Page created by Salem Mezhoud, Research Consultant, London University, UNESCO

Data on the Tamazight language

Language name:

Tamazight: term by which the populations refer to their own language (endonym)

Berber: name given outside the population (exonym)

(Note: « gh » is pronounced « r » as in the French Paris. In the current Roman alphabet-based transcription, it is often rendered by the letter γ.)

The word berber is believed to originate in the term « barbarian », which the Roman used to refer to peoples who would not join the empire (and which the Greek used before them). The word berber was later taken up by the Arab, although Middle Age writings in Arabic often used the term mazigh.

Amazigh is the name that the Berber gave themselves, and are now beginning to give themselves again. The term had almost disappeared in common speech, and was no longer used but in some areas (Moroccan Middle Atlas, Tuareg) until the course of the 30s, when it reappeared in nationalist circles, especially in Algeria.

Following the independence of Algeria, the Cultural Berber Movement, rejecting the Islamic-Arabic official terminology, generalized the term Amazigh referring to the people, and the term Tamazight referring to the Berber language. The latter has now become a symbol for cultural, political and linguistic demands for all the Berber communities of North Africa.

NB: Amazigh is a masculine noun, plural Imazighen. The word amazigh is often used in French as an adjective, agreeing in gender and number: feminine amazighe, and plural amazighs, amazighes (masculine or feminine).

Tamazight, the language, is feminine.

Alternative names:

Various regional or dialectal names:

Exonym: Kabyle, Chaoui, Shilha, Tuareg, Mozabite, Rifian etc.

Endonym: Taqbaylit, Tashawit, Tumzabt (Tamzabit) Tashelhiyt, Tamasheq, Tarifit etc. These terms, often with an Arabic origin, and often with a negative cast, refer to regional dialects. For historical reasons, they ended up replacing the generic term Amazigh.

Classification:

The Berber language belongs to the large Afro-Asiatic family, whose very existence is still far from drawing consensus: language kinship within the family is uncertain, and comparative research remains incomplete and incomprehensive. And while the hypothesis of the actual existence of this greater family is agreed on, its name is still subject to harsh debate. The Afro-Asiatic family has also been called Semito-Chamitic, Chamito-Semitic, or Lisramic.

It is important to note that the Chamito-Semitic designation was given up in English-speaking countries, where most of the research is carried out, though it persists in France and a few other countries in Europe. Also note that while the existence of a Semitic linguistic family is established, there is no « Chamitic » family. Non-Semitic languages (like Berber) belong to what is commonly known as the African branch of the Afro-Asiatic family.

The Biblical reference (Cham, his brother Sem, and son Couch, for instance), recognized during the 18th century, also shows how non-scientific the « Chamito-Semitic » designation is, as well as the danger of using a designation that allows narrow conclusions. It yielded erroneous and sometimes racist designations, which have now been discarded: for example Hamitic, created after Semitic, suggesting the existence of a common ethnic belonging.

Tamazight borrowed massively from the vocabulary and phonology of the two Semitic languages that had been present on its territory for centuries, bearing significant cultural and political roles: Punic and Arabic. Such data shows how conclusions should not be rushed to.

Geographical area:

Tamazight is spoken all across North Africa and the Saharo-Sahelian area.

Believed to have formed a homogenous group during the Antiquity, reaching from Egypt to the Canary Islands, its linguistic area is now interrupted by large Arabic-speaking or Arabic/Berber bilingual patches: Tamazight-speaking (or Amazigh-speaking) communities are present in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, Algeria, Morocco, Mauritania, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, and to a limited degree, in the north of Nigeria and Cameroon.

Main dialects:

Tamazight is significantly dialectalized, for historical and geographical reasons. The separate development of these dialects was favored by two main factors: geographical isolation of the speech communities, and the use of « dialectal » Arabic as a lingua franca in the areas of contact, usually urban.

