Language and script

What is Tamazight?

One language, many forms, a name that means "free people"

Tamazight is not a single language with one pronunciation but a family of closely related forms spoken from Morocco to the oases of Egypt.

Anyone who asks in North Africa about "the Berber language" almost always gets a question back: which one? Tamazight is a roof, not a single house. Beneath it stand language forms that are related to one another like German and Dutch: close enough to hear the kinship, far enough apart that you do not simply understand each other.

The name

Amazigh is the self-designation, plural Imazighen. It is usually translated as "free people". Tamazight is the corresponding language; the prefix ta- and the ending -t regularly form feminine words in Amazigh, and language names are feminine. The word "Berber" goes back to the Greek bárbaros, the stranger whose language you do not understand. It is an outside name, and many find it derogatory. This text therefore uses Amazigh.

The three large forms in Morocco

In Morocco three are usually distinguished: Tarifit in the north, in the Rif, around Nador, Driouch and Al Hoceïma. Central Atlas Tamazight in the middle of the country, in the Middle Atlas. Tachelhit in the south, in the Souss and the High Atlas. Added to these are forms in Algeria (Kabyle, Chaouia, Mzab), the Tamasheq of the Tuareg in the Sahara and small language islands as far as Siwa in Egypt.

What they have in common

The structure is the same everywhere. Nouns carry a vowel at the front that carries gender and number with it: argaz the man, tamghart the woman, ixef the head. That is exactly why a strikingly large share of the words in every word list begins with a or i: that is grammar, not coincidence. Verbs are inflected not only at the end but also at the beginning. And in almost all forms the verb likes to stand before the subject.

The road to an official language

For centuries Amazigh was above all the language of the family, the home and the market, passed on from generation to generation. In 2001 Morocco founded the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM), and the constitution of 2011 recognizes Amazigh as an official language alongside Arabic. Since then the language has been standardized, taught in schools and made visible in public life: on place-name signs, on public buildings, on television. Algeria has also recognized Tamazight as an official language since 2016.

What that means for you

If you want to learn Tamazight, the first question is not "where do I start" but "which one". For most people with roots in the Rif the answer is the Tamazight of the Rif, also called Tarifit. The words from a general Tamazight course often sound different there. This site therefore sticks to the Tamazight of the Rif and says where each word comes from.

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