Tifinagh

Tifinagh (pronounced [tifinaɣ], written ⵜⵉⴼⵉⵏⴰⵖ in Neo-Tifinagh, تيفيناغ in the Berber Arabic alphabet and Tifinagh or Tifinaɣ in the Berber Latin alphabet) is a series of abjad and alphabetic scripts used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language.^[1]

A modern derivate of the traditional script, known as Neo-Tifinagh, was introduced in the 20th century. It is not in widespread use as a means of daily communication, but often serves to assert a Berber identity politically and symbolically. A slightly modified version of the traditional script, called Tifinagh Ircam, is used in a limited number of Moroccan elementary schools in teaching the Berber language to children.

The word tifinagh or tifinigh is widely thought to be a feminine plural cognate of Punic, through the feminine prefix ti- and Latin Punicus; thus tifinigh would mean "the Phoenician (letters)".^[2][3]

Origins

The origin of the script is known as "Proto-Tifinagh", or as Libyco-Berber script. It was in use between about the 3rd century BC and the 3rd century AD.

There are two known variants: eastern and western. The eastern variant was used in what is now Constantine, the Aures region and Tunisia. It is the best-deciphered variant, due to the discovery of several Numidian bilingual inscriptions in Libyan and Punic (notably at Dougga in Tunisia.) 22 letters out of the 24 were deciphered. The western variant was more primitive (Février 1964–1965). It was used along the Mediterranean coast from Kabylia to the Canary Islands. It used 13 supplementary letters.

The Libyco-Berber script was a pure Abjad; it had no vowels. Gemination was not marked. The writing was usually from the bottom to the top, although right-to-left, and even other orders, were also found.

Tuareg Tifinagh

The Proto-Tifinagh script survived as a traditional means of writing the Tuareg language. Traditionally, the script marks no vowels, except for word finals. In some areas, Arabic vowel diacritics are combined with Tifinagh characters to mark vowels.

Occasionally the script has been used to write other neighboring languages, such as Tagdal Songhai.

Neo-Tifinagh

Neo-Tifinagh is the 20th-century script developed from earlier forms of Tifinagh. It is an alphabet and is written left-to-right. Salem Chaker, professor at INALCO had proposed a change in Neo-Tifinagh (Tafsut 1990 #14).

Until recently, virtually no books or websites were published in this alphabet, with activists favouring Latin (or, more rarely, Arabic) scripts for serious usage; however, it is extremely popular for symbolic use, with many books and websites written in a different script featuring logos or title pages using Neo-Tifinagh. In Morocco, the king took a "neutral" position between the claims of Latin script and Arabic script by adopting the Neo-Tifinagh script in 2003; as a result, books are beginning to be published in this script, and it is taught in some schools. However, many independent Berber-language publications are still published using the Berber Latin alphabet. Outside Morocco, it has no official status. Ironically, the Moroccan state arrested and imprisoned people using this script during the 1980s and 1990s.^[4]

In Algeria, almost all Berber publications use the Berber Latin alphabet, not Tifinagh.

In Libya, the regime of Gaddafi used to consistently ban the Berber Tifinagh script from being used in public contexts such as store displays and banners.^[5]

After recent uprisings in Libya, the National Transitional Council (rebels) has shown an openness towards the Berber language. The independent rebel Libya TV, based in Qatar, has included the Berber language and the Tifinagh alphabet in some of its programming.^[6]

Characters

Unicode

Tifinagh was added to the Unicode Standard in March, 2005 with the release of version 4.1.

The Unicode block for Tifinagh is U+2D30–U+2D7F. Grey areas indicate non-assigned code points:

References

Bibliography

• Aghali-Zakara, Mohamed (1994). Graphèmes berbères et dilemme de diffusion: Interaction des alphabets latin, ajami et tifinagh. Etudes et Documents Berbères 11, 107-121.
• Aghali-Zakara, Mohamed; and Drouin, Jeanine (1977). Recherches sur les Tifinaghs- Eléments graphiques et sociolinguistiques. Comptes-rendus du Groupe Linguistique des Etudes Chamito-Sémitiques (GLECS).
• Ameur, Meftaha (1994). Diversité des transcriptions : pour une notation usuelle et normalisée de la langue berbère. Etudes et Documents Berbères 11, 25-28.
• Boukous, Ahmed (1997). Situation sociolinguistique de l’Amazigh. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 123, 41-60.
• Chaker, Salem (1994). Pour une notation usuelle à base Tifinagh. Etudes et Documents Berbères 11, 31-42.
• Chaker, Salem (1996). Propositions pour la notation usuelle à base latine du berbère. Etudes et Documents Berbères 14, 239-253.
• Chaker, Salem (1997). La Kabylie: un processus de développement linguistique autonome. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 123, 81-99.
• Durand, O. (1994). Promotion du berbère : problèmes de standardisation et d’orthographe. Expériences européennes. Etudes et Documents Berbères 11, 7-11.
• O’Connor, Michael (1996). The Berber scripts. The World’s Writing Systems, ed. by William Bright and Peter Daniels, 112-116. New York: Oxford University Press.
• Penchoen, Thomas G. (1973). Tamazight of the Ayt Ndhir. Los Angeles: Undena Publications. 
• Savage, Andrew. 2008. Writing Tuareg – the three script options. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192: 5-14
• Souag, Lameen (2004). "Writing Berber Languages: a quick summary". L. Souag. Archived from the original on 2005-07-30. http://web.archive.org/web/20050730075554/http://www.geocities.com/lameens/tifinagh/. Retrieved 6 July 2010. 
• Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Tifinagh.

External links

• http://lbi-project.org/lbi-db.php an excellent compilation of images and information
• http://www.ancientscripts.com/berber.html
• http://ennedi.free.fr/tifin.htm
• Ircam Official website of the Royal Institute of the Amazigh Culture (in French)
  • Ircam – Online lessons in Amazigh and the Tifinagh alphabet
• http://www.mondeberbere.com/langue/tifinagh/tifinagh_origine.htm
• http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tifinagh.htm
• Unicode character picker for Moroccan Tifinagh
• Tifinagh Font for Windows
• http://www.ircam.ma/amzfr.htm