These main dialects are: Taqbaylit (Kabylie, Algeria), Tashawit (Aurès, Algeria), Tamzabit or Tumzabt (M’zab, Algerian Sahara), Tarifit (Moroccan Rif), Tamazight, Tashelhit (Moroccan Middle and High Atlas), Tamaheqt, Tamasheq, Tamajeq (Tuareg of Algeria, Mali, and Niger).

Other dialects, of variable importance, are scattered all over North Africa, in Egypt (Siwa Oasis), Libya (Nafusa Mountains, Ghadames), Tunisia (Djerba), as well as Algeria (Tashenwit, Tagargrent) and Mauritania (see below).

Because of the isolation of these dialects, each in their own areas, they developed in parallel, yet separately in regards to syntax, phonology, and vocabulary. Most of these dialects borrowed massively to the vocabularies of Arabic (or Semitic, considering Punic), Latin, French, and to a limited extent, other Mediterranean languages (Spanish, Italian, Turkish). Tamasheq also borrows to Hausa and Fula.

This separate development has sometimes created obstacles to mutual understanding, largely due to the absence of communication, and thus familiarity, between the dialects. Hence the misconception of Berber « speeches » unable to understand each other (adding to the negative connotation of the word « dialect »). Yet linguists do recognize the unity of all these dialects, as well as their belonging to one and the same Tamazight language.

Number of speakers:

Official circles of all the countries in the area generally underestimate the extent of Berber-speaking populations. Following restoration of the independences, it was not rare for governments, infused with Arabic-Islamic ideologies, to even deny the very existence of the Berber, or to downgrade them to the status of objects of tourist folklore fated to disappear once « Arab-ness » would be (re)established across the region.

Thus it is customary to estimate the Berber-speakers as follows:

– 25 to 30% of the total population of Morocco (ca. 32 million in 2011);

– 17 to 20% of the total population of Algeria (between 35 and 37 million in 2001);

– 1% of the population of Tunisia.

These figures are based on no substantial data, no census having ever been carried out anywhere in the region. But they remain quoted and passed on, including by Berber scholars themselves, willing to project an « objective » representation.

This official data stands, in fact, far from reality. For many reasons:

– these figures usually include the populations of entirely Amazigh-speaking areas only, excluding the speakers from bilingual areas;

– whole areas (Chenoua, Beni Snous, and some parts of the Ouarsenis, the Gourara) remain rarely taken into account by the statistics;

– Amazigh-speakers of the diaspora are not taken into account.

Including such data, the number of Berber speakers is believed to reach 70% in Morocco, and 50% in Algeria. The number of speakers of Tamazight over a dozen countries could add up to 45-50 million.

Language status:

In Mali and Niger, following the independence, several local languages were recognized as national languages, including Berber (in its Tamasheq, or Tamajeq variant), while French remained the official language.

The other countries of the area, in the North and in Mauritania, all turned to Arabic-Islamic ideology as well as policies of Arabization, which in most cases added to a violent anti-Berber onrush. This clearly aimed for the eradication of Tamazight, and the introduction and generalization of classical (standard) Arabic as a mother tongue and a language of communication and education on all levels.

Fierce popular movements of resistance sparked up especially in Algeria around different growing social movements such as the Berber Spring (Tafsut Imazighen) born in Kabylie in April 1980, the formation of the Algerian Human Rights League (1885), the « school-bag strike » (in the 90s), the creation of « arouches » (regional independent and democratic committees), and finally the Black Spring of 2001. This permanent mobilization drew the Algerian government to lighten its position and amend its policy. Tamazight is recognized by the Algerian Constitution (amendment to article 3) as a national language (Arabic being the only official language) since 2002.

In Morocco too, popular movements grew and peaked with the recognition of Tamazight both as a national and an official language through the constitutional referendum of July 2011. No other countries of North Africa have granted Tamazight any kind of official status so far.

In Libya, the Berber populations of Nefusa played a leading role in the 2011 revolution, and are likely to demand some recognition of their culture and language.

