Tifinagh

All you want to know about Tifinagh

Entrance to Kidal. The name of the town is written in Traditional Tifinagh (ⴾⴸⵍ) and Latin script.

Tifinagh (ⵜⵉⴼⵉⵏⴰⵖ in Neo-Tifinagh, Tifinaɣ in Berber Latin alphabet, pronounced [tifinaɣ]) is an alphabetic script used by some Berber peoples, notably the Tuareg, to write their language. The Berbers are the indigenous peoples of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. It is not in widespread use as a means of daily communication, but often serves to politically and symbolically assert a Berber identity. A slightly modified version of this Berber script, called Tifinagh Ircam is used in a very limited number of Moroccan elementary schools in teaching the Berber language to children.

The word Tifinagh is etymologically derived from tifi negh 'our find/discovery'.[1]

Contents

Tifinagh or Neo-Tifinagh?

Linguists and historians tend to be specific in distinguishing between the millennia-old Berber abjad which is Tifinagh; and the Neo-Tifinagh alphabet which is based on the abjad but marks vowels and distinguishes more consonants.

The old Tifinagh script is found engraved in stones and tombs in some historical sites in nothern Algeria, in Tunisia, and in Tuareg areas in the African Sahara.

The Neo-Tifinagh script was developed and computerized in the 20th century mainly by Moroccan and Algerian researchers some of them based in Europe.

History

An older version of Tifinagh was more widely used by speakers of North Africa. It is attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD.

Proto-Tifinagh
Type Abjad
Time period 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD
Parent systems
Proto-Canaanite alphabet
  • Proto-Tifinagh
Child systems Tifinagh, Neo-Tifinagh
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.
  • There are two 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 Kabylie 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.

The Traditional Tifinagh (Tuareg)

Tifinagh (Tuareg)
Type Abjad
Spoken languages Tuareg language
Time period ?? to present
Parent systems
Proto-Canaanite alphabet
  • Tifinagh (Tuareg)
Child systems Neo-Tifinagh
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

Traditionally, the script marks no vowels, except word-finally; however, various proposals to allow it to mark vowels have been made in recent times. 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.

The Neo-Tifinagh script

Neo-Tifinagh
Type Alphabet
Time period 1980 to present
Parent systems
ISO 15924 Tfng
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode.

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. However, 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. Outside Morocco, it has no official status. Ironically, the Moroccan state arrested and imprisoned people using this script during 1980s and the 1990s.[2]

In Libya, the authorithies are, consistently, banning the Neo-Tifinagh script from being used in public like on stores' displays and banners.[3]

Code chart for the Neo-Tifinagh script

Neo-Tifinagh is encoded in the Unicode range U+2D30 to U+2D7F, starting from version 4.1.0. There are 55 defined characters, but there are more characters being used than those defined. In ISO 15924, the code Tfng is assigned to Neo-Tifinagh.

Unicode representative glyphs chart (in left-to-right direction)
Code +0 +1 +2 +3 +4 +5 +6 +7 +8 +9 +A +B +C +D +E +F
U+2D30 Image:2D30.png Image:2D31.png Image:2D32.png Image:2D33.png Image:2D34.png Image:2D35.png Image:2D36.png Image:2D37.png Image:2D38.png Image:2D39.png Image:2D3A.png Image:2D3B.png Image:2D3C.png Image:2D3D.png Image:2D3E.png Image:2D3F.png
U+2D40 Image:2D40.png Image:2D41.png Image:2D42.png Image:2D43.png Image:2D44.png Image:2D45.png Image:2D46.png Image:2D47.png Image:2D48.png Image:2D49.png Image:2D4A.png Image:2D4B.png Image:2D4C.png Image:2D4D.png Image:2D4E.png Image:2D4F.png
U+2D50 Image:2D50.png Image:2D51.png Image:2D52.png Image:2D53.png Image:2D54.png Image:2D55.png Image:2D56.png Image:2D57.png Image:2D58.png Image:2D59.png Image:2D5A.png Image:2D5B.png Image:2D5C.png Image:2D5D.png Image:2D5E.png Image:2D5F.png
U+2D60 Image:2D60.png Image:2D61.png Image:2D62.png Image:2D63.png Image:2D64.png Image:2D65.png                   Image:2D6F.png
U+2D70                                

Here is a comparison chart for the character glyph and the transliteration.

