Northern Berber languages

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Northern Berber languages are a dialect continuum across the Maghreb that form a sub-family within the Berber languages. Their continuity is broken by the spread of Arabic, and to a lesser extent by the Zenati subgroup, which, though unmistakably Northern Berber, shares certain innovations not found in the surrounding languages, notably a softening of k to sh or ch, and an absence of a- in certain words, such as "hand" (afus vs. fus.) They include (languages with over a million speakers in bold):

• Moroccan Atlas languages:
  • Tachelhit language (also called Tasusit, Shilha; includes "Judeo-Berber language"), in southern Morocco
  • Middle Atlas Tamazight language (also called Tachelhit), in central Morocco
  • Senhaja de Srair language (listed erroneously as Zenati by the Ethnologue), in the southern part of the Rif in Morocco
• Zenati languages
  • Ghomara language, in the northwestern part of the Rif in Morocco
  • Tarifit language, in northern Morocco
    • Beni Snous, in western Algeria near the border
    • Arzew, in western Algeria (extinct?)
  • South Oranais Berber, in the ksours along the Algerian-Moroccan border
    • Figuig dialect, in southeastern Morocco
  • Central Maghreb Berber
    • Achacha (extinct), north of Mostaghanem in Algeria
    • Bel Halima (extinct), west of Tiaret in Algeria
    • Ouarsenis (extinct?), east of El Asnam in Algeria
    • Haraoua (extinct?), south of Ain Defla in Algeria
    • Chenoua language/Beni Menacer/Djebel Bissa, between Tipasa and Tenes in north-central Algeria west of Algiers
  • Chaouia language, south of Constantine in northeastern Algeria
  • northern Saharan varieties:
    • Tumzabt language of the Mzab, Algeria
    • Ouargli language/Teggargarent at Ouargla, Algeria
    • "Temacine Tamazight language" (Ethnologue name) in Oued Righ, around Touggourt and Temacine (Algeria)
    • "Taznatit language" of Touat and Gourara, Algeria (the Ethnologue name "Taznatit" is a misnomer, since that name is in fact used for most of the Zenati languages)
  • Tidikelt language
  • Sened language in Tunisia (extinct)
  • Djerbi language (including Matmata and Tamezret) in southern Tunisia
  • Zuara language (controversially classified by the Ethnologue as part of Nafusi, along with the previous), in northwestern Libya
• Kabyle language, in north-central Algeria east of Algiers
  • Various groups near Blida, such as the Beni Salah and Beni Bou Yaqoub (extinct?)

The eastern boundaries of the group seem to be controversial; some sources include the Nafusi language and the Ghadames language, while others do not. Most sources agree in regarding Ghadames language as outside of Northern Berber, but the Ethnologue does not.

There is no authoritative answer to the question of which of these to describe as a "language" versus a "dialect"; some academics have seen not only Northern Berber but all the Berber languages as dialects of a single language, while others come up with much higher counts. At any rate, mutual comprehensibility among Northern Berber languages is high, though not perfect.