![Tifinagh alphabet](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Tifinagh_alphabet.png)
Tifinagh (
Tuareg Berber language: or , ) is a script used to write the
Berber languages
The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber commun ...
. Tifinagh is descended from the ancient
Libyco-Berber alphabet
The Libyco-Berber alphabet or the Libyc alphabet (modern Berber name: ''Agemmay Alibu-Maziɣ'') is an abjad writing system that was used during the first millennium BC by various Berber peoples of North Africa and the Canary Islands, to write an ...
. The traditional Tifinagh, sometimes called Tuareg Tifinagh, is still favored by the
Tuareg Berbers of the
Sahara
, photo = Sahara real color.jpg
, photo_caption = The Sahara taken by Apollo 17 astronauts, 1972
, map =
, map_image =
, location =
, country =
, country1 =
, ...
desert in southern
Algeria
)
, image_map = Algeria (centered orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption =
, image_map2 =
, capital = Algiers
, coordinates =
, largest_city = capital
, relig ...
, northeastern
Mali
Mali (; ), officially the Republic of Mali,, , ff, 𞤈𞤫𞤲𞥆𞤣𞤢𞥄𞤲𞤣𞤭 𞤃𞤢𞥄𞤤𞤭, Renndaandi Maali, italics=no, ar, جمهورية مالي, Jumhūriyyāt Mālī is a landlocked country in West Africa. Mali ...
, northern
Niger
)
, official_languages =
, languages_type = National languages[Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso (, ; , ff, 𞤄𞤵𞤪𞤳𞤭𞤲𞤢 𞤊𞤢𞤧𞤮, italic=no) is a landlocked country in West Africa with an area of , bordered by Mali to the northwest, Niger to the northeast, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the ...](_blank)
for use writing the
Tuareg Berber language. Neo-Tifinagh () is an alphabet developed by
Berber Academy ''Académie Berbère d'Échange et de Recherches Culturels'', usually shortened to ''Académie Berbère'' or the Berber Academy was a Paris-based Kabyle cultural association formed in 1966 and officially authorized in March 1967 with the objective ...
to adopt Tuareg Tifinagh for use with
Kabyle; it has been since modified for use across North Africa.
Tifinagh is one of three major competing
Berber orthographies alongside the
Berber Latin alphabet and the
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
. Tifinagh is the official script for Tamazight, an official language of
Morocco
Morocco (),, ) officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is the westernmost country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It overlooks the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to ...
. However, outside of symbolic cultural uses, Latin remains the dominant script for writing Berber languages both in Morocco and throughout North Africa.
The ancient Libyco-Berber script (or the Libyc script) was used by the ancient northern Berbers known as
Libyco-Berbers, also known as
Libyc people,
Numidians
The Numidians were the Berber population of Numidia (Algeria and in smaller parts of Tunisia and Morocco). The Numidians were one of the earliest Berber tribes to trade with Carthaginian settlers. As Carthage grew, the relationship with the Numi ...
,
Afri
(singular ) was a Latin name for the inhabitants of Africa, referring in its widest sense to all the lands south of the Mediterranean ( Ancient Libya). Latin speakers at first used as an adjective, meaning "of Africa". As a substantive, it den ...
and
Mauretanians who inhabited the northern parts of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya as well as the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
west of Morocco.
The name Tifinagh is stylized as in the
Berber Latin alphabet, and in the Neo-Tifinagh alphabet it is written as , while in the
Tuareg people
The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern Al ...
's traditional Tifinagh it's written as or .
Etymology
The word ''tifinagh'' (singular ''tafinəq'' < *ta-finəɣ-t) is thought by some scholars to be a Berberized feminine plural cognate or adaptation of the Latin word "Punicus", (meaning "Punic" or "Phoenician") through the Berber feminine prefix ''ti-'' and the root √FNƔ < *√PNQ < Latin ''Punicus''; thus ''tifinagh'' could possibly mean "the Phoenician (letters)" or "the Punic letters". Others support an etymology involving the Tuareg verb ''efnegh'', meaning ''to write''. However, the Tuareg verb ''efnegh'' is probably derived from the noun "Tifinagh" because all the northern Berbers of Morocco, northern Algeria, Tunisia and northern Libya have a different (and probably older) verb "''ari, aru, ara''" which means "to write".
