柏柏尔人是西北非洲的一个说闪含语系柏柏尔语族的民族。实际上柏柏尔人并不是一个单一的民族，它是众多在文化、政治和经济生活相似的部落族人的统称。柏柏尔人这个称呼本来不是柏柏尔人自称的称呼，而是来自拉丁语中的barbari（野蛮人）。在北非有约1400至2500万说柏柏尔语的人，他们主要集中在摩洛哥和阿尔及利亚，少数人群最东部的可以到埃及，最南部的可以到布基纳法索。

柏柏尔语是闪含语系中的一支，由许多非常相近的方言组成，其中包括卡拜尔语等语言，共有约1400万至2500万用户。

The Berbers or Amazighs (Berber: ⵉⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖⵏ Imaziɣen, singular: ⴰⵎⴰⵣⵉⵖ Amaziɣ/Amazigh) are an ethnic group indigenous to North Africa. They are distributed in an area stretching from the Atlantic Ocean to the Siwa Oasis in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean Sea to the Niger River. Historically, they spoke Berber languages, which together form the Berber branch of the Afro-Asiatic family. Since the Muslim conquest of North Africa in the seventh century, a large number of Berbers inhabiting the Maghreb have acquired different degrees of knowledge of varieties of the languages of North Africa. After the colonization of North Africa by France, "the French government succeeded in integrating the French language in Algeria by making French the official national language and requiring all education to take place in French." Foreign languages, mainly French and to some degree Spanish, inherited from former European colonial powers, are used by most educated Berbers in Algeria and Morocco in some formal contexts, such as higher education or business.