Berber orthography

[[File:Prehistory-draa16.jpg|thumb|Ancient Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Zagora, Morocco]] '''Amazigh orthography''' is the writing system(s) used to transcribe the Amazigh languages.

In antiquity, the Libyco-Berber script was utilized to write Amazigh languages. Early uses of the script have been found on rock art and in various sepulchres.<ref>{{cite journal|last1=Briggs|first1=L. Cabot|title=A Review of the Physical Anthropology of the Sahara and Its Prehistoric Implications|journal=Man|date=February 1957|volume=56|pages=20–23|doi=10.2307/2793877|jstor=2793877}}</ref> Usage of this script, in the form of Tifinagh, has continued into the present day among the Tuareg people.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last=Elmedlaoui |first=Mohamed |title=Semitic and Afroasiatic : challenges and opportunities |date=2012 |publisher=Harrassowitz |others=Lutz Edzard |isbn=978-3-447-06695-2 |location=Wiesbaden |pages=139–141 |chapter=Berber |oclc=793573735}}</ref>

Following the spread of Islam, some Amazigh scholars utilized the Arabic script.<ref name="sec14">{{Harvcoltxt|Ben-Layashi|2007|p=166}}</ref> Excluding among the Tuareg people, the Arabic script became the dominant form of Amazigh orthography.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Elmedlaoui |first=Mohamed |title=Semitic and Afroasiatic: challenges and opportunities |date=2012 |publisher=Harrassowitz |isbn=978-3-447-06695-2 |editor-last=Edzard |editor-first=Lutz |series=Porta linguarum orientalium |location=Wiesbaden |pages=140–141 |chapter=Berber}}</ref>

The Berber Latin alphabet was developed following the introduction of the Latin script in the nineteenth century by the West.<ref name=":0" /> The nineteenth century also saw the development of Neo-Tifinagh, an adaptation of Tuareg Tifinagh for use with other Amazigh languages.<ref name=":7">{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=George L. |title=The Routledge handbook of scripts and alphabets |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |others=Christopher Moseley |isbn=978-0-203-86548-4 |edition=2nd |location=Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon |pages=58–59 |oclc=810078009}}</ref><ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Aïtel |first=Fazia |title=We are Imazigen : the development of Algerian Amazigh identity in twentieth-century literature and culture |date=2014 |isbn=978-0-8130-4895-6 |location=Gainesville, FL |pages=115–116 |oclc=895334326}}</ref><ref name=":3">{{Cite book |last=Maddy-Weitzman |first=Bruce |title=The Berber identity movement and the challenge to North African states |date=2011 |publisher=University of Texas Press |isbn=978-0-292-73478-4 |edition=1st |location=Austin |pages=75 |oclc=741751261}}</ref>

There are now three writing systems in use for Amazigh languages: Tifinagh, the Arabic script, and the Berber Latin alphabet.<ref name="choice">{{cite journal| last = Larbi| first = Hsen| title = Which Script for Tamazight, Whose Choice is it ?| journal = Amazigh Voice (Taghect Tamazight)| volume = 12| issue = 2| year = 2003| publisher = Amazigh Cultural Association in America (ACAA)| location = New Jersey| url = http://www.tamazgha.fr/Which-Script-for-Tamazight-Whose-Choice-is-it,359.html| accessdate = December 17, 2009 }}</ref> Different groups in North Africa have different preferences of writing system, often motivated by ideology and politics.<ref name="choice" /> With the exception of one text transcribed in Hebraic square alphabet, no other systems are known to have been used to transcribe the Amazigh languages.<ref name=":1" />

==Tifinagh== {{Further|Tifinagh}}[[File:Moroccan stop sign in Arabic and Berber.jpg|thumb|100px|Bilingual stop sign erected in Nador, Arabic: ''qif'' and Berber: '''ⴱⴻⴷⴷ''' (Bedd), it was erected in 2003 by the Nador municipality, and was removed by the Moroccan police within 24 hours|left]]

