The Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture ( (IRCAM); (SGSM); ) 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, are a branch of the Afroasiatic language family. They comprise a group of closely related but mostly mutually unintelligible languages spoken by Berbers, Berber communities, ...

and culture, and of the development of

Standard Moroccan Amazigh Standard Moroccan Amazigh (; ), also known as Standard Moroccan Tamazight or Standard Moroccan Berber, is a Standard language, standardized language developed by the Royal Institute of Amazigh Culture (IRCAM) in Morocco by combining features of ...

and its instruction in Morocco's public schools. The institute is located in the Moroccan capital of

Rabat Rabat (, also , ; ) is the Capital (political), capital city of Morocco and the List of cities in Morocco, country's seventh-largest city with an urban population of approximately 580,000 (2014) and a metropolitan population of over 1.2 million. ...

. 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, judge, royal figure, or other relevant authorities, according to certain procedures. These procedures are usually defined by the constitution, Legislative laws, or customary l ...

of King Mohammed VI, 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 (sometimes Northern Africa) is a region encompassing the northern portion of the African continent. There is no singularly accepted scope for the region. However, it is sometimes defined as stretching from the Atlantic shores of t ...

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

The institute has played a pioneering role in the adoption of

Tifinagh Tifinagh ( Tuareg Berber language: ; Neo-Tifinagh: ; Berber Latin alphabet: ; ) is a script used to write the Berber languages. Tifinagh is descended from the ancient Libyco-Berber alphabet. The traditional Tifinagh, sometimes called Tuareg Tifi ...

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

alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...

, as opposed to the original Tifinagh maintained by the Tuaregs which is an

abjad An abjad ( or abgad) is a writing system in which only consonants are represented, leaving the vowel sounds to be inferred by the reader. This contrasts with alphabets, which provide graphemes for both consonants and vowels. The term was introd ...

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

References

External links