Berber Languages - Population

Population

The exact population of Berber speakers is hard to ascertain, since most North African countries do not record language data in their censuses. The Ethnologue provides a useful academic starting point; however, its bibliographic references are inadequate, and it rates its own accuracy at only B-C for the area. Early colonial censuses may provide better documented figures for some countries; however, these are also very much out of date.

Few census figures are available; all countries (Algeria and Morocco included) do not count Berber languages. The 1972 Niger census reported Tuareg, with other languages, at 127,000 speakers. Population shifts in location and number, effects of urbanization and education in other languages, etc., make estimates difficult. In 1952 André Basset (LLB.4) estimated the number of Berberophones at 5,500,000. Between 1968 and 1978 estimates ranged from eight to thirteen million (as reported by Galand, LELB 56, pp. 107, 123-25); Voegelin and Voegelin (1977, p. 297) call eight million a conservative estimate. In 2006, Salem Chaker estimated that the Berberophone populations of Kabylie and the three Moroccan groups numbered more than one million each; and that in Algeria, 12,650,000, or one out of three Algerians, speak a Berber language (Chaker 1984, pp. 8–9).

• Morocco: In 1952, André Basset ("La langue berbère", Handbook of African Languages, Part I, Oxford) estimated that a "small majority" of Morocco's population spoke Berber. The 1960 census estimated that 34% of Moroccans spoke Berber, including bi-, tri-, and quadrilinguals. In 2000, Karl Prasse cited "more than half" in an interview conducted by Brahim Karada at Tawalt.com. According to the Ethnologue (by deduction from its Moroccan Arabic figures), the Berber-speaking population should be estimated at 35% or around 10.5 million speakers. However, the figures it gives for individual languages only add up to 7.5 million, divided into three dialects:
  • Riff in North Morocco : 1.5 million speakers (1991) (INALCO estimates the number at 3 million)
  • Shilha: 3 million (1998) (INALCO estimates the number at 8 million)
  • Central Morocco Tamazight: 3 million (1998) (INALCO estimates the number at 4–5 million)

A survey included in the official Moroccan census of 2004 and published by several Moroccan newspapers gave the following figures: 34% of people in rural regions spoke a Berber language and 21% in urban zones did, the national average would be 28.4% or 8.52 million. It is possible, however, that the survey asked for the language "used in daily life" which would result of course in figures clearly lower than those of native speakers, as the language is not recognized for official purposes and many Berbers who live in an Arabic-speaking environment cannot use it in daily life; also the use of Berber in public was frowned upon until the 1990s and might affect the result of the survey.

Adding up the population (according to the official census of 2004) of the Berber-speaking regions as shown on a 1973 map of the CIA results in at least 10 million speakers, not counting the numerous Berber population which lives outside these regions in the bigger cities.

Mohamed Chafik claims 80% of Moroccans are Berbers. It is not clear, however, whether he means "speakers of Berber languages" or "people of Berber descent".

The division of Moroccan Berber dialects in three groups, as used by The Ethnologue is common in linguistic publications, but is significantly complicated by local usage: thus Shilha is subdivided into Shilha of the Dra valley, Tasusit (the language of the Souss) and several other (mountain)-dialects. Moreover, linguistic boundaries are blurred, such that certain dialects cannot accurately be described as either Central Morocco Tamazight (spoken in the Central and eastern Atlas area) or Shilha.

• Algeria: In 1906, the total population speaking Berber languages in Algeria (excluding the thinly populated Sahara) was estimated at 1,305,730 out of 4,447,149, i.e. 29%. (Doutté & Gautier, Enquête sur la dispersion de la langue berbère en Algérie, faite par l'ordre de M. le Gouverneur Général, Alger 1913.) The 1911 census, however, found 1,084,702 speakers out of 4,740,526, i.e. 23%; Doutté & Gautier suggest that this was the result of a serious undercounting of Shawiya in areas of widespread bilingualism. A trend was noted for Berber groups surrounded by Arabic (as in Blida) to adopt Arabic, while Arabic speakers surrounded by Berber (as in Sikh ou Meddour near Tizi Ouzou) tended to adopt Berber. In 1952, André Basset estimated that about a third of Algeria's population spoke Berber. According to historian Charles-Robert Ageron in 1886, Algeria had around 1,2 million of Berber speakers and 1,1 million of Arab speakers. The Algerian census of 1966 found 2,297,997 out of 12,096,347 Algerians, or 19%, to speak "Berber". In 1980, Salem Chaker estimated that "in Algeria, 3,650,000, or one out of five Algerians, speak a Berber language" (Chaker 1984, pp. 8–9). According to the Ethnologue, more recent estimates include 14% (corresponding to the total figures it gives for each Berber language added together, 4 million) and (by deduction from its Algerian Arabic figures) 29% (Hunter 1996). Most of these are accounted for by three dialects (percentages based on historical population data from appropriate dates ):

