ABSTRACT
In modern times language has tended to play an important role in defining ethnic identity in the Middle East (including North Africa). It has been extensively used in this capacity by the Arabs, Hebrews, Turks and Kurds as well as by other ethnic groups in the area. Its utilization to serve the same function among the Berbers of North Africa is therefore part of a general regional trend which, on the level of conscious articulation, goes back to the middle of the 19th century. In this connection we may point out that owing to the differences which exist among the Berbers in different spheres in their lives, language may be said to be the only universal factor which brings all those who belong to this community together under one large collective umbrella that at the same time separates them from other groups in their socio-political environment, especially the Arabs. By specifying the Arabs in the preceding sentence we are essentially drawing attention to the importance of the ‘them versus us’ dichotomy in motivating and shaping the various articulations of Berber cultural identity. As elsewhere in national identity formulations ‘otherness’ seems to be the fundamental perspective in terms of which the Berber definition of the self in its collective setting is to be located.
