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Tifinagh
Tifinagh ( Tuareg Berber language: ; Neo-Tifinagh: ; Berber Latin alphabet: ; ) is a script used to write the Berber languages. Tifinagh is descended from the ancient Libyco-Berber alphabet. The traditional Tifinagh, sometimes called Tuareg Tifinagh, is still favored by the Tuareg people of the Sahara desert in southern Algeria, northeastern Mali, northern Niger, and northern Burkina Faso for writing the Tuareg languages. Neo-Tifinagh is an alphabet developed by the Berber Academy by adopting Tuareg Tifinagh for use for 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 alphabet. Tifinagh is the official script for Tamazight, an official language of Morocco and Algeria. Outside of symbolic cultural uses, Latin remains the dominant script for writing Berber languages throughout North Africa. The ancient Libyco-Berber script was used by the ancient north ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berber Orthography
Berber orthography is the writing system(s) used to transcribe the Berber languages. In antiquity, the Libyco-Berber alphabet, Libyco-Berber script was utilized to write Berber languages. Early uses of the script have been found on rock art and in various sepulchres. Usage of this script, in the form of Tifinagh, has continued into the present day among the Tuareg people. Following the spread of Islam, some Berber scholars utilized the Arabic script. Excluding among the Tuareg people, the Arabic script became the dominant form of Berber orthography. The Berber Latin alphabet was developed following the introduction of the Latin script in the nineteenth century by the West. The nineteenth century also saw the development of Neo-Tifinagh, an adaptation of Tuareg Tifinagh for use with other Berber languages. There are now three writing systems in use for Berber languages: Tifinagh, the Arabic script, and the Berber Latin alphabet. Different groups in North Africa have different p ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berber Latin Alphabet
The Berber Latin alphabet () is the version of the Latin alphabet used to write the Berber languages. It was adopted in the 19th century, using a variety of letters. History The Berber languages were originally written using the ancient ''Libyco-Berber'' script and then centuries later by the Tuareg Tifinagh script in Tuareg language areas, of which the Neo-Tifinagh alphabet/abjad is the modern development. The use of a Latin script for Berber has its roots in European (French and Italian) colonial expeditions to North Africa. Dictionaries and glossaries written with Latin letters, ordered alphabetically and following European orthography (mainly French) began to appear in print in the 19th century, they were intended to the colonial administration, traders and military officers. With the arrival of linguists specialized in Semitic languages there emerged a system based on Semitic romanization conventions: diacritics were used, and dictionary entries were now ordered by root. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tuareg Languages
Tuareg (), also known as ''Tamasheq'' (), ''Tamajaq'' or ''Tamahaq'' (Tifinagh: ), is a group of closely related Berber languages, Berber Linguistic variety, varieties. They are spoken by the Tuareg people, Tuareg Berbers in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya, and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the ''Kinnin'', in Chad. Description The Tuareg varieties, on account of their low internal diversity and high Mutual intelligibility, mutual intercomprehensibility, are commonly regarded as a single language by linguists (as for instance by Karl-Gottfried Prasse). They are distinguished mainly by a few sound shifts (notably affecting the pronunciation of original ''z'' and ''h''). The Tuareg varieties are unusually Conservative and innovative language, conservative in some respects; they retain two short vowels where Northern Berber languages have one or none, and have a much lower proportion of Arabic language, Arabic loanwords than most Berber languages. The Tuareg languages ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Tamazight
The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berber communities, who are indigenous to North Africa.Hayward, Richard J., chapter ''Afroasiatic'' in Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek, editors, ''African Languages: An Introduction'' Cambridge 2000. . The languages are primarily spoken and not typically written. Historically, they have been written with the ancient Libyco-Berber script, which now exists in the form of Tifinagh. Today, they may also be written in the Berber Latin alphabet or the Arabic script, with Latin being the most pervasive. 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". The languages, with a few exceptions, form a dialect continuum. There is a d ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berber Languages
The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berbers, Berber communities, who are indigenous to North Africa.Hayward, Richard J., chapter ''Afroasiatic'' in Heine, Bernd & Nurse, Derek, editors, ''African Languages: An Introduction'' Cambridge 2000. . The languages are primarily spoken and not typically written. Historically, they have been written with the ancient Libyco-Berber script, which now exists in the form of Tifinagh. Today, they may also be written in the Berber Latin alphabet or the Arabic script, with Latin being the most pervasive. 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". The languages, with a few exceptions, form a dialect continuum. There is ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Kabyle Language