• • Kabyle: 2,540,000 = 9% (Ethnologue, 1995) – 6,000,000 = 20% (Ethnologue, 1998). Total for all countries (Ethnologue): 3,126,000. (Needless to say, the latter two figures, though cited by the same source, are mutually contradictory.) Mainly in Algiers, Bejaia, Tizi-Ouzou, Bouira, Setif and Boumerdes.
  • Shawiya: ~ 2 million as of 2005, equivalent to 8.5% of the population. Mainly in Batna, Khenchela, Sétif, Souk Ahras, Oum-El-Bouaghi, Tebessa.
  • Shenwa, in the Dahra region, more precisely Jebel Chenoua in Algeria, just west of Algiers in the wilayas of Tipasa, the Chlef and Ain Defla. It is estimated at 56,300 speakers. Two main dialects : Beni Menacer, west and south of Mount Chenoua area, in Mount Chenoua area, 55,250 speakers.

A fourth group, despite a very small population, accounts for most of the area speaking Berber:

• Tuareg 25,000 in Algeria (Ethnologue, 1987), mainly in the Ahaggar mountains of the Sahara. Most Tuareg live in Mali and Niger (see below).

Other Berber dialects spoken in Algeria include : the Tamazight of Blida, the dialects of the Beni Snouss and Beni Bousaid villages in the wilaya of Tlemcen, the Matmata Berber spoken in the Ouarsenis region, the Mozabite language spoken in the wilaya of Mzab region, the dialect of the Ouargla oasis.

• Tunisia: Basset (1952) estimated about 1%, as did Penchoen (1968). According to the Ethnologue, there are only 26,000 speakers (1998) of a Berber language it calls "Djerbi", but which Tunisians call "Shelha", in Tunisia, all in the south around Djerba and Matmata. The more northerly enclave of Sened apparently no longer speaks Berber. This would make 0.3% of the population.
• Libya: According to the Ethnologue (by deduction from its combined Libyan Arabic and Egyptian Arabic figures) the non-Arabic-speaking population, most of which would be Berber, is estimated at 4% (1991, 1996). However, the individual language figures it gives add up to 162,000, i.e. about 3%. This is mostly accounted for by languages:
  • Nafusi in Zuwarah and Jabal Nafusa: 141,000 (1998).
  • Tahaggart Tuareg of Ghat: 17,000 (Johnstone 1993).
• Egypt: The oasis of Siwa near the Libyan border speaks a Berber language; according to the Ethnologue, there are 5,000 speakers there (1995). Its population in 1907 was 3884 (according to the 1911 Encyclopædia Britannica); the claimed lack of increase seems surprising.
• Mauritania: According to the Ethnologue, only 200-300 speakers of Zenaga remain (1998). It also mentions Tamasheq, but does not provide a population figure for it. Most non-Arabic speakers in Mauritania speak Niger–Congo languages.
• Mali: The Ethnologue counts 440,000 Tuareg (1991) speaking:

Tamasheq: 250,000

Tamajaq: 190,000

• Niger: The Ethnologue counts 720,000 Tuareg (1998) speaking:

Tawallamat Tamajaq: 450,000

Tayart Tamajeq: 250,000

Tamahaq: 20,000

• Burkina Faso: The Ethnologue counts 20,000–30,000 Tuareg (SIL 1991), speaking Kidal Tamasheq. However the Ethnologue is very inaccurate here appearing to miss the largest group of Tamasheq in Burkina in the province of Oudalan. The Tamasheq speaking population of Burkina is nearer to 100,000 (2005), with around 70,000 Tamasheq speakers in the province of Oudalan, the rest mainly in Seno, Soum, Yagha, Yatenga and Kadiogo provinces. About 10% of Burkina Tamasheq speak a version of the Tawallamat dialect.
• Nigeria: The Ethnologue notes the presence of "few" Tuareg, speaking Tawallamat Tamajaq.
• France: The Ethnologue lists 860,000 speakers for Riffian and 537,000 speakers for Kabyle, 150,000 for Central Morocco Tamazight, and no figures for Shilha. For the rest of Europe, it has no figures.
• Spain: Tamazight is spoken amongst Melilla's 80,000 inhabitants but there has been no census as to the percentage of its speakers. A minority of Ceuta's inhabitants speak Berber.
• Israel: Around two thousand mostly elderly Moroccan-born Israelis of Berber Jewish descent use Judeo-Berber dialects (as opposed to Moroccan Jews who trace descent from Spanish-speaking Sephardi Jews expelled from Spain, or Arabic-speaking Moroccan Jews).

Thus, judging by the not necessarily reliable Ethnologue, the total number of speakers of Berber languages in the Maghreb proper appears to lie anywhere between 16 and 25 million, depending on which estimate is accepted; if we take Basset's estimate, it could be as high as 30 million. The vast majority are concentrated in Morocco and Algeria. The Tuareg of the Sahel add another million or so.