Tamazight, Central Atlas

A language of Morocco

ISO 639: tzm
Alternate Names: Central Shilha, Middle Atlas Berber, Moroccan Amazigh, Shilha, Tachelhit, Tamazight, Tmazight
Autonym: Tmaziɣt, ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ‎ (Tamazight)
Population: 4,590,000 in Morocco (2016). 936,000 monolinguals. Total users in all countries: 4,740,000.
Location:: Widespread, especially Middle and east High Atlas Mountains, adjacent valleys to Taza, Rabat area.
Language Status: 6b (Threatened).
Classification: Afro-Asiatic, Berber, Northern, Atlas
Dialects: Much dialect variety. May be more than 1 language.
Typology: VSO; prepositions; noun head initial; gender (masculine/feminine); verb affixes mark person, number, gender of subject; passives; causatives; 34 consonants and 3 vowels; non-tonal.
Language Use: A major Berber language. Some young people, all adults. Also use Moroccan Spoken Arabic [ary], as L2.
Language Development: Literacy rate in L2: Men 25%, women 5%. Literature. Radio. TV. Videos. Dictionary. Grammar. Texts. Bible portions: 1919–1981.
Language Resources: OLAC resources in and about Tamazight, Central Atlas
Writing: Arabic script, Naskh variant [Arab]. Latin script [Latn]. Tifinagh (Berber) script [Tfng], developed in 2003, official usage.
Other Comments: 65% live in rural areas, 10% live outside the traditional area. Muslim.