Color keys
Color Meaning
  Basic Tifinagh (IRCAM)
  Extended Tifinagh (IRCAM)
  Other Tifinagh letters
  Modern Tuareg letters
  This position shall not be used
Simple letters (and modifier letter)
Code Glyph Unicode Transliteration Name
Latin Arabic
U+2D30 ⴰ a ا ya
U+2D31 ⴱ b ب yab
U+2D32 ⴲ b ٻ yab fricative
U+2D33 ⴳ g گ yag
U+2D34 ⴴ g ڲ yag fricative
U+2D35 ⴵ dj ج Berber Academy yadj
U+2D36 ⴶ dj ج yadj
U+2D37 ⴷ d د yad
U+2D38 ⴸ d د yad fricative
U+2D39 ⴹ ḍ ض yaḍ
U+2D3A ⴺ ḍ ض yaḍ fricative
U+2D3B ⴻ e ه yey
U+2D3C ⴼ f ف yaf
U+2D3D ⴽ k ک yak
U+2D3E ⴾ k ک Tuareg yak
U+2D3F ⴿ k ک yak fricative
U+2D40 ⵀ h
b		 ھ
ب		 yah
= Tuareg yab
U+2D41 ⵁ h ھ Berber Academy yah
U+2D42 ⵂ h ھ Tuareg yah
U+2D43 ⵃ ḥ ح yaḥ
U+2D44 ⵄ ˤ (ε) ع yaε
U+2D45 ⵅ kh (x) خ yax
U+2D46 ⵆ kh (x) خ Tuareg yax
U+2D47 ⵇ q ق yaq
U+2D48 ⵈ q ق Tuareg yaq
U+2D49 ⵉ i ي yi
U+2D4A ⵊ j ج yaj
U+2D4B ⵋ j ج Ahaggar yaj
U+2D4C ⵌ j ج Tuareg yaj
Code Glyph Unicode Transliteration Name
Latin Arabic
U+2D4D ⵍ l ل yal
U+2D4E ⵎ m م yam
U+2D4F ⵏ n ن yan
U+2D50 ⵐ ny ني Tuareg yagn
U+2D51 ⵑ ng ڭ Tuareg yang
U+2D52 ⵒ p پ yap
U+2D53 ⵓ u
w		 و
ۉ		 yu
= Tuareg yaw
U+2D54 ⵔ r ر yar
U+2D55 ⵕ ṛ ڕ yaṛ
U+2D56 ⵖ gh (γ) غ yaγ
U+2D57 ⵗ gh (γ) غ Tuareg yaγ
U+2D58 ⵘ gh (γ)
j		 غ
ج		 Aïr yaγ
= Adrar yaj
U+2D59 ⵙ s س yas
U+2D5A ⵚ ṣ ص yaṣ
U+2D5B ⵛ sh (š) ش yaš
U+2D5C ⵜ t ت yat
U+2D5D ⵝ t ت yat fricative
U+2D5E ⵞ ch (tš) تش yatš
U+2D5F ⵟ ṭ ط yaṭ
U+2D60 ⵠ v ۋ yav
U+2D61 ⵡ w ۉ yaw
U+2D62 ⵢ y ي yay
U+2D63 ⵣ z ز yaz
U+2D64 ⵤ z ز Tawellemet yaz
= Harpoon yaz
U+2D65 ⵥ ẓ ﻈ yaẓ
U+2D6F ⵯ +ʷ ۥ+ Labio-velarization mark
= Tamatart
= <super> 2D61
Digraph letters (ligatures are possible)
Code Glyph Unicode Transliteration Name
Latin Arabic
U+2D5C U+2D59 ⵜⵙ ts تس yats
U+2D37 U+2D63 ⴷⵣ dz دز yadz
Code Glyph Unicode Transliteration Name
Latin Arabic
U+2D5C U+2D5B ⵜⵛ ch (tš) تش yatš
U+2D37 U+2D4A ⴷⵊ dj دج yadj

Unicode fonts for Neo-Tifinagh

References

  1. ^ The Mother Tongue in Morocco: The politics of an indigenous education p. 20.
  2. ^ (French)Rapport sur le calvaire de l’écriture en Tifinagh au Maroc
  3. ^ (Arabic)[1]

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.
  • Savage, Andrew. 2008. Writing Tuareg — the three script options. International Journal of the Sociology of Language 192: 5-14

http://www.ircam.ma/amzfr.htm

Tifinagh on Computers

Windows

The IRCAM has lunched a software suite that enables Windows XP users to be able to view/write Tifinagh on windows machines. This suite can be downloaded from the IRCAM website download here.

Other

It is possible to write Tifinagh on other systems as there are free Tifinagh fonts download here such as AFUS DEG WFUS developed by the SOLIDARITE BERBERO-EUROPENNE AFUS DEG WFUS .

External links

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tifinagh"

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