Proto-Berber language reached the stage where these different branches of this language family evolved. From that perspective, Proto-Berber was the first Berber stage to depart from Proto-Afrosiatic in the eighth millennium. It was restructured several times during the almost 10,000 years that separated it from its modern shape, which has preserved few relics. Roger Blench (2018) suggests that Proto-Berber speakers 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
Berber languages European languages distinguish between the words "Berber" and "barbarian", while Arabic has the same word "al-Barbari" for both meanings. Some other Berber writers, especially in Morocco, prefer to refer to Berber with "Amazigh" when writing about it in French or English. Traditionally, the term "Tamazight" (in various forms: "Thamazighth", "Tamasheq", "Tamajaq", "Tamahaq") was used by many Berber groups to refer to the language they spoke, including the Middle Atlas, the Riffians, the Sened in Tunisia and the Tuareg. However, other terms were used by other groups; for instance, some Berber populations of Algeria called their language "Taznatit" (Zenati) or "Shelha",