Berber Latin alphabet
Encyclopedia
The Berber Latin alphabet (Berber
: Agemmay Amaziɣ Alatin) is the version of the Latin alphabet
used to write the Berber language (which has two main sub-groups: Northern-Berber, and Southern-Berber, i.e. Tuareg
). Though it was being written occasionally centuries ago, the Berber language started being written and printed systematically since the 19th century, using varieties of letters. Today, the Latin alphabet is preferred by most Berber writers and linguists in North Africa and abroad, for practical reasons.
In the colonial era a French-based system was used. Though it has now fallen partly out of favor, it is still used for transcription of names into French. More recently the French institute of languages, INALCO
, has proposed its own writing standard which now is the primary system used in mainly Kabylian-Berber writings in Kabylia, Algeria
.
Other, slightly different, varieties of Latin-based standards have been used since the beginning of the 20th century by Berber linguists in North Africa, France, and recently at the University of Barcelona, Spain.
In Northern-Berber texts, foreign words and names are written in their original form even if they contain the letters: O, P, V, or any other non-Berber letter (such as Ü, ß, Å...).
The following table shows the Northern-Berber Latin alphabet with its neo-Tifinagh and Arabic equivalents:
In the interest of pan-dialectal legibility, the Berber Latin alphabet omits the partly phonemic contrasts found in some Berber language varieties (notably Kabylian
and Tarifit) between stops and fricatives.
Phonemic labiovelarization of consonants is widespread in Berber varieties, but there are rarely minimal pairs and it is unstable (e.g. ameqqʷram 'large', in the Ainsi dialect of Kabyle, is pronounced ameqqran in At Yanni, only a few kilometers away). The INALCO
standard uses the diacritic < > for labiovelarization only when needed to distinguish words, e.g. ireggel vs. .
< ṛ > is used for [rˤ] only when it contrasts with < r > (e.g. 'I am satisfied' vs. 'I am moved'). In all other cases < r > is used, e.g. tarakna 'carpet' . This is because [rˤ] is often an allophone of /r/ in the environment of other emphatics, and it rarely contrasts with /r/ otherwise. Exceptional cases of other emphatics, e.g. [ʊʃˤːæj] 'hound', are ignored (i.e. written as uccay).
Among non-Kabyle Berber writers a numbers of alternative letters are used:
In Souss (middle Morocco
), Berber writers rarely use the neutral vowel "e", which is elsewhere used to represent the non-phonemic [ə].
In Kabyle, the affricates /t͡s, d͡z/ have traditionally been notated as <> for over thirty years. However these affricates are uncommon in other dialects and morphologically conditioned, so for the sake of pan-dialectual legibility the INALCO
standard omits them. In Kabyle the affricate t͡s may derive from underlying /tt/ or /ss/. In the former case the INALCO standard uses < tt >, and in the second it uses < ss > (e.g. yettawi vs. ifessi deriving from the verb fsi).
Labiovelarization is sometimes indicated with the diacritic or, especially among Kabyle authors, by the letter . may represent spirantization.
and Morocco
, between Berber activists and the anti-Berber establishments, mainly those with Arab-Islamic agendas or orientations. The Berber activists overwhelmingly favor the use of the Latin alphabet in order to ensure a quick development and proliferation of the Berber language (Tamazight) in schools, in public institutions, and on the internet. A small number of them prefer the neo-Tifinagh alphabet. The states of Morocco
and Algeria
usually distance themselves from Latin-based Berber writing, fearing that it would strengthen the position of Berber against Arabic and French, and thus leading to a stronger Berber political activism. The Arab-Islamic establishments and political parties often reject the Latin alphabet as a Berber alphabet for the same reasons, and they usually brand it as a tool to westernize and Christianize Berbers.
In 2003, king Mohammed VI of Morocco approved the IRCAM Berber Institute's decision of using neo-Tifinagh
as the sole official alphabet for the Berber language in Morocco. The IRCAM's decision was met with much disapproval among independent Berber activists and they saw it as a way of neutralizing Berber and preventing it from quick flourishing and development.
letters incorporated.
The vowel O is used only in the Latin alphabet of Southern Berber (Tamasheq), not in Northern-Berber.
The Mali
an national literacy program DNAFLA has established a standard for the Latin alphabet, which is used with modifications in Karl G. Prasse's Tuareg French Dictionary and the government literacy program in Burkina
, while in Niger
a slightly different system was used. There is also some variation in Tifinagh and in the Arabic script.
