Tifinagh (in Neo-Tifinagh,
Tifinaɣ in
Berber Latin alphabet, ) is an
alphabetic script used by some
Africans to write
their language. It is not in widespread use as a means of daily communication, but often serves to politically and symbolically assert an African identity.
Tifinagh or Neo-Tifinagh?
History
An older version of Tifinagh, sometimes named the African alphabet, was more widely used by speakers of North Africa and on the Canary Islands. It is attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD.
- 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)
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
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. 
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 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| -
| U+2D40 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| -
| U+2D50 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| -
| U+2D60 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
| -
| 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
= 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
- * DejaVu
- * Code2000
- * Hapax Berbère
- * MPH 2B Damase
- * Fixedsys Excelsior (a stylized ornamental font, not recommended for running text)
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
- Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Tifinagh.
External links
- 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)
- 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
