A P P E N D I X
THE ORIGIN OF THE TAWAREK ALPHABET.
The Tawareks are the only race that still uses the old
writing system of the Berbers. They call their alphabet
Tifinagh. The Kabyles, the Shawias, and the other
Berber-speaking tribes have all adopted the Arab characters,
and write in the Semitic fashion from right to
left.
Several theories have been put forward as to the
origin of Tifinagh, but so far in none of them has the
source of the whole of the letters been traced, nor has
any attempt been made to account for the boustrophedon
and other methods of writing which the modem Tawareks
use. In most of the alphabets, too, with which the
Tifinagh alphabet has been compared, the values of the
letters have not been known, and a comparison of the
forms of the letters alone of two systems of writing is
almost useless, as if the letters have a wrong signification,
very little can be deduced from the resemblance in
the forms.
Professor Keane, in a letter to me on the subject, said
that he considered this alphabet to be of Phoenician
origin, and supposed it to have been introduced into
Africa by the Phoenician founders of Carthage, Leptis,
&c., his reason for this view being that its name, Tifinagh,
when stripped of its prefix ‘ Ti,’ is simply ‘ Pinik,’ or
Punic.