The 'Berber languages / Tamazight' are a group of closely related
languages mainly spoken in
Morocco and
Algeria. A very sparse population extends into the whole
Sahara and the northern part of the
Sahel. They belong to the
Afro-Asiatic languages phylum. There is a strong movement among speakers of the closely related
northern Berber languages to unite them into a single standard, Tamazight.
Among the Berber languages / Tamazight are
Tarifit or ''Riffi'' (northern Morocco),
Kabyle (Algeria) and
Tashelhiyt (central Morocco). Tamazight has been a written language, on and off, for over 2000 years; however, this tradition has been frequently disrupted by various invasions. It was first written in the
Tifinagh alphabet, still used by the
Tuareg; the oldest dated inscription is from about 200 BC. Later, between about 1000 AD and 1500 AD, it was written in the
Arabic alphabet (particularly by the
Shilha of
Morocco); since the
20th century, it has often been written in the
Latin alphabet, especially among the
Kabyle. A variant of the
Tifinagh alphabet was recently made official in
Morocco, while the
Latin alphabet is official in
Algeria,
Mali, and
Niger; however, both Tifinagh and Arabic are still widely used in Mali and Niger, while Latin and Arabic scripts are still widely used in Morocco.
After independence, all the
Maghreb countries to varying degrees pursued a policy of "Arabization", aimed primarily at displacing
French from its colonial position as the dominant language of education and literacy. But under this policy the use of both Berber languages and
Maghrebi Arabic have been suppressed as well. This state of affairs has been contested by Berbers in Morocco and Algeria — especially
Kabylie — and is now being addressed in both countries by introducing Berber language education and by recognizing Berber as a "
national language"
[1], though not an
official one. No such measures have been taken in the other Maghreb countries, whose Berber populations are much smaller. In
Mali and
Niger, there are a few schools that teach partially in
Tamasheq.
Nomenclature
The term 'Berber' has been used in
Europe since at least the 17th century, and is still used today. It was borrowed from the
Arabic designation for these populations, ﺑïºïº‘ïº, ''el-Barbar''. The latter might have been derived from the Arabic or
Persian words "barbakh"/"barbar" and "khanah", a house or guard on the wall. Despite the phonetic resemblance, the term has probably nothing to do with the
Latin ''barbarus'', which was used by the
Romans to refer to non-Roman tribes of the
Roman Empire (see ''
Barbarian''). Although the Berbers obviously fell under that definition, Romans usually called them under more specific names, such as "
Numidians" or "
Mauri". The
Egyptians referred to them as
Meshwesh, the
ancient Greeks as "
Libyans", the
Byzantines as "
Mazikes".
As far as languages are concerned, the term 'Tamazight' has recently gained ground over ''Berber'', particularly to refer to
Northern Berber languages, just like "
Amazigh" is used to refer to a native Berber speaker. In Western languages Tamazight can also (somewhat misleadingly) be used specifically to refer to the
Central Morocco Tamazight dialect, closely related to
Tashelhiyt. Etymologically, it means "language of the free" or "of the noblemen." Traditionally, the term "tamazight" (in various forms: "thamazighth", "tamasheq", "tamajeq", "tamahaq") was used by many Berber groups to refer to the language they spoke, including the Middle Atlas, the
Rif,
Sened in
Tunisia, and the
Tuareg. However, other terms were used by other groups; for instance, many parts of western Algeria called their language "taznatit" or
Zenati, while the
Kabyles called theirs "thaqvaylith", the inhabitants of
Siwa "tasiwit", and the
Zenaga "Tuddhungiya"
[1]. Around the turn of the century, it was reported that the Zenata of the Rif called their language "Zenatia" specifically to distinguish it from the "Tamazight" spoken by the rest of the Rif.
One group, the
Linguasphere Observatory, has attempted to introduce the
neologism "Tamazic languages" to refer to the Berber languages.
Origin
Tamazight is a member of the
Afro-Asiatic language family (formerly called Hamito-Semitic). Traditional genealogists of tribes claiming Arab origin often claimed that Berbers were
Arabs that immigrated from
Yemen. Some of them considered Tamazight to derive from
Arabic. This view, however, is rejected by linguists, who regard Semitic and Berber as two separate branches of
Afro-Asiatic.