Neo-Tifinagh,<ref group="nb">Linguists and historians tend to be specific in distinguishing between the millennia-old Berber abjad used by the Tuareg to a limited extent and found in some historical engravings and which is 'Tifinagh'; and the 'Neo-Tifinagh' alphabet which is based on the abjad but marks vowels and distinguishes more consonants. The Neo-Tifinagh script was developed and computerized in the 20th century mainly by Moroccan and Algerian researchers, some of whom were based in Europe. It has been used since the early 1970s in Berber publications, see {{Harvcoltxt|Chaker|1996|p=4}}.</ref> a resurrected version of an alphabetic script found in historical engravings, is the ''de jure'' writing system for Tamazight in Morocco.<ref>{{cite web | last = Aflou | first = Lyes | title = Amazigh writing system adaptable to the modern age | publisher = Maghrebia | year = 2007 | url = http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/features/2007/03/30/feature-02 | accessdate = July 7, 2010 }}</ref> The script was made official by a Dahir of King Mohammed VI, based on the recommendation of IRCAM.<ref name="choice" /> It was recognized in the Unicode standard in June 2004.<ref name="legal">{{cite conference |last=Balkassm |first=Hasan |year=2008 |title=Legal and constitutional status of Amazigh language in Morocco & North Africa |conference=International Expert Group Meeting on Indigenous Languages (UNPFII) |conference-url=https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/en/EGM_IL.html |url=https://www.un.org/esa/socdev/unpfii/documents/EGM_IL_Balkassm_en.ppt |accessdate=December 20, 2009 }}</ref>

Tifinagh was chosen to be official after consideration of its univocity (one sound per symbol, allowing regional variation<ref name="mdimen" />), economy, consistency, and historicity.<ref name="mdimen">{{Harvcoltxt|Bouhjar|2008|p=2}}</ref> Significantly, Tifinagh avoids negative cultural connotations of the Latin and Arabic scripts.<ref>{{Harvcoltxt|Brenzinger|2007|p=127}}</ref>

Tifinagh is preferred by young people as a symbol of identity and has popular support.<ref name="choice" /><ref name="voice">{{Harvcoltxt|El Aissati|2001|pp=12–13}}</ref> It has also been criticized for not being practical to implement, and for being Kabyle-centric and not historically authentic.<ref name="prasse">{{Cite web |title=Interview met Karl-G. Prasse |url=http://www.tawiza.nl/content/awid.php?id=465&sid=2&andra=artikel |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080503140413/http://www.tawiza.nl/content/awid.php?id=465&sid=2&andra=artikel |archive-date= May 3, 2008 |accessdate=December 20, 2009 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web | last = Bounfour | first = Abdellah | title = The Current State of Tamazight in Morocco | publisher = Tamazgha Paris | year = 2004 | url = http://www.tamazgha.fr/The-Current-State-of-Tamazight-in-Morocco,428.html | accessdate = December 18, 2009 }}</ref> Following the Tifinagh Dahir road signs were installed in the Riffian city of Nador in Arabic and Tifinagh, but these were removed by security forces in the middle of the night soon after.<ref name="choice" />

The Moroccan state arrested and imprisoned people using this script during the 1980s and the 1990s,<ref>{{cite web | last = Idbalkassm | first = Hassan | title = Rapport sur le calvaire de l'écriture en Tifinagh au Maroc | publisher = Amazigh World | year = 1996 | url = http://www.amazighworld.org/studies/articles/rapport_sur_calvaire_ecriture_tifinaghe_maroc.php | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20050108074315/http://amazighworld.org/studies/articles/rapport_sur_calvaire_ecriture_tifinaghe_maroc.php | url-status = usurped | archive-date = January 8, 2005 | accessdate = December 19, 2009 |language=fr}}</ref> but now Morocco is the only country in which Tifinagh has official status.

==Latin==

thumb|right|200px|alt=Three calendars are overlaid, with the most prominent displaying a page labeled "Yenyur 2945". Most of the visible text is written in the Berber Latin alphabet.|Calendars using the Berber Latin alphabet

The Latin script has its origins in French colonialism.<ref name="souag">{{Harvcoltxt|Souag|2004}}</ref> French missionaries and linguists found the Arabic script inconvenient, so they adapted the Latin alphabet to various Berber languages and Arabic vernaculars.<ref name="souag" /> While the established body of literature in the Arabic script was a barrier to wider adoption of the Latin script, it caught on among the French-educated minority, particularly in Algeria.<ref name="souag" />

Since independence, the Latin alphabet has been largely favored by the intelligentsia, especially in Kabylie where the Berberists are largely pro-Westernization and French-educated.<ref name="souag" /> A standard transcription for the Kabyle language was established in 1970, and most other Northern Berber dialects have to varying extents published literature in the Latin alphabet.<ref name="souag" />