The DNAFLA system is a somewhat morphophonemic orthography, not indicating initial vowel shortening, always writing the directional particle as < dd>, and not indication all assimilations (e.g. for [tămašăq]).
In Burkina Faso the emphatics are denoted by "hooked" letters, as in Fula
, e.g. <ɗ ƭ>.
Berber languages
The Berber languages are a family of languages indigenous to North Africa, spoken from Siwa Oasis in Egypt to Morocco , and south to the countries of the Sahara Desert...
: Agemmay Amaziɣ Alatin) is the version of the Latin alphabet
Latin alphabet
The Latin alphabet, also called the Roman alphabet, is the most recognized alphabet used in the world today. It evolved from a western variety of the Greek alphabet called the Cumaean alphabet, which was adopted and modified by the Etruscans who ruled early Rome...
used to write the Berber language (which has two main sub-groups: Northern-Berber, and Southern-Berber, i.e. Tuareg
Tuareg languages
Tuareg is a Berber language or family of very closely related languages and dialects spoken by the Tuareg Berbers, in large parts of Mali, Niger, Algeria, Libya and Burkina Faso, with a few speakers, the Kinnin, in Chad.- Description :Other Berber languages and Tamashaq are quite mutually...
). Though it was being written occasionally centuries ago, the Berber language started being written and printed systematically since the 19th century, using varieties of letters. Today, the Latin alphabet is preferred by most Berber writers and linguists in North Africa and abroad, for practical reasons.
History
The use of a Latin script for Berber has its roots in French colonialist expeditions to North Africa. Berber texts written with Latin letters began to appear in print since the 19th century when French, Italian, and Spanish colonial expeditionaries and military officers began surveying North Africa. The French attempted to use Romanization schemes for North African Arabic dialects and for Berber. The Arabic attempts were unsuccessful, but Berber was more susceptible, having little established literature to stand in the way.In the colonial era a French-based system was used. Though it has now fallen partly out of favor, it is still used for transcription of names into French. More recently the French institute of languages, INALCO
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
The Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales is located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1795 after the French Revolution and is now one of the country's Grands établissements with a specialization in African, Asian, East European, Oceanian languages and civilisations...
, has proposed its own writing standard which now is the primary system used in mainly Kabylian-Berber writings in Kabylia, Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
.
Other, slightly different, varieties of Latin-based standards have been used since the beginning of the 20th century by Berber linguists in North Africa, France, and recently at the University of Barcelona, Spain.
Northern-Berber Latin alphabet
The Berber Latin alphabet today it consists usually of 33 letters:- 23 standard Latin letters (all the letters found in the English alphabetEnglish alphabetThe modern English alphabet is a Latin alphabet consisting of 26 letters and 2 ligatures – the same letters that are found in the Basic modern Latin alphabet:...
except for O, P, and V).
- 10 additional modified Latin letters:
- The labializedLabialisationLabialization is a secondary articulatory feature of sounds in some languages. Labialized sounds involve the lips while the remainder of the oral cavity produces another sound. The term is normally restricted to consonants. When vowels involve the lips, they are called rounded.The most common...
Berber letters are not considered as independent letters.
| The 33-Letter Alphabet of Northern-Berber | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| A A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... |
B B B is the second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds , most commonly a voiced bilabial plosive.-History:... |
C C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... |
Č C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... |
D D D is the fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic letter Dâlet may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter represented ; in the... |
Ḍ D D is the fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic letter Dâlet may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter represented ; in the... |
E E E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:... |
Ɛ | F F F is the sixth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The origin of ⟨f⟩ is the Semitic letter vâv that represented a sound like or . Graphically, it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club... |
G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... |
Ǧ G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... |
Ɣ | H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... |
Ḥ H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... |
I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... |
J J Ĵ or ĵ is a letter in Esperanto orthography representing the sound .While Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for its four postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets, the base letters are Romano-Germanic... |
K K K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA.... |
L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... |
M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... |
N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... |
Q Q Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones... |
R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... |
Ṛ R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... |
S S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... |
Ṣ S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... |
T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... |
Ṭ T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... |
U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... |
W W W is the 23rd letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.In other Germanic languages, including German, its pronunciation is similar or identical to that of English V... |
X X X is the twenty-fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Uses:In mathematics, x is commonly used as the name for an independent variable or unknown value. The usage of x to represent an independent or unknown variable can be traced back to the Arabic word šay شيء = “thing,” used in Arabic... |
Y Y Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English.-Name:In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing , which was not a native sound... |
Z Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal... |
Ẓ Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal... |
| Lower case | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| a | b | c | č | d | ḍ | e | ɛ | f | g | ǧ | ɣ | h | ḥ | i | j | k | l | m | n | q | r | ṛ | s | ṣ | t | ṭ | u | w | x | y | z | ẓ |
In Northern-Berber texts, foreign words and names are written in their original form even if they contain the letters: O, P, V, or any other non-Berber letter (such as Ü, ß, Å...).
