The Libyco-Berber alphabet or the Libyc alphabet (modern Berber name: Agemmay Alibu-Maziɣ) is an abjad writing system that was used during the first millennium BC by various Berber peoples of North Africa and the Canary Islands, to write ancient varieties of the Berber language like the Numidian language in ancient North Africa.[2][3][4][5][6]

Libyco-Berber alphabet
Script type	Abjad
Time period	Sometime during the first millennium BC to the 4th-7th century AD
Direction	bottom-to-top script
Languages	Numidian language, Libyco-Berber (ancient or classical Berber language)
Related scripts
Parent systems	? Egyptian hieroglyphs ? Proto-Sinaitic script ? Phoenician alphabet[1] Libyco-Berber alphabet
Child systems	Tifinagh (Tuareg Tifinagh)

The Libyco-Berber script is found in thousands of stone inscriptions and engravings throughout Morocco, northern Algeria, Tunisia, northern Libya and the Canary Islands.

Apart from thousands of small inscriptions, some of the best known and significant Libyco-Berber inscriptions are in the Massinissa Temple (discovered in 1904) and the Prince Ateban Mausoleum in Dougga / Thugga (TBGG), northern Tunisia. Other significant Libyco-Berber inscription are the Azib N'Ikkis[7] and the Oukaimeden,[8] both found in the High-Atlas Mountains of Morocco.

The use of the Libyco-Berber alphabet died out in northern areas during or after the reign of the Roman and Byzantine empires, but it spread south into the Sahara desert and evolved there into the Tuareg Tifinagh alphabet used by the Tuareg Berbers to this day.

Description

Before, during, and after the existence of the ancient Berber kingdoms of Numidia (northern Algeria, 202 BC–40 BC) and Mauretania (northern Morocco, 3rd century BC – 44 AD) many inscriptions were engraved using the Libyco-Berber script, although the overwhelming majority of the found ones were simple funerary scripts, with rock art, cave art, graffiti, and even a few official governmental and possibly religious inscriptions have been found.[9]

The Libyco-Berber script was a pure abjad; it had no distinct vowels. However, it had equivalents for "w" and "y", and "h" was possibly used as an "a" too. Gemination was not marked. The writing was usually from the bottom to the top, although right-to-left, and even other orders, were also found. The letters took different forms when written vertically than when they were written horizontally.[10] The letters were highly geometrical.[11]

Variations

There are two known variants of the Libyco-Berber script: eastern and western. The eastern variant was used in what is now Constantine and the Aurès regions of Algeria and in Tunisia, and to an extent Kabylia. It is the best-deciphered variant, due to the discovery of several Numidian bilingual inscriptions in Libyco-Berber and Punic (notably at Dougga in Tunisia). Since 1843, 22 letters out of the 24 have been deciphered. The Western variant was used along the Mediterranean coast from Kabylia to the Canary Islands. It used 13 supplementary letters.[12] There may have been more variants, and even the two known dialects often show localities, and letters only used in certain regions (sub-variants), and different forms of engraving,[13] with some studies identifying more than 25 "dialects" grouped in 5 different groups.[14]

Origin

The origin of the Libyco-Berber script is still debated by academic researchers.[15][16] The leading theories regarding its origins posit it as being either a heavily modified version of the Phoenician alphabet, or a local invention influenced by the Phoenicians,[17] with the most likely theory being a local prototype conceptually inspired by Semitic, mainly Punic scripts.[18] Other, unlikely explanation include Greek derivation through the colonies in Cyrenaica, and South Semitic origins.[18]

The script likely developed in the first millennium BC, with the oldest texts dated to be around the 5th-7th century BC,[13] and it is thought to have died out during the years of the Roman rule, or at the very latest, during the 7th century.

• 
  Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Kerfala, northern Algeria.
• 
  The first published sketch of the bilingual (Left: Punic. Right: Libyco-Berber) Ateban Mausoleum inscription of Dougga, Tunisia (Jean Emile Humbert)
• 
  Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Oukaimeden, Morocco.
• 
  Vertical Libyco-berber "Eastern" alphabet on a funerary stele found in Sidi Ali Bahloul, Jedilane-Rouha region, Tunisia (Sbeitla's archeological museum)
• 
  Numidian stela in Bardo National Museum (Tunis)
• 
  Writing on mountain along Wadi Draa in Fum ash-Shanna, Tinzouline, Zagora Province, Morocco

References

External links

• Academic papers on the Libyco-Berber inscriptions
• The Libyco-Berber alphabet's font
• Download the Libyco-Berber font