Arab-Berber of the Arab conquest of North Africa, and the intermarriage between the Arabian and Persian people who immigrated to those regions and local mainly Roman Africans and other Berber people; in addition, Banu Hilal and Sulaym Arab tribes originating in the Arabian Peninsula invaded the region and intermarried with the local rural mainly Berber populations, and were a major factor in the linguistic, cultural and ethnic Arabization of the Maghreb. Alongside Berber speakers, arabized Berbers form the core of the native populations of the Maghreb, namely Algeria, Libya, Morocco and Tunisia. Arab-Berbers primarily speak variants of Maghrebi Arabic, also known
Names of the Berber people as Numidians and later as Mauri in classical antiquity. These are umbrella terms that would include populations whose self-designation was a variety of tribal names, although Strabo asserts that "Mauri" was also used indigenously. The "Libu" of ancient Egyptian sources, eponymous of the name "Libya" may also have been an early Berber or Proto-Berber population. The term "Berber" is a variation of the Greek original word "barbaros" ("barbarian"), earlier in history applied by Romans specifically to their northern hostile neighbors from Germania (modern Germany) and Celts, Iberians, Gauls, Goths and Thracians. The variation is a French one when spelled "Berbère"