The following table shows the Northern-Berber Latin alphabet with its neo-Tifinagh and Arabic equivalents:
| Berber-Latin | IRCAM's Tifinagh Tifinagh Tifinagh is a series of abjad and alphabetic scripts used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language.A modern derivate of the traditional script, known as Neo-Tifinagh, was introduced in the 20th century... equivalent |
Arabic equivalent |
IPA equivalent |
Similar English sound | ||
| INALCO | Other | |||||
| 1 | A A A is the first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is similar to the Ancient Greek letter Alpha, from which it derives.- Origins :... a |
ⴰ | أ / ا | æ | "a" like in the English word bad | |
| 2 | B B B is the second letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is used to represent a variety of bilabial sounds , most commonly a voiced bilabial plosive.-History:... b |
ⴱ | ب | ʷ or b or β | like the English "b", and sometimes like the Spanish Languages of Spain The languages of Spain are the languages spoken or once spoken in Spain. Romance languages are the most widely spoken in Spain, of which Spanish is the country's official language... "v" |
|
| 3 | C C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... c |
ⵛ | ش | ʃ | the English "sh" in ship | |
| 4 | Č C Ĉ or ĉ is a consonant in Esperanto orthography, representing the sound .Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for all four of its postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets... č |
tc | ⵞ | تش | t͡ʃ | the English "ch" in China |
| 5 | D D D is the fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic letter Dâlet may have developed from the logogram for a fish or a door. There are various Egyptian hieroglyphs that might have inspired this. In Semitic, Ancient Greek, and Latin, the letter represented ; in the... d |
ⴷ | د / ذ | d or ð | English "d", and English "th" in this | |
| 6 | dt | ⴹ | ض | ðˤ | emphatic "d" | |
| 7 | E E E is the fifth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used letter in the Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Hungarian, Latin, Norwegian, Spanish, and Swedish languages.-History:... e |
ⴻ | none | ə | "e" in Amsterdam | |
| 8 | F F F is the sixth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The origin of ⟨f⟩ is the Semitic letter vâv that represented a sound like or . Graphically, it originally probably depicted either a hook or a club... f |
ⴼ | ف | f | like the English "f" | |
| 9 | G G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... g |
ⴳ | (گ) | ɡ | "g" like in the words gate or Greek | |
| 10 | Ǧ G G is the seventh letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter 'G' was introduced in the Old Latin period as a variant of ⟨c⟩ to distinguish voiced, from voiceless, . The recorded originator of ⟨g⟩ is freedman Spurius Carvilius Ruga, the first Roman to open a fee-paying school,... ǧ |
dj | ⴵ | (دج) | d͡ʒ | English "j" like in the words joke and James |
| 11 | Ɣ ɣ | gh | ⵖ | (غ) | ɣ | like French or German r |
| 12 | H H H .) is the eighth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The Semitic letter ⟨ח⟩ most likely represented the voiceless pharyngeal fricative . The form of the letter probably stood for a fence or posts.... h |
ⵀ | هـ | h | "h" like in hello or high | |
| 13 | ⵃ | ح | ħ | like in Arabic Muḥammad (no English equivalent) | ||
| 14 | I I I is the ninth letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:In Semitic, the letter may have originated in a hieroglyph for an arm that represented a voiced pharyngeal fricative in Egyptian, but was reassigned to by Semites, because their word for "arm" began with that sound... i |
ⵉ | ي /ِ | i | English ee like in sheet, and the English i in with | |
| 15 | J J Ĵ or ĵ is a letter in Esperanto orthography representing the sound .While Esperanto orthography uses a diacritic for its four postalveolar consonants, as do the Latin-based Slavic alphabets, the base letters are Romano-Germanic... j |
ⵊ | ج | ʒ | like in confusion or television, French "j" in déjà vu. | |
| 16 | K K K is the eleventh letter of the English and basic modern Latin alphabet.-History and usage:In English, the letter K usually represents the voiceless velar plosive; this sound is also transcribed by in the International Phonetic Alphabet and X-SAMPA.... k |
ⴽ | كـ | k | English "k" | |
| 17 | L L Ł or ł, described in English as L with stroke, is a letter of the Polish, Kashubian, Sorbian, Łacinka , Łatynka , Wilamowicean, Navajo, Dene Suline, Inupiaq, Zuni, Hupa, and Dogrib alphabets, several proposed alphabets for the Venetian language, and the ISO 11940 romanization of the Thai alphabet... l |
