Tamazight, Temacine

The Temacine Berbers are the speakers of the Oued Righ Berber language (Tugurt; also called Temacine Tamazight or Tahshanit, while speakers say chelha) in Temacine and its twin village Tamellaht, south of Touggourt in the northeastern Algerian Sahara. The language is Zenati, of the Mzab-Wargla group with Mozabite and Ouargli, and has about 8,400 speakers (2022). Temacine's old ksar stands beside a salt lake, with a mosque dated 1431. The valley's old Berber population, the Righa, was often dark-skinned; most of it now speaks Arabic. Joshua Project lists two groups for this language: this one holds the speakers of the Temacine commune, and 'Amazigh, Tougourt' those of Blidet Amor and the Megarine villages.

Temacine's life turns around its palm gardens, the old ksar and the Tijaniyya zawiya of Tamellaht, which receives disciples and pilgrims from Algeria and West Africa. Homes are of mud brick and stone along covered lanes, and families live near their palm groves. Older people speak the Berber language at home; younger people use Arabic more and more.

Maliki Sunni Islam lived through the Tijaniyya order. The zawiya of Tamellaht was founded by Sidi al-Hajj Ali al-Tamasini, great khalifa of the order's founder Ahmad al-Tijani, who is buried there; Temacine and Ain Madhi are the order's two Algerian centres. Its sheikhs are figures of national standing. Daily faith includes the order's litanies, visits to saints' tombs, seeking blessing (baraka), Qur'anic amulets and fear of the evil eye and jinn.

Nothing has been translated into the language; the New Testament in Algerian Arabic, which all speakers also use, is the nearest Scripture. Global Recordings Network lists a Temacin variety among Algeria's languages, but no recording was confirmed. There is no Jesus Film, and no Christians are known.