A Note on the Berber language and its Dialects
Berber is the language of the indigenous population of North Africa. It belongs to Hamitic family related to ancient Egyptian. Probably it is called Berber from the Greek for ‘barbarian’ meaning foreign. The Berber people do not use the term and call it different names depending on the region.
There is a long albeit scare history of the language and the people. Much is known about the Berbers from the times of Phoenicians establishment of trading colonies by about 1100 BC, although their settlements existed long time before then.
Then it was the time of the Carthage domination from the 5th century BC which passed on to Rome some three hundred years later.
The Roman authority was constantly challenged by the Berber tribes. The challenge continued in the same vein after the Arab conquest. No defined territory or one constant state meant a wide geographic area populated by the Berbers later confined to mountain ranges of North Africa. It is no wonder that Berber language, mainly an oral language is rich with varied dialects; more than a hundred are in use today.
In Algeria where to some account about five million Berbers live there is dialect known as ‘Kabyle’.
There is also the ‘Chaouia’ spoken by the population of Aures, south of Constantine.
‘Tuareg’ is a variant of Berber spoken in the extreme south of Algeria as well as across Mauretania. It should be noted that Tuareg has preserved a scripture writing called ‘tifinagh’ which was passed on from generation to generation for a long time.
There is also a variant called ‘Mzab’
As far as Morocco is concerned there are three major Berber dialects: Tarifit used in the Rif area in the north of the country. Tamazight which is used in the Middle Atlas regions and in the High Atlas and finally the Tashelhit (or Tachelait) spoken in the High Atlas and in the Anti-Atlas regions of the south. Tashelhit is some times known as Chleuh by the name of the main tribe of Berbers using the dialect.
It is generally thought that these dialects are part of the same language and in general mutually intelligible unless you happen to come from the very end of the spectrum. Thus a speaker of Tarifit in the north and the speaker of the Tashelhit in the south cannot understand each other or communicate between each other.
The remaining country where Berber language is spoken is Tunisia. Only six villages at the moment are totally Berber and they are found in the region of Medenine in the extreme south of the country.
Apart from this due to urban migration of the past century there exist a large community of Berber speakers in the large cities of the Maghreb and Europe, like Casablanca, Rabat, Agadir, Nador, Al Houceima, Tizi-ouzou, Algeria, Utrecht, Paris, Brussels and Madrid.
If the dialect of Tuareg is excluded as it is quite different to the rest it could be said that they all belong to one language as there are phonetic, morphological, syntactic and lexical similarities.
The Berber dialects are into hundreds of varieties whose boundaries are not clearly defined as there are no clear mappings of the language. There are opposing opinions but certainly one of them is that the Berber language is one language of many dialects.
All Berbers are in general bilingual as they usually speak the Arabic dialect as well and with ease. This is the case in particular with young generation and those under the age of fifty. Those above fifty and in particular the women may remain monolingual with Berber dialect as their only language. In this group one can count the pre-school children who are not exposed to life outside home and whose home is in the mountainous regions of the Maghreb.
There are only estimates of how many speakers are monolingual and some go as high as 45% in Morocco for example.
There is no written literature in Berber but much of the oral literature exists, aided by vast heritage of songs, legends, poetry, proverbs and anecdotes. The Berber culture was invigorated in the sixties in France where an Academy of Berber was founded. This happened in 1967 and numerous cultural events related to Berber culture have there taken place since.
The Berber dialect is, unlike its Arab counterpart, assigned a secondary role in the local culture and is not used in education or by media much.
Use of Berber languages is localised and confined to the rural regions. In the cities where rural population is of considerable size its role is confined mainly to family circles and close friends. The Street, School and Work are all where Arabic is dominant.
When a child enters education the schooling creates of him a multilingual person as the child will soon acquire some knowledge of French, even English or Spanish to the already existing knowledge of Berber and Arabic.
Of late there has been a change in official attitude towards the Berber language and the Arab population is either tolerating or fully accepting the language as equal to Arabic.
In Algeria and Morocco there exists a rather complex attitude towards the Berber language. On the whole there is no more than a tacit recognition of the language and the culture.
However some changes are afoot. In the nineties a department for Amazigh (Berber) language and culture was created at the University of Tizi-Ouzou in Algeria.
It has also gained influence and allotted time in the media in Morocco and many national festivities and holidays are marked also with Berber folklore, songs and dances.
Chances are that the Berber language will be introduced into the education system of Morocco which will be a major step to revitalise the language and allot it a place it deserves.