “Nouns of the CVC and CC type in Berber” explains that the root ZM is only attested in the northern Berber languages. In several other Berber languages, the words for “lion” seemingly descend from the Proto-Berber root *ꞵʔʀ.

Could izem and amẓa be related? It seems fairly plausible to me that MẒ and ZM both descend from the root *MZ. Perhaps ZM descends from *MZ through metathesis, the transposition of the two adjacent consonants. In an amusing coincidence, metathesis resulted in the words ogre and orc splitting from their root Orcus.

Alright, now I have found a possible explanation for why a man-eating witch was presented as the wife of a lion rather than a lioness. Perhaps the Kabyle tale substituted the words for lion and lioness with slightly different synonyms over time and thereby shifted the meaning. There could have been any number of pairs: lion and lioness, amẓa and tamẓa, izem and tizemt, waɣzen and teryel, ogre and ogress.