Tifinagh

Tifinagh (Berber languages: ⵜⴼⵏⵗ; Neo-Tifinagh: ⵜⵉⴼⵉⵏⴰⵖ; Berber Latin alphabet: Tifinaɣ; Berber pronunciation: [tifinaɣ]) is a script used to write the Berber languages (Tamazight). It is descended from the ancient Libyco-Berber alphabet.

The traditional Tifinagh, sometimes called Tuareg Tifinagh, is still used by the Tuareg people of the Sahara desert (in southern Algeria, northeastern Mali, northern Niger, and northern Burkina Faso) for writing the Tuareg languages. Neo-Tifinagh, developed by the Berber Academy in 1970s, is an alphabet that adapts Tuareg Tifinagh for broader use across North Africa, particularly for Kabyle and other Berber dialects.

Tifinagh is one of three major competing Berber orthographies alongside the Latin and the Arabic alphabets. However, outside of symbolic or cultural uses, the Latin script remains dominant for writing Berber languages in North Africa.

Etymology

The word tifinagh (singular tafinəq < *ta-finəɣ-t) is thought by some scholars to be a Berberized feminine plural cognate or adaptation of the Latin word Punicus 'Punic, Phoenician' through the Berber feminine prefix ti- and the root √FNƔ < *√PNQ < Latin Punicus; thus tifinagh could possibly mean 'the Phoenician (letters)' or 'the Punic letters'. Others support an etymology involving the Tuareg verb efnegh 'to write'. These are not mutually exclusive, however, as the Libyco-Berber concept of writing being borrowed from the Phoenicians has wide support among linguists and archaeologists.

Libyco-Berber

Before or during the existence of the ancient Berber kingdoms of Numidia (northern Algeria) and Mauretania (northern Morocco), between 202 BCE–25 BCE, many inscriptions were engraved using the Libyco-Berber script, also known as Ancient Libyan.