The Endangered Amazigh Languages

BY SABIH YAICI

TRANSLATED FROM FRENCH BY AKLI GANA

This article was published in the magazine The Amazigh Voice in the USA in the summer 2017.

Things will change only in a collective approach, in a process of collective intelligence, as our ancestors did in their time with the village assembly (tajmaεt neγ agraw). It is no longer a question of reproducing the whole epoch, but rather getting in-spired, and use our know-how to renew and adapt our-selves to our world today.

First language or mother tongue… it does not matter.

Last year, on the occasion of the International Mother Language Day, held on February 21, I attended a conference in Montreal by Professor François Paré of the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada. At the conference, Professor Paré raised the issue of the ambiguity that some states have introduced using the concept of first language instead of mother tongue to counter the complexity of their societies in relation to this subject. As Baudelaire would say: first or maternal, it doesn’t matter what you call it, provided that I speak, read and write the language of my mother and father. Prof. Paré also informed us that currently there are 6,000 languages in the world but by 2030 there will be over 2000 languages that will disappear from our world during our lifetime. He added that within a century there will re-main only 400 or 500 languages. These numbers gave the audience headaches. Noticing some discomfort among the attendees, Prof. Paré immediately reassured us that our language, Tamazight, will be of those that will not disappear, because there are 40 million people who speak it and that it is now a written language. This last condition of survival is very important, because we live in a technological world in the sense of ICT (information and communication technologies). He also told us that if one could more or less standardize Tamazight language for all of North Africa, one would ensure its durability. He further added that this would not be easy to achieve.

I came out of this conference reassured, but also a little worried ... A few days later I began to search the Internet and here I come across the UNESCO Atlas of the world’s endangered languages [1]. Win i yettnadin ad yaf, acu kan ufiɣ-d ayen ur bɣiɣ ad waliɣ, He who seeks finds, however, I found what I did not want to see. Tura imi zriɣ ilaq a teẓrem kunwi daɣen, Now that I know, you must know too... Here is a summary of the report on the Tamazight language or rather the Amazigh languages according to UNESCO.

Status of Amazigh languages in North Africa

In North Africa, Tamazgha (Read carefully), there are al-ready three Amazigh languages that are extinct: the Judéo-Berber and the Tamazight of Ait Rouadi in Morocco, as well as the Sened in Tunisia. According to Professor Paré, when a language disappears it is gone forever, even if we try to re-habilitate it, because a language is much more than a means of communication, it is also a way of life. In other words, in 2017 all Amazigh have already lost an important legacy of their culture and I simply have no words to describe the situation of those among us who have lost their mother tongue forever... There are also seventeen Amazigh languages in a critical or seriously endangered situation: Zenaga in Western Sahara, Zenaga and Nemadi in Mauritania, Tetserret in Niger, Senhaǧa in Srair, Morocco, Tamazight in Tunisia, Nefousi and Sawkna in Libya, Awjila in Egypt, as well as Korandje, Taznatit, Tidikelt, Tagargrent, Touggourt, Tasnusit, Tamazight of Arzew and Zenatiya in Algeria. I was feeling dizzy just writing this list, and that is not all! There are two endangered languages: the Tamazight of Beni Iznassen in Morocco and the Tamahaq in Libya and, six languages are in a vulnerable situation: Figuig in Morocco, Ghadames in Libya and Tamahaq, Tamzabit, Tayurayt, Tacenwit in Algeria (see figure 1).

I do not want to be pessimistic because this is not the purpose of this article, but I want the Amazigh world to wake up. It is a rather bitter knowledge that one draws from this report: of the thirty-two languages in Tamazgha, there are only four that are not in danger of disappearing (or safe): Tacelhit and Tariffit in Morocco as well as Taqbaylit and Tacawit in Algeria. It is certain that our geographical location has hurt us for many centuries because we have been the target of countless invaders and it is also certain that we have lived the last half century with schizophrenic States and Governments that have worked to eradicate our languages. In spite of all of this, we have resisted. However, today, it is no longer a question of resisting, but of building and reconstructing our languages, and why not a language with several variants, for we must not forget that according to the experts in linguistics, it is one of the conditions for the sustainability and durability of a language. Besides, the more words a language contains, the richer it is, is not it?

Status of the vitality of a language.

UNESCO brought together experts in linguistics and asked them to establish criteria for measuring the vitality of a language and the danger of its disappearance. They have established nine criteria that are laid out explicitly in Figure-2, which must be considered as a whole.

Looking at the diagram on Figure-2, I do not know if the experts purposely placed two criteria at the top of the central oval to indicate their importance, however, it is obvious that the criterion of the absolute number of speakers and the intergenerational transmission of language are the first indicators of the state of vitality of a language. There is also direct government accountability in at least five out of nine criteria.

Thus, UNESCO has established six levels of vitality to qualify the situation of languages in its Atlas of Endangered Languages [1]. Here is a summary of the meaning of each of the levels.

· Safe: Language is spoken by all generations; intergenerational transmission is uninterrupted. These languages are not included in the Atlas of Endangered Languages.

· Vulnerable: Most children speak the language, but it may be restricted to certain areas (for example: at home and often children use this language just to communicate with their parents).

· Endangered: Children no longer learn the language as their mother tongue at home. Children do not speak the language, although sometimes they understand it.

· Seriously in danger: The language is spoken by the grandparents; while the generation of parents can understand it, they do not talk to each other or to their children.

· In a critical situation: The youngest speakers are grand-parents and their ascendants, and they speak only partially and infrequently.

· Extinct: There are no more speakers left. The Atlas contains the references of languages extinct since the 1950s. These are languages that have disappeared recently.

