Berber World

The Berber World / Tamazgha

The Berber World or the Amazigh World (Berber: Amaḍal Amazigh or Tamazgha) is the collective historical homeland of the Berber people. It includes 5 whole coutries (Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, and Mauritania), and parts of 4 other countries (northern Mali, northern Niger, a portion of western Egypt, and Spanish territories of Melilla, Ceuta and the Canary Islands).

History

The Berbers are the oldest known people that inhabited North Africa and the Sahara Desert. Berber toponyms are the most dominant in the Berber World's countries and areas.

Languages

The Berber language (or Tamazight) was and still is the historical language of the area and is still alive and spoken by roughly half of the population of the Berber World. Today, variants of Berber language and colloquial Arabic dialects are spoken side by side in many major cities of the Berber World. Two examples of that are Casablanca and Algiers.

Arabic dialects were introduced to the Berber World after the Arab conquest in the 7th century. The short Arab rule of the Berber World did not manage to spread the Arabic language (language of the Coran and of the Umayyad dynasty in Asia) among the Berbers. It took more than 11 centuries combined and many Arab migrations to Africa for Arabic to spread through some Berber speaking areas. In the process, Maghreb Arabic dialect were formed and were heavily influenced by both Berber vocabulary and pronunciation.

The Arabization was strongly accelerated in the second half of the 20th century due to the Arabization policies conducted by Arab-nationalist regime of North Africa. However, many vast areas of Morocco and Algeria are still Berberophone despite these policies.