Berber languages

"Tamazight" redirects here. Not to be confused with Tmazight.
Berber
Tamazight
Amazigh
تَمَزِيغت‎
Tamaziɣt
ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ
Geographic
distribution		Scattered communities across parts of North Africa and Berber diaspora
EthnicityBerbers
Linguistic classificationAfro-Asiatic
  • Berber
Proto-languageProto-Berber
Subdivisions
Language codes
ISO 639-2 / 5ber
Glottologberb1260
Berber-speaking populations are dominant in the coloured areas of Africa. Other areas, especially in North Africa, contain minority Berber-speaking populations.
This article contains Tifinagh text. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Tifinagh letters.

The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages[a] or Tamazight,[b] are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family.[1][2] They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages[3] spoken by Berber communities, who are indigenous to North Africa.[4][5] The languages are primarily spoken and not typically written.[6] Historically, they have been written with the ancient Libyco-Berber script, which now exists in the form of Tifinagh.[7][8] Today, they may also be written in the Berber Latin alphabet or the Arabic script, with Latin being the most pervasive.[9][10][11]

The Berber languages have a similar level of variety to the Romance languages, although they are sometimes referred to as a single collective language, often as "Berber", "Tamazight", or "Amazigh".[12][13][14][15] The languages, with a few exceptions, form a dialect continuum.[12] There is a debate as to how to best sub-categorize languages within the Berber branch.[12][16] Berber languages typically follow verb–subject–object word order.[17][18] Their phonological inventories are diverse.[16]

Millions of people in Morocco and Algeria natively speak a Berber language, as do smaller populations of Libya, Tunisia, northern Mali, western and northern Niger, northern Burkina Faso and Mauritania and the Siwa Oasis of Egypt.[19] There are also probably a few million speakers of Berber languages in Western Europe.[20] Tashlhiyt, Kabyle, Central Atlas Tamazight, Tarifit, and Shawiya are some of the most commonly spoken Berber languages.[19] Exact numbers are impossible to ascertain as there are few modern North African censuses that include questions on language use, and what censuses do exist have known flaws.[21]

Following independence in the 20th century, the Berber languages have been suppressed and suffered from low prestige in North Africa.[21] Recognition of the Berber languages has been growing in the 21st century, with Morocco and Algeria adding Tamazight as an official language to their constitutions in 2011 and 2016 respectively.[21][22][23]

Most Berber languages have a high percentage of borrowing and influence from the Arabic language, as well as from other languages.[24] For example, Arabic loanwords represent 35%[25] to 46%[26] of the total vocabulary of the Kabyle language and represent 51.7% of the total vocabulary of Tarifit.[27] Almost all Berber languages took from Arabic the pharyngeal fricatives /ʕ/ and /ħ/, the (nongeminated) uvular stop /q/, and the voiceless pharyngealized consonant /ṣ/.[28] Unlike the Chadic, Cushitic, and Omotic languages of the Afro-Asiatic phylum, Berber languages are not tonal languages.[29][30]


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  1. ^ Lafkioui, Mena B. (24 May 2018). "Berber Languages and Linguistics". Oxford Bibliographies: 9780199772810–0219. doi:10.1093/obo/9780199772810-0219. Archived from the original on 23 November 2022. Retrieved 14 December 2022.
  2. ^ H. Ekkehard Wolff (26 August 2013). "Berber languages". Encyclopedia Britannica. Archived from the original on 28 April 2015. Retrieved 14 July 2015.
  3. ^ Baldauf, Richard B.; Kaplan, Robert B. (1 January 2007). Language Planning and Policy in Africa. Multilingual Matters. p. 49. ISBN 978-1-84769-011-1. Archived from the original on 1 June 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023. Most languages of the Berber branch are mutually unintelligible.
  4. ^ Hayward, Richard J., chapter Afroasiatic in Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek, editors, African Languages: An Introduction Cambridge 2000. ISBN 0-521-66629-5.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Brett was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Cite error: The named reference Campbell-2012b was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  7. ^ Briggs, L. Cabot (February 1957). "A Review of the Physical Anthropology of the Sahara and Its Prehistoric Implications". Man. 56: 20–23. doi:10.2307/2793877. JSTOR 2793877.
  8. ^ Cite error: The named reference Punic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  9. ^ Soulaimani, Dris (2 January 2016). "Writing and rewriting Amazigh/Berber identity: Orthographies and language ideologies". Writing Systems Research. 8 (1): 2–5. doi:10.1080/17586801.2015.1023176. ISSN 1758-6801. S2CID 144700140. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  10. ^ Cite error: The named reference choice was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  11. ^ Silverstein, Paul; Crawford, David (2004). "Amazigh Activism and the Moroccan State". Middle East Report (233): 46. doi:10.2307/1559451. ISSN 0899-2851. JSTOR 1559451. Archived from the original on 19 December 2022. Retrieved 20 December 2022.
  12. ^ a b c Cite error: The named reference Kossmann-2020b was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  13. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ridouane-2014 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  14. ^ Cite error: The named reference Ekkehard Wolff-2013 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  15. ^ Cite error: The named reference Peab was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  16. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Kossmann-2012a was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  17. ^ Cite error: The named reference Kossmann-2007d was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  18. ^ Cite error: The named reference Mettouchi-2010 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  19. ^ a b Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce (2011). The Berber identity movement and the challenge to North African states (1st ed.). Austin: University of Texas Press. pp. 2–3. ISBN 978-0-292-72587-4. OCLC 679936739. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 20 March 2023.
  20. ^ Kossmann, Maarten G. (2013). The Arabic influence on Northern Berber. Leiden. p. 24. ISBN 978-90-04-25309-4. OCLC 858861608. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  21. ^ a b c Kossmann, Maarten G. (2013). The Arabic influence on Northern Berber. Leiden. pp. 30–31. ISBN 978-90-04-25309-4. OCLC 858861608. Archived from the original on 26 May 2024. Retrieved 17 December 2022.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  22. ^ Cite error: The named reference Madanin-2012 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  23. ^ Cite error: The named reference BBC News-2016 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  24. ^ Mattar, Philip (2004). Encyclopedia of the Modern Middle East & North Africa: Aaronsohn-Cyril VI. Macmillan Reference USA. p. 463. ISBN 978-0-02-865769-1. Archived from the original on 10 June 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023. Most Berber languages have a high percentage of borrowing from Arabic, as well as from other languages.
  25. ^ Baldauf, Richard B.; Kaplan, Robert B. (1 January 2007). Language Planning and Policy in Africa. Multilingual Matters. ISBN 978-1-84769-011-1. Archived from the original on 31 January 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  26. ^ Kossmann, Maarten (18 July 2013). The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber. BRILL. p. 98. ISBN 978-90-04-25309-4. Archived from the original on 4 June 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  27. ^ Haspelmath, Martin; Tadmor, Uri (2009). Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook. Walter de Gruyter. p. 56. ISBN 978-3-11-021843-5. Archived from the original on 5 June 2023. Retrieved 25 June 2023.
  28. ^ Kossmann, Maarten (29 March 2017), "Berber-Arabic Language Contact", Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Linguistics, doi:10.1093/acrefore/9780199384655.013.232, ISBN 978-0-19-938465-5, archived from the original on 26 May 2024, retrieved 30 May 2023
  29. ^ "Berber Language Family | History & Culture | Britannica". Archived from the original on 21 June 2018. Retrieved 14 April 2024.
  30. ^ "Cushitic languages | Phonetics & Phonology | Britannica". Archived from the original on 4 March 2024. Retrieved 14 April 2024.