A Leauki's Writings
Published on February 6, 2009 By Leauki In History

I just ordered Tamazight (Berber language) study software.

Apparently it runs on Mac OS X and Windows. It's from 2003.

Tamazight is the language (or one of the languages) of the Amazigh people, the indigenous people of North-Africa west of Egypt. It is spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, some areas in western Egypt, Mali, and Niger. A dialect of Tamazight (Tuareg) is a national language of Niger (official language is English). It is also since protests in 2001 a national language of Algeria.

The language is not recognised as official or national in Morocco, Mali, Tunisia, and Lybia despite the fact that it is the native language of the native population.

Tamazight is an afro-asiatic language, like ancient Agyptian, Hebrew, Aramaic, Arabic, Somali, and Amharic (Ethiopian). If Hebrew and Arabic are seen as an eastern branch, Somali (Kushitic) as a southern branch, and Egyptian as the middle branch, Tamazight is the western branch. It should therefor follow the same general grammatical rules as Hebrew but have completely different words.

I don't know much about the Imazighen (Berbers) and their culture but I want to learn.

It should be interesting.

P.S.: The /t/ in front and at the end of the name of the language as a derivation from the name of the people seems perfectly regular to me. I am extremely curious whether the /t/-scheme for suffixed and prefixes is the same or very similar as in Hebrew.

 


Comments
on Feb 06, 2009

This will be the beginning of my cultural tour through African history. I'll ignore Egypt and Ethiopia for a while, since their histories are well-known.

So it will be, most likely, Amazigh -> Kushitic peoples -> Nilo-Saharan cultures -> Niger-Congo A -> Niger-Congo B (Bantu) -> Khoi-San (click languages).

(I do not want to learn the languages, just about the cultures of the peoples. Languages are a good way to start learning.)

Wish me luck!