Nubian writing, in Morocco

The Numidian language, which is also known as Old Libyan, or simply Libyan is a language that was spoken in North Africa. Texts have been found from around the 3rd century BC to the 3rd century AD. While the writing system has been mostly deciphered, the language itself is unknown. Today, it is though to be an ancestor of the Berber languages. There are some texts that are multilingual (that is: the same text in more than one language). Despite this, the language itself is mostly unknown.

The script

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Thugga inscription: the text on the left is Punic

Today, about 1200 texts are known, spread across North Africa. Many of the texts are from modern-day Tunisia, and the areas of Algeria, bordering Tunisia. In this large area, there are two main forms, an eastern form, occurring from Algeria eastwards, and a western form, occurring elsewhere.

People don't know if the two or three variants were the same language or different languages.