Population
The exact population of Berber speakers is hard to ascertain, since most North African countries do not record language data in their censuses. The
Ethnologue provides a useful academic starting point; however, its bibliographic references are inadequate, and it rates its own accuracy at only B-C for the area. Early colonial censuses may provide better documented figures for some countries; however, these are also very much out of date.
:"Few census figures are available; all countries (Algeria and Morocco included) do not count Berber languages. The 1972 Niger census reported Tuareg, with other languages, at 127,000 speakers. Population shifts in location and number, effects of urbanization and education in other languages, etc., make estimates difficult. In 1952 A. Basset (LLB.4) estimated the number of Berberophones at 5,500,000. Between 1968 and 1978 estimates ranged from eight to thirteen million (as reported by Galand, LELB 56, pp. 107, 123-25); Voegelin and Voegelin (1977, p. 297) call eight million a conservative estimate. In 1980, S. Chaker estimated that the Berberophone populations of Kabylie and the three Moroccan groups numbered more than one million each; and that in Algeria, 3,650,000, or one out of five Algerians, speak a Berber language (Chaker 1984, pp. 8-9)."
[2]
★ '
Morocco': In 1952, André Basset ("La langue berbère", ''Handbook of African Languages'', Part I, Oxford) estimated that a "small majority" of Morocco's population spoke Berber. The 1960 census estimated that 34% of Moroccans spoke Berber, including bi-, tri-, and quadrilinguals. In
2000,
Karl Prasse cited "more than half" in an interview conducted by Brahim Karada at Tawalt.com. According to the Ethnologue (by deduction from its Moroccan Arabic figures), the Berber-speaking population is estimated at 35% (1991 and 1995). However, the figures it gives for individual languages only add up to 7.5 million, or about 28%. Most of these are accounted for by three dialects:
★
★
Tarifit: 1.5 million (1991)
★
★
Tachelhit: 3 million (1998)
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★
Central Morocco Tamazight: 3 million (1998)
:This nomenclature is common in linguistic publications, but is significantly complicated by local usage: thus Tachelhit is sub-divided into Tachelhit of the Dra valley, Tasusit (the language of the Souss) and several other (mountain)-dialects. Moreover, linguistic boundaries are blurred, such that certain dialects cannot accurately be described as either Central Morocco Tamazight (spoken in the Central and eastern Atlas area) or Tachelhit.
:
Mohammad Chafik claims 80% of Moroccans are Berbers.
[3] It is not clear, however, whether he means "speakers of Berber languages" or "people of Berber descent".
★ '
Algeria': In
1906, the total population speaking Berber languages in Algeria (excluding the thinly populated Sahara) was estimated at 1,305,730 out of 4,447,149, ie 29%. (Doutté & Gautier, ''Enquête sur la dispersion de la langue berbère en Algérie, faite par l'ordre de M. le Gouverneur Général'', Alger 1913.) The
1911 census, however, found 1,084,702 speakers out of 4,740,526, ie 23%; Doutté & Gautier suggest that this was the result of a serious undercounting of
Chaouia in areas of widespread
bilingualism. A trend was noted for Berber groups surrounded by Arabic (as in
Blida) to adopt Arabic, while Arabic speakers surrounded by Berber (as in Sikh ou Meddour near
Tizi-Ouzou) tended to adopt Berber. In 1952, André Basset estimated that about a third of Algeria's population spoke Berber. The Algerian census of 1966 found 2,297,997 out of 12,096,347 Algerians, or 19%, to speak "Berber." In 1980,
Salem Chaker estimated that "in Algeria, 3,650,000, or one out of five Algerians, speak a Berber language" (Chaker 1984, pp. 8-9). According to the Ethnologue, more recent estimates include (by deduction from its Algerian Arabic figures) 17% (1991) and 29% (Hunter 1996). The actual figures it gives for Berber languages, however, only add up to about 4 million, under 15%. Most of these are accounted for by two dialects:
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★
Kabyle: 2.5 million (1995), or 8% of the population - or "up to" 6 million (1998), which would be more like 20%.
★
★
Chaouia: 1.4 million (1993), thus 5% of the population.
