The Eastern Berber languages

The Eastern Berber languages are a subset of the Berber language family, primarily spoken in parts of Libya and Egypt. These languages are part of the broader Afro-Asiatic language family, which includes languages such as Arabic, Hebrew, and Amharic. Eastern Berber languages include Awjila, Sokna, Fezzan (El-Fogaha), Siwi, and Ghadamès. While these languages share certain features, the precise classification and relationship between them are still subjects of debate among linguists.

The Eastern Berber languages are generally considered part of the Zenatic Berber supergroup, which falls under the larger Northern Berber category. The Zenatic languages are spread across North Africa, from Morocco to Egypt, with Eastern Berber representing the group found mainly in the eastern part of the Berber-speaking world.

Linguist Kossmann (1999) classified Eastern Berber into two main subgroups. The first subgroup consists of Ghadamès and Awjila. These two languages are particularly notable for preserving the proto-Berber sound *β, which remains unchanged as “β” in contrast to other Berber languages, where this sound either changes to “h” or disappears entirely. The second subgroup includes Nafusi (excluding Zuwara and southern Tunisia), Sokna (El-Foqaha), and Siwi. These languages share features with the Zenati languages, including some innovations such as the change of the vowel *ă to ə and the loss of the *β sound.

Despite the linguistic similarities, the precise genetic relationship between these languages remains unclear, and there is no consensus about whether they form a valid genealogical subgroup. Some researchers, such as Blench (2006), list these languages as separate entities, including extinct languages like Sokna and Zurg. The Lingvarium Project has also mentioned languages like Jaghbub and Tmessa, adding further complexity to the classification of the Eastern Berber languages.