Shawia or Chaouïa also known as th Numidian Berber is the eponymous Zenati-Berber spoken by the Shawia (Chaoui) people of eastern Algeria

Algeria

Algeria , officially the People's Democratic Republic of Algeria , also formally referred to as the Democratic and Popular Republic of Algeria, is a country in the Maghreb region of Northwest Africa with Algiers as its capital.In terms of land area, it is the largest country in Africa and the Arab...

 around Batna, Khenchela

Khenchela

Khenchela ancient Mascula is the name of the capital city of the administrative Khenchela Province , number 40, in the north east of Algeria. Situated in the Aures Mountains, 1200 m above sea level. The city is mainly populated by Berber Chaouis....

, Sétif

Sétif

Sétif |Colonia]]) is a town in northeastern Algeria. It is the capital of Sétif Province and it has a population of 239,195 inhabitants as of the 1998 census. Setif is located to the east of Algiers and is the second most important Wilaya after the country's capital. It is 1,096 meters above sea...

, Oum El Bouaghi

Oum El Bouaghi

Oum El Bouaghi is a municipality in Algeria. It is the capital of Oum El Bouaghi Province....

, Souk Ahras

Souk Ahras

Souk Ahras is a province in Algeria, named after its capital, Souk Ahras. It stands on the border between Algeria and Tunisia.- Geography :Souk Ahras is situated in the extreme north east of Algeria, it is 4360 km²....

, Tébessa

Tébessa

Tébessa is the capital city of Tébessa Province, Algeria, 20 kilometers west from the border with Tunisia. Nearby is also a phosphate mine. The city is famous for the traditional Algerian carpets in the region, and is home to over 161,440 people.-History:...

 and the north part of Biskra

Biskra

Biskra is the capital city of Biskra province, Algeria. In 2007, its population was recorded as 207,987.During Roman times the town was called Vescera, though this may have been simply a Latin transliteration of the native name. Around 200 AD under Septimius Severus' reign, it was seized by the...

. It has over two million speakers.

The French spelling Chaouïa is commonly found, due to the predominance of French literature on the language. Other spellings are "Chaoui", "Shawia", "Tachawit", "Thachawith", "Tachaouith", and "Thchèwith". In Shawia, the leading /t/ - pronounced θ in that phonetic environment - is often reduced to an /h/, so the native name is often heard as Hšawiθ.

Shawia Berber was, until recently, not a written language and not taught in schools. As the Shawi people were predominantly rural and secluded, speakers often code-switch

Code-switching

In linguistics, code-switching is the concurrent use of more than one language, or language variety, in conversation. Multilinguals—people who speak more than one language—sometimes use elements of multiple languages in conversing with each other...

 to Arabic, French or even English to discuss non-traditional technology and sociological concerns.

Recently, Shawia Berber language bagan to come into cultural prominence together with Kabylian Berber thanks to the Berber cultural and political movements in Algeria.
online course in tacawit:
http://tacawit.blog4ever.com/blog/index-422712.html

External Links

• http://tacawit.blog4ever.com/blog/index-422712.html tacawit course online
• Report on Shawia language from the MultiTree Project
• Report on Shawia language from the LL-Map Project