Checked for validity

and accuracy –
November 2022
ROMANIZATION OF NEO-TIFINAGH
BGN/PCGN 2022 System

The BGN/PCGN system for Neo-Tifinagh is designed for use in romanizing geographic names
written in the Neo-Tifinagh script. Tifinagh is the name of the script used to write Amazigh
(Tamazight) languages. Neo-Tifinagh is specifically the modern alphabet used for official
purposes in Morocco and to a lesser extent in Algeria1. Tifinagh script2 does not distinguish
between upper and lower case and reads from left to right. This system is based on the ALA-
LC Tamazight3 and IRCAM (The Moroccan Institut Royal de la Culture Amazighe) romanization
systems with a few modifications, including the addition of the character ⴵ (row 31 in the
consonant table), which is used in Algerian Tifinagh but is not part of the IRCAM alphabet.

Table 1: Consonant Characters4

Example6 Example Approved Name

5
Tifinagh Unicode Romanization Tifinagh Romanized (official Roman
Script Tifinagh script)7
1. ⴱ 2D31 b ⴱⵓⵄⵕⴼⴰ Bu‘ṛfa Bou Arfa

2. ⴳ 2D33 g ⵡⴰⵔⴻⴳⵍⴰ Waregla Ouargla

3. ⴳⵯ 2D33+2D6F gw ⴰⵥⴳⴳⵯⴰⵖ aẓggwagh (red)

4. ⴷ 2D37 d ⵎⵉⴷⵍⵜ Midlt Midelt

5. ⴹ 2D39 ḍ ⵎⵉⴹⴰⵕ Miḍaṛ Midar

6. ⴼ 2D3C f ⴼⵉⴳⵉⴳ Figig Figuig

7. ⴽ 2D3D k ⵙⴽⵉⴽⴷⴰ Skikda Skikda

8. ⴽⵯ 2D3D+2D6F kw ⴰⴽⴽⵯ akkʷ (all)

9. ⵀ 2D40 h ⵉⵀⴷⵓⵎⵏ ihdumn (clothing)

10. ⵃ 2D43 ḥ ⵍⵃⵓⵙⵉⵎⴰ Lḥusima Hoceima

1
See Appendix for a glossary of terms.
2
The Tifinagh alphabet can be downloaded from IRCAM website: http://www.ircam.ma/?g-fr.
3
http://www.loc.gov/catdir/cpso/romanization/tamazight.pdf; based on a manual published by IRCAM. (ALA-
LC Tamazight).
4
See Note 7 for Unicode of Latin extended characters.
5
https://www.unicode.org/charts/PDF/U2D30.pdf
6
Where possible, examples of toponyms containing the subject character are provided. In cases where no
toponymic example was available a word or name containing the relevant character has been used as an
example, with a translation in brackets in the final column.
7
This column lists the BGN/PCGN recommended Roman-script spelling of the name in the example. Morocco
and Algeria produce Roman-script mapping and BGN/PCGN recommend use of the names on these official
products. As can be seen from the table, the local Roman-script spellings often differ from the Romanized-
Tifinagh names. Examples in brackets are translations of examples which are words rather than names, as no
toponymic example was available for these characters.
1
 Example6 Example Approved Name
5
Tifinagh Unicode Romanization Tifinagh Romanized (official Roman
Script Tifinagh script)7
11. ⵄ 2D44 ‘ Note 3 ⵄⵉⵏ ⴷⴻⴼⵍⴰ ‘In Defla Aïn Defla

