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Berber People

Berbers / Amazighs
ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵏ / ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖ
Total population
25 - 30 million – 50 million
Regions with significant populations
 Morocco from ≈ 14 million to ≈ 20 million or 27,078,593
 Algeria from 9 to ≈ 13 million or 32,320,000
 France more than 2 million
 Niger 1,620,000
 Mali 850,000
 Libya >3,850,000
 Mauritania 2,883,000 (2,768,000 & 115,000)
 Tunisia 110,000 or >6,589,652
 Burkina Faso 50,000
 Egypt 34,000 or 1,826,580
 Canada 25,885
 Israel 3,500
Languages
Berber languages or Tamazight, written with Tifinagh alphabet (mother tongue);
Maghrebi Arabic dialects (among Arabized Berbers)
Religion
Predominantly Islam (Sunni, Ibadi);
Small minorities adhere to Christianity,Judaism and traditional faith
Related ethnic groups
other Afro-Asiatic peoples

Berbers or Amazighs (Berber: ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵏ Imaziɣen, singular: ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖ Amaziɣ/Amazigh) are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are distributed in an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Niger River. Historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Since the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the seventh century, a large number of Berbers inhabiting the Maghreb have acquired different degrees of knowledge of varieties of the languages of North Africa. After the colonization of North Africa by France, "the French government succeeded in integrating the French language in Algeria by making French the official national language and requiring all education to take place in French." Foreign languages, mainly French and to some degree Spanish, inherited from former European colonial powers, are used by most educated Berbers in Algeria and Morocco in some formal contexts, such as higher education or business.

Today, most Berber people live in North Africa, mainly in Libya, Algeria, and Morocco; Small Berber populations are also found in Niger, Mali, Mauritania, Tunisia, Burkina Faso and Egypt, as well as large immigrant communities living in France, Canada, Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, and other countries of Europe.


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