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Names of the Berber people

The indigenous population of the Maghreb region of North Africa have been referred to by various names throughout history. They are collectively known in English as Berbers, or by their endonym, Amazigh.[1] The native plural form Imazighen is sometimes also used in English.[2][3] While "Berber" is more widely known among English-speakers, its usage is a subject of debate, due to its historical background as an exonym and equivalence with the Arabic word for "barbarian."[4][5][6][7] When speaking English, indigenous North Africans typically refer to themselves as "Amazigh."[8]

The Numidian, Mauri and Libu populations of antiquity are typically understood to refer to approximately the same population as modern Amazigh or Berbers.[9][10]

Today

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Berber

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In Archaic Greece, βάρβαροι (barbaroi) 'barbarians' was an onomatopoeic word for languages perceived as unintelligible, as well as for their speakers; bar-bar was an imitation of these languages.[11][12][9] Around the beginning of Classical Greece, the term had come to be used for all and non-Greek speakers.[11][12][13] Greek writers applied the term to North African tribes alongside other designations such as "Numidians" and specific tribal names.[5] Among the oldest written attestations of the word Berber is its use as an ethnonym in a document from the 1st century AD Periplus of the Erythraean Sea.[14][citation needed]

The Greek barbaroi was borrowed as the Arabic word بربرة (barbara) 'to babble noisily, to jabber', which was used by conquering Arabs to describe indigenous North African peoples, due to the perceived oddness of their (non-Semitic) language. This usage was the first recorded to refer to indigenous North Africans as the "Berber" collective.[5][15] Though "Berber" had been used in reference to East Africans as well, it was mostly applied to Maghreb tribes in conquest narratives, and this became the dominant usage of the term.[15]

The English term "Berber" is derived from the Arabic word barbar, which means both "Berber" and "barbarian."[4][16][17] Due to this shared meaning, as well as its historical background as an exonym, the term "Berber" is commonly viewed as a pejorative by indigenous North Africans today.[5][6][7]

Amazigh

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Amazigh (fem. Tamazight, pl. Imazighen) is the endonym for the indigenous people of North Africa, often referred to as "Berber" in English.[5] "Amazigh" is also used in English, and its native plural "Imazighen" is sometimes used as well.[2][3][5][6] Many Amazigh people prefer the term "Amazigh" over "Berber," as the latter has derogatory connotations.[5][6][8] According to anthropologist Jane E. Goodman, using "Amazigh" signals a rejection of the pejorative associations of "Berber" and advocates a particular political vision for the Maghreb's future.[18] The term is especially common in Morocco among speakers of Central Atlas Tamazight, Tarifit and Shilha, particularly since 1980.[19] Its usage does not replace that for more specific ethnic groups, such as Kabyle or Chaoui.[20]

Relatedly, the endonym of Berber languages is typically Tamazight, and in English, "Tamazight" and "Berber languages" are often used interchangeably.[5][21][22][23] "Tamazight" may also be used for a specific language, such as Central Atlas Tamazight or Standard Moroccan Amazigh, depending on the context of its usage.[24][25][26][27]

Although Amazigh as a term had been used throughout history, its use as a claim on collective indigenous North African identity is more recent. Many scholars suggest that the 1945 poem “Kker a mmis umazigh” (“Rise up Son of Amazigh”) by Mohand Idir Aït Amrane to be its first use as a cultural claim.[28]

Etymology

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The name "Amazigh" is likely connected to the ancient Mazices, a Libyco-Berber people mentioned in classical sources.[29][30] The medieval historian Ibn Khaldun traced the name to an ancestor called Mazigh.[30][31]

According to the Berber author Leo Africanus, Amazigh meant 'free man'. Related words such as mmuzeɣ ('to be noble', 'generous') exists among the Imazighen of Central Morocco and tmuzeɣ ('to free oneself', 'revolt') exists among the Kabyles of Ouadhia.[32] Further, Amazigh also has a cognate in the Tuareg word Amajegh, meaning 'noble'.[33][34]

