Synchronic and diachronic linguistic variation as an indicator of language change and diffusion in Tarifit

This article discusses how language change and diffusion in Tarifit (Rif-Berber, North Morocco) can be explained by system-internal factors. The examined cases concern several innovation processes triggered by the vocalisation phenomenon of the liquids /r/ and /¨/ and involving both phonological and morphological features and structures. The presented analyses confirm that innovation can also be formally motivated, which refutes Croft’s (2000: 38) claim that only functional factors can induce language change. Moreover, they show how functional properties may determine the success of the diffusion of variants. As such, they offer evidence against the claim that only social factors are accountable for variant selection (Milroy 1992: 201-202; Croft 2000: 38, 54).