★ '
Tunisia': Basset (1952) estimated about 1%, as did Penchoen (1968). According to the Ethnologue, there are only 26,000 speakers (1998) of a Berber language it calls "Djerbi" in Tunisia, all in the south around
Djerba and
Matmata. The more northerly enclave of
Sened apparently no longer speaks Berber. This would make 0.3% of the population.
★ '
Libya': According to the Ethnologue (by deduction from its combined Libyan Arabic and Egyptian Arabic figures) the non-Arabic-speaking population, most of which would be Berber, is estimated at 4% (1991, 1996). However, the individual language figures it gives add up to 162,000, ie about 3%. This is mostly accounted for by languages:
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★
Nafusi in Zuwarah and Jabal Nafusa: 141,000 (1998).
★
★
Tahaggart Tamahaq of
Ghat: 17,000 (Johnstone 1993).
★ '
Egypt': The oasis of
Siwa near the Libyan border speaks a Berber language; according to the Ethnologue, there are 5,000 speakers there (1995). Its population in
1907 was 3884 (according to the
1911 Encyclopædia Britannica); the claimed lack of increase seems surprising.
★ '
Mauritania': According to the Ethnologue, only 200-300 speakers of
Zenaga remain (1998). It also mentions
Tamasheq, but does not provide a population figure for it. Most non-Arabic speakers in Mauritania speak
Niger-Congo languages.
★ '
Mali': The Ethnologue counts 440,000
Tuareg (1991) speaking:
::
Tamasheq: 250,000
::
Tamajaq: 190,000
★ '
Niger': The Ethnologue counts 720,000
Tuareg (1998) speaking:
::
Tawallamat Tamajaq: 450,000
::
Tayart Tamajeq: 250,000
::
Tahaggart Tamahaq: 20,000
★ '
Burkina Faso': The Ethnologue counts 20,000 - 30,000
Tuareg (
SIL 1991), speaking
Kidal Tamasheq. However the Ethnologue is very inaccurate here appearing to miss the largest group of Tamasheq in Burkina in the province of Oudalan. The Tamasheq speaking population of Burkina is nearer to 100,000 (2005), with around 70,000 Tamasheq speakers in the province of Oudalan, the rest mainly in Seno, Soum, Yagha, Yatenga and Kadiogo provinces. About 10% of Burkina Tamasheq speak a version of the Tawallamat dialect.
★ '
Nigeria': The Ethnologue notes the presence of "few"
Tuareg, speaking
Tawallamat Tamajaq.
★ '
France': The Ethnologue lists 537,000 speakers for
Kabyle, 150,000 for
Central Morocco Tamazight, and no figures for
Tachelhit and
Tarifit. For the rest of Europe, it has no figures.
★ '
Spain': A majority of
Melilla's 80,000 inhabitants, and a minority of
Ceuta's inhabitants, speak Berber
[4].
★ '
Israel': A few thousand elderly
Moroccan-born Israelis use
Judeo-Berber dialects.
Thus, judging by the not necessarily reliable Ethnologue, the total number of speakers of Berber languages in the
Maghreb proper appears to lie anywhere between 14 and 20 million, depending on which estimate is accepted; if we take Basset's estimate, it could be as high as 25 million. The vast majority are concentrated in Morocco and Algeria. The
Tuareg of the
Sahel add another million or so.