12. ⵅ 2D45 x ⵅⵏⵉⴼⵕⴰ Xnifṛa Khenifra

13. ⵇ 2D47 q ⵇⵙⴻⵏⵟⵉⵏⴰ Qsenṭina Constantine

14. ⵊ 2D4A j ⵟⴰⵏⵊⴰ Ṭanja Tangier

15. ⵍ 2D4D l ⵍⴻⴱⵍⵉⴷⴰ Leblida Blida

16. ⵎ 2D4E m ⵎⴻⵙⵜⵖⴰⵏⴻⵎ Mustghanem Mostaganem

17. ⵏ 2D4F n ⵄⴻⵏⵏⴰⴱⴰ ‘Ennaba Annaba

18. ⵔ 2D54 r ⴱⵓⵎⴻⵔⴷⴰⵙ Bumerdas Boumerdes

19. ⵕ 2D55 ṛ ⵎⵉⴹⴰⵕ Miḍaṛ Midar

20. ⵖ 2D56 gh ⵍⵎⵖⵔⵉⴱ Lmghrib Morocco

21. ⵙ 2D59 s ⵙⵄⵉⴷⴰ S‘ida Saïda

22. ⵚ 2D5A ṣ ⵜⴰⵚⵚⵓⵔⵜ Taṣṣurt Essaouira

23. ⵛ 2D5B ch ⵛⵛⵍⴻⴼ Chchlef Chlef

24. ⵜ 2D5C t ⵜⵉⵣⵏⵉⵜ Tiznit Tiznit

25. ⵟ 2D5F ṭ ⵜⵉⵟⵟⴰⵡⵉⵏ Tiṭṭawin Tétouan

26. ⵡ 2D61 w ⵡⴻⵀⵕⴰⵏ Wehṛan Oran

27. ⵢ 2D62 y ⴱⴳⴰⵢⴻⵜ Bgayet Bejaïa

28. ⵣ 2D63 z ⴰⵣⵎⵎⵓⵔ Azmmur Azemmour

29. ⵥ 2D65 ẓ ⴰⵥⵉⵍⴰⵍ Aẓilal Azilal

30. ⵯ 2D6F w
ⴰⵎⴷⴷⴰⴽⵯⵍ amddakʷl (friend)
31.8 ⴵ 2D35 ǧ ⴵⴰⵏⴻⵜ Ğanet Djanet

8
This character is used to write Tifinagh in Algeria but is not part of the Moroccan IRCAM Neo-Tifinagh
alphabet.
2
 Table 2: Vowel Characters
Example Approved Name
Example
Tifinagh Unicode Romanization Romanized (official Roman
Tifinagh Script
Tifinagh script)9
1. ⴰ 2D30 a ⴰⴳⴰⴷⵉⵔ Agadir Agadir

2. ⵉ 2D49 i ⵜⵉⵣⵉ ⵓⵣⵣⵓ Tizi Uzzu Tizi Ouzou

3. ⵓ 2D53 u ⵜⵉⵏⴷⵓⴼ Tinduf Tindouf

4. ⴻ 2D3B e ⵍⴻⵣⵣⴰⵢⴻⵔ Lezzayer Algeria

Table 3: Examples of Amazigh terms occurring in Moroccan and Algerian toponyms10

Tifinagh Romanization English
1. ⴰⴷⵔⴰⴷ Adrar Mountain

2. ⴰⴳⵍⵎⴰⵎ Aglmam Lake

3. ⴰⵙⵉⴼ Asif Stream

4. ⴰⵢⵜ Ayt People (of)

5. ⵜⵉⵟⵟ Tiṭṭ Spring

6. ⵜⵉⵣⵉ Tizi Pass

Spelling variations: Moroccan and Algerian sources often romanize Amazigh toponyms to
accommodate French orthography and pronunciation. For example, ⵜⵉⵟⵟ, ⴰⵢⵜ, and
ⴰⴳⵍⵎⴰⵎ, are commonly romanized as Tit, Aït, and Aguelmame, respectively.

Notes
1. In romanization, each initial letter of a word in a multi-word name should be capitalized,
excluding connectors: e.g., ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵍⵎⴰⵖⵔⵉⴱ → Tagldit n Lmaghrib (Kingdom of
Morocco).

