Tifinagh

Tifinagh , or ⵜⵉⴼⵉⵏⴰⵖ (

Isekkiln_n_tifinagh.jpg

) (pronounced ) is an alphabetic script used by some Berbers to write their language. The original Tifinagh script (which has almost no vowels and a smaller number of letters) is used exclusively by the Tuareg, the only Berber people who have kept usage of the ancient Libyco-Berber script; it derives from an older script sometimes named the Libyan (French libyque) or Libyco-Berber alphabet, used by speakers of Berber languages all across North Africa and on the Canary Islands until the late Roman era.

In current usage, furthermore, Tifinagh often also refers to (variants of) the Neo-Tifinagh developed by the "Académie Berbère" in the 1960s, with fixed left-to-right directionality and vowel letters.

History

An older version of Tifinagh, sometimes named the Libyan (French libyque) or Libyco-berber alphabet, was more widely used by speakers of Berber languages all across North Africa and on the Canary Islands. It is attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. It is usually assumed to be of Phoenician origin. The word Tifinagh is a feminine plural noun whose singular in Tamashek is Tafineqq; it means 'the Phoenician (letters)', according to the most known opinions. For a discussion, see [1] and [2].

Libyco-Berber script

*There are two variants: eastern and western.
*The estern 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 (1964-65)). 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. The letter forms vary significantly across the wide area where Tifinagh is used. The direction of writing varies; right-to-left is common, but the older "Libyan" inscriptions most commonly use the unusual orientation bottom-to-top. Occasionally the script has been used to write other neighboring languages, such as Tagdal Songhai.

The Neo-Tifinagh script

A "modernized" version of Tifinagh was put forward by the Académie Berbère in the 1960's; it is written left to right, marks vowels and has more letters. 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.

Code chart

Tifinagh is encoded in the Unicode range U+2D30—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 Tifinagh.

Unicode representative glyphs chart (in left-to-right direction)

2

6

A

E

Code
+3
+7
+B
+F
U+2D30	2D30.png	2D31.png	2D32.png	2D33.png	2D34.png	2D35.png	2D36.png	2D37.png	2D38.png	2D39.png	2D3A.png	2D3B.png	2D3C.png	2D3D.png	2D3E.png	2D3F.png
U+2D40	2D40.png	2D41.png	2D42.png	2D43.png	2D44.png	2D45.png	2D46.png	2D47.png	2D48.png	2D49.png	2D4A.png	2D4B.png	2D4C.png	2D4D.png	2D4E.png	2D4F.png
U+2D50	2D50.png	2D51.png	2D52.png	2D53.png	2D54.png	2D55.png	2D56.png	2D57.png	2D58.png	2D59.png	2D5A.png	2D5B.png	2D5C.png	2D5D.png	2D5E.png	2D5F.png
U+2D60	2D60.png	2D61.png	2D62.png	2D63.png	2D64.png	2D65.png										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¦¦rowspan="2"|Glyph Unicode Transliteration Name Latin¦¦Arabic U+2D30 ⴰ a ا ya U+2D31 ⴱ b ب yab U+2D32 ⴲ bh ٻ yabh U+2D33 ⴳ g گ yag U+2D34 ⴴ gh ڲ yagh U+2D35 ⴵ dj ج Berber Academy yaj U+2D36 ⴶ dj ج yaj U+2D37 ⴷ d د yad U+2D38 ⴸ ḍ ض yadh U+2D39 ⴹ ḍ ض yadd U+2D3A ⴺ ḍ ض yaddh 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 kh خ yakhh 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 yahh U+2D44 ⵄ æ (ɛ) ع yaa U+2D45 ⵅ kh خ yakh U+2D46 ⵆ kh خ Tuareg yakh U+2D47 ⵇ q ق yaq U+2D48 ⵈ q ق Tuareg yaq U+2D49 ⵉ i ي yi U+2D4A ⵊ j ج yazh U+2D4B ⵋ j ج Ahaggar yazh U+2D4C ⵌ j ج Tuareg yazh

Code¦¦rowspan="2"|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 �' p پ yap U+2D53 �" u w و ۉ yu = Tuareg yaw U+2D54 �" r ر yar U+2D55 ⵕ ṛ ڕ yarr U+2D56 ⵖ gh (ɣ) غ yagh U+2D57 ⵗ gh (ɣ) غ Tuareg yagh U+2D58 ⵘ gh (ɣ) dj غ ج Ayer yagh = Adrar yaj U+2D59 ⵙ s س yas U+2D5A ⵚ ṣ ص yass U+2D5B ⵛ sh (ʃ) ش yash U+2D5C ⵜ t ت yat U+2D5D ⵝ ṭ ط yath U+2D5E ⵞ ch (tʃ) تش yach U+2D5F ⵟ ṭ ط yatt 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 �" دز yazz U+2D6F ⵯ +w ۥ+ Labio-velarization mark = Tamatart = 2D61

Digraph letters (ligatures are possible)

Code¦¦rowspan="2"|Glyph Unicode Transliteration Name Latin¦¦Arabic U+2D5C U+2D59 ⵜⵙ ts تس yats U+2D37 U+2D63 ⴷⵣ dz دز yadz

Code¦¦rowspan="2"|Glyph Unicode Transliteration Name Latin¦¦Arabic U+2D5C U+2D5B ⵜⵛ ch (tʃ) تش yach U+2D37 U+2D4A ⴷⵊ dj دج yadzh

Bibliography

* Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Tifinagh.

External links

*Amanar pictures of Tifinagh fonts used in books, magazines
*http://www.ancientscripts.com/berber.html
*http://amazighworld.net/studies/articles/touareg_histoire.php
*http://ennedi.free.fr/tifin.htm
*http://www.mondeberbere.com/langue/tifinagh/tifinagh_origine.htm
*http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tifinagh.htm