The script in which it was written, the Libyco-Berber alphabet (from which Tifinagh descended), has been almost fully deciphered and most characters (apart from a few exceptions restricted to specific areas) have known values.

Starting at Kabylia, which was a kind of mixed region, the regions to the east all the way to what is east of modern-day Tunisia and western parts of Libya used the east Libyan writing system, while the regions to the west all the way to approximately the Moulouya river in modern-day Morocco spoke the western Numidian dialect and used the larger and still undecoded west Libyan writing system.

[10] In circa 500 B.C various nomadic Berber groups penetrated the Sahara from the north, corresponding the area of the later Gaetulians.

Some theorize that it constituted a group of its own, as there is no trace of the noun-case system shared by the modern Berber languages.

A few gravestones show a different word between the two personal names, plausibly interpreted as a kinship term based on Berber comparisons: wlt "daughter (of)" (modern Berber wəlt), and, more rarely, mt "mother (of)" (modern Tuareg ma).

Similar to the modern berber languages, the ta-...-t circumfix signified feminine version of the word with a silent h added to the end.

Comparison with modern Berber suggests that ṣkn, probably read as "eṣ(ə)k-n based on modern berber comparison which means"built" is to be analysed as ṣk "build" plus -n, marking 3pl subject agreement (-ən).

[21][22] An example of translation using this method can be demonstrated on a part of a Numidian inscription which is read as "Msnsn.

Thus by attempting to translate the Numidian text through modern and proto-Berber the inscription would read "Massinissa the king, son of Gaia".

[24][22] Numidian also featured and shared most or all of its prepositions "n" (of) and "d" (and) with modern Berber, along with various prefixes, such as "ta...-t", "m-" etc.

[25] These facts would strongly suggest that Numidian is a now extinct branch of the Berber languages, although some linguists believe that Numidian is not an ancestor but an extinct sister branch to the modern surviving Berber languages.

[17] If the translations of "SBS" (asebbas) in the Thugga inscription as "year" is correct then that would mean the Proto-Berber form "ww" which evolved into "gg" or "gʷ" in most modern Berber languages was "bb" or "bʷ" in Numidian.

[26] As Zenaga was one of the first Berber languages to split off from the Proto-Berber group and thus still possesses many ancient characteristics, along with the Numidian usage of this form, could suggest that in the evolution of Berber languages "ww" turned into "bʷ" and then into "gʷ".

Normalization and adding of known or possible vowels Aṭeban w-Yefmaṭat w-Falu****D'rš w-Wadaštar Zamir w-Aṭeban w-Yefmaṭat w-Falu Mangy w-Wareskan KSLNS Żaży w-Ṭaman w-Raskn inababen n a-šɣarh Masdil w-Nanafsen Naken w-šy inababen (?)