Historical

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Libu

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Numidians

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Moors

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Romans referred to the indigenous tribes of Mauretania as Mauri, or "Moors."[9][15][35]

Indigenous North African tribes, along with other populations, were referred to as "Moors" by medieval Europeans.[36]

The historical interchangeability between "Berbers" and "Moors" is a subject of academic inquiry.[15]

See also

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References

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  1. ↑ "Berber | Definition, People, Languages, & Facts | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2022-12-13.
  2. 1 2 Aïtel, Fazia (2014). We are Imazigen : the development of Algerian Berber identity in twentieth-century literature and culture. Gainesville, FL. ISBN 978-0-8130-4895-6. OCLC 895334326.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  3. 1 2 Ilahiane, Hsain (2017). Historical dictionary of the Berbers (Imazighen) (2nd ed.). Lanham, Maryland. ISBN 978-1-4422-8182-0. OCLC 966314885.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  4. 1 2 Oxford Arabic dictionary : Arabic-English · English-Arabic. Tressy Arts (First ed.). Oxford. 2014. pp. 979, 990. ISBN 978-0-19-958033-0. OCLC 881018992.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  5. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce (2011). The Berber Identity Movement and the Challenge to North African States. University of Texas Press. pp. 14–17. ISBN 9780292745056.
  6. 1 2 3 4 Vourlias, Christopher (January 25, 2010). "Moroccan minority's net gain". Variety. Vol. 417, no. 10. Penske Business Media, LLC.
  7. 1 2 ""Respecting Identity: Amazigh Versus Berber"". Society for Linguistic Anthropology. 2019-09-23. Retrieved 2022-10-25.
  8. 1 2 Language Diversity Endangered. Matthias Brenzinger. Berlin. 2015. p. 124. ISBN 978-3-11-090569-4. OCLC 979749010.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
  9. 1 2 3 Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce (2022). Amazigh politics in the wake of the Arab Spring. Austin. ISBN 978-1-4773-2482-0. OCLC 1255524815.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  10. ↑ Zimmermann, K. (2008). "Lebou/Libou". Encyclopédie berbère. Vol. 28-29 | Kirtēsii – Lutte. Aix-en-Provence: Edisud. pp. 4361–4363. doi:10.4000/encyclopedieberbere.319.
  11. 1 2 Gibbon, Edward. The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. Vol. 5. p. 162.
  12. 1 2 "The term barbaros, "A Greek-English Lexicon" (Liddell & Scott), on Perseus". Perseus.tufts.edu. Retrieved 2018-07-12.
  13. ↑ Delante Bravo, Chrostopher (2012). Chirping like the swallows: Aristophanes' portrayals of the barbarian "other". p. 9. ISBN 978-1-248-96599-3.
  14. ↑ Schoff, Wilfred Harvey (1912). The Periplus of the Erythraean Sea: Travel and Trade in the Indian Ocean by a Merchant of the First Century. Longmans, Green. p. 56. Retrieved 29 March 2018.
  15. 1 2 3 4 Rouighi, Ramzi (2019). Inventing the Berbers: History and Ideology in the Maghrib. University of Pennsylvania Press. p. 19. ISBN 978-0-8122-5130-2. JSTOR j.ctv16t6h7b.
  16. ↑ Hoad, T.F., ed. (2003) [1996]. "Berber". The Concise Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191727153. XIX. — Arab. barbar.
  17. ↑ "berber | Etymology, origin and meaning of the name berber by etymonline". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 2023-03-15.