The Latin alphabet has been preferred among Amazigh linguists and researchers, and also has a great deal of established writing, including newspapers, periodicals, and magazines.<ref name="choice" /><ref name="ReferenceC">{{Harvcoltxt|Brenzinger|2007|p=128}}</ref><ref name="tira">{{Harvcoltxt|Chaker|1996|pp=4–5}}</ref> The "overwhelming majority of theses and dissertations on Berber in Morocco and Algeria" are written using the Latin alphabet.<ref name=":1" /> Usage of the Latin alphabet for Berber is more popular in Algeria than Morocco, but prevalent in the Riffian area.<ref name="tira" /> It is backed by the Amazigh elite, but is vehemently opposed by the Moroccan pro-Arab establishment.<ref name="choice" /> The Latin script is far more ensconced in the Kabyle dialect than in Tamazight.<ref>{{cite web | title = Tifinagh Script Issue  | date = January 25, 2006 | url = http://www.north-of-africa.com/article.php3?id_article=130 | accessdate = December 18, 2009 | archive-date = December 15, 2024 | archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20241215082658/http://www.north-of-africa.com/article.php3?id_article=130 | url-status = dead }}</ref>

The orthography used in most modern printed works is the Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales (INALCO) standard, designed for phonemicity.<ref name="souag" /> Older systems from the colonial French era are still found in place names and personal names.<ref name="souag" /> The older colonial system showed marked influence from French, for instance writing {{IPA|/u, w/}} as {{angbr|ou}} and {{IPA|/sˤ/}} as {{angbr|ç}}, and was inconsistent in marking many Berber sounds, for instance writing {{IPA|/ʕ/}} as a circumflex over the vowel, and often leaving emphatics unmarked.<ref name="souag" />

==Arabic==

{{Further|Berber Arabic alphabet}}{{More citations needed|date=July 2023}}thumb|right|300px|Document in Berber language of Jebel Nefousa – Libya thumb|right|200px|Berber language poetry in Arabic script with its translation in French [[File:Muhammad Awzal.jpg|thumb|right|200px|alt=Page of a Berber manuscript of the 18th century. The text is written in the Arabic script, surrounded by ornamentation.|The first page of an 18th-century Sous Berber manuscript of Muḥammad Awzal's ''al-Ḥawḍ'', part I (adapted from N. v.d. Boogert 1997 plate I)]]

Tifinagh is the traditional script for written Berber, but Latin remains the predominant orthography for literature aimed at the general public in North Africa.<ref name="tira" /><ref name="afrlang_orthog">{{cite web|title=Berber Language Page |publisher=African Studies Center |location=Michigan |date=n.d. |at=5 Orthographic Status |url=http://isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Handbook/Berber_root.htm |accessdate=December 18, 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080515135709/http://isp.msu.edu/AfrLang/Handbook/Berber_root.htm |archive-date=May 15, 2008 }}</ref> Some Tamazight newspapers, periodicals, and magazines are written in the Arabic script, although the Latin alphabet is preferred.<ref name="ReferenceC" /> The policies of some North African states have imposed the Arabic script over others suggested by Berber groups, which has been perceived as Arab colonialism replacing the prior French variety.<ref name="brenzinger126">{{Harvcoltxt|Brenzinger|2007|p=126}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=COkLoi-EQjEC&q=Brenzinger%2C+Matthias+%282007%29.+%22Language+Diversity+Endangered&pg=PR1 |title = Language Diversity Endangered|isbn = 9783110197129|last1 = Brenzinger|first1 = Matthias|date = 2008-08-22| publisher=Walter de Gruyter }}</ref> Amazigh activists, however, eschew the Arabic script, which is generally unpopular among Berbers who believe it is symptomatic of the pan-Arabist views of North African governments.<ref name="choice" />

;Medieval orthography A consistent orthography was used in the few Berber texts in existence from the eleventh to the fourteenth century CE.<ref>The following description is based on van den Boogert (2000) and van den Boogert (1997, ch. 6).</ref> These were written in an older Berber language likely to be most closely related to Tashelhiyt. The consonant ''g'' was written with ''jīm'' ({{Script|Arabic|ج}}) or ''kāf'' ({{Script|Arabic|ك}}), ''ẓ'' with ''ṣād'' ({{Script|Arabic|ص}}) or sometimes ''zāy'' ({{Script|Arabic|ز}}), and ''ḍ'' with ''ṭāʼ'' ({{script|Arabic|ط}}). Vowels ''a, i, u'' were written as orthographically long vowels {{angbr|ā}}, {{angbr|ī}}, {{angbr|ū}}. Word-final ''wāw'' was usually accompanied by ''alif al-wiqāyah''. The vowels signs ''fatḥah'' or ''kasrah'' represent a phonemic shwa /ə/ which was lost in the post-medieval language, e.g. ''tuwərmin'' {{angbr|tūwarmīn}} ({{script|Arabic|تووَرمين}}) “joints, articulation”. Labialization may be represented by ''ḍammah'', e.g. ''tagʷərsa'' {{angbr|tāgursā}} ({{script|Arabic|تاكُرسا}}) “ploughshare”. Prepositions, possessive complements and the like are mostly written as separate words. The medieval texts display many archaisms in phonology, morphology and lexicon.

