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It is the largest Berber language in Algeria. [62] It was spoken by 3 million people in 2004 [63] and has significant Arabic, French, Latin, Greek, Phoenician and Punic substratum, with Arabic loanwords representing 22.7% to 46% [64] of the total Kabyle vocabulary, with many estimates putting it at about 35%. [65]
Prominent Berber ethnic groups include the Kabyles—from Kabylia, a historical autonomous region of northern Algeria—who number about six million and have kept, to a large degree, their original language and society; and the Shilha or Chleuh—in High and Anti-Atlas and Sous Valley of Morocco—who number about eight million.
Berber-speaking areas in Algeria. The Berber languages are considered the native language of Algeria since antiquity. They are spoken in five major dialects in many parts of the territory, but mainly in Kabylia, in the Awras, and in the Algerian Sahara desert (by Algerian Tuaregs).
The Chenoui people number about 106,000. [citation needed] They speak the Shenwa language, a Northern Berber language that is closely related to the Shawiya language and Zenata varieties spoken by Berbers of the Aures mountains in Eastern Algeria and the Rif region. The Shenwa language has about 76,000 speakers. [1]
Map of the linguistic situation of Kabyle in eastern Algeria. [11] [12]Kabyle Berber is native to Kabylia.It is present in seven Algerian districts. Approximately one-third of Algerians are Berber-speakers, clustered mostly near Algiers, in Kabylian and Shawi, but with some communities related to Kabyle in the west (Shenwa languages), east and south of the country. [1]
Recognition of the Berber languages has been growing in the 21st century, with Morocco and Algeria adding Tamazight as an official language to their constitutions in 2011 and 2016 respectively. [20] [21] [22] Most Berber languages have a high percentage of borrowing and influence from the Arabic language, as well as from other languages. [23]
The area is populated by Kabyles, a Berber ethnic group. They speak the Kabyle language, the largest Berber language in Algeria. [58] It is spoken by 3 million people [59] and has significant Arabic, French, Latin, Greek, Phoenician and Punic substratum, [60] with Arabic loanwords representing 35% [60] to 46% [61] of the total Kabyle vocabulary.
Tamazight, or Standard Algerian Berber, [1] is the standardized national variety of Berber (specifically Kabyle) spoken in Algeria. It is under active development since the officialization of Berber in Algeria in 2016.