The Eastern Berber languages are a group of Berber languages spoken in Libya and Egypt. They include the Awjila, Sokna, Fezzan (El-Fogaha), Siwi, and Ghadamès languages, though it is not clear that they form a valid genealogical group.

Classification

Kossmann (1999:29, 33) divides them into two groups:

  • one consisting of Ghadamès and Awjila. These two languages are the only Berber languages to preserve proto-Berber *β as β; elsewhere in Berber it becomes h or disappears.
  • the other consisting of Nafusi (excluding Zuwara and southern Tunisia), Sokna (El-Foqaha) and Siwi. This shares some innovations with Zenati, and others (e.g. the change of *ă to ə and the loss of *β
  • Siwa
  • Awjila
  • Sokna †
  • Ghadamès
  • Zurg †

The "Lingvarium Project" (2005) cites two additional languages, both located in Libya: the extinct language of Jaghbub and the still-spoken Berber language of Tmessa, an oasis located in the north of the Murzuq District. Blažek (1999) considers the language spoken in Tmessa as a dialect of Fezzan.

Notes

  • "Oriental Berber", a collaborative blog on the Berber languages of Tunisia, Libya, and Egypt