Berber Languages - Subclassification

Subclassification

There is so little data available on Guanche that any classification is necessarily uncertain; however, it is almost universally acknowledged as Afro-Asiatic on the basis of the surviving glosses, and widely suspected to be Berber. Much the same can be said of the language, sometimes called "Numidian", used in the Libyan or Libyco-Berber inscriptions around the turn of the Common Era, whose alphabet is the ancestor of Tifinagh.

A listing of the other Berber languages is complicated by their closeness; there is little distinction between language and dialect. The primary difficulty of subclassification, however, list in the eastern Berber languages, where there is little agreement. Otherwise there is consensus on the outlines of the family:

• Eastern Berber (scope debated)
• Northern Berber
  • Zenati (incl. Riff, Shawiya)
  • Kabyle
  • Atlas (incl. Shilha, Tamazight)
• Tuareg
• Western Berber (Zenaga)

The various classifications differ primarily in what they consider to be Eastern Berber, and in how many varieties they recognize as distinct languages.