Wednesday, 1 July 2026
Numbers in Tamazight: Tifinagh, Latin Script, and Arabic
Numbers in Tamazight: Tifinagh, Latin Script, and Arabic
A quick reference for counting in the language of North Africa's Amazigh peoples
Tamazight, the language of North Africa's indigenous Amazigh (Berber) peoples, is written in an ancient script called Tifinagh (ⵜⵉⴼⵉⵏⴰⵖ), and is also commonly rendered in the Latin alphabet and, informally, alongside Arabic. Here's how the numbers look across all three.
0 to 10
| Number | Tifinagh | Latin | Arabic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0 | ⵉⵍⴻⵎ | ilem | صفر |
| 1 | ⵢⴰⵏ | yan | واحد |
| 2 | ⵙⵉⵏ | sin | إثنان |
| 3 | ⴽⵔⴰⴸ | kraḏ | ثلاثة |
| 4 | ⴽⵓⵥ | kuẕ | أربعة |
| 5 | ⵙⵎⵓⵙ | smus | خمسة |
| 6 | ⵚⴹⵉⵙ | ṣḍis | ستة |
| 7 | ⵚⴰ | ṣa | سبعة |
| 8 | ⵟⴰⵎ | ṭam | ثمانية |
| 9 | ⵟⵥⴰ | ṭza | تسعة |
| 10 | ⵎⵔⴰⵡ | mraw | عشرة |
Larger Numbers
| Number | Tifinagh | Latin | Arabic |
|---|---|---|---|
| 20 | ⵙⵉⵎⵔⴰⵡ | simraw | عشرون |
| 30 | ⴽⵔⴰⵎⵔⴰⵡ | kramraw | ثلاثون |
| 100 | ⵜⵉⵎⴹⵉ | timḍi | مئة |
| 1,000 | ⵉⴼⴹ | ifḏ | ألف |
| 1,000,000 | ⴰⵎⴻⵍⵢⵓⵏ | amelyun | مليون |
| 1,000,000,000 | ⴰⵎⴻⵍⵢⴰⵔ | amelyar | مليار |
Pattern spotting: 20 (simraw) and 30 (kramraw) are built from the root for 10 (mraw) combined with the roots for 2 (sin) and 3 (kraḏ) — much like how many languages construct "twenty" and "thirty" from "two-tens" and "three-tens."
Why the dots? Letters like ḏ, ẕ, ḍ, ṣ, and ṭ carry small dots underneath in the Latin transliteration. These mark emphatic consonants — sounds pronounced further back in the mouth. Tamazight shares this feature with Arabic, which is part of why the Latin script needs these extra diacritics to capture sounds plain Latin letters can't represent alone.