Updated 17 April, 2021 • recent changes scripts/tifinagh • leave a comment
This page gathers basic information about the Tifinagh script, in particular the so-called Neo-Tifinagh writing system, and its use for the Standard Moroccan Tamazight and other Northern Berber languages. It aims (generally) to provide an overview of the orthography and typographic features, and (specifically) to advise how to write Neo-Tifinagh using Unicode.
Phonetic transcriptions on this page should be treated as an approximate guide, only. Many are more phonemic than phonetic, and there may be variations depending on the source of the transcription.
Click on characters or character names to reveal detailed information. (By default, this happens as the cursor moves over some items, but the floating menu to the right provides a toggle for that.) The same information also appears in the companion document, Tifinagh character notes. Click on highlighted examples to see a list of the characters they contain.
ⴰⵎⴰⴳⵔⴰⴷ 1 ⴰⵔ ⴷ ⵜⵜⵍⴰⵍⴰⵏ ⵎⵉⴷⴷⵏ ⴳⴰⵏ ⵉⵍⴻⵍⵍⵉⵜⵏ ⵎⴳⴰⴷⴷⴰⵏ ⵖ ⵡⴰⴷⴷⵓⵔ ⴷ ⵉⵣⵔⴼⴰⵏ, ⵢⵉⵍⵉ ⴰⴽⵯ ⴷⴰⵔⵙⵏ ⵓⵏⵍⵍⵉ ⴷ ⵓⴼⵔⴰⴽ, ⵉⵍⵍⴰ ⴼⵍⵍⴰ ⵙⵏ ⴰⴷ ⵜⵜⵎⵢⴰⵡⴰⵙⵏ ⵏⴳⵔⴰⵜⵙⵏ ⵙ ⵜⴰⴳⵎⴰⵜ.
ⴰⵎⴰⴳⵔⴰⴷ 2 ⴽⵓ ⵢⴰⵏ ⵉⵥⴹⴰⵕ ⴰⴷ ⵉⵟⵟⴼ ⴽⵓⵍⵍⵓ ⵉⵣⵔⴼⴰⵏ ⴷ ⵜⴷⵔⴼⵉⵢⵉⵏ ⵍⵍⵉ ⵉⵍⵍⴰⵏ ⵖ ⵓⵍⵖⵓ ⴰⴷ, ⴰⴷ ⵓⵔ ⵢⵉⵍⵉ ⵓⵙⵏⵓⵃⵢⵓ, ⵣⵓⵏⴷ ⵡⵉⵏ ⵓⵥⵓⵕ, ⵏⵖ ⴰⴽⵍⵓ, ⵏⵖ ⴰⵏⴰⵡ, ⵏⵖ ⵜⵓⵜⵍⴰⵢⵜ, ⵏⵖ ⴰⵙⴳⴷ, ⵏⵖ ⵜⴰⵏⵏⴰⵢⵜ ⵜⴰⵙⵔⵜⴰⵏⵜ ⵏⵖ ⵜⴰⵏⵏⴰⵢⵜ ⵢⴰⴹⵏ, ⵏⵖ ⵎⴰⴷ ⵉⵥⵍⵉⵏ ⵙ ⴰⵙⵓⵔⵙ ⴰⵎⴰⴷⴰⵏ, ⵏⵖ ⵡⵉⵏ ⴰⵢⴷⴰ ⵏⵖ ⵡⵉⵏ ⵜⵍⴰⵍⵉⵜ ⵏⵖ ⴰⵙⵓⵔⵙ ⵢⴰⴹⵏ. ⴰⵎⵔ ⴰⵙⵏⵓⵃⵢⵓ ⵏⴳⵔ ⵉⵔⴳⴰⵣⵏ ⵜⵉⵎⵖⴰⵔⵉⵏ. ⵓⵔ ⴷ ⵉⵇⵇⴰⵏ ⴰⴷ ⵢⵉⵍⵉ ⵓⵙⵏⵓⵃⵢⵓ ⵉⵟⵟⴼⵏ ⵙ ⵡⴰⴷⴷⴰⴷ ⴰⵙⵔⵜⴰⵏ, ⵏⵖ ⴰⵣⵔⴼⴰⵏ ⵏⵖ ⴰⵎⴰⴹⵍⴰⵏ ⵏ ⵜⴰⵎⵓⵔⵜ ⵏⵖ ⴰⴽⴰⵍ ⵖ ⵉⴷⴷⵔ ⵓⴼⴳⴰⵏ, ⴰⴷ ⵜⴳ ⵜⵎⵓⵔⵜ ⴰⴷ ⵏⵖ ⴰⴽⴰⵍ ⴰⴷ ⴰⴷⵔⴼⵉ, ⵏⵖ ⴰⵎⵙⵏⴰⵍ ⵏⵖ ⵡⴰⵔⴰⵙⵉⵎⴰⵏ ⵏⵖ ⴰⵙ ⵉⵜⵜⵓⴳⴰ ⴽⵔⴰ ⵏ ⵓⵡⵜⵜⵓ.
