Tifinagh

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Entrance to Kidal. The name of the town is written in Tifinagh and Latin script.

Tifinagh ( in Neo-Tifinagh, Tifinaγ in Berber Latin alphabet, pronounced [tifinaɣ]) is an alphabetic script used by some Berbers to write their language. The original Tifinagh script (which has almost no vowels and a small 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.

1 History
2 Bibliography
3 External links

[edit] History

An older version of Tifinagh, sometimes named the Libyan (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].

[edit] Libyco-Berber script

Libyan, Libyco-berber
Type:	Abjad
Languages:	Libyan language (Berber)
Time period:	3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD
Parent writing systems:	Proto-Canaanite alphabet Phoenician alphabet Libyan, Libyco-berber
Child writing systems:	Tifinagh, Neo-Tifinagh
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

There are two variants: eastern and western.
The eastern 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 (1964–1965). 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.

Phoenician	Sound	Eastern Libyco-Berber
	ʾ
	b
	g
	d
	h
	w
	z
	ḥ
	ṭ
	y
	k
	l
	m
	n
	s
	ε
	p,f
	ṣ
	q
	r
	š
	t
	ẓ
	j

[edit] The Traditional Tifinagh (Tuareg)

Tifinagh (Tuareg)
Type:	Abjad
Languages:	Tuareg language
Time period:	?? to present
Parent writing systems:	Proto-Canaanite alphabet Phoenician alphabet Libyan Tifinagh (Tuareg)
Child writing systems:	Neo-Tifinagh
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

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.

[edit] The Neo-Tifinagh script

Neo-Tifinagh
Type:	Alphabet
Languages:	Berber languages
Time period:	1980 to present
Parent writing systems:	Proto-Canaanite alphabet Phoenician alphabet Libyan Tifinagh Neo-Tifinagh
ISO 15924 code:	`Tfng`
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. See IPA chart for English for an English-based pronunciation key.

In the 1960s, a group of young Kabyle berberists created the Académie Berbère and put forward a new version of the script, nowadays called "Neo-Tifinagh", it is written left to right, marks vowels and has more letters. The Académie Berbère published several texts and magazines in this script, since then it's been popular among the Kabyle movement first: The JSK (Kabyle soccer team), The Mouvement Culturel Berbère and the Rally for Culture and Democracy, and then spread to all Berber speaking areas.

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. Ironically, the Moroccan state arrested and emprisoned people using this script during 1980s and the 1990s. [3]

[edit] Code chart for the Neo-Tifinagh script

Neo-Tifinagh is encoded in the Unicode range U+2D30 to 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 Neo-Tifinagh.

**Unicode representative glyphs chart (in left-to-right direction)**
Code	+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+7	+8	+9	+A	+B	+C	+D	+E	+F
U+2D30
U+2D40
U+2D50
U+2D60
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	Glyph	Unicode	Transliteration		Name
Code	Glyph	Unicode	Latin	Arabic	Name
U+2D30		ⴰ	a	ا	ya
U+2D31		ⴱ	b	ب	yab
U+2D32		ⴲ	b	ٻ	yab fricative
U+2D33		ⴳ	g	گ	yag
U+2D34		ⴴ	g	ڲ	yag fricative
U+2D35		ⴵ	dj	ج	Berber Academy yadj
U+2D36		ⴶ	dj	ج	yadj
U+2D37		ⴷ	d	د	yad
U+2D38		ⴸ	d	د	yad fricative
U+2D39		ⴹ	ḍ	ض	yaḍ
U+2D3A		ⴺ	ḍ	ض	yaḍ fricative
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	k	ک	yak fricative
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	yaḥ
U+2D44		ⵄ	ˤ (ε)	ع	yaε
U+2D45		ⵅ	kh (x)	خ	yax
U+2D46		ⵆ	kh (x)	خ	Tuareg yax
U+2D47		ⵇ	q	ق	yaq
U+2D48		ⵈ	q	ق	Tuareg yaq
U+2D49		ⵉ	i	ي	yi
U+2D4A		ⵊ	j	ج	yaj
U+2D4B		ⵋ	j	ج	Ahaggar yaj
U+2D4C		ⵌ	j	ج	Tuareg yaj

Code	Glyph	Unicode	Transliteration		Name
Code	Glyph	Unicode	Latin	Arabic	Name
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		ⵒ	p	پ	yap
U+2D53		ⵓ	u w	و ۉ	yu = Tuareg yaw
U+2D54		ⵔ	r	ر	yar
U+2D55		ⵕ	ṛ	ڕ	yaṛ
U+2D56		ⵖ	gh (γ)	غ	yaγ
U+2D57		ⵗ	gh (γ)	غ	Tuareg yaγ
U+2D58		ⵘ	gh (γ) j	غ ج	Aïr yaγ = Adrar yaj
U+2D59		ⵙ	s	س	yas
U+2D5A		ⵚ	ṣ	ص	yaṣ
U+2D5B		ⵛ	sh (š)	ش	yaš
U+2D5C		ⵜ	t	ت	yat
U+2D5D		ⵝ	t	ت	yat fricative
U+2D5E		ⵞ	ch (tš)	تش	yatš
U+2D5F		ⵟ	ṭ	ط	yaṭ
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	z.	ﻈ	yaz.
U+2D6F		ⵯ	+^w	ۥ+	Labio-velarization mark = Tamatart = <super> 2D61