ⵍ | ل | l or ɫ | non-emphatic "L" (like in German or French) | |
| 18 | M M M is the thirteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter M is derived from the Phoenician Mem, via the Greek Mu . Semitic Mem probably originally pictured water... m |
ⵎ | م | m | m | |
| 19 | N N N is the fourteenth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History of the forms :One of the most common hieroglyphs, snake, was used in Egyptian writing to stand for a sound like English ⟨J⟩, because the Egyptian word for "snake" was djet... n |
ⵏ | ن | n | n | |
| 20 | Ɛ ɛ | Â Â is a letter of the Friulian, Romanian, Vietnamese, French, Galician, Portuguese, Frisian, Welsh, Turkish, and Walloon alphabets.- Croatian and Serbian :... â |
ⵄ | ع | ʕ | like Arabic ع `ayn Ayin ' or ' is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician, Aramaic, Hebrew and Arabic . It is the twenty-first letter in the new Persian alphabet... (no English equivalent) |
| 21 | Q Q Q is the seventeenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.- History :The Semitic sound value of Qôp was , a sound common to Semitic languages, but not found in English or most Indo-European ones... q |
ⵇ | ق | q or ʷ | like Arabic "qaf" (no English equivalent) | |
| 22 | R R R is the eighteenth letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The original Semitic letter may have been inspired by an Egyptian hieroglyph for tp, "head". It was used for by Semites because in their language, the word for "head" was rêš . It developed into Greek Ρ and Latin R... r |
ⵔ | ر | r, ˤ | like a Spanish or Italian "r", or emphatic "r" | |
| 23 | ⵕ | ر | ˤ | emphatic "r" | ||
| 24 | S S S is the nineteenth letter in the ISO basic Latin alphabet.-History: Semitic Šîn represented a voiceless postalveolar fricative . Greek did not have this sound, so the Greek sigma came to represent... s |
ⵙ | س | s | s | |
| 25 | ⵚ | ص | sˤ | emphatic "s" | ||
| 26 | T T T is the 20th letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet. It is the most commonly used consonant and the second most common letter in the English language.- History :Taw was the last letter of the Western Semitic and Hebrew alphabets... t |
ⵜ | ت / ث | t or θ | English "t", and/or English "th" in bath | |
| 27 | ⵟ | ط | tˤ | emphatic "t" | ||
| 28 | U U U is the twenty-first letter and a vowel in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-History:The letter U ultimately comes from the Semitic letter Waw by way of the letter Y. See the letter Y for details.... u |
ⵓ | و /ُ | ʊ | English "u" like in put | |
| 29 | W W W is the 23rd letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.In other Germanic languages, including German, its pronunciation is similar or identical to that of English V... w |
ⵡ | وَ | w | English "w" in water | |
| 30 | X X X is the twenty-fourth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Uses:In mathematics, x is commonly used as the name for an independent variable or unknown value. The usage of x to represent an independent or unknown variable can be traced back to the Arabic word šay شيء = “thing,” used in Arabic... x |
ⵅ | خ | χ | Spanish "j", German / Dutch "ch", Arabic "kh" | |
| 31 | Y Y Y is the twenty-fifth letter in the basic modern Latin alphabet and represents either a vowel or a consonant in English.-Name:In Latin, Y was named Y Graeca "Greek Y". This was pronounced as I Graeca "Greek I", since Latin speakers had trouble pronouncing , which was not a native sound... y |
ⵢ | يَ | j | English "y" like in yes | |
| 32 | Z Z Z is the twenty-sixth and final letter of the basic modern Latin alphabet.-Name and pronunciation:In most dialects of English, the letter's name is zed , reflecting its derivation from the Greek zeta but in American English, its name is zee , deriving from a late 17th century English dialectal... z |
ⵣ | ز | z | English "z" in zoo | |
| 33 | ⵥ | (ژ) | zˤ | emphatic "z" | ||
In the interest of pan-dialectal legibility, the Berber Latin alphabet omits the partly phonemic contrasts found in some Berber language varieties (notably Kabylian
Kabyle language
Kabyle or Kabylian is a Berber language spoken by the Kabyle people north and northeast of Algeria. Estimates about the number of speakers range from 5 million to about 7 million speakers worldwide, the majority in Algeria.-Classification:The classification of Kabyle is Afro-Asiatic, Berber and...
