Chaouia is the Chaoui language, Berber language of the Chaoui people of eastern Algeria, around Batna, Khenchela, Setif, Constantine, Oum el-Bouaghi, Souk Ahras and Tebessa.
Known alternative spellings are "Shawia", "Shawiya", "Tachawit", "Thachawith", "Tachaouith", and "Th'Chèwith", but in the Chaouia language, the leading TH /θ/ sound is often reduced to an H, thus the name is pronounced "H'chawit".
As some parts of North Africa were only recently arabized, some chaoui from the urban centers got partially arabized in the 19th and 20th centuries.
The major Berber groups are the Kabyles of the Kabylie Mountains east of Algiers and the Chaouia of the Aurès range south of Constantine.
Perhaps half as numerous as the Kabyles and less densely settled, the Chaouia have occupied the rugged Aurès Mountains of eastern Algeria since their retreat to that region from Tunisia during the Arab invasions of the Middle Ages.
The distinction between the two groups is limited, however, because the farmers of the north are also drovers, and the seminomads of the south maintain plots of land.
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