Vitality & Transmission:

The abandonment of Tamazight as a mother tongue (in favor of dialectal Arabic) started at the beginning of the colonial period. The linguistic shift accelerated during the first years of the independence (1956 for Morocco and Tunisia, 1962 for Algeria), especially with the rural-urban migration and the use of North African Arabic as a lingua franca in urban areas. Then the pace dropped in the 70s, especially in Kabylie, thanks to the Berber Cultural Movement and the growing awareness and resistance that followed.

Nowadays Tamazight is under an important revitalization process in Kabylie, in the Rif, in the Moroccan High and Middle Atlas, (Tashelhit, Tamazight), in the Sahel (Tamasheq) and, more and more, in Libya. This movement affects high school and primary school children, and the transmission of the language to the younger generation does seem to be at work.

In many parts of Algeria, however, the Tamazight dialects (Tashenwit, Tasnusit, Tagragrent), suffering constant attacks by the official media and State bureaucracy, are at risk of extinction. This is also the case in Mauritania and, up to recently, in Tunisia and Libya. The democratic upheavals in these countries are opening a huge path to a possible recognition of Amazigh culture and language.

Media:

Everywhere in most of the North-African territory, Mali and Niger excepted, the absence of a legal status generated the absence of Tamazight in official media, outside a few radio broadcasts on the Algerian radio. The Amazigh-speakers were consequently forced to express themselves through underground publications during the first two decades following decolonization.

In the wake of the Amazigh Spring of 1980, the governments under pressure began to make concessions, especially in Algeria and Morocco.

Following the riots of October 1988, multi-party politics and freedom of expression made their way into the public spheres of Algeria. Papers in Tamazight were launched, various publications created, and television channels began to air in Tamazight. After 1988, programs in Tamazight even took over the State television.

Morocco has also made room for Tamazight in the national media and education structures: channel 8, Tamazight, was launched in January 2010, and airs in Tamazight only.

In Paris, a private channel, BerbèreTV, airs in Tamazight since 2000.

In Libya, channel LibyaTV airs a few programs in Tamazight since the summer of 2011.

Education:

In Kabylie, the teaching of Tamazight in primary schools was forced out of the Algerian authorities by the population, following a long strip of conflicts and confrontations led by the Cultural Berber Movement (MCB) and the political parties established in the region. The teaching of Tamazight remains insufficient, however, and remains closed to the Amazigh speakers of other regions.

In Morocco, Tamazight was introduced in all the primary schools of the country in 2002.

Still in Morocco, a « Royal Institute for Amazighe Culture » (IRCAM – Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe) was established in October 2011. This research center is the practical outcome, under Mohammed VI, of a promise made by his father Hassan II, in the wake of the 1980 Berber Spring in Algeria.

In 1994, the Algerian government created a « High Commissioner for Amazigh-ness » (Haut Commissariat à l’Amazighité), associated to the presidency, with the official aim to promote Amazigh language and culture. The university of Bgayet (ex Bougie and officially Bejaia) in Kabylie includes a department of Tamazight culture and language. The university of Batna, in the Aurès, offers a few language courses.

Writing & Literature:

To some extent, the Amazigh writing and literature existed before the language was even taught.

First of all, the script specific to Tamazight is called Tifinagh, and comes from the antique Libyco-Berber script. Until recently it was only preserved by the Tuareg, who used it daily. The Amazigh revival in the North (Kabylie, Morocco) soon turned towards this heritage, which, under different forms (Neo-Tifinagh), stood as the foundation of all Amazigh demands.

Tifinagh is now part of education in Algeria, in parallel to the Roman alphabet. In Morocco, it was formally chosen by the IRCAM for the transcription of Tamazight.

Yet the Roman alphabet remains the favorite tool of number of authors and scholars, especially given its universality and the existence of accessible computers and printing devices.

Amazigh literature reaches back to the 19th century, sometimes adapted from a very rich oral tradition and transcribed into Roman characters.

