(pronounced ) is an alphabetic script used by the Tuareg, a Berber people of northern Africa, to write their Tuareg languages. An older version of Tifinagh, sometimes named the Libyan (French libyque) or Libyco-berber alphabet, was more widely used by speakers of Berber languages all across North Africa and on the Canary Islands. It is attested from the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. It is usually assumed to be of Phoenician origin. The word Tifinagh is a feminine plural noun whose singular would be Tafniqt; it means 'the Phoenician (letters)'. For a discussion, see and [http://www.mondeberbere.com/langue/tifinagh/tifinagh_apparition.htm.

Traditionally, the script marks no vowels, except word-finally; however, various proposals to allow it to mark vowels have been made in recent times. In some areas, Arabic vowel diacritics are combined with Tifinagh characters to mark vowels. The letter forms vary significantly across the wide area where Tifinagh is used. The direction of writing varies; right-to-left is common, but the older "Libyan" inscriptions most commonly use the unusual orientation bottom-to-top. Occasionally the script has been used to write other neighboring languages, such as Tagdal Songhai.

A modern version, sometimes styled Neo-Tifinagh, was put forward by the Académie Berbère in the 1960's; it is written left to right, marks vowels, and has been modified to better fit Northern Berber phonology. In a modified form, this script has recently (2003) been adopted for pedagogical purposes in Morocco.

Code chart

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Tifinagh is encoded in the Unicode range U+2D30—U+2D7F, starting from version 4.1.0. There are 55 defined characters, but there are more characters being used than those defined. In ISO 15924, the code Tfng is assigned to Tifinagh.

Unicode representative glyphs chart (in left-to-right direction)

Code	+0	+1	+2	+3	+4	+5	+6	+7	+8	+9	+A	+B	+C	+D	+E	+F
U+2D30	2D31.png	2D32.png	2D33.png	2D35.png	2D36.png	2D37.png	2D39.png	2D3A.png	2D3B.png	2D3D.png	2D3E.png	2D3F.png
U+2D40	2D41.png	2D42.png	2D43.png	2D45.png	2D46.png	2D47.png	2D49.png	2D4A.png	2D4B.png	2D4D.png	2D4E.png	2D4F.png
U+2D50	2D51.png	2D52.png	2D53.png	2D55.png	2D56.png	2D57.png	2D59.png	2D5A.png	2D5B.png	2D5D.png	2D5E.png	2D5F.png
U+2D60	2D61.png	2D62.png	2D63.png	2D65.png
U+2D70

Here is a comparison chart for the character glyph and the transliteration.

Color keys

Color	Meaning
	Basic Tifinagh (IRCAM)
	Extended Tifinagh (IRCAM)
	Other Tifinagh letters
	Modern Tuareg letters
	This position shall not be used

Simple letters (and modifier letter)

Code	Glyph	Unicode	Transliteration		Name
			Latin	Arabic
ⴰ	a	ا	ya
ⴱ	b	ب	yab
ⴲ	bh	ٻ	yabh
ⴳ	g	گ	yag
ⴴ	gh	ڲ	yagh
ⴵ	dj	ج	Berber Academy yaj
ⴶ	dj	ج	yaj
ⴷ	d	د	yad
ⴸ	ḍ	ض	yadh
ⴹ	ḍ	ض	yadd
ⴺ	ḍ	ض	yaddh
ⴻ	e	ه	yey
ⴼ	f	ف	yaf
ⴽ	k	ک	yak
ⴾ	k	ک	Tuareg yak
ⴿ	kh	خ	yakhh
ⵀ	h b	ھ ب	yah = Tuareg yab
ⵁ	h	ھ	Berber Academy yah
ⵂ	h	ھ	Tuareg yah
ⵃ	ḥ	ح	yahh
ⵄ	æ (ɛ)	ع	yaa
ⵅ	kh	خ	yakh
ⵆ	kh	خ	Tuareg yakh
ⵇ	q	ق	yaq
ⵈ	q	ق	Tuareg yaq
ⵉ	i	ي	yi
ⵊ	j	ج	yazh
ⵋ	j	ج	Ahaggar yazh
ⵌ	j	ج	Tuareg yazh

Code	Glyph	Unicode	Transliteration		Name
			Latin	Arabic
ⵍ	l	ل	yal
ⵎ	m	م	yam
ⵏ	n	ن	yan
ⵐ	ny	ني	Tuareg yagn
ⵑ	ng	ڭ	Tuareg yang
ⵒ	p	پ	yap
ⵓ	u w	و ۉ	yu = Tuareg yaw
ⵔ	r	ر	yar
ⵕ	ṛ	ڕ	yarr
ⵖ	gh (ɣ)	غ	yagh
ⵗ	gh (ɣ)	غ	Tuareg yagh
ⵘ	gh (ɣ) dj	غ ج	Ayer yagh = Adrar yaj
ⵙ	s	س	yas
ⵚ	ṣ	ص	yass
ⵛ	sh (ʃ)	ش	yash
ⵜ	t	ت	yat
ⵝ	ṭ	ط	yath
ⵞ	ch (tʃ)	تش	yach
ⵟ	ṭ	ط	yatt
ⵠ	v	ۋ	yav
ⵡ	w	ۉ	yaw
ⵢ	y	ي	yay
ⵣ	z	ز	yaz
ⵤ	z	ز	Tawellemet yaz = Harpoon yaz
ⵥ	ẓ	دز	yazz
ⵯ	+w	ۥ+	Labio-velarization mark = Tamatart = 2D61

Digraph letters (ligatures are possible)

2D59.png||ⵜⵙ||ts||align="center"|تس||yats 2D63.png||ⴷⵣ||dz||align="center"|دز||yadz

Code	Glyph	Unicode	Transliteration		Name
			Latin	Arabic

2D5B.png||ⵜⵛ||ch (tʃ)||align="center"|تش||yach 2D4A.png||ⴷⵊ||dj||align="center"|دج||yadzh

Code	Glyph	Unicode	Transliteration		Name
			Latin	Arabic

Bibliography

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• Encyclopaedia of Islam, s.v. Tifinagh.

External links

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• Amanar pictures of Tifinagh fonts used in books, magazines
• http://www.ancientscripts.com/berber.html
• http://amazighworld.net/studies/articles/touareg_histoire.php
• http://ennedi.free.fr/tifin.htm
• http://www.mondeberbere.com/langue/tifinagh/tifinagh_origine.htm
• http://www.omniglot.com/writing/tifinagh.htm

Alphabetic writing systems | Berber

تيفيناغ | Skritur berberek | Tifinagh-Schrift | Tifinagh | Tifinagh | Tifinagh | Neo-tifinagh | Tifinagh | Tifinagh-Schrift | Tifinagh | Tifinar | 提非納字母