Libyco-Berber
![Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Oukaimeden, Morocco](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a3/Libyco-Berber_inscriptions_in_Oukaimeden%2C_Morocco.jpg)
Before or during the existence of the ancient Berber kingdoms of
Numidia
Numidia ( Berber: ''Inumiden''; 202–40 BC) was the ancient kingdom of the Numidians located in northwest Africa, initially comprising the territory that now makes up modern-day Algeria, but later expanding across what is today known as Tunis ...
(northern Algeria) and
Mauretania
Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It stretched from central present-day Algeria westwards to the Atlantic, covering northern present-day Morocco, and southward to the Atlas Mountains. Its native inhabitants, ...
(northern Morocco) many inscriptions were engraved using the
Libyco-Berber script
The Libyco-Berber alphabet or the Libyc alphabet (modern Berber name: ''Agemmay Alibu-Maziɣ'') is an abjad writing system that was used during the first millennium BC by various Berber peoples of North Africa and the Canary Islands, to write anci ...
, also known as Ancient Libyan or the Libyc script (). The Libyco-Berber script is found in thousands of stone inscriptions and engravings throughout Morocco, northern Algeria, Tunisia, northern Libya and the Canary Islands.
The traditional Tuareg Tifinagh and Saharan Tifinagh inscriptions and rock paintings are found in the Sahara deserts of southern Algeria, northern Mali and northern Niger. Thus, the Libyco-Berber script is a northern script, while Tifinagh is a southern / Saharan script.
The exact evolution of both Libyco-Berber and Tifinagh is still unclear.
The latter writing system was widely used in antiquity by speakers of the largely undeciphered
Numidian language
Numidian was a language spoken in ancient Numidia, a territory covering much of northern Africa. The script in which it was written, the Libyco-Berber alphabet (from which Tifinagh descended), has been almost fully deciphered and most characters ...
, also called Old Libyan, throughout Africa and on the
Canary Islands
The Canary Islands (; es, Canarias, ), also known informally as the Canaries, are a Spanish autonomous community and archipelago in the Atlantic Ocean, in Macaronesia. At their closest point to the African mainland, they are west of Morocc ...
. The script's origin is uncertain, with some scholars suggesting it is related to, descended or developed from the
Phoenician alphabet
The Phoenician alphabet is an alphabet (more specifically, an abjad) known in modern times from the Canaanite and Aramaic inscriptions found across the Mediterranean region. The name comes from the Phoenician civilization.
The Phoenician alpha ...
, while others arguing an independent conception with slight Phoenician influences. Its first appearance is also uncertain, but it is no older than the first millennium BCE, with the oldest remains likely originating from the 6th-century BCE. It disappeared in the northernmost areas of North Africa during the 8th-century, after the
Arab conquest of the Maghreb, and Lybico-Berber along with Latin being replaced by the Arabic script.
There are two known variants of the Libyco-Berber script: eastern and western. The eastern variant was used in what is now
Constantine
Constantine most often refers to:
* Constantine the Great, Roman emperor from 306 to 337, also known as Constantine I
*Constantine, Algeria, a city in Algeria
Constantine may also refer to:
People
* Constantine (name), a masculine given name ...
and the
Aurès
, native_name_lang =
, settlement_type = Natural region
, image_skyline = Ras el Aïoun.jpg
, image_alt =
, image_caption = Landscape of the Aurès in Ras el Aïoun
, image_flag ...
regions of Algeria and in
Tunisia
)
, image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg
, map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa
, image_map2 =
, capital = Tunis
, largest_city = capital
, ...
. It is the best-deciphered variant, due to the discovery of several Numidian bilingual inscriptions in Libyco-Berber and Punic (notably at
Dougga
Dougga or Thugga or TBGG was a Berber, Punic and Roman settlement near present-day Téboursouk in northern Tunisia. The current archaeological site covers . UNESCO qualified Dougga as a World Heritage Site in 1997, believing that it represents " ...
in Tunisia). Since 1843, 22 letters out of the 24 have been deciphered. The western variant was more primitive. It was used along the Mediterranean coast from
Kabylia
Kabylia ('' Kabyle: Tamurt n Leqbayel'' or ''Iqbayliyen'', meaning "Land of Kabyles", '','' meaning "Land of the Tribes") is a cultural, natural and historical region in northern Algeria and the homeland of the Kabyle people. It is part of th ...
to the Canary Islands. It used 13 supplementary letters.