A new kind of written literature appeared in the beginning of the 60s. Original pieces such as novels or short stories (especially in Kabylie), translations of major European texts, and adaptations of classical work keep being issued despite the lack of encouragement and the actual obstacles deliberately thrown in the way by the official circles to prevent the Amazigh revival from happening.

Historical observations

Tamazight used to spread over the entire North of Africa, except Egypt and a part of the Sahara.

In the course of history, it has often shared this territory with other languages such as, during the Antiquity, the neighboring Egyptian, Greek, Phoenician (Punic), and Latin. Then came Arabic and French.

In any case, the Berber adopted the foreign language as a means of written expression: Severus, Caracalla, Tertullian, Cyprian, Augustine, all wrote in Latin; Ibn Tumert, Ibn Firnas (Armen Firman), al Jazuli, Ibn Batuta, wrote in Arabic.

French became the language of communication everywhere in North Africa after 1830. Everywhere except Libya.

Ethnographic observations

The Arabization of North Africa from the Middle Ages was not due to the presence of the Arab community, relatively insignificant at the time. It was mostly due to the prestige of the Arabic language as a liturgical, and later cultural and scientific language, just as Latin was at the same time in Europe. De facto, the Arab foundation of the North African population is minimal, « Arab-ness » being no more than a linguistic process.

Paradoxically, the French conquest also favored Arabization, for different reasons: the ignorance of north-African sociological realities on the part of the conquerors, orientalist misconceptions such as those inherited from the conquest of Egypt, aspirations of Napoleon III to level his renowned uncle by declaring himself « king of the Arab », and the use of Arabic-speaking interpreters, guides and administrators within the Berber spheres, largely played a part in the linguistic Arabization of the country, and in fixing the myth of an Arab North Africa in the French and then European imagination.

Sociolinguistic observations

The presence of foreign languages in North Africa favored the development of multilingualism and encouraged Tamazight to borrow from neighboring languages, particularly Arabic and French, thus causing some degree of loss to the language.

To a certain extent, this loss was balanced out by the strong dialectization of Tamazight: some communities retained specific vocabulary that was given up by others for borrowings, ensuring the safeguard of a rich lexicon that otherwise would have disappeared.

After all, even if some particular dialects did suffer lexical erosion, the Amazighe language as a whole is still home to a very rich vocabulary, a large part of which has already been listed in countless dictionaries, textbooks and grammar books.

Besides, the scale and diversity of the territory and cultures made possible the creation of specialized vocabulary indexes, specific to each community (mountain, oasis, plains, coasts…) and each socio-economic group (tree-farming, cattle-farming, fishing, nomadism…). This common lexical wealth, added to an ancient and sophisticated oral literature, stands as a considerable potential for any undertaking of Tamazight standardization.

Linguistic observations

The degree of mutual understanding varies according to the dialects, but roughly two main groups can be distinguished:

– one in the North, ranging from the Moroccan Rif to the Egyptian-Libyan boundaries;

– another in the South, from Agadir and the High Atlas to the Malian and Nigerian desert, closer to Chad and Cameroon.

The main distinction between these two groups is the spirantization of vowels in the northern dialects, meaning, basically, a phonological process by which plosive consonants become fricatives at the same point of articulation, while the consonants of the southern dialects remain occlusive:

South group (tashelhit, tamasheq, etc.):	b, k, d, g, t	API : [b], [k], [d], [g], [t]
North group (aqbaylit, tarifit, etc.):	b, k, d, g, t	API : [v], [x], [ð], [ɣ], [θ]

Examples:

Tashelhit	Taqbaylit (prononciation)	English
Tamart	θamarθ	chin, beard
taghma	θaghma	thigh
idmaren	iðmaren	chest
tigzz’elt	θigz’elt	kidney
akal	axal	land, country
babatsent	vavaθsent	their father
gma	ɣma	my brother

Syntactic and morpho-syntactic differences, although stronger in the Tuareg dialects (Tamajeq, Tamaceq) and those of the North, take up different forms among the other dialects.

