The Northern Berber languages are a dialect continuum across the Maghreb that form a sub-family within the Berber languages. Their continuity is broken by the spread of Arabic, and to a lesser extent by the Zenati subgroup, which, though unmistakeably Northern Berber, shares certain innovations not found in the surrounding languages, notably a softening of k to sh or ch, and an absence of a- in certain words, such as "hand" (afus vs. fus.) They include:
The eastern boundaries of the group seem to be controversial; some sources include the Nafusi language and the Ghadames language, while others do not. Most sources agree in regarding Ghadames language as outside of Northern Berber, but the Ethnologue does not.
There is no authoritative answer to the question of which of these to describe as a "language" versus a "dialect"; some academics have seen not only Northern Berber but all the Berber languages as dialects of a single language, while others come up with much higher counts. At any rate, mutual comprehensibility among Northern Berber languages is high, though not perfect.
Among the Berberlanguages are Tarifit or Riffi (northern Morocco), Kabyle (Algeria) and Tachelhit (central Morocco).
Tamazight (the Berberlanguage/s) is a member of the Afro-Asiatic language family (formerly called Hamito-Semitic.) Traditional genealogists often considered the Berbers as Arabs that immigrated from Yemen; for this reason, some considered Tamazight to derive from Arabic.
The Berberlanguages have two cases of the noun, organized ergatively: one is unmarked, while the other serves for the subject of a transitive verb and the object of a preposition.
The Tuareg languages have very heavily influenced Northern Songhay languages such as Tasawaq, whose speakers are culturally Tuareg but speak Songhay varieties; this influence includes points of phonology and sometimes grammar as well as extensive loanwords.
Tamahaq - Language of the Kel Ahaggar, spoken in Algeria and in the north of Niger by approximately 57 000 people.
Tayart Tamajaq language - Language of the Kel Ayer (sometimes spelled Aïr), spoken in Niger by approximately 250 000 people.
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