The
Northern Berber languages form a
dialect continuum across the
Maghreb that constitute a branch of the
Berber language subgroup of the
Afroasiatic family. Their continuity has been broken by the spread of
Arabic, and to a lesser extent by the
Zenati group of Northern Berber, which shares certain innovations not found in the surrounding languages, notably a softening of
k to
sh and an absence of
a- in certain words, such as "hand" (
afus vs.
fus.)