Tashelhit	Taqbaylit	English
man aghrum a rad tawit ?	anwa aghrum ar a(d) tawid’ ?	Which bread will you take with you?
man tigemmi a tesghit ?	anwa axxam i tughed’ ? (anta tazeqqa) i tughed’ ?	Which house did you buy?
manta irzem taghult ?	anta i illin tawwurt ?	Who (feminine) opened the door?
mami tfkit tabrat ?	i wumi tefkid’ tabratt ?	Who did you give the letter to?

Sources, links, bibliography

Basset, André. 2004 [1952] La langue berbère, Paris, L’Harmattan.

Basset, André. 1948. La langue berbère au Sahara. Paris, Cahiers Charles de Foucauld.

Bougchiche, Lamara. 1997. Langues et littératures berbères des origines à nos jours. Biobibliographie internationale, Paris, Ibis Press/Awal.

Bounfour, Abdallah. 1994. Le nœud de la langue. Langue, littérature et société berbères au Maghreb, Aix-en-Provence, Edisud.

Bounfour, Abdallah. 1999. Introduction à la littérature berbère. I, La Poésie. Paris/Louvain, Editions Peeters

Camps, Gabriel. 1987 [1980]. Berbères. Aux marges de l’Histoire. Toulouse, Editions des Hespérides, 1. Réédité sous le titre : Berbères. Mémoire et identité, Paris, Editions Errances.

Chaker, Salem. 1998. Berbères aujourd’hui. Réédition revue et augmentée. Paris, L’Harmattan.

Chaker, Salem. 1995. Linguistique berbère. Etudes de syntaxe et de diachronie. Louvain, Paris, Peeters.

EL Mountassir, Abdallah. 2003. Dictionnaire des verbes Tachelhit-Français. Paris, L’Harmattan.

Foucauld, Charles de. 2005 [1951-1952]. Dictionnaire touareg-français (dialecte de l’Ahaggar). 4 tomes. Paris, Imprimerie Nationale. Réédition, L’ Harmattan.

Galand, Lionel. 1979. Langues et littérature berbères. Vingt-cinq ans d’études berbères. Paris, CNRS.

Galand-Pernet. 1998. Littératures berbères : des voix, des lettres. Paris, Klincksieck, PUF.

Mammeri, Mouloud. 1980. Poèmes kabyles anciens. Paris, La Découverte.

Mezhoud, Salem et Yamina El Kirat. 2011 [2009] Introduction régionale (Afrique du Nord et Moyen – Orient. Atlas des langues en danger dans le monde. Paris, UNESCO.

Mezhoud, Salem. 2010. Ideologies of Unification and the Practice of Revitalization. Tamazight saw it all …or almost. Proceedings of XIV Conference of the Foundation for Endangered Languages. FEL and University of Wales Trinity Saint David 13-15 September 2010

Nait-Zerrad, Kamal. 2001. Grammaire moderne du kabyle. Paris, Karthala.

Quitout, Michel. 1997. Grammaire berbère (rifain, zayane, chleuh, kabyle). Paris, L’Harmattan.

Taifi, Miloud. 1992. Dictionnaire tamazight-français (variante zayane du Maroc central). Paris, L’Harmattan.

Websites :

Berber Research Center. INALCO.

IRCAM. Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture official website. Morocco

Laval University, Quebec, Canada. World Linguistic Planning. Africa

Berber and Kabyle

Kabyle discussion board

Temoust – Tuareg Survival

Tamaynut France

Amazigh World

La depeche de Kabylie : Le journal des hommes libres.

Tamazgha

Monde berbère

Tafsut

Le Rif on line, Real time Amazigh and Rif action.

NB: Please feel free to add any document likely to supply further information to this sheet (map, poem, proverb, examples of languages, photo, etc.)