Rabat – After demands to declare Amazigh New Year, known as Yennayer in Morocco, a public holiday, Amazigh (Berber) activists are now calling on Google to integrate Tamazight (Berber) into Google Translate. The French-based La Rando organization, managed by its Moroccan founder Karim Akachar, launched a petition to Google on Avaaz. Thus, we, associations, organizations, North African citizens, Tamazight people of the whole world and learners of Tamazight language, signatories of this appeal, ask GOOGLE to integrate Tamazight in Google Translate.”The petition also recalled that Facebook had issued a statement before, promising to include Tamazight on its website. It is certain that this news will help in the spread, learning, translation, and writing of this language,” Keiji said. In November, the Ministry of Education said that the number of primary school children studying Tamazight language this academic year has increased to 600,000.

Source: The North Africa Journal March 22, 2019 12:33 UTC