The Etymology of the term Berber and Why I don't have any Problem with it.
> The Greeks called everyone who didn't speak Greek βάρβαρος/Barbaros. It's an Onomatopoeia which is meant to mimic how foreign languages sounded to them, “bar bar bar.” (Berbers, Egyptians, Persians, and at some point in time, even Romans were called Barbaros by the Greeks)
> The Romans adopted the term as Barbarus and used it to refer to people whom they deemed to be uncivilized. Greeks, Persians, and Egyptians (Although they still looked down on the Persians and Egyptians) weren't called Barbarus by the Romans, but the Germanic Tribes of Northern Europe and the Tribes of North Africa, west of Egypt, were (for the most part) referred to using this term.
> The Arabs loaned the term from Greek/Latin (Barbarus → Barbar) and used it to refer to the people west of Egypt. So technically, they were the first ones who used it to refer solely to the Berbers. In fact, the Romans used it more to refer to their northern neighbours. “بَرْبَرِيٌّ” developed in Modern Standard Arabic through later borrowings to unfortunately have two meanings: Berber and Barbaric.
> The French then loaned the term from Arabic (Barbar → Berbère) and used it to refer to the non Arab speaking population in their North African Colonies.
> The English word “Berber” actually comes from French (Berbère → Berber)
Personally, I don't have any problem with the term 'Berber'; I identify as Berber (Ashelhi, to be exact). While the word shares the same root as 'barbaric,' they aren't the same word. It developed independently as it passed from one language to another. It’s an exonym with a fascinating history, reflecting the different peoples and cultures we have interacted with over time.
