Tifinagh

[Mmis n Nador]

How many of you can read and write in Amazigh Tifinagh letters?

for those who can't I can help you!

[Mmis n Nador]

Walu?


You are all geniuses in Amazigh language?


You'all know the Tifinagh letters (reading and writing)??


impressive!!!!!!

[Mmis n Nador]

Azul! (means "hello" in Tamazight)

glad that you've responded.... i visit this forum every day... you have to do the same.. and write a lot ... post a lot! just do it... share .. scream...


well..

first of all...


The Amazigh language is a Hamito-semetic language.. it is a totally different branch than Arabic.. so forget about Arabic..


Tamazight is spoken by imazighen in North africa for thousands of years ... before the Arabs even exist!

now it is spoken by moroccans , Algerians, tunisians, libyans, mauritanians, poeple of Mali, niger borkina faso and the oasis of Siwa in Egypt.


after a long struggle against the ruling arab minority in morocco and algeria Imazighen made some small victories (an istitute in Rabat, official letters, teaching the language in some primary schools...)

The official letter in Morocco for tamazight since 2004 is : Tifinagh.

it's made of 33 letters

it writes from left to right like Latin, english....


this is a link to learn the letters ... (with sounds)

http://www.ircam.ma/ecoleamazighe/index.html


when you learn the letters ... i will provide you with word lists and useful links and texts...


one more thing : YOU CAN WRITE ON YOUR COMPUTER WITH AMAZIGH TIFINAGH LETTERS LIKE ANY OTHER LANGUAGE.. you only have to download the fonts (free)

and try to spread this to your family, friends at school, at work.... it's veeery interesting...


catch you later

[freemocy]

Thank you , really interesting..but i just to point out that Amazigh is not a language but rather a variety.You know what differentiates standard arabic from amazigh variety is the status of prestige and size.Standard arabic has got rich and more lexical items than amazigh which lacks many criteron.For instance , Tarifit in the North east , Tamazight in the central or Tashalhit in the South east borrow and even use numerous standard arabic words.Any language wich lacks those important charachteristics namely the notion of "prestige" wich refers to the use of formal language in educational system , administrations ..etc and also the notion of "size" degrades to be a variety.

[Mmis n Nador]

noooo ..no..no..

this is totally wrong!

Tamazight is a full language like English or spanish...

only poeple who don't know Tamazight think it's not a language ... they say it's a dialect!!!!

some times even Imazighen in Morocco or Algeria ... say: "our language is only a minor dialect .. we better learn arabic or french.." that's because they don't know their language ... they never learnt it at schools .. what do you expect from them!!!

you are talking about prestige mister Freemocy .. and you are right .. Arabic is now far more prestigious than Tamazight .. this due to historical and economic and even political reasons .. Arabic is the language of Islam ... that is a huge strength plus that the arabs conquerd neighbouring countries Turkey , Iran, Tamazgha (= North Africa).... and they published their language ... Arabic has became a holy language.. and today Arabic is the language of oil lords.. of terrorists .. of the palestinians ... of the iraqi's .. Arabic and the Arabs are under the lights and in the media .. so arabic language is getting more important and famous .. that's it ..very simple...


back to Tamazight language ..the differences between Tamazight-Tarifit or Tamazight-tachelhit or Tamazight-Taqbaylit are very limited ... it's only in pronunciations and some spelling and vocabulary ... grammar is absolutely the same!!! that's a scientific fact...

I have in my room an Arabic-Tamazight dictionary in 3 thick volumes!!!... (ever heard of such a dictionary?) .. there are several other dictionaries .. Tarifit spanish ... french tamazight ... tamazight-tamazight ....

keep digging...

see you..

[Larache4eva]

i don't understand a thing!! fill me in...am not a berber but i live in Larache sorrounded by Berbers (Rifi people), first from what i know about them they r nice, kind, religious, respectful....truelly but too bad they r not social at all, tehy don't get to know people and not easily being friends with them unless they r Rifi too and their daughters women don't go out usually but u see them more in looking out in windows!! are they imprisonned? is it the culture tha imposes this on them? or way of taking islam? n why most Rifi women wont be married to u unless u r a Rifi, ....i don't know if you are a Rifi but u sound to be so cuz u have Naodr in ur username, but there are plenty of them here any way.. i wanted to ask, so Berbers are Rifi, Chel7 n Sousi???? i mean i have confusions over this! u know..who are berbers? how many of them apart from Rif and is Amazigh the language or dialect that rifi people speak or its the language that all berber speak?...
n please don't get me wrong if u r offended i was just wondering n u know i love Rifi people here they r so nice i could once make a friend of them he was a guy living in Netherland n i know Rifi are "Rjal" u know they stand by each other's side, n have a strong commitment to their roots and morocco.

by the way i will tell u a true story tha sounds like a romantic joke. i know a guy who used to be my friend he had a crush on a Rifi girl well after awhile he was completely in love with her no way outtttttt!! she felt teh same over days n days they never met or anything she never been out from her house, which made him go for Romoe tactics n use the silliest pickup lines to an extense tha all the neighbour found out about their "ipmossible love"!!!, why? because he knew about this that he won't be able to ask her father to marry her unless he's a Rifi too!! u know what! his love was stonger than that! he made a commitment to himself and eventually ended up learning Amazigh language n started to make Rifi friends after awhile he was completely a Rifi wanna-be. he tehn could easily speak it..n used to frequent to same mosque her father used to go to!!! he kept trying till he was friend of her father's friends......but not way he didn't manage to be approved as a non-Rifi man to getting married to a Rifi Girl!!!! so why is that?? aren't we all muslims? what if i fall in love with aRifi girl tehy r kind, nice, n religious, thr right person make ur wife...why only to a Rifi man, so the culture won't be lost? we all are muslims...sorry again if i said something offensive but i didn't mean am just wondering, thank you

[Mmis n Nador]

Hi Larache4eva

I am a Rif - Amazigh man from Nador .. I live in europe..

nice to meet you!


you did not say anything offensive or bad ...

those Rifan poeple and Rifan traditions still exist! ... but they are slowly disappearing and dying ... now only some old Riffi poeple believe that for example their daughters would marry only Amazigh or Rif men ..!

most educated Riffi men and women do not think so .. they are very open and tolerant ...

my aunt for example, a doctor, is married with a man from Rabat who doesn't speak Tamazight Tarifit... and he they're visiting Nador a lot .. and every thing is great..!!

and even .. a lot of traditional Riffi men and women do like non-Amazigh poeple ..
so there are a lot of exceptions...


you asked about tamazight and the differences ...

in principle Tamazight is the same in whole morocco, algeria, libya, mali, niger... only pronunciation and spelling is a little different.. grammar is the same..

A Riffi man can learn Tassusit in 2 or 3 weeks... A Soussi woman can learn Tarifit or Taqbaylit very easily in a couple of weeks... !! but nobody is doing it because it's not promoted!

the differences between Tamazight-Tarifit and Tmazight-Tasousit for example is much smaller than diffences between Moroccan Darija and Egyptian or Iraqi Arabic ...

Most Moroccans understand Egyptian Arabic because Moroccans are watching egyptian films and tv series a lot !... they are doing efforts to learn egyptian by sitting in front of TV and watching those films every single day... !!!

ask an egyptian or lebanese or syrian to listen to a Moroccan song or movie in Darija ..!! they won't understand a single sentence or phrase ..!!!

it's about the effort that you make...!


I can give you very useful web links to learn unified Tamazight grammar ... very easily ...! if you are interested


bye