Berber languages

The Berber languages, also called Amazigh or Tamazight, form a branch of the Afroasiatic language family spoken by indigenous communities across North Africa, with Morocco and Algeria holding the great majority of an estimated 13.8 million and 4.5 million speakers respectively, plus roughly 3.6 million more spread across Libya, Tunisia, Egypt's Siwa Oasis, Mali, Niger, Burkina Faso, Mauritania and a Western European diaspora. The languages show internal variety comparable to the Romance languages and typically form a dialect continuum, grouped into major varieties including Northern Berber (Kabyle, Central Atlas Tamazight, Tarifit, Shilha), Western Berber, Eastern Berber and Tuareg. Historically written in the Libyco-Berber script, ancestor of the modern Tifinagh, Berber is increasingly also written in Latin and Arabic script, and Morocco and Algeria recognized Tamazight as an official language in 2011 and 2016 respectively.