;Traditional Tashelhiyt orthography The way in which Tashelhiyt has been written in the Arabic script during the past centuries is very consistent, to the extent that it is possible to talk about “a conventionalized orthography”. This premodern orthography has remained virtually unchanged since at least the end of the 16th century, and is still used today in circles of traditional Islamic scholars (''ṭṭlba'').<ref>The following description is based on van den Boogert (1997:61–67).</ref>

The Maghrebi script<ref>On the peculiarities of Maghrebi script and orthography see van den Boogert (1989).</ref> style is always used. Distinctive features of Maghrebi script are: the different pointing of ''fāʼ'' and ''qāf''; ''shaddah'' may be represented with a V-shaped symbol; ''waṣl'' is indicated by writing the final vowel of the preceding word a second time with the ''alif'' (with ''u'' represented by a bar through the middle of the ''alif''), e.g. ''kullu n-nāsi'' {{angbr|kullu (u)l-nnāsi}} “all the people”.

In premodern Shilha orthography, two extra letters were added to the alphabet to represent consonants not represented by the Standard Arabic alphabet: a ''kāf'' with three dots {{script|Arabic|ݣ}} for ''g'', and ''ṣād'' with three dots {{script|Arabic|ڞ}} for ''ẓ'' (dots may also be added underneath the letter). Consonants ''ṛ'' and ''ḷ'', which bear a minimal functional load, are not distinguished in the spelling from ''r'' and ''l''.

Texts are always fully vocalized, with ''a'', ''i'' and ''u'' written with the vowel signs ''fatḥah'', ''kasrah'', and ''ḍammah''. Consonants without a following phonemic vowel are always written with a ''sukūn''. Gemination is indicated as usual with ''shaddah'', but in Shilha spelling it may be combined with ''sukūn'' to represent a geminated consonant without following vowel (which never occurs in Standard Arabic). Labialization is generally not represented, e.g. ''tagʷrsa'' {{angbr|tagrsa}} “plough share”. The Arabic ''waṣl'' spellings are often “mirrored” and used to write word-initial vowels, e.g. ''ayyur ula tafukt'' {{angbr|ayyur(u) ulatafukt}} “the moon as well as the sun”.

Vowel length is not distinctive in Shilha, but orthographically long vowels may be used to indicate emphasized syllables in metric texts, e.g. ''lxálayiq'' {{angbr|lxālayiq}} “creatures” vs. standard Arabic orthography {{angbr|l-xalāʼiq}}.

The Arabic letters ﺙ, ﺫ, ﻅ, representing the Arabic interdentals /θ, ð, ð̣/ may be used in etymological spellings of loanwords, but they are often replaced by ﺕ, ﺩ, ﺽ, in accordance with Shilha pronunciation, e.g. ''lḥadit'' “tradition” can be written as {{angbr|lḥadiθ}} (etymological) or as {{angbr|lḥadit}} (phonemic). Final /-a/ in both native Berber words and loan words is sometimes written with ''alif maqṣūrah'', even if the Standard Arabic spelling does not use it, e.g. ''zzka'' “alms tax” written as {{angbr|zzká}} vs. standard {{angbr|z-zkāt}}. Final ''-t'' in words of Arabic origin is sometimes written with ''tāʼ marbūṭah'', whether or not the original Arabic word was spelled with it, e.g. ''zzit'' “olive oil” written as {{angbr|zzit}}. Nunation diacritics are sometimes used to write final ''-Vn'' in Shilha words, e.g. ''tumẓin'' “barley” {{angbr|tumẓin}} or {{angbr|tumẓin}}. Native words starting with a vowel and a geminated consonant may sometimes be written as if they contain the Arabic definite article, e.g. ''azzar'' “hair” written as {{angbr|al-zzar}}. Final ''-u'' or ''-w'' in Shilha words may be written with a following ''alif al-wiqāyah''.