The Libyco-Berber script was a pure
abjad
An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels ...
; it had no vowels.
Gemination
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
was not marked. The writing was usually from the bottom to the top, although right-to-left, and even other orders, were also found. The letters took different forms when written vertically than when they were written horizontally.
Tuareg Tifinagh
The ancient Libyco-Berber script branched into the Tuareg Tifinagh script which is used to this day to write the Berber
Tuareg languages
The Tuareg () languages constitute a group of closely related Berber languages and dialects. They are spoken by the Tuareg Berbers in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the ''Kinnin'', in Chad.
Desc ...
, which belong to the Berber branch of the
Afroasiatic
The Afroasiatic languages (or Afro-Asiatic), also known as Hamito-Semitic, or Semito-Hamitic, and sometimes also as Afrasian, Erythraean or Lisramic, are a language family of about 300 languages that are spoken predominantly in the geographic su ...
family. Early uses of the script have been found on
rock art
In archaeology, rock art is human-made markings placed on natural surfaces, typically vertical stone surfaces. A high proportion of surviving historic and prehistoric rock art is found in caves or partly enclosed rock shelters; this type also ...
and in various
sepulchres. Among these are the 1,500 year old
monumental tomb of the Tuareg matriarch
Tin Hinan
Tin Hinan was a 4th-century Tuareg queen. What may be her monumental tomb is located in the Sahara, at Abalessa in the Hoggar region of Algeria.
Queen of the Hoggar
Legends
Tin Hinan is sometimes referred to as "Queen of the Hoggar", and by th ...
, where vestiges of a Tifinagh inscription have been found on one of its walls.
According to M.C.A. MacDonald, the Tuareg are "an entirely oral society in which memory and oral communication perform all the functions which reading and writing have in a literate society ... The Tifinagh are used primarily for games and puzzles, short graffiti and brief messages."
Occasionally, the script has been used to write other neighbouring languages such as
Tagdal
Tagdal (Tuareg name: ''Tagdalt'') is a mixed Northern Songhay language of central Niger. Ethnologue considers it a "mixed Berber–Songhay language", while other researchers consider it Northern Songhay. There are two dialects: Tagdal proper ...
, which belongs to a separate
Songhay family.
Orthography
Common forms of the letters are illustrated at left, including various ligatures of ''t'' and ''n''.
Gemination
In phonetics and phonology, gemination (), or consonant lengthening (from Latin 'doubling', itself from ''gemini'' 'twins'), is an articulation of a consonant for a longer period of time than that of a singleton consonant. It is distinct from s ...
, though phonemic, is not indicated in Tifinagh. The letter ''t'', +, is often combined with a preceding letter to form a
ligature
Ligature may refer to:
* Ligature (medicine), a piece of suture used to shut off a blood vessel or other anatomical structure
** Ligature (orthodontic), used in dentistry
* Ligature (music), an element of musical notation used especially in the me ...
. Most of the letters have more than one common form, including mirror-images of the forms shown here.
When the letters ''l'' and ''n'' are adjacent to themselves or to each other, the second is offset, either by inclining, lowering, raising, or shortening it. For example, since the letter ''l'' is a double line,
, , , and ''n'' a single line,
, , the sequence ''nn'' may be written
, / to differentiate it from ''l''. Similarly, ''ln'' is
, , /, ''nl''
, //, ''ll''
, , //, ''nnn''
, /, , etc.
Traditionally, the Tifinagh script does not indicate vowels except word-finally, where a single dot stands for any vowel. In some areas, Arabic vowel diacritics are combined with Tifinagh letters to transcribe vowels, or ''y, w'' may be used for long ''ī'' and ''ū''.
Neo-Tifinagh
Development
Neo-Tifinagh is the modern fully
alphabet
An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syll ...
ic script developed by
Berber Academy ''Académie Berbère d'Échange et de Recherches Culturels'', usually shortened to ''Académie Berbère'' or the Berber Academy was a Paris-based Kabyle cultural association formed in 1966 and officially authorized in March 1967 with the objective ...
, a cultural association formed by members of the
Kabylian diaspora in Paris.
The script was developed by modifying Tuareg Tifinagh to accommodate
Kabyle phonetics.
Neo-Tifinagh was spread by Berber Academy's active promotion of the script, including its usage in their bulletin, ''Imazighen'', which was widely read by Berber communities in Algeria and Morocco.