In teaching, a language has three main competencies that can be summarized in three words: reading, writing and speaking. If we briefly analyze the above, the first thing that is obvious is that the state in which a language is found depends on how it is spoken in the community (or society). Allow me to say that all languages are mainly oral because their survival depends on their orality. We all know that our Amazigh culture has long been mainly an oral culture, which means that its orality is an advantage rather than a defect. We must therefore consolidate this aspect of our culture while continuing to develop others. I do not wish to address the of issue of “orality and languages” in the present article, but it is certain that it depends essentially on social and political practices. The second thing that draws our attention is that we switch from a secure language to a vulnerable language by the fact that the community space (tajmaɛt neɣ agraw) or public space in general uses a language other than the mother tongue, the occurrence of this change is more political than social, but both are there.

For historians, a generation is twenty-five years. In the case of children who were born in a phase where their mother tongue was vulnerable and had become used to speaking their mother tongue only with their parents (in the sense of parents, aunts, uncles and grandparents), it is quite possible that when they become adults, they will not speak their mother tongue at home. Besides, this is what we saw in our Kabyle community in Algiers, for example (without bring a dominant trend, it is a phenomenon that is seen in the community). Let me return to my analysis and conclude that in this case, after only twenty-five years, the language transition from a vulnerable to an endangered situation. In the same way, after another twenty-five years it will pass to another more deteriorated situation and eventually it will become extinct within 100 years. Of course, this is only a mathematical calculation that ignores YOU as a person who can change things. However, even if we do all that is necessary in our small family to safeguard our mother tongue, the end result would be that of this cursed mathematical calculation. Things will change only in a collective approach, in a process of collective awareness, as our ancestors did in their time with the village assembly (tajmaɛt neɣ agraw). It is no longer a question of reproducing the whole epoch, but rather getting inspired, and use our know-how to renew and adapt ourselves to our world today.

Who are these Algerian Amazigh whose language is in danger?

When we look at the map of languages in danger in the world (Figure 1), we say to ourselves: we are not worse than elsewhere; it is not a question of comparing countries or continents, because we are all in the negative. Let’s consider this analogous case: you have just passed a course exam with a passing grade of 60% and all students obtained scores ranging from 0% to 40%. And you try to find some satisfaction because you are in the average of the group. The result is that all students will have to repeat the course a second time. Unfortunately, for the mother tongues, one does not always have the possibility to re-do. However, I am moving away from the question raised above and I think it is important to put faces on these Amazigh, our brothers and sisters, who risk becoming orphans of their mother tongue.

Languages that are in a critical situation: these are languages that will probably be extinct in twenty-five years.

· Tidikelt is the Amazigh language of the inhabitants of the south-central region of Algeria where the town of In-Salah and several other oases are located. The population is estimated at less than 60,000 people.

· Tamazight of Arzew is spoken south of the city of Oran and in the bay of Arzew. This population of the north-western Algeria is estimated at 2000 people.

· Zenatiya is the language spoken by the inhabitants of the region of Ouarsenis including the town of Tissemsilt located in the center north of Algeria, to the west of the capital Algiers. The population is estimated at 50,000 people.

Languages that are seriously at risk: these are languages that will be extinct approximately in fifty years.

· Taznatit or Tamazight of Gourara (or Touat) is the language of the inhabitants of the region of the central south Algeria including the cit-ies of Timimoune, Adrar and Tamentit. The population is esti-mated at 400,000 people.

· Korandje, a hybrid language of Tamazight and Songhey, is spoken by the inhabitants of Tabelbela oasis in the town of Bechar in south-western Algeria. The population is estimated at 3,000 people.

· Tagargrent or Tamazight of Ouargla is the language of the inhabitants of the southern cities of of Alge-ria, Ouargla and Ngaous. The population does not exceed 15,000 people.

· Touggourt is the language of the inhabitants of the south-eastern region of Algeria comprising the cities of Touggourt, Temacine, Meggarine, Ghora, Tamellaht, Blidet-Amor, Tébebest and Tamast. The population is between 8,000 and 10,000 people.

· Tasnusit is spoken by the inhabitants of the region of Beni-Snous of the city of Tlemcen in the northwest of Algeria. There are no reliable statistics on this population, which cannot exceed 1,000 people.

Languages that are in a vulnerable situation: these are languages that can be extinct in a century.

· Tamahaq or Tahaggart is the language of the inhabitants of the deep south-eastern region of Algeria (Ahaggar and Ajjer) where the towns of Tamanrasset and Djanet are located. The population is estimated at between 110,000 and 140,000 people.

· Tamzabit is spoken by the inhabitants of the M'Zab region of south-central Algeria, where the towns of Ghardaïa, Beni-Isguen, El-Ateuf, Mélika, BouNoura, Berrian and Guerrara. The population is estimated at 150,000 people.

· Tayurayt (or Tamazight n Iyurayen) is spoken by the inhabitants of the Gouraya region and its surroundings (west of Cherchell) and the town of Tipasa in northern Algeria just west of the capital Algiers. The population is estimated at 15,000 people.

· Tacenwit is spoken by the inhabitants of the region of Cherchell and the town of Tipasa to the west of the capital Algiers on the north coast of Algeria. This is where the Mount Chenoua, Nador, Bou-Ismaïl, Hamadia, Damous, Larhat, Marceau, Sidi-Amar, Sidi-Moussa, Ain-Tagouirt and Tenes. The population is estimated at less than 80,000 people, and perhaps half of the population still speak the language.

Conclusion

In Algeria, if there is no real management of the Amazigh languages by the State, which is not the case at the present time, in 50 years there will remain only six languages out of the fourteen and in a century, there will only remain two. One can easily imagine in what situation they would be.

[1]http:/ /www.un esco.org/languages-atlas/Atlas , UNESCO website on endangered languages in the world. NB. The numbers provided in this article are approximate.