  18. ↑ Goodman, Jane E. (2005-11-03). Berber Culture on the World Stage: From Village to Video. Indiana University Press. p. 11. ISBN 978-0-253-21784-4.
  19. ↑ "INALCO report on Central Morocco Tamazight: maps, extension, dialectology, name" (in French). Archived from the original on July 27, 2010. Retrieved October 2, 2012.
  20. ↑ Mohand Akli Haddadou (2000). Le guide de la culture berbère. Paris Méditerranée. pp. 13–14.
  21. ↑ Heggoy, Willy N. (July 1947). "The Mozabites of Algeria". The Muslim World. 37 (3): 192–208. doi:10.1111/j.1478-1913.1947.tb02488.x. ISSN 0027-4909.
  22. ↑ "Tamazight language | Britannica". www.britannica.com. Retrieved 2023-02-13.
  23. ↑ The encyclopaedia of Islam. H. A. R. Gibb, P. J. Bearman (New ed.). Leiden: Brill. 1960–2009. ISBN 90-04-16121-X. OCLC 399624. {{cite book}}: ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)CS1 maint: others (link)
  24. ↑ "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-05-22. Retrieved 2016-01-06.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  25. ↑ Sanga, Oumar; Mackie, Chris (October 31, 2022). "Education in Morocco". World Education News & Reviews.
  26. ↑ Gross, Joan E. (1993). "The Politics of Unofficial Language Use: Walloon in Belgium, Tamazight in Morocco". Critique of Anthropology. 13 (2): 181. doi:10.1177/0308275X9301300204. ISSN 0308-275X. S2CID 145058398. Tamazight in Morocco is divided by linguists into three major dialect areas usually referred to as: Taselhit in the south, Tamazight in the Middle Atlas mountains, and Tarifit in the north.
  27. ↑ Alalou, Ali (2018-04-03). "The question of languages and the medium of instruction in Morocco". Current Issues in Language Planning. 19 (2): 136–160. doi:10.1080/14664208.2017.1353329. ISSN 1466-4208. S2CID 149159548.
  28. ↑ Aïtel, Fazia (2014). We are Imazighen: the development of Algerian Berber identity in twentieth-century literature and culture. Gainesville, FL. p. 7. ISBN 978-0-8130-4895-6. OCLC 895334326.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  29. ↑ Morocco's Berbers Battle to Keep From Losing Their Culture. San Francisco Chronicle. March 16, 2001.
  30. 1 2 Lipiński, Edward (2001). Semitic Languages: Outline of a Comparative Grammar. Leuven: Peeters Publishers. p. 38. ISBN 978-90-429-0815-4.
  31. ↑ Ibn Khaldun (1925). Histoire des Berbères et des dynasties musulmanes de l'Afrique septentrionale (in French). Vol. 2. Translated by de Slane, William MacGuckin. Paris: P. Geuthner. p. 180. OCLC 556514510.
  32. ↑ Brugnatelli, Vermondo (16–18 June 2012). À propos de la valeur sémantique d' amaziɣ et tamaziɣt dans l'histoire du berbère [About the semantic value of amaziɣ and tamaziɣt in Berber history]. BaFraLe (in French). Retrieved 30 March 2022.
  33. ↑ Brett, Michael; Fentress, E. W. B. (1996). The Berbers. Blackwell Publishing. pp. 5–6.
  34. ↑ Maddy-Weitzman, Bruce (2006). "Ethno-politics and globalisation in North Africa: The Berber culture movement". The Journal of North African Studies. 11 (1): 71–84. doi:10.1080/13629380500409917. S2CID 143883949.
  35. ↑ οἰκοῦσι δ᾽ ἐνταῦθα Μαυρούσιοι μὲν ὑπὸ τῶν Ἑλλήνων λεγόμενοι, Μαῦροι δ᾽ ὑπὸ τῶν Ῥωμαίων καὶ τῶν ἐπιχωρίων "Here dwell a people called by the Greeks Maurusii, and by the Romans and the natives Mauri" Strabo, Geographica 17.3.2. Lewis and Short, Latin Dictionary, 1879 s.v. "Mauri"
  36. ↑ Blackmore, Josiah (2009). Moorings: Portuguese Expansion and the Writing of Africa. U of Minnesota Press. p. xvi, 18. ISBN 978-0-8166-4832-0.
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