2. The character ⵏ (n) functions as a connector, linking the generic and the specific in
geographic names. This connector, when romanized, should remain lower case.
i. ⵜⴰⵙⴳⴰ ⵏ ⵜⵉⵥⵏⵉⵜ → Tasga n Tiznit (Province of Tiznit)
ii. ⵜⴰⴳⵍⴷⵉⵜ ⵏ ⵍⵎⴰⵖⵔⵉⴱ → Tagldit n Lmaghrib (Kingdom of Morocco)

9
See footnote 6.
10
http://tal.ircam.ma/dglai/; Dictionnaire Général de la Langue Amazighe Informatisé, published by IRCAM.
3
3. When a name starts with ⵄ, romanized as ‘ (Unicode encoding: 2018), the following letter
is capitalized in romanization. E.g., ⵄⴻⵏⵏⴰⴱⴰ → ‘Ennaba.

4. When the characters ⴳⵯ and ⴽⵯ (rows 3 and 8 in the consonants table) are doubled, the
superscript element is not repeated in the Tifinagh script. This should be replicated in
romanization. For example, ⴳⵯ+ⴳⵯ is written ⴳⴳⵯ and romanized ggw, e.g., ⴰⵥⴳⴳⵯⴰⵖ →
aẓggwagh (meaning ‘red’ in Tamazight).

5. Neo-Tifinagh uses the numerals as used in English, e.g., 0, 1, 2, 3, 4 etc.

6. Occasionally, the character sequence ⴳⵀ occurs. It may be romanized g·h in order to

differentiate this romanization from the diagraph gh which represents the letter ⵖ.

7. An inventory of letter-diacritic combinations, with their Unicode encoding, in addition to

the unmodified letters of the basic Roman script is:

Latin Latin
Unicode Unicode
Extended Extended
1. Ḍ 1E0C 10. ḍ 1E0D
2. Gʷ 0047+02B7 11. gʷ 0067+02B7
3. Ḥ 1E24 12. ḥ 1E25
4. Kʷ 004B+02B7 13. kʷ 006B+02B7
5. Ṛ 1E5A 14. ṛ 1E5B
6. Ṣ 1E62 15. ṣ 1E63
7. Ṭ 1E6C 16. ṭ 1E6D
8. Ẓ 1E92 17. ẓ 1E93
9. ‘ 2018 18. ʷ 02B7

8. The romanization column in tables 1 and 2 shows only lowercase forms but, when
romanizing, uppercase and lowercase Roman letters as appropriate should be used.

4
 Appendix:
Glossary of Terms

1. Amazigh: The people/ethnicity (Berber is antiquated and pejorative); also, the Afro-
asiatic language family that includes Tarifit (ISO 639-3: rif), Tachelhit (ISO 639-3: shi),
Central Atlas Tamazight (ISO 639-3: tzm), Kabyle (ISO 639-3: kab), Chaoui (ISO 639-3:
shy), and more. Amazigh languages share varying levels of mutual intelligibility, largely
depending on the geographic distance between one speaker and another. This term
is sometimes found being applied to the language spoken by the Amazigh people.
2. Tamazight: Literally the ‘language of the Amazigh’ in Tamazight; endonym often used
by the Moroccan and Algerian governments referring to the Amazigh language. The
Moroccan and Algerian governments treat Tamazight as one language, with Tarifit,
Kayble, Chaoui, etc. as dialects. Some Amazigh, notably those in the Central Atlas and
Rif regions of Morocco, also refer to their specific language as Tamazight.
3. Tifinagh: The script used to write Amazigh languages all across North Africa.
4. Neo-Tifinagh: Tifinagh is the script, whereas Neo-Tifinagh is specifically the modern
alphabet used for official purposes in Morocco and to a lesser extent in Algeria.
Tifinagh script employs at least 50 unique characters in total, however only 34
constitute the Neo-Tifinagh alphabet used in Morocco, with 35 characters being used
in Algeria.