Grammar
Nouns in Berber languages / Tamazight vary in
gender (masculine vs feminine), in number (singular vs plural) and in state (free state vs construct state). In the case of the masculine, nouns generally begin with one of the three vowels of Berber, ''a'', ''u'' or ''i'':
::afus "hand"
::argaz "man"
::udm "face"
::ul "heart"
::ixf "head"
::ils "tongue"
While the masculine is unmarked, the feminine is marked with the discontinuous morpheme ''t…t''. Feminine plural takes a prefix ''t…'' :
::afus → tafust
::udm → tudmt
::ixf → tixft
::ifassn → tifassin
Berber languages / Tamazight have two types of
number: singular and
plural, of which only the latter is marked. Plural has three forms according to the type of nouns. The first, "regular" type is known as the "external plural"; it consists in changing the initial vowel of the noun, and adding a
suffix ''-n'':
::afus → ifasn "hands"
::argaz → irgazn "men"
::ixf → ixfawn "heads"
::ul → ulawn "hearts"
The second form of the plural is known as the "broken plural". It involves only a change in the vowels of the word:
::adrar → idurar "mountain"
::agadir → igudar "wall"
::abaghus → ibughas "monkey"
The third type of plural is a mixed form: it combines a change of vowels with the suffix ''-n'':
::izi → izan "fly"
::azur → izuran "root"
::izikr → izakarn "rope"
Berber languages also have two types of states or
cases of the
noun, organized
ergatively: one is unmarked, while the other serves for the subject of a transitive verb and the object of a preposition, among other contexts. The former is often called ''free state'', the latter ''construct state''. The construct state of the noun derives from the free state through one of the following rules:
The first involves a vowel alternation, whereby the vowel ''a'' become ''u'' :
::argaz → urgaz
::amghar → umghar
::adrar → udrar
The second involves the loss of the initial vowel, in the case of some feminine nouns:
::tamghart → tmghart "women"
::tamdint → tmdint "town"
::tarbat → trbat "girl"
The third involves the addition of a semi-vowel (''w'' or ''y'') word-initially:
::asif → 'w'asif "river"
::adu → 'w'adu "wind"
::ils → 'y'ils "tongue"
::uccn → 'w'uccn "wolf"
Finally, some nouns do not change for free state:
::taddart → taddart "village"
::tuccnt → tuccnt "female wolf"
The following table gives the forms for the noun ''amghar'' "old man, sheikh":
| masculine | feminine |
| | default | agent | default | agent |
| singular | ''amghar'' | ''umghar'' | ''tamghart'' | ''tmghart'' |
| plural | ''imgharen'' | ''yimgharen'' | ''timgharin'' | ''tmgharin'' |
Subclassification
Modern Berber Languages
Subclassification of the Berber languages is made difficult by their mutual closeness;
Maarten Kossmann (1999) describes it as two
dialect continua,
Northern Berber and
Tuareg, and a few peripheral languages, spoken in isolated pockets largely surrounded by
Arabic, that fall outside these continua, namely
Zenaga and the
Libyan and
Egyptian varieties. Within Northern Berber, however, he recognizes a break in the continuum between
Zenati languages and their non-Zenati neighbors; and in the east, he recognizes a division between
Ghadames and
Awjila on the one hand and
El-Foqaha,
Siwa, and Djebel
Nefusa on the other. The implied tree is:
★
Nefusa-Siwa languages
★
Ghadames-Awjila languages
★
Northern Berber languages
★
★
Zenati languages (including
Tarifit)
★
★
Kabyle language
★
★
Moroccan Atlas languages (including
Tashelhiyt and
Central Morocco Tamazight)
★
Tuareg languages
★
Zenaga language
There is so little data available on
Guanche that any classification is necessarily uncertain; however, it is almost universally acknowledged as Berber on the basis of the surviving glosses. Much the same can be said of the language, sometimes called "
Numidian", used in the Libyan or Libyco-Berber inscriptions around the turn of the Common Era, whose alphabet is the ancestor of
Tifinagh.
The Ethnologue, mostly following Aikhenvald and Militarev (1991), subdivides it somewhat differently:
★
Guanche
★
Eastern Berber languages
★
★
Siwa
★
★
Awjila-Sokna languages
★
Northern Berber languages
★
★
Zenati languages
★
★
Kabyle language
★
★
Chenoua language
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★
Moroccan Atlas languages
★
Tamasheq languages
★
★
Northern Tamasheq languages
★
★
Southern Tamasheq languages
★
Zenaga language
Headline text
See also
★
Arsène Roux
★
Karl Prasse
★
Henri Basset
★
Tifinagh alphabet
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Berber alphabet
★
Garamantes
★
Barbary Coast
Notes
1. - « Loi n° 02-03 portant révision constitutionnelle », adopted on April 10, 2002, allotting in particular to Tamazight the status of national language.
References
★ Brett, Michael; & Fentress, Elizabeth (1997). ''The Berbers (The Peoples of Africa)''. ISBN 0-631-16852-4. ISBN 0-631-20767-8 (Pbk).