Kabyle () or Kabylian (; native name: ''Taqbaylit'' ) is a Berber languages, Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people in the north and northeast of Algeria. It is spoken primarily in Kabylia Estimating the number of Berber speakers is very difficult and figures are often contested. A 2004 estimate was that 9.4% of the Algerian population spoke Kabyle. The number of diaspora speakers has been estimated at one million. Classification Kabyle is one of the Northern Berber languages, a branch of the Berber languages, Berber language family within Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic. It is believed to have broken off very early from proto-Berber language, Proto-Berber, although after the Zenaga language did so. According to Maarten Kossmann, Kossmann (2020), Kabyle appears to be quite distinct. In several respects, it shares certain linguistic innovations with the Atlas languages, western Moroccan dialect group. However, it is unclear whether these similarities result from an earl ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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 of raising Berber consciousness. The association was renamed Agraw Imazighen (English: Assembly of the Imazighen) in Tamazight in 1969. History Berber Academy is primarily associated with Algerian activist Mohand Arav Bessaoud, who formed the group with a small group of "Kabyle luminaries from the worlds of scholarships, arts, and politics," including Ramdane Haifi, Mouloud Mammeri, Mohand Saïd Hanouz, and singer Taos Amrouche, who hosted their first meeting in her home in Paris. The association faced internal disagreement as to whether to have an intellectual or grassroots activist focus. The association relaunched in 1969 as Agraw Imazighen with the first Berber concert. The relaunch and Tamazight-language name change "marked a shif ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libyco-Berber Alphabet
The Libyco-Berber alphabet is an abjad writing system that was used during the first millennium BC by various Berbers, Berber peoples of North Africa and the Canary Islands, to write ancient varieties of the Berber language like the Numidian language. The use of the Libyco-Berber alphabet died out in northern areas during or after the reign of the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire, but it spread south into the Sahara desert and evolved there into the Tifinagh, Tuareg Tifinagh alphabet used by the Tuareg people, Tuareg Berbers to this day. It is also known as the Numidian script or the Old Lybian script, the point being to avoid an assumption that Numidian has any continuity with any surviving modern Berber language. Origin The origin of the Libyco-Berber script is still debated by academic researchers. The leading theories regarding its origins posit it as being either a heavily modified version of the Phoenician alphabet, or a local invention influenced by the latter, with the ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Libyco-Berber Script
The Libyco-Berber alphabet 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 ancient varieties of the Berber language like the Numidian language. The use of the Libyco-Berber alphabet died out in northern areas during or after the reign of the Roman Empire and Byzantine Empire, but it spread south into the Sahara desert and evolved there into the Tuareg Tifinagh alphabet used by the Tuareg Berbers to this day. It is also known as the Numidian script or the Old Lybian script, the point being to avoid an assumption that Numidian has any continuity with any surviving modern Berber language. Origin The origin of the Libyco-Berber script is still debated by academic researchers. The leading theories regarding its origins posit it as being either a heavily modified version of the Phoenician alphabet, or a local invention influenced by the latter, with the most supported view being that i ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Numidian Language
Numidian was a language spoken in ancient Numidia. The script in which it was written, the Libyco-Berber alphabet (from which Tifinagh descended), has been almost fully deciphered and most characters (apart from a few exceptions restricted to specific areas) have known values. Despite this, the language has barely been transcribed and only a few words are known. Libyco-Berber inscriptions are attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. The language is scarcely attested and can be confidently identified only as belonging to the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic family, although it was most likely part of the Berber languages, spoken at the start of the breakup of the Proto-Berber language. Dialects and relation to other ancient languages Dialects and foreign influences It is known that there was an orthographical difference between the western and eastern Numidian language. Starting at Kabylia, which was a kind of mixed region, the regions to the east all the w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Abjad
An abjad ( or abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving the vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introduced in 1990 by Peter T. Daniels. Other terms for the same concept include partial phonemic script, segmentally linear defective phonographic script, consonantary, consonant writing, and consonantal alphabet. Impure abjads represent vowels with either optional diacritics, a limited number of distinct vowel glyphs, or both. Etymology The name ''abjad'' is based on the Arabic alphabet's first (in its Arabic alphabet#Alphabetical order, original order) four corresponding to ''a'', ''b'', ''j'', and to replace the more common terms "consonantary" and "consonantal alphabet" in describing the family of scripts classified as "West Semitic languages, West Semitic". It is similar to other Semitic languages such as Phoenician alphabet, Phoenician, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berber Arabic Alphabet
The Berber Arabic alphabet (Berber: اݣماي امزغ اعرب or اڨماي امزيغ اعراب or ءاݣماي ءامازيغ ءعراب; Arabic: الأبجدية العربية الأمازيغية) is an Arabic-based alphabet that was used to write various Berber languages in the Middle Ages. Nowadays users have largely reverted to either the Tifinagh alphabet in Morocco, or Berber Latin alphabet in Algeria Algeria, officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered to Algeria–Tunisia border, the northeast by Tunisia; to Algeria–Libya border, the east by Libya; to Alger .... References Bibliography * Berber languages Arabic alphabets Writing systems of Africa {{alphabet-stub ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
