Berber languages suggests that the C-Group population — which, along with the Kerma culture, inhabited the Nile valley immediately before the arrival of the first Nubian speakers — spoke Afro-Asiatic languages. Roger Blench (2018) suggests that Proto-Berber speakers had spread from the Nile River valley to North Africa 4,000-5,000 years ago due to the spread of pastoralism, and experienced intense language leveling about 2,000 years ago as the Roman Empire was expanding in North Africa. Hence, although Berber had split off from Afroasiatic several thousand years ago, Proto-Berber itself can only be reconstructed to a period as late as 200 A.D. Blench
Mozabite people Mozabite people The Mozabite people are a Berber ethnic group inhabiting the M'zab natural region in the northern Sahara in Algeria. They speak Mozabite ("Tumẓabt"), one of the Zenati languages in the Berber branch of the Afroasiatic family. Many also speak Maghrebi Arabic as a second language. Mozabites are primarily Ibadi Muslims, but there was a small populations of Jews as well. Mozabites live in five oases; namely, Ghardaïa, Beni Isguen, El Atteuf, Melika and Bounoura, as well as two other isolated oases farther north: Berriane and Guerrara. According to tradition the Ibadis, after their overthrow at Tiaret by the