and Tarifit) between stops and fricatives.
Phonemic labiovelarization of consonants is widespread in Berber varieties, but there are rarely minimal pairs and it is unstable (e.g. ameqqʷram 'large', in the Ainsi dialect of Kabyle, is pronounced ameqqran in At Yanni, only a few kilometers away). The INALCO
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
The Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales is located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1795 after the French Revolution and is now one of the country's Grands établissements with a specialization in African, Asian, East European, Oceanian languages and civilisations...
standard uses the diacritic < > for labiovelarization only when needed to distinguish words, e.g. ireggel vs. .
| North-Berber Latin letter | Tifinagh Tifinagh Tifinagh is a series of abjad and alphabetic scripts used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language.A modern derivate of the traditional script, known as Neo-Tifinagh, was introduced in the 20th century... equivalent |
IPA equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| ⴱⵯ | bʷ | |
| ⴳⵯ | ɡʷ | |
| ⵖⵯ | ɣʷ | |
| ⴽⵯ | kʷ | |
| ⵇⵯ | qʷ | |
| ⵅⵯ | xʷ |
< ṛ > is used for [rˤ] only when it contrasts with < r > (e.g. 'I am satisfied' vs. 'I am moved'). In all other cases < r > is used, e.g. tarakna 'carpet' . This is because [rˤ] is often an allophone of /r/ in the environment of other emphatics, and it rarely contrasts with /r/ otherwise. Exceptional cases of other emphatics, e.g. [ʊʃˤːæj] 'hound', are ignored (i.e. written as uccay).
Alternative usage
On the internet, it is common to replace Latin epsilon and gamma, and , with their Greek counterparts, "" and "".Among non-Kabyle Berber writers a numbers of alternative letters are used:
| Character | INALCO equivalent |
|---|---|
| Â Â is a letter of the Friulian, Romanian, Vietnamese, French, Galician, Portuguese, Frisian, Welsh, Turkish, and Walloon alphabets.- Croatian and Serbian :... â |
|
| Gh gh | |
| dj |
In Souss (middle Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
), Berber writers rarely use the neutral vowel "e", which is elsewhere used to represent the non-phonemic [ə].
In Kabyle, the affricates /t͡s, d͡z/ have traditionally been notated as <> for over thirty years. However these affricates are uncommon in other dialects and morphologically conditioned, so for the sake of pan-dialectual legibility the INALCO
Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales
The Institut National des Langues et Civilisations Orientales is located in Paris, France. It was founded in 1795 after the French Revolution and is now one of the country's Grands établissements with a specialization in African, Asian, East European, Oceanian languages and civilisations...
standard omits them. In Kabyle the affricate t͡s may derive from underlying /tt/ or /ss/. In the former case the INALCO standard uses < tt >, and in the second it uses < ss > (e.g. yettawi vs. ifessi deriving from the verb fsi).
| Character | INALCO equivalent | IRCAM Tifinagh Tifinagh Tifinagh is a series of abjad and alphabetic scripts used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language.A modern derivate of the traditional script, known as Neo-Tifinagh, was introduced in the 20th century... equivalent |
IPA equivalent | Pronunciation |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Tt tt | ⵜⵙ | t͡s | ts like in "Tsetse fly" | |
| Ss ss | ||||
| Zz zz | ⴷⵣ | d͡z | dz / the English "ds" in words |
Labiovelarization is sometimes indicated with the diacritic or, especially among Kabyle authors, by the letter . may represent spirantization.
