Berber Latin alphabet

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Berber Latin alphabet is the version of the Latin alphabet used to write Northern Berber languages. It uses the 23 standard letters, 7 modified letters and borrows 2 letters from the Greek alphabet. In the interests of pan-dialectal legibility, it omits the partly phonemic contrast found in some Berber languages (notably Kabyle and Tarifit) between stops and fricatives. Note that the Tuaregs of Mali and Niger, when writing in Latin, use a different official orthography, in which, for example, the schwa is represented by ə rather than e.

Some details of the orthography remain in flux; however, the version below has been widely used, particularly in Kabyle publishing, for several decades.

Contents 1 Standard Latin letters 2 Extended Latin letters 3 Other phenomena 4 See also 5 Bibliography 6 External links

[edit] Standard Latin letters

(To display Tifinagh letters, install the IRCAM's fonts.)

Berber Latin letter	Tifinagh (IRCAM) equivalent	IPA	Similar English sound
A a	ⴰ	æ	a like in bad
B b	ⴱ	bʷ or b or β	like an english b or v
C c	ⵛ	ʃ	sh like in sheet
D d	ⴷ	d or ð	d or th like in this
E e	ⴻ	ə	like in children
F f	ⴼ	f	like an english f
G g	ⴳ	gʷ or g or ʝ	g like in gate or Greek gh
H h	ⵀ	h	h like in hello
I i	ⵉ	i	ee like in sheet
J j	ⵊ	ʒ	like in confusion
K k	ⴽ	k or ç	k or German ch as in ich
L l	ⵍ	l or ɫ	l
M m	ⵎ	m	m
N n	ⵏ	n	n
Q q	ⵇ	q or qʷ	like Arabic qaf (no English equivalent)
R r	ⵔ	r	like a spanish r
S s	ⵙ	s	s
T t	ⵜ	t or θ	t or th like in bath
U u	ⵓ	ʊ	u like in put
W w	ⵡ	w	w in weep
X x	ⵅ	χ	Spanish j, German ch
Y y	ⵢ	j	y like in yes
Z z	ⵣ	z	z in zoo

[edit] Extended Latin letters

Letter	Unicode	Tifinagh (IRCAM)	IPA	Pronunciation
Č č	010C/010D	ⵛ	tʃ	ch like in chocolate
Ḍ ḍ	1E0C/1E0D	ⴹ	ðˁ	emphatic d
Ɛ ɛ	0190/025B	ⵄ	ʕ	like Arabic `ayn (no English equivalent)
Ǧ ǧ	01E6/01E7	ⴵ *	dʒ	like in John
Ɣ ɣ	0194/0263	ⵖ	ʁ	French r
Ḥ ḥ	1E24/1E25	ⵃ	ħ	like in Arabic Muḥammad (no English equivalent)
Ṛ ṛ	1E62/1E63	ⵚ	rˁ	emphatic r
Ṣ ṣ	1E62/1E63	ⵚ	sˁ	emphatic s
Ṭ ṭ	1E6C/1E6D	ⵟ	tˁ	emphatic t
Ẓ ẓ	1E92/1E93	ⵥ	zˁ	emphatic z

[edit] Other phenomena

For Kabyle:

Letter	IPA	Pronunciation
gh	ʁ	same as ɣ
tt	ts	ts like Russian tsar
zz	dz	as in English ds in words

[edit] See also

• Alphabets derived from the Latin
• Tifinagh

[edit] Bibliography

• Kamal Nait-Zerrad. Grammaire moderne du kabyle, tajerrumt tatrart n teqbaylit. Editions KARTHALA, 2001. ISBN 978-2-84586-172-5

[edit] External links

• A site in French for learning Kabyle.
• Kabyle alphabet on Omniglot