Berber orthography

Berber orthography is the writing system(s) used to transcribe the Berber languages. In antiquity, the Libyco-Berber script (Tifinagh) was utilized to write Berber. Early uses of the script have been found on rock art and in various sepulchres. Following the spread of Islam, some Berber scholars also utilized the Arabic script. There are now three writing systems in use for Berber languages: Tifinagh (Libyco-Berber), the Arabic script, and the Berber Latin alphabet. Different groups in North Africa have different preferences of writing system, often motivated by ideology and politics.

Neo-Tifinagh, a resurrected version of an alphabetic script found in historical engravings, is the de jure writing system for Tamazight in Morocco. The script was made official by a Dahir of King Mohammed VI, based on the recommendation of IRCAM. It was recognized in the Unicode standard in June 2004.

Tifinagh was chosen to be official after consideration of its univocity (one sound per symbol, allowing regional variation), economy, consistency, and historicity. Significantly, Tifinagh avoids negative cultural connotations of the Latin and Arabic scripts.

Tifinagh is preferred by young people as a symbol of identity and has popular support. It is especially popular for symbolic use, with many books and websites written in a different script featuring logos or title pages using Neo-Tifinagh. However, virtually no books or websites were being published in this alphabet, with activists primarily favoring Latin scripts for serious usage.

Tifinagh has been criticized for not being practical to implement, and for being Kabyle-centric and not historically authentic. Following the Tifinagh Dahir road signs were installed in the Riffian city of Nador in Arabic and Tifinagh, but these were removed by security forces in the middle of the night soon after.

The Moroccan state arrested and imprisoned people using this script during the 1980s and the 1990s, but now Morocco is the only country in which Tifinagh has official status.

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