With respect to word divisions, the premodern orthography may be characterized as conjunctive (in contrast to most European orthographies, which are disjunctive). Thus, elements such as prepositions, preverbals, pronominal affixes, demonstrative and directional particles are written connected to a noun or verb form, e.g. {{angbr|urānɣiḍhir manīɣurikfis iblisī}} = ''ur anɣ iḍhir mani ɣ ur ikfis iblis-i'' “it is not apparent to us where Iblis has not sown [his depravity]”.

== Notes == {{reflist|group="nb"}}

== References == {{reflist}}

== Bibliography == * {{Cite book|title= A Course in Spoken Tamazight|last= Abdel-Massih|first= Ernest T.|year= 1971|publisher= University of Michigan|location=Ann Arbor|isbn=0-932098-04-5}} *{{Cite journal | author=Boogert, N. van den | year=1989 | title=Some notes on Maghribi script | journal=Manuscripts of the Middle East | volume=4 | pages=30–43 | url=http://www.islamicmanuscripts.info/reference/articles/boogert_notes_maghribi_script.PDF}} *{{Cite book|author=Boogert, N. van den | year=1997 | title=The Berber Literary Tradition of the Sous. With an edition and translation of "The Ocean of Tears" by Muḥammad Awzal (d. 1749) | location=De Goeje Fund, Vol. XXVII. Leiden | publisher=NINO | isbn=90-6258-971-5}} *{{Cite book|author=Boogert, N. van den |editor1=Chaker, S. |editor2=Zaborski, A. | chapter=Medieval Berber orthography |title=Etudes berères et chamito-sémitiques, Mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse |date=2000 |publisher=Peeters | pages=357–377 | isbn=978-90-429-0826-0 |location=Paris and Louvain}} * {{Cite journal|last=Ben-Layashi|first=Samir|title=Secularism in the Moroccan Amazigh Discourse|year=2007|journal=The Journal of North African Studies|volume=12|issue=2|publisher=Routledge|url=http://www.dayan.org/articles/Sl_Amazigh.pdf|accessdate=December 19, 2009|issn=1362-9387|doi=10.1080/13629380701201741|pages=153–171|s2cid=143728476 |url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100923045709/http://www.dayan.org/articles/Sl_Amazigh.pdf|archive-date=September 23, 2010}} * {{Cite conference|last = Bouhjar|first = Aicha|year = 2008|title = Amazigh Language Terminology in Morocco or Management of a 'Multidimensional' Variation|conference = International Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC)|conference-url = http://www.lrec-conf.org/lrec2008/|publisher = IRCAM|location = Rabat|url = http://www.lrec-conf.org/proceedings/lrec2008/pdf/912_paper.pdf|accessdate = December 19, 2009}} * {{Cite book |last=Brenzinger |first=Matthias |title=Language Diversity Endangered |year=2007 |publisher=Mouton de Gruyter |location=Berlin |isbn=978-3-11-017049-8 }} *{{cite conference|last=Chaker|first=Salem|author-link=Salem Chaker|title=Tira n Tmaziɣt – propositions pour la notation usuelle a base latine du berbere|year=1996|conference=Problèmes en suspens de la notation usuelle à base latine du berbère|publisher=INALCO|location=Paris|url=http://www.inalco.fr/crb/docs_pdf/notation.pdf|accessdate=December 20, 2009|language=fr|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081129231121/http://www.inalco.fr/crb/docs_pdf/notation.pdf|archive-date=November 29, 2008}} *{{Cite journal |last=El Aissati |first=Abderrahman |title=Ethnic identity, language shift and The Amazigh voice in Morocco and Algeria |year=2001 |journal=Race, Gender & Class |volume=8 |issue=3 |url=http://www.ru.nl/aspx/download.aspx?File=/contents/pages/498535/amazigh_voice_in_morocco_and_algeria.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201217112354/http://www.ru.nl/aspx/download.aspx?File=/contents/pages/498535/amazigh_voice_in_morocco_and_algeria.pdf |url-status=dead |archive-date=December 17, 2020 |accessdate=December 20, 2009 }} * {{Cite book |title= Études berbères et chamito-sémitiques: mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse |last = Prasse |first = Karl G. |author-link1=Karl-Gottfried Prasse |year=2000 |publisher = Peeters Publishers |isbn=90-429-0826-2 |language=fr}} * {{Cite web |last=Souag |first=Lameen |year=2004 |title=Writing Berber Languages: a quick summary |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050730075554/http://www.geocities.com/lameens/tifinagh/ |archive-date=July 30, 2005 |publisher=L. Souag |accessdate=December 4, 2009 |url=http://www.geocities.com/lameens/tifinagh/ }}

Category:Orthographies by language Category:Berber languages