La transcripción del alfabeto líbico-bereber canario: el ejemplo de El Hierro

Abstract

This study aims to transcribe the Canarian Libyco-Berber alphabet, employing a morpho-phonological analysis approach and comparing the corpus of inscriptions from the island of El Hierro with the continental one. The study demonstrates that the inscriptions from El Hierro contain multiple morphemes also present in the oldest Libyco-Berber alphabet from Numidia. In addition, the island inscriptions exhibit linguistic features of the Southern Berber dialects, confirming the link between Canarian and pre-Saharan alphabets. Finally, epigraphic analysis shows differences between the north and south of El Hierro. This orthographic disparity could signify diatopic, diachronic and socio- cultural variation.