1. 1n/ˈbɝ.bɚ/ · /ˈbɜːbə/Berber (person)柏柏爾人

    A member of one of the native peoples of northwest Africa, who live mainly in the land that runs from Morocco across to Tunisia.

    文法可數名詞:前面可以加 a/an,要表示複數時常常加 -s。

    Berber 指北非西邊一群原住民族的成員。範圍大致從摩洛哥一路到突尼西亞。它的用法像 Canadian、Thai 這一類字。開頭要大寫,而且可以數。one Berber、three Berbers 都說得通。同一個拼法也可以指他們說的語言。所以是人還是語言,要看整句話。用之前有一件事值得先知道。來源把這個字標為「可能冒犯」。它和 barbarian 來自同一條字源。那個字最早只是指「說話聽不懂的外地人」。正因為這段來歷,寫東西的人通常會先看這群人怎麼稱呼自己。

    示範例句 · Example

    Our guide in the mountains was a Berber, and he taught us a few words before dinner.

    中文翻譯我們在山裡的嚮導是一個柏柏爾人,而他在晚餐前教了我們幾個字。

    Berber names a person by the people they belong to, so it behaves like Canadian or Thai: it takes a capital letter, and you can count it — one Berber, three Berbers. The same spelling also names the language these people speak, so the sentence around the word tells you which one you are reading. One fact travels with this word: the source marks it as possibly offensive to some people, and it comes from the same old root as barbarian, which once meant only 'a foreigner whose speech we cannot follow'. Because of that history, writers often check what a group calls itself before picking a name for it.

    常見搭配

    • the Berber people

      柏柏爾族(整體)

      the group taken as a whole

      The museum has one room about the Berber people.

    • of Berber origin

      有柏柏爾血緣的

      having Berber family or roots

      Many families in the valley are of Berber origin.

  2. 2n/ˈbɝ.bɚ/ · /ˈbɜːbə/Berber (language)柏柏爾語

    The language of the Berber people of northwest Africa — really a set of closely related languages, spoken most of all in Morocco and Algeria.

    文法不可數名詞:通常不加 a/an,也不加 -s 來表示複數。

    當 Berber 指語言的時候,它不能數。說 speak Berber、learn Berber、in Berber 就好。前面不加 a,後面也不加 -s。這裡兩份來源合起來很值得看。學習型字典寫的是「其中一種語言」。另一份來源寫的是「一群關係很近的語言」。所以 Berber 比較不像單一一種語言。它更像一個語言家族。不同地區的人,不一定聽得懂對方。大寫要保留,就像 Thai、Arabic 一樣。

    When Berber names a language it stops being countable: you say speak Berber, learn Berber, in Berber, with no a and no -s. Notice what the sources together tell you here. The learner dictionary says 'one of the languages', and the other source says 'a group of closely related languages' — so Berber is less like one fixed language and more like a family of them, and two speakers from different areas may not understand each other easily. The capital letter stays, the way it does for Thai or Arabic.

    常見搭配

    • speak Berber

      說柏柏爾語

      to use the Berber language

      Both of her parents speak Berber.

    • in Berber

      用柏柏爾語

      using the Berber language

      The sign was written in Berber and in French.