imnsi

Tashelhit

Etymology

Inherited from Medieval Tashelhit اِيمِنْسِ (iminsi, “dinner”), from Proto-Berber *a-mənsi (“dinner, supper”)^[1], from Proto-Berber *ănsəʔ (“to spend the night”). Synchronically from ns (“to spend the night”).

Cognate with Tarifit amensi (“dinner, supper”), Nefusa mensî (“dinner”), Zenaga əmənšəh (“dinner”), Kabyle imensi (“supper”), Northern Saharan Berber amensi (“supper, dinner”), Awjila amišìw (“dinner”), Sokna amĕnsî (“dinner”), Ghadames amísi (“supper”), and Tuareg àmənsi (“evening meal, supper”).

Pronunciation

IPA^(key): /imnsi/

Noun

imnsi m (plural imnsawn, Tifinagh spelling ⵉⵎⵏⵙⵉ, Arabic spelling ايمنسي)

dinner
آشكد ا نساوال يميكّ س كيغ يوجاد يمنسي.
ašk d an nsawal imikk s kiġ yujad imnsi.
Come and let’s chat for a moment while waiting for dinner to be ready.

Inflection

Inflection of **imnsi**
	singular	plural
free state	imnsi	imnsawn, imnsiwn
annexed state	imnsi,yimnsi	imnsawn, imnsiwn

Derived terms

imnsi n tqbilt (“tribe's supper”)
mmns (“to dine, to eat dinner”)
smmns (“to host guest, to host a dinner”)

References

Stroomer, Harry (2025), Dictionnaire berbère tachelḥiyt-français — Tome 2 f—l (Handbook of Oriental Studies – Handbuch der Orientalistik; 188/2) (in French), Leiden, The Netherlands: Brill, →DOI, →ISBN, page 1111b

^ Marijn van Putten (2019), “Introducción al estudio diacrónico del bereber”, in José Juan Batista Rodríguez, editor, Estudios sobre toponimia canaria prehispánica (in Spanish), Academia Canaria De La Lengua, →ISBN, page 303

[1] Marijn van Putten (2019), “Introducción al estudio diacrónico del bereber”, in José Juan Batista Rodríguez, editor, Estudios sobre toponimia canaria prehispánica (in Spanish), Academia Canaria De La Lengua, →ISBN, page 303

[1]