Controversy
There has been a long and fierce debate on whether to use the Latin alphabet, the Tifinagh alphabet, or the Arabic alphabet, as the official alphabet for Berber in AlgeriaAlgeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
and Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
, between Berber activists and the anti-Berber establishments, mainly those with Arab-Islamic agendas or orientations. The Berber activists overwhelmingly favor the use of the Latin alphabet in order to ensure a quick development and proliferation of the Berber language (Tamazight) in schools, in public institutions, and on the internet. A small number of them prefer the neo-Tifinagh alphabet. The states of Morocco
Morocco
Morocco , officially the Kingdom of Morocco , is a country located in North Africa. It has a population of more than 32 million and an area of 710,850 km², and also primarily administers the disputed region of the Western Sahara...
and Algeria
Algeria
Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...
usually distance themselves from Latin-based Berber writing, fearing that it would strengthen the position of Berber against Arabic and French, and thus leading to a stronger Berber political activism. The Arab-Islamic establishments and political parties often reject the Latin alphabet as a Berber alphabet for the same reasons, and they usually brand it as a tool to westernize and Christianize Berbers.
In 2003, king Mohammed VI of Morocco approved the IRCAM Berber Institute's decision of using neo-Tifinagh
Tifinagh
Tifinagh is a series of abjad and alphabetic scripts used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language.A modern derivate of the traditional script, known as Neo-Tifinagh, was introduced in the 20th century...
as the sole official alphabet for the Berber language in Morocco. The IRCAM's decision was met with much disapproval among independent Berber activists and they saw it as a way of neutralizing Berber and preventing it from quick flourishing and development.
Southern-Berber Latin alphabet (Tuareg)
The Southern-Berber (Tuareg) Latin alphabet is made of 36 letters. They are mostly Latin letters with some IPA characters and GreekGreek alphabet
The Greek alphabet is the script that has been used to write the Greek language since at least 730 BC . The alphabet in its classical and modern form consists of 24 letters ordered in sequence from alpha to omega...
letters incorporated.
The vowel O is used only in the Latin alphabet of Southern Berber (Tamasheq), not in Northern-Berber.
| 36-Letter alphabet for Southern-Berber (Tamasheq) as recognized in Mali Mali Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with... since 1982 |
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|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Ă | B | D | Ḍ | E | Ǝ | F | G | Ɣ | H | Ḥ | I | J | K | L | Ḷ | M | N | Ŋ | O | Q | R | S | Ṣ | Š | T | Ṭ | U | W | X | Y | Z | Ž | Ẓ | ʔ |
| 36-Letter Latin alphabet for Southern-Berber (Tamasheq), official in Niger Niger Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east... since 1999 |
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| A | Ă | Ǝ | B | C | D | Ḍ | E | F | G | Ǧ | H | I | J | ǰ | Ɣ | K | L | Ḷ | M | N | Ŋ | O | Q | R | S | Ṣ | Š | T | Ṭ | U | W | X | Y | Z | Ẓ |
The Mali
Mali
Mali , officially the Republic of Mali , is a landlocked country in Western Africa. Mali borders Algeria on the north, Niger on the east, Burkina Faso and the Côte d'Ivoire on the south, Guinea on the south-west, and Senegal and Mauritania on the west. Its size is just over 1,240,000 km² with...
an national literacy program DNAFLA has established a standard for the Latin alphabet, which is used with modifications in Karl G. Prasse's Tuareg French Dictionary and the government literacy program in Burkina
Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – also known by its short-form name Burkina – is a landlocked country in west Africa. It is surrounded by six countries: Mali to the north, Niger to the east, Benin to the southeast, Togo and Ghana to the south, and Côte d'Ivoire to the southwest.Its size is with an estimated...
, while in Niger
Niger
Niger , officially named the Republic of Niger, is a landlocked country in Western Africa, named after the Niger River. It borders Nigeria and Benin to the south, Burkina Faso and Mali to the west, Algeria and Libya to the north and Chad to the east...
a slightly different system was used. There is also some variation in Tifinagh and in the Arabic script.
The DNAFLA system is a somewhat morphophonemic orthography, not indicating initial vowel shortening, always writing the directional particle as < dd>, and not indication all assimilations (e.g.
In Burkina Faso the emphatics are denoted by "hooked" letters, as in Fula
Fula language
The Fula or Fulani language is a language of West Africa. It is spoken as a first language by the and related groups from Senegambia and Guinea to Cameroon and Sudan...
, e.g. <ɗ ƭ>.