The Alphabets of the Berbers Author(s): D. G. Brinton Source: Science , Feb. 24

The Alphabets of the Berbers Author(s): D. G. Brinton Source: Science , Feb. 24, 1893, Vol. 21, No. 525 (Feb. 24, 1893), pp. 104-105 Published by: American Association for the Advancement of Science Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1766599 JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms American Association for the Advancement of Science is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Science This content downloaded from 86.242.212.253 on Sun, 06 Feb 2022 18:00:20 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms 104 104 SCIENCE. SCIENCE. SCIENCE: PUBLISHED BY N. D. C. HODGES, 874 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. SCIENCE: PUBLISHED BY N. D. C. HODGES, 874 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ANY PART OF THE WORLD, $3.50 A YEAR. To any contributor, on request in advance, one hundred copies of the issue containing his article will be sent without charge. More copies will be sup- plied at about cost, also if ordered in advance. Reprints are not supplied, as for obvious reasons we desire to circulate as many copies of Science as pos- sible. Authors are, however, at perfect liberty to have their articles reprinted elsewhere. For illustrations, drawings in black and white suitable for photo- engraving should be suppliedby the contributor. Rtejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accom- panies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti- cated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily f-r publication' but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the "Wants " column. It is invaluable to those who use it in soliciting information or seeking new positions. The name and address of applicants should be given in full. so that answers will go direct to them. The "Exchange" column is likewise open. SUBSCRIPTIONS TO ANY PART OF THE WORLD, $3.50 A YEAR. To any contributor, on request in advance, one hundred copies of the issue containing his article will be sent without charge. More copies will be sup- plied at about cost, also if ordered in advance. Reprints are not supplied, as for obvious reasons we desire to circulate as many copies of Science as pos- sible. Authors are, however, at perfect liberty to have their articles reprinted elsewhere. For illustrations, drawings in black and white suitable for photo- engraving should be suppliedby the contributor. Rtejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accom- panies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenti- cated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily f-r publication' but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the "Wants " column. It is invaluable to those who use it in soliciting information or seeking new positions. The name and address of applicants should be given in full. so that answers will go direct to them. The "Exchange" column is likewise open. THE ALPIABETS OF THE BERBERS.1 BY D. G. BRINTON, M.D., LL.D. THE Berber tribes are called by some writers collectively Hamites, and by others Proto-Semites. From the dawn of his- tory they have occupied most of the area between the Nile Val- ley and the Atlantic Ocean north of the Soudan. They have, also, linguistic kinsfolk in Abyssinia and in adjacent parts of East Africa. The ancient Ethiopians were of their lineage; Timbuctoo was founded by one of their chieftains, and the extinct Guanches of the Canary Islands were members of their stock. To them belonged the claseical Libyans, Numidians, Mauritanians, and Getulians, and in later times petty tribes innumerable, the most prominent of which to-day are the Rifians of Morocco, the Kabyles of Algeria, the Touaregs or Tamachek uf the Sahara, the Mzabis, etc. During two short visits to North Africa in the years 1888 and 1889, I became much interested in the ethnology of this stock, which offers many most interesting problems. The one to which I shall confine myself at present is its methods of writing. The Berber hordes of to-day, with one exception, employ the Arabic alphabet, though it fails to render some of the sounds with precision. The exception is that of the Touaregs of the Sahara. They employ an alphabet of their own, of great an- tiquity and disputed origin. They call it tifinar, which is a plural from the singular tafinek. As in the Berber dialects, the radicals are single or small groups of consonants, invariable, and inflected by vowel changes, we have in tafinek the quadriliteral radical t-f-n-k, as is held by Rinn; or, if the initial t be regarded as a neuter prefix, there will be the triliteral root f-n k. The primi- tive meaning of this root is a sign, mark, or token by which a place or thing is recognized. Peculiarly-shaped stones or ridges, which serve as landmarks, are called efinagha (Barth). Strictly speaking, the word tifinar applies only to those letters of the alphabet which can be represented by straight lines; while a number of others, expressed by dots, receive the name tiddebakin (Rinn). All letters, whether simple or compound, can be and usually are written by one or other of these methods, straight lines or dots, as is shown by the alphabet presented, from Hanoteau's Grammaire Tamachek. The cursive script, however, permits the use of curved variants in some cases, all of which are shown on the alphabet I submit. The Touareg alphabet is far from systematic. The order in which the letters are arranged is purely arbitrary; there is con- siderable difference in the forms of letters in different tribes; there are no vowel-points like those in modern Hebrew. and no accessory signs to represent pure vowels. What is worse, there is no rule as to whether the script should be read from left to right or from right to left, from above downward or from below upward. The assertions made to the contrary by Hanoteau and Halevy are disproved by the documents published by Rinn, which I Read at a meeting of the Oriental Club of Philadelphia, Feb. 9. (See Sci- ence, Nov. 18,1892, p. 290.) THE ALPIABETS OF THE BERBERS.1 BY D. G. BRINTON, M.D., LL.D. THE Berber tribes are called by some writers collectively Hamites, and by others Proto-Semites. From the dawn of his- tory they have occupied most of the area between the Nile Val- ley and the Atlantic Ocean north of the Soudan. They have, also, linguistic kinsfolk in Abyssinia and in adjacent parts of East Africa. The ancient Ethiopians were of their lineage; Timbuctoo was founded by one of their chieftains, and the extinct Guanches of the Canary Islands were members of their stock. To them belonged the claseical Libyans, Numidians, Mauritanians, and Getulians, and in later times petty tribes innumerable, the most prominent of which to-day are the Rifians of Morocco, the Kabyles of Algeria, the Touaregs or Tamachek uf the Sahara, the Mzabis, etc. During two short visits to North Africa in the years 1888 and 1889, I became much interested in the ethnology of this stock, which offers many most interesting problems. The one to which I shall confine myself at present is its methods of writing. The Berber hordes of to-day, with one exception, employ the Arabic alphabet, though it fails to render some of the sounds with precision. The exception is that of the Touaregs of the Sahara. They employ an alphabet of their own, of great an- tiquity and disputed origin. They call it tifinar, which is a plural from the singular tafinek. As in the Berber dialects, the radicals are single or small groups of consonants, invariable, and inflected by vowel changes, we have in tafinek the quadriliteral radical t-f-n-k, as is held by Rinn; or, if the initial t be regarded as a neuter prefix, there will be the triliteral root f-n k. The primi- tive meaning of this root is a sign, mark, or token by which a place or thing is recognized. Peculiarly-shaped stones or ridges, which serve as landmarks, are called efinagha (Barth). Strictly speaking, the word tifinar applies only to those letters of the alphabet which can be represented by straight lines; while a number of others, expressed by dots, receive the name tiddebakin (Rinn). All letters, whether simple or compound, can be and usually are written by one or other of these methods, straight lines or dots, as is shown by the alphabet presented, from Hanoteau's Grammaire Tamachek. The uploads/Geographie/ the-alpiabets-of-the-berbers.pdf

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