I think Tamazight should be split into several languages that form a family.
Proto-Berber broke apart into different languages sometime between 600BC and 200AD (as evidenced by lots of Punic and a few Latin loanwords in reconstructed Proto-Berber). A good comparison would be Germanic, which broke apart around 200AD or a little earlier, yet is a language family instead of a single language.
This could then form a family called “Amazigh” to distinguish it from Tamazight language.
I think the different languages within the Amazigh family should be:
Tamazight (dialects: Tamazight and Shilha/Senhaja)
Zenati (dialects: Zenati and Shawi)
Kabyle? (this one is a bit too small and can be included as a dialect of Zenati, same as Lusatian is included with Czech-Slovak)
Tuareg
Eastern Berber
Edit: Guanche
Edit: Zenaga
(As pointed out later in the thread, Zenati and Kabyle can both be reasonably merged into Tamazight as well).
Proto-Berber broke apart into different languages sometime between 600BC and 200AD (as evidenced by lots of Punic and a few Latin loanwords in reconstructed Proto-Berber). A good comparison would be Germanic, which broke apart around 200AD or a little earlier, yet is a language family instead of a single language.
This could then form a family called “Amazigh” to distinguish it from Tamazight language.
Tamazight (dialects: Tamazight and Shilha/Senhaja)
Zenati (dialects: Zenati and Shawi)
Kabyle? (this one is a bit too small and can be included as a dialect of Zenati, same as Lusatian is included with Czech-Slovak)
Tuareg
Eastern Berber
Edit: Guanche
Edit: Zenaga
(As pointed out later in the thread, Zenati and Kabyle can both be reasonably merged into Tamazight as well).
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