The Tifinagh alphabet is used to write the Berber languages of North Africa. It use has been promoted with royal support in Morocco, where it is taught in elementary schools and used in publications. It is also widely used by the Tuareg, the principal inhabitants of the Saharan interior, and is also used in Algeria, Mali and Niger, although alongside the Latin or Arabic alphabets.
ⵜⵉⴼⵉⵏⴰⵖ tifinaʁ Neo-tifinagh ⵜⵊⵉⵏⵗ tʒinʁ̇ Tuareg Tifinagh ⵜⵊⵏⵗ tʒnʁ̇ ditto
A modern alphabetical derivative of the traditional script, known as Neo-Tifinagh, was introduced in the 20th century by the Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe (IRCAM) .
There are many regional variations of the script and the standardised version proposed by IRCAM doesn't represent the full phonemic inventory of any particular language, but was proposed with a view to progressively unifiying regional phonological variations in the orthography. It has officially been the only writing system for transcribing the Tamazight language in Morocco since 2003.
Sources: Scriptsource, Wikipedia.
| Script code | tfng |
|---|---|
| Language code | zgh |
| Script type | alphabet |
| Total characters | 32 + 8 |
| Letters | 32 |
| Combining marks | 0 |
| Native digits | 0 |
| Other infrequent | 8 |
| Character counts exclude ASCII. | |
| Vowels | 4 letters |
| Context-based positioning | no |
| Contextual shaping | no |
| Case distinction | no |
| Cursive script | no |
| Text direction | ltr/rtl |
| Baseline | mid |
| Word separator | space |
| Wraps at | word |
| Hyphenation | ? |
| Justification | spaces |
| Native speakers | NaN |
| Region | afr |
The Neo-tifinagh orthography is an alphabet, ie. both consonants and vowels are indicated in a straighforward way, and geminated consonants are simply indicated by repeating the consonant. (The Tuareg use Tifinagh also, but as an abjad.) See the table to the right for a brief overview of features for the modern Tamazight orthography.
Text runs from left to right for Tamazight (but Tuareg text runs right-to-left, and ancient Tifinagh symbols were sometimes written vertically, running from bottom to top).
Words are separated by spaces.
The script is monocameral.
It has 27 basic consonant letters and 8 additional letters in the extended set. The modifier letter ⵯ [U+2D6F TIFINAGH MODIFIER LETTER LABIALIZATION MARK] is used to create 5 labialised velar sounds (3 of which use the extended letters). The extended set also recognises 4 digraphs, each representing a single sound, which may be rendered as ligatures
There are 4 vowel letters.
Other and older orthographies of Tifinagh, such as Tuareg orthographies, include a single vowel character, whose sound is determined by the preceding consonant. In other uses, diacritics are used to indicate vowels. They may also use conjunct forms to differentiate words that would otherwise be ambiguous.
Numbers use ASCII digits.
The index points to locations where a character is mentioned in this page, and indicates whether it is used by the modern Neo-Tifinagh orthography described here.
See also a list of characters in the Tifinagh Unicode block not used for the modern Neo-Tifinagh orthography, grouped by General Category.
These are sounds for the Tamazight language.
Click on the sounds to reveal locations in this document where they are mentioned.
Phones in a lighter colour are non-native or allophones.
| labial | dental | alveolar | post- alveolar |
palatal | velar | uvular | pharyngeal | glottal | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| stop | p b | t d tˁ dˁ |
c ɟ | k ɡ | q ɢ qʷ |
||||
| affricate | |||||||||
| fricative | β f v |
θ ð ðˁ |
s z sˁ zˁ |
ʃ ʒ | ʝ | x ɣ | χ ʁ | ħ ʕ | h |
| nasal | m | n | |||||||
| approximant | w | l ɫ | j | ||||||
| trill/flap | r rˁ | ||||||||
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Neo-Tifinagh is designed to be fully vowelled (and therefore, alphabetic), however, other writing sytems such as Touareg and older variants are not.
The ancient Berber script used a single vowel symbol, read normally as a, but i after y, and u after w.5 Some Tuareg orthographies display a single vowel letter at the end of a word.
The vowel letters of Neo-Tifinagh are:6
The Unicode block has two further vowel letters, used for Tuareg. 2
IRCAM defines the following set of characters for Neo-Tifinagh, which is a subset of the Unicode Tifinagh block designed to cater for Tarifit, Tamazight, and Tachelhit languages.6
The following characters are listed by IRCAM as 'extended'. The first 6 are rotated versions of other characters, and the last two are to represent foreign sounds. See also the digraphs.
