Morocco.. Twenty years since the adoption of "Tifinagh" to write Tamazight
?How does Morocco preserve the Amazigh language
Twenty years have passed since the "Tifinagh" alphabet was officially adopted as a letter for writing the Amazigh language in Morocco, while the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture stands on the achievements made for the Amazigh language after the approval of this letter.
Activists and actors in the field of Tamazight seek to assess these years of using the letter "Tifinagh", and the extent of its spread and rootedness in all its manifestations, in the Moroccan scene, since it was chosen as a letter to write Tamazight in the Kingdom, after a royal arbitration ended what was then called the "Battle of the Letter".
The Institute and the Institutionalization of the Tifinagh Inscriptions
On the occasion, the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, at its headquarters in Rabat, organized a meeting to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the official recognition of Tifinagh on February 10, 2003, under the slogan "Tifinagh from rock inscriptions to institutionalization."
Khaled Ansar, a research director at the Center for Linguistic Preparation of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, said, "The integration of the Tifinagh letter went through multiple stages, as it was initially dependent on the fields of education and media before it moved, after activating the official character of the Amazigh language, to institutionalization and the promotion of the language's radiance." Amazigh".
Ansar stated, in his interview with "Sky News Arabia", that "many administrations have begun to adopt the Tifinagh letter in the formulation of the documents they issue, which constitutes an important change," hoping that "the Tifinagh letter will be integrated in the future on a broader level . "
Tifinagh most suitable and simplest for typing
Since 2003, researchers at the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture have worked on subjecting the Amazigh language and the Tifinagh script to processes of preparation, profiling and sitting in response to the needs of society and institutions, within the framework of transferring it from the status of the dialect or dialects spoken orally to the level of the written and taught language.
The researcher at the Institute's Linguistic Preparation Center explained, "The researchers at the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, especially at the Linguistic Preparation Center, initially conducted a technical study through which they were able to show that the Tifina letter is the most appropriate and simplest that can be used to write the Amazigh language, which will not cost much either . " At the level of the phonetic, structural or morphological structure of the Amazigh language.
And he continued: "A careful survey of the references was worked at the beginning, in order to see the different aspects of the Tifinagh lines, and after that these lines were studied based on the analysis of the phonological, morphological and synthetic structures of the Amazigh language."
The researcher at the Amazigh Institute said: “We worked on drawing the Tifinagh letter in connection with a set of principles, the most important of which is the principle of historicism that includes historical and authentic letters that testify to belonging to a very ancient Amazigh writing , and the principle of simplicity, which means that the letter is simple and uncomplicated without additional signs, then The principle of economy, in which letters are intended to be identical to the basic phonemes (or phonetic units) of Tamazight.
Battles to choose Tifinagh character
Going back to before February 10, 2003, "the way to choose Tifinagh was not easy, when the topic was presented by the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture, three directions emerged, and the discussion intensified between them in the context of what was called at the time the Battle of the Craft," says the university researcher interested in the affairs of the Amazigh movement, Mustafa Antara.
Antara explained, in a statement, that "the first trend adopted the adoption of the Latin letter, and its supporters were many within the Amazigh movement, because it is a global letter at the level of spread, and the second direction demanded the adoption of the Arabic letter because of the characteristics and advantages available to this letter, Then the third trend clung to the Tifinagh letter as an original and ancient letter symbolizing the Amazigh identity .
He continued: However, the "Administrative Council of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture" witnessed a heated debate between the advocates of the Latin script and Tifinagh in particular, so that the vote on the official character for writing the Amazigh language was not decided except in the second session in favor of the Tifinagh character, when the dean of the institute, Muhammad Shafiq, raised At that time, the decision goes to King Muhammad the sixth to decide on it.
The same speaker pointed out that "the various political forces represented in Parliament blessed the option of Tifinagh, with the exception of two parties that expressed their reservations, so that the final decision would be made by the king in the official alphabet for writing the Amazigh language, as one of the important issues raised on the table of the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture in its early beginnings." Believing that "the state succeeded in getting out of the Harf battle with minimal damage, victorious politically, culturally and in security."
It has national and international legitimacy
And the researcher in Amazigh linguistics, Rachid Al-Gharnati, believes that at the level of legitimacy as a letter for writing Amazigh, the Tifinagh letter has national and international legitimacy, as it was adopted by international organizations as one of the alphabets for writing living languages.
Al-Gharnati continued, in his testimony to that “the Tifinagh letter is a decision that does not create any problem from the linguistic point of view, from the social point of view, or from the political point of view, in addition to its possession of historical symbolism as a letter belonging to North Africa, but the decision calls for other decisions to keep pace . ” development of the Amazigh language as a whole.
The researcher in Amazigh linguistics stressed that "the use of the Amazigh language by adopting the Tifinagh letter is mainly related to the generalization of the teaching of the Amazigh language in public schools in all its branches," noting that "currently, no judgment can be given to evaluate this letter, because as long as it is not generalized in the collection of educational wires." From primary to secondary, it is not possible to collect indicators for evaluating this experience.
Source: websites