The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (french: Institut royal de la culture amazighe (IRCAM); zgh, ⴰⵙⵉⵏⴰⴳ ⴰⴳⵍⴷⴰⵏ ⵏ ⵜⵓⵙⵙⵏⴰ ⵜⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵜ, Asinag Ageldan n Tussna Tamazight (SGSM); ar, المعهد الملكي للثقافة الأمازيغية, al-Ma‘had al-Malikī lith-Thaqāfah al-Amāzīghīyah) is an academic institute of the Moroccan government in charge with the promotion of the

Berber languages The Berber languages, also known as the Amazigh languages or Tamazight,, ber, label=Tuareg Tifinagh, ⵜⵎⵣⵗⵜ, ) are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related languages spoken by Berber commun ...

and culture, and of the development of Standard Moroccan Amazigh and its instruction in Morocco's public schools. The institute is located in the Moroccan capital of

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ar, الرِّبَاط, er-Ribât; ber, ⵕⵕⴱⴰⵟ, ṛṛbaṭ) is the capital city of Morocco and the country's seventh largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan populatio ...

. It was officially founded on October 17, 2001, under a

royal decree A decree is a legal proclamation, usually issued by a head of state (such as the president of a republic or a monarch), according to certain procedures (usually established in a constitution). It has the force of law. The particular term used for ...

King Mohammed VI Mohammed VI ( ar, محمد السادس; born 21 August 1963) is the King of Morocco. He belongs to the 'Alawi dynasty and acceded to the throne on 23 July 1999, upon the death of his father, King Hassan II. Upon ascending to the throne, Moh ...

, and was run by Amazigh scholars and activists. The institute had legal and financial independence from the executive branch of government, but its recommendations about the education of the Berber languages in Moroccan public schools are not legally binding to the government. After nineteen years of existence the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture ceased to exist as an independent institution in February 2020. It continues to function as a division of National Council for Amazigh Languages and Culture.

Role

The institute offers advice to the Moroccan king and government about the measures that would help develop the Berber language and culture, especially within the educational system. IRCAM published numerous books on various subjects, such as history, culture, geography, including Amazigh language textbooks, dictionaries and translations. One of the institute's key activities was issuing of the ''Asīnāg'' Journal presenting articles, reviews and, what in general constitutes international dialogue on the Amazigh cause. Linguistic policies advocated by scholars of IRCAM aimed at unifying the whole Moroccan Amazigh community through the creation of a national linguistic standard, which was to function alongside the spoken varieties of Amazigh.

Responsibilities

* Maintain and develop Standard Moroccan Amazigh. * Work on the implementation of policies adopted by the king on the subject. * Help include the Berber language in the Moroccan educational system and ensure its presence in the social and cultural fields and in national, regional and local media. * Reinforce the status of the Berber culture in the media and society. * Work with other national institutions and organizations, especially with the ministry of education. * Act as a reference in the domain of academic Berber studies and research, regionally and internationally, especially in

North Africa North Africa, or Northern Africa is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region, and it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of Mauritania in ...

Asinag

Asinag was a scientific journal published by the institute. Its chief editor was Ahmed Boukouss, IRCAM's president. Among its Scientific Board members there were scholars affiliated with Moroccan, Algerian and even American universities as well as independent scholars and employees of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture. Fourteen issues of the journal have been published. The predominant subject of Asinag was the Amazigh language – its grammar, history, education and functioning in modern Moroccan society.

Tifinagh

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The institute has played a pioneering role in the adoption of

Tifinagh Tifinagh ( Tuareg Berber language: or , ) is a script used to write the Berber languages. Tifinagh is descended from the ancient Libyco-Berber alphabet. The traditional Tifinagh, sometimes called Tuareg Tifinagh, is still favored by the Tuar ...

for the transcription of Berber languages in Morocco. The adopted transcription system is an

alphabet An alphabet is a standardized set of basic written graphemes (called letters) that represent the phonemes of certain spoken languages. Not all writing systems represent language in this way; in a syllabary, each character represents a syllab ...

, as opposed to the original Tifinagh maintained by the

Tuaregs The Tuareg people (; also spelled Twareg or Touareg; endonym: ''Imuhaɣ/Imušaɣ/Imašeɣăn/Imajeɣăn'') are a large Berber ethnic group that principally inhabit the Sahara in a vast area stretching from far southwestern Libya to southern ...

which is an

abjad An abjad (, ar, أبجد; also abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with other alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vow ...

. It is made up of 33 characters and is largely inspired by the ''neo-Tifinagh'' developed in the 1970s by Kabyle militants.

References and notes

''Much of the content of this article comes from the equivalent Arabic-language Wikipedia article, accessed October 7, 2006.''

External links