Tarifit also known as Riffian or Tmazight or Tarifit berber or Arrif or Northern shilha or Rifia or Rifiya or Ruafa or Shilha or Tamazight or Tarifiyt or Tarifyt berber or Tmaziɣt or Tmaziɣt or Tarifyt berber or Tarifiyt or Shilha or Ruafa is a language spoken in Majorly in Rif provinces of Al Hoceima, Nador and Driouchof Morrocco.
It belongs to the Afro-asiatic group of languages .
Tarifit language has approximately 4,000,000 native speakers.
A person who speaks Tarifit is known as Riffian.
The language has 2 dialects; riffian and arabic.
Due to the substantial Arabic impact on Tarifit, borrowed foreign loanwords account for about half of the language's total vocabulary.
The Northern Zenati branch of the Berber language family includes Tarifit, primarily spoken in the Rif region of northern Morocco and surrounding areas of western Algeria.
Tarifit(Riffian) is primarily spoken in Al Hoceima, Nador, Driouch, and Berkane provinces in Morocco and in Tangier, Oujda, Tetouan, and Larache.
As of 2020, it had roughly 4.5 million speakers. In Algeria, the speakers' population has slightly risen, accounting for about 180,0000 in the Algerian provinces of Oran and Tlemcen. In addition, Tarifit speakers can be found in The Netherlands, Belgium and a few other nations.
Versions of the Arabic, Tifinagh (Berber), and Latin alphabets have all been used to write Riffian. It is utilized to some extent in print media, visuals like TVs and Audio, particularly radio.