The archaeobotany, and in particular the chronology of the introduction and spread of agriculture in North Africa is slowly become better known. Nonetheless, there are many controversies, in particular the extent to which finds of cultivated crops are imports as opposed to indicative of true agriculture. It would therefore be helpful to establish the extent to which the evidence from linguistics reflects the archaeobotany of the region. The principle language of North Africa today is Arabic, interleaved with Berber, especially in Morocco and Algeria. This is obviously a recent phenomenon, and present-day languages are palimpsests, with traces of earlier languages such as Phoenician and Latin marking the introduction of new crops and agricultural techniques. Berber poses a particular problem, as despite its broad geographical range, the languages are all extremely close to one another, suggesting a recent spread, and thus the presence of numerous substrate languages which have now disappeared.

The paper reviews the linguistic evidence for the main crops grown in North Africa during the period since the introduction of agriculture and the potential link with the archaeobotany of the region. Terms for the following crops appear to be reconstructible to proto-Berber;

Cereals barley, wheat, millet, cereal (general term)

Pulses fava bean, lentil, Lathyrus

Vegetables onion, carrot

Fruits date, grape, olive, fig

考古植物学，特别是农业在北非的引入和传播的年表正逐渐为人所知。尽管如此，仍有许多争议，特别是栽培作物的发现在多大程度上是进口的，而不是真正的农业。因此，确定语言学证据在多大程度上反映了该地区的古植物学将是有帮助的。今天北非的主要语言是阿拉伯语，与柏柏尔语交织，尤其是在摩洛哥和阿尔及利亚。这显然是最近出现的现象，现代语言是翻版，腓尼基语和拉丁语等早期语言的痕迹标志着新作物和农业技术的引入。柏柏尔人提出了一个特殊的问题，尽管它的地理范围很广，

该论文回顾了自农业引入以来北非主要作物的语言学证据以及与该地区古植物学的潜在联系。以下作物的术语似乎可以重建为原始柏柏尔人；

谷物 大麦、小麦、小米、谷类（总称）

豆类 蚕豆，扁豆，Lathyrus

蔬菜 洋葱、胡萝卜

水果 枣、葡萄、橄榄、无花果