Thread:Project:Translator/Template:Berber/reply (8)

Still wouldn't answer a simple question, ha.

I sensed your dismissive attitude about this topic since your 2nd reply. Don't know where it comes from.

Besides, I don't think you're familiar enough with the Berber language and the scholars' studies about it.

Berber is a natural living language. Its native name is "Tamazight", the only one I grew up with in my Moroccan town.

The English-speaking linguists (and the SIL people) usually have limited engagement with the Berber language and the Berber world in general (unlike their French and Dutch colleagues), so they adopted the view of "Berber languages" (impressed by accent differences) when in fact they're mostly looking at Berber dialects or regional variations that don't amount to full-blown languages. Whereas the French linguists very often consider it as one language with regional accents and dialects (André Basset : 1952)...etc.

I just heard today from a colleague that he is working on this with the SIL people, and hopefully Berber will get an additional ISO code soon and that will enable it to enjoy the same rights and privileges enjoyed by other languages like Arabic, which is by the way viewed as a macrolanguage by SIL (and it has 30 individual languages):

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macrolanguage#List_of_macrolanguages

http://www.sil.org/iso639-3/iso-639-3-macrolanguages_20100128.tab

Thanks for your time,

Regards,

--Tussna 23:28, 21 August 2010 (UTC)