The remaining consonants in the Unicode Tifinagh block are mostly used for modern Tuareg, but there are four others.
There is a significant amount of variation in the use of Tifinagh symbols between different regions.
A useful exploration of the differences 1→.
The symbol ⵯ [U+2D6F TIFINAGH MODIFIER LETTER LABIALIZATION MARK] (tamatart) is used with other consonants to indicate labiovelarisation. IRCAM's Tifinagh alphabet uses it for:
The extended IRCAM list includes 3 labioverlarised consonants, written as digraphs:
As part of its 'extended' set, IRCAM also recognises 4 more digraphs, each representing a single sound, which may be rendered as ligatures.
Tamazight text written in Neo-Tifinagh typically displays consonants with no intervening vowels by simply putting them side by side, eg. ⵡⴰⴷⴷⴰⴷ waddad
Consonant clusters may, however, be displayed as ligated forms in Tuareg.5 This is particularly useful in text that is not fully vowelled. There are two ways to achieve this in Unicode-encoded text.
When a bi-consonant is considered obligatory, ⵿ [U+2D7F TIFINAGH CONSONANT JOINER] is added between the two consonants. If the font supports bi-consonant shapes, the joiner is not shown, but the consonants are ligated. If the font doesn't support the joiner, it should be displayed visually, eg. ⵎ⵿ⵜ
See more information about the origin of the biconsonant glyph.
The second approach uses 
[U+200C ZERO WIDTH NON-JOINER] rather than the Tifinagh joiner, and serves as an optional hint to the font. The fallback is simply the two consonants side by side.
The ligated shapes may vary from font to font.
Old Tifinagh texts don't show gemination.
Diacritic marks from other blocks have been used in some notations, to represent vowels and foreign consonants, eg. ⴵ̇ aⵉ̉ iː ⴱ̂ p
Sometimes, when two diacritics are shown above the base, they are dispayed side by side rather than stacked,5 eg. ⵉ̇̄ eː
Tifinagh uses european digits.
The Neo-Tifinagh writing system is written horizontally, and left-to-right.
Modern Tuareg is written horizontally also, but right-to-left,4 and reverses the glyphs of the characters, eg. ⴰⵙⵉⴹⵢⴰⵙ⵰ asidˁyas • Saturday would be written ⴰⵙⵉⴹⵢⴰⵙ⵰This is not possible in plain text, and is achieved here by applying a CSS transform.
Early inscriptions of Tifinagh were written vertically, bottom-to-top, as well as horizontally left-to-right and right-to-left. Sometimes boustrophedon was used.
Show default bidi_class properties for characters in the Neo-Tifinagh orthography described here.
This section brings together information about the following topics: writing styles; cursive text; context-based shaping; context-based positioning; baselines, line height, etc.; font styles; case & other character transforms.
You can experiment with examples using the All Tifinagh character app or the Neo-Tifinagh character app.
The orthography has no case distinction, and no special transforms are needed to convert between characters.
In standard modern Tamazight there is very little contextual shaping, however when ⵍ [U+2D4D TIFINAGH LETTER YAL] or ⵏ [U+2D4F TIFINAGH LETTER YAN] are doubled, or appear next to each other, the second glyph is angled to the left in order to make the difference clear.u
ⵏⵏ ⵍⵍ ⵍⵏ ⵏⵍ
This is purely a font-based feature. The character codes remain the same.
Another example of context-based glyph changes is the use of Tuareg bi-consonant conjuncts described earlier.
This doesn't occur in standard Tamazight, since there are no combining diacritics.
When special notations combined multiple diacritics above consonants to represent vowels, however, the diacritics are presented side by side, rather than stacked.
ⵉ̇̄
Are italicisation, bolding, oblique, etc relevant? Do italic fonts lean in the right direction? Is synthesised italicisation problematic? Are there other problems relating to bolding or italicisation - perhaps relating to generalised assumptions of applicability?
Do Unicode grapheme clusters appropriately segment character units for the script? Are there special requirements for the following operations: forwards/backwards deletion, cursor movement & selection, character counts, searching & matching, text insertion, line-breaking, justification, case conversions, sorting?
In Neo-Tifinagh, words are separated by spaces. Other variants often don't.
| phrase | , [U+002C COMMA] ; [U+003B SEMICOLON] : [U+003A COLON] |
|---|---|
| sentence | . [U+002E FULL STOP] ? [U+003F QUESTION MARK] ! [U+0021 EXCLAMATION MARK] |
Tifinagh uses western punctuation.5
In some areas (such as Niger, Mali, Algeria 3) ⵰ [U+2D70 TIFINAGH SEPARATOR MARK] (tazarast) is used for phrase and sentence breaks.4 In right to left text, this character should be mirrored, however this isn't currently possible in Unicode.
| start | end | |
|---|---|---|
| standard | ( [U+0028 LEFT PARENTHESIS] |
) [U+0029 RIGHT PARENTHESIS] |
| start | end | |
|---|---|---|
| initial | ||
| nested |
Source, CLDR.
