View source for Social:Libyco-Berber alphabet

{{Short description|Abjad writing system}}
{{Infobox Writing system
| name        = Libyco-Berber alphabet
| languages   = [[Social:Numidian language|Numidian language]], Libyco-Berber (ancient or classical Berber language)
| time        = Sometime during the first millennium BC to the 4th-7th century AD
| type        = Abjad
| direction   = various, but usually bottom-to-top or right-to-left
| fam1        = [[Social:Egyptian hieroglyphs|Egyptian hieroglyphs]]
| fam2        = [[Social:Proto-Sinaitic script|Proto-Sinaitic script]]
| fam3        = ? [[Phoenician alphabet]]<ref>[https://www.centrederechercheberbere.fr/lecriture-libyco-berbere.html L'ECRITURE LIBYCO-BERBERE: Etat des lieux et perspectives]</ref>
| children    = [[Social:Tifinagh|Tifinagh]] (Tuareg Tifinagh)
| sample      = Prehistory-draa16.jpg
| note        = none
}}

The '''Libyco-Berber alphabet''' or the '''Libyc alphabet''' is an abjad [[Social:Writing system|writing system]] that was used during the first millennium BC by various Berber peoples of [[Place:North Africa|North Africa]] and the Canary Islands, to write ancient varieties of the Berber language like the [[Social:Numidian language|Numidian language]] in ancient North Africa.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://mnamon.sns.it/index.php?page=Scrittura&id=47&lang=en |title=Libyco-Berber - 2nd (9th?) century BC-7th century AD |access-date=2022-06-05 |archive-date=2022-06-05 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605215520/http://mnamon.sns.it/index.php?page=Scrittura&id=47&lang=en |url-status=live }}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Libyco-Berber relations with ancient Egypt: the Tehenu in Egyptian records |url=https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000070515 |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220605215450/https://unesdoc.unesco.org/ark:/48223/pf0000070515 |archive-date=2022-06-05 |access-date=2022-06-05}}</ref><ref>[https://archive.org/details/RILRecueilDesInscriptionsLibyques Recueil Des Inscriptions Libyques, J.-B. Chabot, 1941]</ref><ref>[https://ia801308.us.archive.org/25/items/amazigh_201511/lyb-Galand%20-%20L'alphabet%20libyque%20de%20Dougga.pdf L'alphabet libyque de Dougga, Lionel Galand, 1973]</ref><ref>[https://www.persee.fr/docAsPDF/etaf_0768-2352_1966_mon_1_1_879.pdf Inscriptions libyques, Lionel Galand, 1966]</ref>

The Libyco-Berber script is found in thousands of stone inscriptions and engravings throughout Morocco, northern Algeria, Tunisia, northern [[Place:Libya|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<ref>[http://www.institutum-canarium.org/lbi-project/inscr_data.php?site=IKKI1&inscr=1 IKKIS 1_1. LIBYCO-BERBER INSCRIPTIONS ONLINE DATABASE]</ref> and the Oukaimeden,<ref>[http://www.institutum-canarium.org/lbi-project/inscr_data.php?site=OUKA1&inscr=1 OUKAIMEDEN 1_1 inscription. LIBYCO-BERBER INSCRIPTIONS ONLINE DATABASE]</ref> 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 [[Social:Tifinagh|Tuareg Tifinagh]] alphabet used by the Tuareg Berbers to this day.

== Description ==
Before, during, and after the existence of the ancient Berber kingdoms of [[History:Numidia|Numidia]] (northern Algeria, 202 BC–40 BC) and [[History:Mauretania|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.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Nehmé |first1=Laïla |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0IJ1DwAAQBAJ&dq=funerary+inscriptions+libyco-berber&pg=PA346 |title=To the Madbar and Back Again: Studies in the languages, archaeology, and cultures of Arabia dedicated to Michael C.A. Macdonald |last2=Al-Jallad |first2=Ahmad |date=2017-11-20 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-35761-7 |language=en}}</ref>

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.<ref name="ancient">{{cite web |title=Berber |url=http://www.ancientscripts.com/berber.html |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170826045645/http://www.ancientscripts.com/berber.html |archive-date=2017-08-26 |access-date=2017-10-09 |publisher=Ancient Scripts}}</ref> The letters were highly geometrical.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Mukhtār |first=Muḥammad Jamāl al-Dīn |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ta0wDwAAQBAJ&dq=Libyco-Berber+geometrical&pg=PA238 |title=UNESCO General History of Africa, Vol. II, Abridged Edition: Ancient Africa |date=1990-06-27 |publisher=University of California Press |isbn=978-0-520-06697-7 |language=en}}</ref>

