Keeping Tamcheq Alive through Language Documentation

Although the Tuareg have lived in Southern Algeria for untold centuries, all the Berber communities throughout the whole Maghreb Region have been reduced to a minority within their respective homelands. Oddly enough, a growing number of citizens with Berber ancestral background identify themselves as Arabs. The decline of their indigenous languages keeps going and growing if not to say barely about to fall to extinction. Since the launch of indigenous languages in Algerian schools, much hope has been revived to bring back these languages to usage. Archives of recorded data about Tamcheq, dating back to the colonial period, becomes a real asset for reuse to produce instructional material such as textbooks and abridged dictionaries.

Autorentext

Abdallah Amin Terriche occupies the position of senior lecturer at Hassiba Ben Bouali University, Chlef. His research interests cover language planning and education, language rights, endangered languages, and indigenous languages restoration through mainstream education.