Neo-Tifinagh has since undergone further reform and is used in various contexts throughout North Africa.
The
Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture
The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (french: Institut royal de la culture amazighe (IRCAM); zgh, ⴰⵙⵉⵏⴰⴳ ⴰⴳⵍⴷⴰⵏ ⵏ ⵜⵓⵙⵙⵏⴰ ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ, Asinag Ageldan n Tussna Tamazight (SGSM); ar, المعه ...
has standardized Neo-Tifinagh for use as the official orthography of
Standard Moroccan Amazigh
Standard Moroccan Amazigh (; ), also known as Standard Moroccan Tamazight, is a standardized language developed by the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) in Morocco by combining features of Tashelhit, Central Atlas Tamazight, and Tarifi ...
, an official language of Morocco.
Political History
The creation and promotion of Neo-Tifinagh by Berber Academy was part of its efforts in spreading
Berberism
Berberism or Amazighism is a Berber political-cultural movement of ethnic, geographic, or cultural nationalism, started mainly in Kabylia (Algeria) and in Morocco, later spreading to the rest of the Berber communities in the Maghreb region of ...
throughout the 1960s and 1970s.
The use of Neo-Tifinagh in their publications was influential in raising Berber consciousness; one reader has described its effect as being "the proof that we actually existed."
The Moroccan state arrested and imprisoned people using Neo-Tifinagh during the 1980s and 1990s. The
Algerian Black Spring was also partly caused by this repression of
Berber language
The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber commun ...
.
In the 1980s, the
Berber flag
The Berber flag (Berber language: Akenyal Amaziɣ, ⴰⴾⴻⵏⵢⴰⵍ ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵗ) or Amazigh flag is a flag that has been adopted by many Berber populations including protestors, cultural and political activists.
The flag was inaugur ...
, which was designed in 1970 and uses the Tifinagh letter ''z'' (Tifinagh: ⵣ) from the root of ''Amazigh'', began being used in demonstrations.
The flag was adopted by the
World Amazigh Congress
The World Amazigh Congress (CMA) (in Tamazight ⴰⴳⵔⴰⵡ ⴰⵎⴰⴹⵍⴰⵏ ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖ; ''Romanized'': Agraw Amaḍlan Amaziɣ) is an international non-governmental organization made up of Amazigh sociocultural and development ...
in 1997.
In Morocco, following the creation of Standard Moroccan Amazigh in 2001, the 2003 adoption of Neo-Tifinagh served as a way to compromise between the deeply split proponents of the
Latin script
The Latin script, also known as Roman script, is an alphabetic writing system based on the letters of the classical Latin alphabet, derived from a form of the Greek alphabet which was in use in the ancient Greek city of Cumae, in southern Italy ...
versus the
Arabic script
The Arabic script is the writing system used for Arabic and several other languages of Asia and Africa. It is the second-most widely used writing system in the world by number of countries using it or a script directly derived from it, and the ...
as Amazigh's official orthography.
This choice, however, has also resulted in backlash from many Amazigh activists, who find Tifinagh limiting to be limiting when compared to the Latin script.
In Libya, the government of
Muammar Gaddafi
Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi, . Due to the lack of standardization of transcribing written and regionally pronounced Arabic, Gaddafi's name has been romanized in various ways. A 1986 column by ''The Straight Dope'' lists 32 spellin ...
consistently banned Tifinagh from being used in public contexts such as store displays and banners. After the
Libyan Civil War
Demographics of Libya is the demography of Libya, specifically covering population density, ethnicity, education level, health of the populace, economic status, and religious affiliations, as well as other aspects of the Libyan population. The ...
, the
National Transitional Council
The National Transitional Council of Libya ( ar, المجلس الوطني الإنتقالي '), sometimes known as the Transitional National Council, was the ''de facto'' government of Libya for a period during and after the Libyan Civil War ...
has shown an openness towards the Berber language. The rebel
Libya TV
Libya Al Ahrar ( ar, ليبيا الأحرار) is a Libyan TV channel broadcast by satellite from its headquarters in Doha. The channel was created in 2011 during the Libyan Civil War. It presents news, opinions, analysis, photo and video repor ...
, based in
Qatar
Qatar (, ; ar, قطر, Qaṭar ; local vernacular pronunciation: ), officially the State of Qatar,) is a country in Western Asia. It occupies the Qatar Peninsula on the northeastern coast of the Arabian Peninsula in the Middle East; it sh ...
