agnaw

Tashelhit

آڭناو (noun sense 2.1)

Etymology

Inherited from Proto-Berber. Synchronically, related to gniw (“to gibber, to be mute”). Doublet of gnawa.

Cognates

Cognate with Tarifit aynaw, Tawellemmet agənnaw (“mute”), Awjila agnàw (“black slave”), Ghadames ǵanaw (“black slave”), Nefusa agnâw (“slave”), Zenaga ägənwi (“black man”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /aɡnaw/

Noun

agnaw m (plural ignawn, Tifinagh spelling ⴰⴳⵏⴰⵡ, Arabic spelling آڭناو)

2. stutterer; mute

   Synonym: atitaw

3. a person or an object of sub-Saharan origin
   2. black person
   3. black slave

      Synonym: ismg

   4. a musical mode

Inflection

Inflection of agnaw

	singular	plural
free state	agnaw	ignawn
annexed state	ugnaw	ignawn

Derived terms

• agnawi (“name of a musical chord”)

Adjective

agnaw (feminine tagnawt, Tifinagh spelling ⴰⴳⵏⴰⵡ, Arabic spelling آڭناو)

1. sub-Saharan

References

• Stroomer, Harry (2025), Dictionnaire berbère tachelḥiyt-français — Tome 1 A–E (Handbook of Oriental Studies – Handbuch der Orientalistik; 188/1) (in French), Leiden, Netherlands: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN