View source for Northern Berber languages

{{Short description|Afro-Asiatic dialect continuum}}
{{more references|date=November 2025}}
{{Infobox language family
|name        = Northern Berber
|region      = [[Northwest Africa]]
|familycolor = Afro-Asiatic
|fam2        = [[Berber languages|Berber]]
|child1      = [[Kabyle language|Kabyle]]
|child2      = [[Atlas languages|Atlas]]
|child3      = [[Zenati languages|Zenati]]
|glotto      = kaby1244
|glottoname  = Kabyle–Atlas Berber
|glotto2     = zena1250
|glottoname2 = Zenatic
}}

The '''Northern Berber languages''' are a [[dialect continuum]] spoken across the [[Maghreb]], constituting a subgroup of the [[Berber languages|Berber]] branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic]] family. Their continuity has been broken by the spread of [[Arabic]], and to a lesser extent by the [[Zenati languages|Zenati]] group within Northern Berber. The Zenati idioms share certain innovations not found in the surrounding languages; notably a softening of ''k'' to ''sh'' and an absence of ''a-'' in certain words, such as "hand" (''afus'' vs. ''fus''.) 

==Language contact and areal features==
The Northern Berber languages exhibit [[areal feature]]s, shared elements that come from [[language contact]] with an unrelated language rather than coming from a shared ancestor language. For Northern Berber languages, Arabic exerts a large influence, especially on the sound patterns of the languages.

Most Northern Berber languages have adopted the pharnygeal fricatives {{IPAblink|ʕ}} and {{IPAblink|ħ}}, as well as a few other [[phoneme]]s from Arabic. In general, the language contact is asymmetric; Arabic features are more likely to be adopted by the Berber languages than vice versa, because Arabic is more widely spoken.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Souag |first1=Lameen |editor1-last=Lucas |editor1-first=Christopher |editor2-last=Manfredi |editor2-first=Stefano |title=Arabic and contact-induced change |date=2020 |publisher=Language Science Press |location=Berlin |pages=403-418 |doi=10.5281/zenodo.3744535 |url=https://shs.hal.science/halshs-02945922/file/235-3-1846-1-10-20200515.pdf |access-date=19 November 2025 |language=en |chapter=Berber}}</ref>{{rp|408-413}}

==Members of the continuum==
The Berber languages represent a [[Dialect continuum|continuum]], and drawing clear boundaries between them is complicated, with linguists still disagreeing on optimal analysis of the relationships between the languages/dialects. [[Maarten Kossmann]] proposes a four-way distinction among the Berber languages, where the term "Northern Berber languages" refers to all Berber languages that are not members of the [[Zenaga language|Zenaga]], [[Tetserret language|Tetserret]], or [[Tuareg languages|Tuareg]] groups. Under this definition, the Northern Berber languages have a geographic range across Northern Africa, from the [[Morocco|Moroccan]] coastline all the way east to the [[Siwa Oasis]] in Egypt.<ref name=Kossmann>{{cite book |last1=Kossmann |first1=Maarten |editor1-last=Vossen |editor1-first=Rainer |editor2-last=Dimmendaal |editor2-first=Gerrit J. |title=The Oxford Handbook of African Languages |date=2020 |publisher=Oxford Academic |location=Oxford |pages=281-289 |url=https://academic.oup.com/edited-volume/38608 |access-date=19 November 2025 |chapter=Berber |doi=10.1093/oxfordhb/9780199609895.001.0001}}</ref>{{rp|281-283}}

Northern Berber languages spoken by over a million people include [[Shilha language|Shilha]], [[Central Morocco Tamazight]], [[Riffian language|Riff]], [[Shawiya language|Shawiya]] and [[Kabyle language|Kabyle]]. They fall into three groups:

*Moroccan [[Atlas languages]] (incl. Shilha, Central Morocco Tamazight)
*[[Zenati languages]] (incl. Riff, Shawiya)
*[[Kabyle language|Kabyle]]

The eastern boundaries of the North Berber varieties are uncertain. Some linguists include the [[Nafusi language|Nafusi]] and [[Ghadames language|Ghadames]] languages, while others do not. Most regard [[Ghadamès language|Ghadamès]] as lying outside of Northern Berber, but ''[[Ethnologue]]'' does not.

There is no authoritative answer as to whether the Northern Berber varieties constitute [[language]]s rather than [[dialect]]s. Some academics believe that not only Northern Berber but all the Berber languages are dialects of a single language, whereas others come up with much higher counts.{{cn|date=November 2025}} At any rate, [[mutual intelligibility|mutual comprehensibility]] among the Northern Berber varieties is high, though not perfect, and mutual influence between the varieties prevents clear-cut boundaries from being drawn.<ref name=Kossmann/>{{rp|285}}

==References==
{{reflist}}

{{Berber languages}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Northern Berber Languages}}
[[Category:Northern Berber languages]]
[[Category:Berber languages]]
[[Category:Berbers in Algeria]]
[[Category:Berbers in Morocco]]
[[Category:Berbers in Tunisia]]
[[Category:Languages of Morocco]]
[[Category:Languages of Algeria]]
[[Category:Languages of Tunisia]]
[[Category:Languages of Libya]]


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