★ Abdel-Massih, Ernest T. 1971. ''A Reference Grammar of Tamazight (Middle Atlas Berber)''. Ann Arbor: Center for Near Eastern and North African Studies, The University of Michigan
★ Basset, André. 1952. ''La langue berbère''. Handbook of African Languages 1, ser. ed. Daryll Forde. London: Oxford University Press
★ Chaker, Salem. 1995. ''Linguistique berbère: Études de syntaxe et de diachronie''. M. S.—Ussun amaziÉ£ 8, ser. ed. Salem Chaker. Paris and Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters
★ Dallet, Jean-Marie. 1982. ''Dictionnaire kabyle–français, parler des At Mangellet, Algérie''. Études etholinguistiques Maghreb–Sahara 1, ser. eds. Salem Chaker, and Marceau Gast. Paris: Société d’études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France
★
de Foucauld, Charles Eugène. 1951. ''Dictionnaire touareg–français, dialecte de l’Ahaggar''. 4 vols. [Paris]: Imprimerie nationale de France
★ Delheure, Jean. 1984. ''Aǧraw n yiwalen: tumẓabt t-tfransist, Dictionnaire mozabite–français, langue berbère parlée du Mzab, Sahara septentrional, Algérie''. Études etholinguistiques Maghreb–Sahara 2, ser. eds. Salem Chaker, and Marceau Gast. Paris: Société d’études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France
★ ———. 1987. ''Agerraw n iwalen: teggargrent–taá¹›umit, Dictionnaire ouargli–français, langue parlée à Oaurgla et Ngoussa, oasis du Sahara septentrinal, Algérie''. Études etholinguistiques Maghreb–Sahara 5, ser. eds. Salem Chaker, and Marceau Gast. Paris: Société d’études linguistiques et anthropologiques de France
★ Kossmann, Maarten G. 1999. ''Essai sur la phonologie du proto-berbère''. Grammatische Analysen afrikaniscker Sprachen 12, ser. eds. Wilhelm J. G. Möhlig, and Bernd Heine. Köln: Rüdiger Köppe Verlag
★ Kossmann, Maarten G., and Hendrikus Joseph Stroomer. 1997. "Berber Phonology". In ''Phonologies of Asia and Africa (Including the Caucasus)'', edited by Alan S. Kaye. 2 vols. Vol. 1. Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns. 461–475
★ Naït-Zerrad, Kamal. 1998. ''Dictionarrie des racines berbères (formes attestées)''. Paris and Leuven: Centre de Recherche Berbère and Uitgeverij Peeters
★ Prasse, Karl-Gottfried, Ghubăyd ăgg-Ä‚lăwžəli, and GhăbdÉ™wan É™g-Muxămmăd. 1998. ''Asăggălalaf: Tămaẓəq–Tăfrăsist — Lexique touareg–français''. 2nd ed. Carl Niebuhr Institute Publications 24, ser. eds. Paul John Frandsen, Daniel T. Potts, and Aage Westenholz. København: Museum Tusculanum Press
★ Quitout, Michel. 1997. ''Grammaire berbère (rifain, tamazight, chleuh, kabyle)''. Paris and Montréal: Éditions l’Harmattan
★ Rössler, Otto. 1958. "Die Sprache Numidiens". In ''Sybaris: Festschrift Hans Krahe zum 60. Geburtstag am 7. Feb. 1958, dargebracht von Freunden, Schülern und Kollegen''. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz
★ Sadiqi, Fatima. 1997. ''Grammaire du berbère''. Paris and Montréal: Éditions l’Harmattan. ISBN 2-7384-5919-6
★ Cannon, Garland. 1994. ''The Arabic Contributions to the English Language: A Historical Dictionary''.
External links
★
Berber Research Center (INALCO, Paris) Articles and maps of high scientific value for for a large audience
★
Tamazight language
★
Emazighen
★
Amuddu n-Umsiggel - a philosophical Berber story
★
Interview with Karl-G. Prasse (source)
★
Libyamazigh Page about Libyan culture with Tamazight language section.
★ http://www.tifinagh.freeservers.com/custom.html
★ http://www.ancientscripts.com/berber.html
★ http://ennedi.free.fr/tifin.htm
★ http://membres.lycos.fr/tawiza/TAWIZA56/Prasse.htm
★ http://www.koeppe.de/html/e_berber.htm
★
Interview with Rachid Aadnani on the Amazigh issue
★
Algerian Dardja Online Dictionary: contains many Tamazight terms
★
Imyura Kabyle site about literature
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