Linguist Asya Pereltsvaig gives 5.6 million Kabyle speakers worldwide in 2020, mostly in Algeria. In 2021, Amina Mettouchi, professor of Berber linguistics, estimated the number of speakers at five million worldwide and more than three million in Algeria. In 2022, according to Ethnologue there were million speakers worldwide, including million in Algeria. Dialects Many identify two dialects: Greater Kabylie (west) and Lesser Kabylie (east), but the reality is more complex than that, Kabyle dialects constitute a dialect continuum that can be divided into four main dialects (from west to east): Far-western: villages such as Tizi-Ghennif, Boghni and Draa el Mizan. Western: villages such as At Menguellat, At Yiraten, At Aïssi, At Yanni, Eastern: Eastern-West: villages such as At Mlikeche, Eastern-center : At Aïdel, At Khiar Eastern-East: villages such as At Sliman. Far-eastern: villages such as Aokas, Melbou, At Smail. Also known as Tasaḥlit and considered as a separate language by some according to Ethnologue. Mutual intelligibility with Far-western is difficult to absent. Lexical differences At the exception of the far-eastern dialect, much of the vocabulary of Kabyle is common among its dialects, though some lexical differences exist, e.g. the word dream in English (from west to east): bargu, argu, argu, bureg. Status and usage Multilingualism and language shift Almost all Berber speakers are multilingual, in Arabic and often also in French. Kabyle is still strong in villages but Kabyles are increasingly shifting to Arabic in cities. A 2013 study found that half of Kabyles in Oran spoke Arabic to their siblings. Official status After the 2001–02 widespread Kabyle protests known as the Black Spring, the Berber (Amazigh) language (with all its Algerian dialects and varieties) was recognized as a 'national language' in the 2002 Algerian Constitution, but not as an 'official language' until 2016 after a long campaign by activists. The Arabic language is still the only de jure official language of Algeria. French is not recognized in any legal document of Algeria but enjoys a de facto position of an official language as it is used in every Algerian official administration or institution, at all levels of the government, sometimes much more than Arabic. The Berber (Amazigh) language faces an unfavourable environment, despite a public radio (Channel II, which dates back to the Algerian War), as well as a public TV channel (Channel IV or Tamazight TV). Since private ownership of TV channels is illegal in Algeria, Kabyles have