How are emphasis and highlighting achieved? • If lines are drawn alongside, over or through the text, do they need to be a special distance from the text itself? • Is it important to skip characters when underlining, etc? • How do things change for vertically set text?
tbd
What mechanisms, if any, are used to create *inline* notes and annotations? (For referent-type notes such as footnotes, see below.)
Any other form of highlighting or marking of text, such as underlining, numeric overbars, etc. What characters or methods (eg. text decoration) are used to convey information about a range of text? • If lines are drawn alongside, over or through the text, do they need to be a special distance from the text itself? • Is it important to skip characters when underlining, etc? • How do things change for vertically set text? • (See also the following sections which deal with specific purposes.)
Punctuation not already mentioned, such as dashes, connectors, separators, etc.
Are there special rules about the way text wraps when it hits the end of a line? • Does line-breaking wrap whole 'words' at a time, or characters, or something else (such as syllables in Tibetan and Javanese)? • What characters should not appear at the end or start of a line, and what should be done to prevent that?
Show (default) line-breaking properties for characters in the modern Neo-tifinagh orthography.
Does text in a paragraph needs to have flush lines down both sides? • Does the script allow punctuation to hang outside the text box at the start or end of a line? • Where adjustments are need to make a line flush, how is that done? • Does the script shrink/stretch space between words and/or letters? • Are word baselines stretched, as in Arabic? • What about paragraph indents?
Does the script create emphasis or other effects by spacing out the words, letters or syllables in a word? (For justification related spacing, see above).
Are there list or other counter styles in use? If so, what is the format used? Do counters need to be upright in vertical text? Are there other aspects related to counters and lists that need to be addressed?
Does the script use special styling of the initial letter of a line or paragraph, such as for drop caps or similar? How about the size relationship between the large letter and the lines alongide? where does the large letter anchor relative to the lines alongside? is it normal to include initial quote marks in the large letter? is the large letter really a syllable? Are dropped, sunken, and raised types found? etc.
Does the script have special requirements for baseline alignment between mixed scripts and in general? Is line height special for this script? Are there other aspects that affect line spacing, or positioning of items vertically within a line?
This section is for any features that are specific to Tifinagh and that relate to the following topics: general page layout & progression; grids & tables; notes, footnotes, etc; forms & user interaction; page numbering, running headers, etc.
The Tifinagh script characters in Unicode 13.0 are in a single block:
Show characters used for the Tamazight orthography described here:
See also the Script Comparison Table.
According to ScriptSource, the Tifinagh script is used for the following languages:
1Paul Anderson, Evolution of the Tifinagh script in Unicode
2Paul Anderson, Proposal to add two Tifinagh characters for vowels in Tuareg language variants
3Lorna A. Priest, Jon Coblentz, Andrew Savage, Proposal to encode additional Tifinagh characters
4ScriptSource, Tifinagh (Berber)✓
5Unicode Consortium, The Unicode Standard, Version 13.0, Chapter 19.3: Africa, Tifinagh, 769-771, ISBN 978-1-936213-16-0.
6Wikipedia, Tifinagh
| Main | ⴱ ⵜ ⴷ ⵟ ⴹ ⴽ ⴳ ⵇ ⴼ ⵙ ⵣ ⵚ ⵥ ⵛ ⵊ ⵅ ⵖ ⵃ ⵄ ⵀ ⵎ ⵏ ⵡ ⵔ ⵕ ⵍ ⵢ ⵉ ⵓ ⴻ ⴰ ⵯ « » „ ” ( ) . : ; ? ! | 44 |
|---|---|---|
| Auxiliary | ⵒ ⴲ ⵠ ⵝ ⴸ ⴺ ⴴ ⴿ ̂ ̄ ̇ ̉ | 12 |
| Formatting | 0 | |
| Archaic | 0 | |
| Foreign | 0 | |
| Other | ⵰ | 1 |
| Deprecated | 0 | |
| Letter | ⴱ ⵜ ⴷ ⵟ ⴹ ⴽ ⴳ ⵇ ⴼ ⵙ ⵣ ⵚ ⵥ ⵛ ⵊ ⵅ ⵖ ⵃ ⵄ ⵀ ⵎ ⵏ ⵡ ⵔ ⵕ ⵍ ⵢ ⵒ ⴲ ⵠ ⵝ ⴸ ⴺ ⴴ ⴿ ⵉ ⵓ ⴻ ⴰ ⵯ | 40 |
| Marks | ̂ ̄ ̇ ̉ | 4 |
| Punctuation | « » „ ” ( ) . : ; ? ! | 12 |
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Main
Aux
Archaic
Deprecated
Other
Unknown
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