== Variations ==
There are multiple variants of the Libyco-Berber script; some studies divide these varieties into eastern and western, while others have identified more than 25 "dialects" grouped in 5 different families.<ref name=":0">{{Cite book |last1=Mitchell |first1=Peter |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fY0eAAAAQBAJ&dq=libyco-berber+cyrenaica&pg=PA766 |title=The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology |last2=Lane |first2=Paul |date=2013-07-04 |publisher=OUP Oxford |isbn=978-0-19-956988-5 |pages=766 |language=en}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Written In Stone |url=https://africanrockart.britishmuseum.org/thematic/written-in-stone/ |access-date=2022-06-07 |website=africanrockart.britishmuseum.org}}</ref> 

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 so-called KAI 100 and 101 at Dougga in Tunisia).<ref name=":0" /> Since 1843, 22 letters out of the 24 have been deciphered.{{Citation needed|date=February 2023}} 

Signs used at Dougga (when writing direction is from right to left):<ref>{{cite book |last1=Galand |first1=Lionel |title=Études de Linguistique Berbère |date=2002 |publisher=Peeters |location=Leuven, Paris |isbn=90-429-1180-8 |pages=13, 15, 31}}</ref>
{| class="wikitable"
|+
!Libyco-Berber
!Neo-Tifinagh 
!Phoenician
!transliteration
|-
|
|ⴰ
|𐤀
|’ 
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga b.png|15px|]]
|ⴱ
|𐤁
|b
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga g.png|15px|]] 15px| [[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga g2.png|15px|]]
|ⴳ
|𐤂
|g
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga d.png|15px|]]
|ⴷ
|𐤃
|d
|-
|≣
|ⵀ
|𐤄
|h
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga w.png|15px|]]
|ⵡ
|𐤅
|w
|-
|<big>ⵐ</big>
|ⵣ
|𐤆
|z
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga z1.png|15px|]] 15px| [[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga z3.png|15px|]]
|ⵥ
|𐤆
|ẓ
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga unknown.png|15px|]]
|ⵃ
|𐤇
|ḥ
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga t prime.png|15px|]][[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga t3.png|15px|]]
|ⵟ
|𐤈
|ṭ
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga y.png|15px|]] 15px| [[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga y variant2.png|15px|]]
|ⵢ
|𐤉
|y
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga k1.png|15px|]] [[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga k2.png|15px|]]
|ⴽ
|𐤊
|k
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga l.png|15px|]]
|ⵍ
|𐤋
|l
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga m.png|15px|]] [[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga m variant.png|15px|]]
|ⵎ
|𐤌
|m
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga n.png|15px|]]
|ⵏ
|𐤍
|n
|-
|-
|-
|𐤎
|-
|-
|
|ⵄ
|𐤏
|‘
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga p.png|15px|]]
|ⴼ
|𐤐
|f
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga s prime.png|15px|]]
|ⵚ
|𐤑
|ṣ 
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga gh.png|15px|]]
|ⵇ
|𐤒
|q
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga r.png|15px|]]
|ⵔ
|𐤓
|r
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga s1.png|15px|]] 15px| [[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga s2 variant.png|15px|]]
|ⵙ
|𐤔
|s
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga t2.png|15px|]] [[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga t1.png|15px|]] 
|ⵜ
|𐤕
|t
|-
|[[File:Libyco-Berber Dougga aspiration.png|15px|]]
|ⵖ
|
|ɣ
|}
The Western variant was used along the Mediterranean coast from [[Place:Kabylia|Kabylia]] to the Canary Islands. It used 13 supplementary letters.<ref>{{Cite book |last1=Renfrew |first1=Colin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vWbwAwAAQBAJ&dq=Libyco-Berber+western+eastern&pg=PT605 |title=The Cambridge World Prehistory |last2=Bahn |first2=Paul |date=2014-06-09 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-1-107-64775-6 |language=en}}</ref> As of 2002, much of the Western variant has yet to be deciphered.<ref name=":0" /> Western variant signs have also been observed to be used in combination with possible [[Pictogram|pictograms]] of animals.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Le Quellec |first=Jean-Loïc |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/775301938 |title=Written culture in a colonial context : Africa and the Americas 1500-1900 |date=2012 |publisher=BRILL |others=Adrien Delmas, Nigel Penn |isbn=978-90-04-22524-4 |location=Leiden |pages=24 |chapter=Rock Art, Scripts and Proto-Scripts in Africa: The Libyco-uberber Example |oclc=775301938}}</ref>

