Online Tifinagh keyboard (Amazigh)

Writing Amazigh with an online Tifinagh keyboard

Tifinagh is the script of the Amazigh language, Tamazight. Its modern form, Neo-Tifinagh, was standardized in 2003 by the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM): 33 letters, written from left to right. Tamazight became an official language in Morocco with the 2011 constitution, and in Algeria in 2016. You can see it in school textbooks, on road signs and on the front of public buildings.

Everything you type here is real Unicode text, so it pastes cleanly into WhatsApp, Word, an email or a social network. The page brings its own Noto Sans Tifinagh font, which means the letters display even on a device that has none. Your text stays in your browser and is never sent to a server.

Latin keys and their Tifinagh letters

In Layout mode, each key types the Tifinagh letter for the Latin letter printed on it, following IRCAM’s Latin transcription: a gives ⴰ, b gives ⴱ, n gives ⵏ. Because the keyboard follows the letter rather than the key position, it behaves the same way on QWERTY and AZERTY. The table lists the less obvious cases.

For example, t, i, f, i, n, a and then Shift+G spell ⵜⵉⴼⵉⵏⴰⵖ.

Phonetic mode, long-press and panels

If you already know how a word is spelled in Latin letters, Phonetic mode is quicker: azul becomes ⴰⵣⵓⵍ and tamaziɣt becomes ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ. The shortcuts gh, kh, ch (or sh) and 3 give ⵖ, ⵅ, ⵛ and ⵄ. The IRCAM transcription letters ɛ, ɣ, ḍ, ḥ, ṛ, ṣ, ṭ and ẓ are converted as well.

On screen, long-press a letter to see its variants: ⴷ offers ⴹ and ⴸ, ⵣ offers ⵥ and ⵤ, ⴳ offers ⴳⵯ. Two panels hold the remaining signs: “Emphatic letters, ɛ and ɣ” and “Additional letters”.

To convert a text you already have, use the Tifinagh-Latin converter; to review each letter with its name and transcription, open the Tifinagh alphabet. Kabyle is mostly written in Latin script: the Kabyle keyboard adds ɛ, ɣ and the dotted letters.