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for Kabyle and other Berber dialects.

Tifinagh is one of three major competing Berber orthographies alongside the Latin and the Arabic alphabets. However, outside of symbolic or cultural uses, the Latin script remains dominant for writing Berber languages in North Africa.

Etymology

The word tifinagh (singular tafin?q < *ta-fin??-t) is thought by some scholars to be a Berberized feminine plural cognate or adaptation of the Latin word Punicus 'Punic, Phoenician' through the Berber feminine prefix ti- and the root ?FN? < *?PNQ < Latin Punicus; thus tifinagh could possibly mean 'the Phoenician (letters)' or 'the Punic letters'. Others support an etymology involving the Tuareg verb efnegh 'to write'.

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