==Origin==
The origin of the Libyco-Berber script is still debated by academic researchers.<ref>[https://www.academia.edu/2191453/On_the_origin_of_the_Libyco_Berber_alphabet_A_few_proposals_Sur_l_origine_de_l_%C3%A9criture_libyque_Quelques_propositions_?f_ri=1394012 On the origin of the Libyco-Berber alphabet: A few proposals (Sur l’origine de l’écriture libyque. Quelques propositions), Dominique Casajus]</ref><ref>[https://www.centrederechercheberbere.fr/tl_files/doc-pdf/chak-hach.pdf A PROPOS DE L’ORIGINE ET DE L’AGE DE L’ECRITURE LIBYCO-BERBERE, Salem Chaker, Slimane Hachi. Etudes berbères et chamito-sémitiques, Mélanges offerts à Karl-G. Prasse, (S. Chaker, éd.), Paris/Louvain, Editions Peeters, 2000, p. 95-111.]</ref> 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 latter,<ref>{{Cite book |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iJByDwAAQBAJ&dq=libyco-berber+phoenician.&pg=PA188 |title=Landscapes, Sources and Intellectual Projects of the West African Past: Essays in Honour of Paulo Fernando de Moraes Farias |date=2018-08-13 |publisher=BRILL |isbn=978-90-04-38018-9 |language=en}}</ref> with the most supported view being that it derived from a local prototype conceptually inspired by a Phoenician or archaic Semitic model.<ref name=":1">{{Cite book |last=Arnaiz-Villena |first=Antonio |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=F0wIBgAAQBAJ&dq=libyco-berber&pg=PT116 |title=Prehistoric Iberia: Genetics, Anthropology, and Linguistics |date=2012-12-06 |publisher=Springer Science & Business Media |isbn=978-1-4615-4231-5 |language=en}}</ref> Other unlikely explanations include Greek, Punic or South Arabian influences.<ref name=":1" />

One of the oldest known variants of the script is found in inscriptions in Dugga dating from [[History:Numidia|Numidian]] times.<ref name=":0" /><ref name=":72">{{Cite book |last=Campbell |first=George L. |url=https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/810078009 |title=The Routledge handbook of scripts and alphabets |date=2012 |publisher=Routledge |others=Christopher Moseley |isbn=978-0-203-86548-4 |edition=2nd |location=Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon |pages=58–59 |oclc=810078009}}</ref>

<gallery>
File:Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Kerfala, northern Algeria.png|Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Kerfala, northern Algeria.
File:The first published sketch of the Bilingual inscription of Dougga (Jean Emile Humbert).jpg|The first published sketch of the bilingual (Left: Punic. Right: Libyco-Berber) Ateban Mausoleum inscription of Dougga, Tunisia (Jean Emile Humbert)
File:Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Oukaimeden, Morocco.jpg|Libyco-Berber inscriptions in Oukaimeden, Morocco.
File:Libyco-berber alphabet funerary stele of Tunisia Sbeitla Museum.jpg|alt=|Vertical Libyco-berber "Eastern" alphabet on a funerary stele found in Sidi Ali Bahloul, Jedilane-Rouha region, Tunisia (Sbeitla's archeological museum)
File:Numidjanska stela3.jpg|alt=|[[Social:Numidian language|Numidian]] stela in [[Organization:Bardo National Museum (Tunis)|Bardo National Museum]] (Tunis)
File:Prehistory-draa16.jpg|alt=|Writing on mountain along Wadi Draa in Fum ash-Shanna, Tinzouline, Zagora Province, Morocco
</gallery>

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==External links==
*[https://www.academia.edu/Documents/in/Libyco-berber_Inscriptions?page=1 Academic papers on the Libyco-Berber inscriptions]
*[https://www.freemorocco.com/alibu-mazigh/ The Libyco-Berber alphabet's font]
*[https://www.freemorocco.com/alibu-mazigh.ttf Download the Libyco-Berber font]

[[Category:Alphabets]]

{{Sourceattribution|Libyco-Berber alphabet}}