, has included the Berber language and the Neo-Tifinagh alphabet in some of its programming.
Tifinagh continues to be used as "an emblem of distinctive Berber identity and nationhood."
Modern Use
Due to the official adoption of Neo-Tifinagh in Morocco in 2003, the script has been adapted by the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture for modern digital use.
Government websites in Morocco may be displayed in Neo-Tifinagh.
Starting in 2003, Neo-Tifinagh was used for a small duration of
Moroccan elementary school to teach Standard Moroccan Amazigh.
However, practical use of Tifinagh in Morocco remains rare; one Amazigh activist has summarized the situation with the anecdote that he "
nowsthat some books that were written in Tifinagh were read by only two people ... the one who wrote the book and the one who did the editing!"
Public displays of Tifinagh in Morocco remains restricted primarily to signage and other culturally conspicuous uses.
Despite Neo-Tifinagh's Algerian origins through Berber Academy, the Latin alphabet became the predominant script used amongst Kabylians. Debate in what script to use for Kabylian tends to view the Latin and Arabic scripts as the primary options.
As of 2012, Tifinaght is "not widely used in education or the media in any country."
Letters
![2008 - Marocko - berbertext utanför kafé i Agadir 3](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/2008_-_Marocko_-_berbertext_utanf%C3%B6r_kaf%C3%A9_i_Agadir_3.JPG)
The following are the letters and a few ligatures of traditional Tuareg Tifinagh and Neo-Tifinagh:
[P. Andries]
Proposition d'ajout de l'écriture tifinaghe. Organisation internationale de normalisation
Jeu universel des caractères codés sur octets (JUC). ISO/IEC JTC 1/SC 2 WG, vol.2, p.2739R, 2004.
Unicode
Tifinagh was added to the
Unicode
Unicode, formally The Unicode Standard,The formal version reference is is an information technology Technical standard, standard for the consistent character encoding, encoding, representation, and handling of Character (computing), text expre ...
Standard in March 2005, with the release of version 4.1.
The Unicode block range for Tifinagh is U+2D30–U+2D7F:
References
Bibliography
*Aghali-Zakara, Mohamed (1994). Graphèmes berbères et dilemme de diffusion: Interaction des alphabets , ajami et tifinagh. ''Etudes et Documents Berbères'' 11, 107-121.
*Aghali-Zakara, Mohamed; and Drouin, Jeanine (1977). Recherches sur les Tifinaghs- Eléments graphiques et sociolinguistiques. ''Comptes-rendus du Groupe Linguistique des Etudes Chamito-Sémitiques'' (GLECS).
*Ameur, Meftaha (1994). Diversité des transcriptions : pour une notation usuelle et normalisée de la langue berbère. ''Etudes et Documents Berbères'' 11, 25–28.
*Boukous, Ahmed (1997). Situation sociolinguistique de l’Amazigh. ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language'' 123, 41–60.
*Chaker, Salem (1994). Pour une notation usuelle à base Tifinagh. ''Etudes et Documents Berbères'' 11, 31–42.
*Chaker, Salem (1996). Propositions pour la notation usuelle à base du berbère. ''Etudes et Documents Berbères'' 14, 239–253.
*Chaker, Salem (1997). La Kabylie: un processus de développement linguistique autonome. ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language'' 123, 81–99.
*Durand, O. (1994). Promotion du berbère : problèmes de standardisation et d’orthographe. Expériences européennes. ''Etudes et Documents Berbères'' 11, 7–11.
*
*
*Savage, Andrew. 2008. Writing Tuareg – the three script options. ''International Journal of the Sociology of Language'' 192: 5–14
*
* ''
Encyclopaedia of Islam
The ''Encyclopaedia of Islam'' (''EI'') is an encyclopaedia of the academic discipline of Islamic studies published by Brill. It is considered to be the standard reference work in the field of Islamic studies. The first edition was published in ...
'', ''s.v.'' Tifinagh.
External links
lbi-project.org a database of Libyco-Berber inscriptions with images and information
Academic papers on the Libyco-Berber inscriptions a fact file on Tifinagh and a legend of characters
Tifinagh Font for Windows
{{list of writing systems
Alphabets
Tuareg
Writing systems of Africa
Berberism
Libyco-Berber