In what follows, we will try to expose the results obtained by the researchers having analyzed the following points:

What are the origin of this alphabet and its apparition?

  The decoding?

A Berber alphabet !?

The Berber language is, with the Ethiopian language, that as it belongs to the chamito-Semitic group, the alone language to possess an autonomous writing. The Libyan writing maintained himself until our days at the Touaregses, they name Tifinagh these same characters that underwent unavoidable variations. (Gabriel Camps 1980: 275)

Language amazigh possesses an alphabet indeed since the antique. It is in this alphabet that is written texts that one calls enrollments libyqueses. It is strictly about an alphabet consonant . Vowels have not been noted that maybe secondarily with the help of signs consonants . Enrollments libyqueses have been used on all the Africa of the North, in Tunisia, in Morocco, in Algeria and even in Canary Islands. They are especially numerous to the East, in Tunisia and in the department of Constantine. Those that are known currently pass the number of 1120 enrollments, of which the most are some funeral enrollments. 

In what follows, we will expose results gotten by researchers having analyzed the following points:

A particular attention will be brought to the analysis of neo-tifinaghs. Designation neo-tifinagh includes the system of writing developed by the Berber academy on the basis of tifinaghs touaregueses at the end of years 60 as well that the a few other systems of writing come to either develop for some to correct the some imperfections of the system of the Berber academy. We did a more detailed analysis of its different alphabets, the objective is to put to your disposition a global view of these systems (grace notably to a picture summing up them) and to underline possibilities to clear an usable standard system for all amazighses speakers. To finish, we are going to present rules of reading and writing more in tifinagh the adopted by the different actors of movement amazigh.

What are the origin of this alphabet ?

The question of origins is raised to every time that it is about the Amazighses decidedly. One first asked itself on the people's origin. It opened the field to certain unlikely hypotheses, insiders especially for the ideological ends. Alphabet tifinagh didn't escape this recurrent question. Several hypotheses have been advanced.

Forebears of the Berber, the Libyans, word that comes from "Libou" by which Egyptians designated them, inclined an alphabet to one moment where most the other peoples didn't have some or only used some hieroglyphic systems or to most syllabic. The question has been raised therefore to know of where comes them this alphabet. Some would be tempted to see in this interrogation an implicit manner to understand that nothing or is nearly typically amazigh or of Africa of the North. And if it is simply about a Berber invention? The Amazighses, especially in Morocco, certainly worn out by this eternal research of an outside origin to everything that relates to the Berber domain, developed a version frequently quoted to dedicate the origin native of this alphabet. For them, Tifinagh is a composed word of "Tifi" that means find or open and of the adjective possessive "nnagh" that means our. Tifinagh would want to say our find or our discovery therefore. This simplistic and very probably erroneous interpretation doesn't hold amount of the regional variations and the evolution of language amazigh; the Berber of him y'a more than 2500 years are certainly even more the that the chleuh or the kabyle spoken currently. Below, we expose hypotheses the frequently raised puses.

Unknown origin ?

Mentioned by Prasse (1972), MR. Cohen (The big invention of the writing and his evolution (1958)), concludes that the origin of alphabet tifinagh remains unknown. According to him, all tentatives to drift it in truth of the Egyptian hieroglyphs, of alphabets southarabiques, Greek, Iberian, phenian-punic, didn't succeed to provide the decisive proof.

 Origine phenic ?

  According to Hanoteau, the same name of alphabet amazigh betrays his origin phenician. Tifinagh is a plural feminine name of which the singular would be tafniqt. This hypothesis is shared extensively by berbérisantses. Thus, for Salem Chaker (1984), The Tifinagh alphabet is very certainly origin phenician, as the almost existing alphabetic system totality. Several grounds pushed S. Chaker to consider that alphabet tifinagh is origin punic: - Name tifinagh: this word comes from the /fnq/ root that designates phenicienses in Semitic. The q alternation / gh / is a morphological alternation very strongly attested in Berber, the case of the construction of the intensive is the example of it: negh--- neqqa "to kill".   - The use of tifinagh especially developed itself in regions of Africa of the North that knew an influence punic. - The original orientation is abandoned to the profit of a practice punic epigraphic (i.e. horizontal right replaces the use running i.e on the left. vertical) - It doesn' T exist No meadow-alphabetic tradition that would allowed to consider the hypothesis of has native formation seriously.

Indigenous origin influenced by punic ?

Ch. Higounet (1986) esteem that the Amazighses would not have borrowed to the Carthaginoises that the principle of the alphabetic writing: as for characters, some would have been borrowed of others drawn in a local symbolic sign fund.

Indigenous origin ?  

Several researchers however contest origin phenic. (St Gsell (1956), J. G. February (1956), Friedrich (1966)). hypothesis punic stumbles indeed on several objections. On the one hand, according to Gsell (1956), he is strong likely that the Phenics didn't give themselves themselves the name of "Phenics", by which Greeks designated them. The example of the Amazighses designated by another name by Romen - Barbarus of where is drifted the Berber word - sustains this analysis. The second objection emanates the comparison between the two alphabets and that shows very little resemblance between the tifinagh and the phenician. It is notably the absence of initial vowel notation in Berber, the very few identical letters (6 letters) and the different arrangements of the two writings (horizontally and of right on the left for the punic and vertically and of stocking in top for the tifinagh) that drove to doubt this origin.  According St Gsell (city by Khettouch 1996: 58) the similar elementary faces to letters of alphabet libyc already appear, mixed to animals, on famous engravings raised a little everywhere in Africa of the North and previous at first millennial before J.C. According to the same author, these writings could be the result of the evolution of a system pictographic where would have become some phonetic signs of pictures. The date of the apparition of these faces excludes the tie between the libyc and the punic. Same report for Gabriel Camps (1968 - pp 47: 60): the libyc is ante-punique and nothing proves that its alphabet has been imported. J. Friedrich (1966), of his coast, sustains that the Berber alphabet is a sister of the Semitic alphabet rather than a borrowed descendant.  

The decoding ?

Tifinagh

setting of transcription 

What conclusion ?

For lack of ineluctable proofs, we can not sustain a hypothesis to the profit of an another one. It is obvious that identifications feeling would push us to adopt and to defend the origin native. But the scientific rigor and the reason oblige us to wait for other works on alphabet amazigh to decide this question. The Libyc is very little a domain enclosed, a very large investigating field where a lot of specialized researches remain to make. Alone incontestable conclusion: the Amazighses inclined a system of writing to a time where several cultures were some again to the meadow-historic stadium.