Afro-Asiatic - Berber
The Berber languages are mainly spoken in Morocco and Algeria. A very sparse population extends into the whole Sahara and the northern part of the Sahel. They belong to Afro-Asiatic languages phylum. There is a strong movement among Berbers to unify the closely related northern Berber languages into a single standard, Tamazight.
Among the Berber languages are Rif-Berber or Riffi (northern Morocco), Kabyle (Algeria) and Tamazight (central Morocco). Tamazight has been a written language, on and off, for almost 3000 years; however, this tradition has been frequently disrupted by various invasions. It was first written in Tifinagh, still used by the Tuareg; the oldest dated inscription is from about 200 BC. Later (starting around year 1000), it was written in Arabic (particularly by the Shilha of Morocco); in this century, it is often written in Latin, especially among the Kabyle.
The Berber languages are subdivided into: