About Amazigh (Berber Languages)

The indigenous people of Morocco have spoken a local dialect of Berber/Amazigh for about the last 2000 years. Recent efforts to create one, standardized, literary form has led to the creation of the Amazigh language, which was constitutionally recognized as an official language in 2011. In 2001, the Royal Institute for Amazigh Culture was founded in Rabat, which leads all studies of Amazigh Culture. In Morocco, there are three main dialects of Amazigh: Tashelhit, Tamazight, and Tarifit.

Though Amazigh dialects are on a continuum and generally considered mutually intelligible, the dialects of Amazigh can vary from town-to-town. These Berber languages do become confusing, because they often have multiple names and it becomes hard to keep track of which is which, so let’s explore what we mean when we talk about Amazigh Languages in Morocco.

Many English speakers will simply refer to any and all local dialects of Amazigh as Berber. When we talk about people speaking Berber, we probably mean that they speak a dialect of Amazigh. The word “Berber” was used by Romans and others who came to North Africa as a pejorative term, meaning, in their view, the uncivilized, savage original inhabitants of the region. This is why the word Berber is offensive to many Imazighen people today. As mentioned above, Amazigh is the name of the official, standardized language of the indigenous people of Morocco. Amazigh is the language that is written, but was created with a mixture of words from all three dialects of Amazigh. Moroccan TV sometimes shows Amazigh lessons, but my teacher recently told me that his mother, who speaks Tamazight fluently, does not understand the Amazigh from these lessons, which illustrates that Amazigh is not the same as a spoken dialect of the Imazighen people of Morocco. However, there is a great deal of shared vocabulary and grammar between the three dialects. The written language has thirty-three letters in the Tifinagh alphabet, and it is read from left-to-right. These letters look like the signs found in Amazigh carpets, especially those that are made in the Middle Atlas Mountain region. All of the sounds found in Arabic are used in Tamazight, but sounds like the letters “tha” and “dal” exist in Fossha and Tamazight, but not in Darija.

The Tifinagh Alphabet

Before we look at each dialect individually, a note about the number of Amazigh speakers: It is difficult to accurately know the exact number of speakers of any of the Amazigh dialects, because speakers are often undercounted in census data. The numbers cited below are an estimate from Ethnologue in 2007, which found 7.5 million Amazigh speakers in Morocco. Because of population growth, it is possible that there are more Amazigh speakers in Morocco now than at any other point in history. Most trustworthy estimates state that at present, around 40% of the population of Morocco speaks Amazigh. 

Shilha or Tashelhit 

High Atlas, Anti-Atlas and the Sous valley, Southwest Morocco

3.9 million speakers

Male speaker=Ashlahi or Shlah or Soussi

Plural speakers=Ishulhin or Shluh

Central Atlas Tamazight or Middle Atlas Tamazight or Central Morocco Tamazight or Just Tamazight

Middle Atlas Mountains, Central Morocco

2.3 million speakers

Male speaker=Amazigh

Plural speaker=Imazighen 

Tarifit or Riffian or Rifi Berber

Rif Mountains, Northern Morocco

1.3 million speakers

Male speaker=Arifi or Rifi

Plural Speakers=Riffian

At Crossroads Cultural Exchange, we offer classes in Central Atlas Tamazight. Learn more about our program, and contact us to schedule your classes today.

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