The Berber people are a collection of tribes scattered throughout North Africa, speaking Berber languages. The languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic language family and are widely known as Tamazight. The largest populations of Berber language speakers reside in Morocco and Algeria, with numerous variants spoken in other countries. The exact population of Berber speakers is estimated at around 15 to 25 million. The Berber languages have numerous regional dialects and are written using the Tifinagh, Arabic, and Latin alphabets.
The term Berber refers to both a group of people and the language these people speak. When trying to understand Berber languages, it can be helpful to first understand the people these languages are spoken by. The Berbers are a collection of tribes scattered throughout North Africa, the Mediterranean coast, the Sahara and the Sahel. There are numerous tribes that consider themselves Berber, and each tribe assigns one or more names to their chosen regional dialect, making the delimitation of Berber languages difficult. For this reason, we will consider Berber languages as a group of related languages spoken by the Berber people.
The Berber languages belong to the Afro-Asiatic language family and are widely known as Tamazight. The largest populations of Berber language speakers reside in Morocco and Algeria. Numerous variants of Berber are also spoken in Tunisia, Sudan, Libya, Chad, Egypt, Mauritania, Niger, Mali, Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Ceuta, Melilla, France and Israel. Due to a large nomadic population of Berbers and the absence of linguistic data in census records from many of the countries mentioned above, the exact population of Berber speakers can only be estimated at around 15 to 25 million.
In terms of regional dialects, Tarifit, Kabyle and Tashelhiyt are spoken in some areas of Morocco and Algeria. An ethnological scheme subclassifies the Berber languages as follows:
guanche
Eastern Berber languages
Shiva
Lingue Awjila-Sokna
Northern Berber languages
Zenatian languages
Kabyle language
lingua Chenoua
Languages of the Moroccan Atlas
lingue tamasheq
northern Tamasheq languages
Southern Tamasheq languages
lingua Zenagaaga
Berbers themselves, however, may refer to their languages as Tamazight, Thamazight, Tamajeq, Tamahaq, Taznatit, Thaqvaylith, Tasiwit, Tuddhungiya or Zenatia, to name a few! Tamazight remains the most popular term referring to the Berber languages, and many Berbers desire a unification of the many closely related Berber languages into one standard language under the name Tamazight.
Of all the Berber languages, Tamazight has been used as a written language since about 200 BC. The Tifinagh alphabet, the Arabic alphabet and the Latin alphabet were used to write the Berber languages at the same time. Some countries have chosen to designate one or other of these alphabets as the official alphabet for writing Berber, however the other alphabets continue to be used within the same country. Many Berbers also speak French and Arabic, although etymologically and linguistically these languages are not considered Berber languages.
Protect your devices with Threat Protection by NordVPN
