Is it worth learning some Berber/Tamazight?

This depends entirely on where you're going, and I love that you're asking. Tamazight (the Berber/Amazigh language, in its several regional forms) is an official language of Morocco, spoken by millions — especially in the High Atlas, the Rif, the Souss valley and the desert fringes. In Marrakech or Fes you'll get further with Darija and French, but the moment you reach a mountain village or a Berber-run desert camp, a word of Tamazight is pure magic.

The two words I'd put in your pocket are azul (ah-ZOOL), 'hello', and tanmirt (tan-MEERT), 'thank you'. Add waxxa (WAH-kha) for 'ok' and manza? loosely for 'how are you?', and you've got the warm essentials. In the Atlas, where many of the guides, muleteers and host families I work with are Amazigh first and Arabic-speaking second, greeting someone with azul instead of salam visibly moves them — it says you see and honour their own identity, not just 'Morocco' in the abstract.

I'll be honest about the limits: Tamazight has several dialects (Tachelhit in the south, Tamazight in the central Atlas, Tarifit in the Rif) and isn't one uniform tongue, so don't expect to hold a conversation from a handful of words. You don't need to. The goal isn't fluency — it's the gesture. A single heartfelt azul does more relational work in a Berber village than a paragraph of perfect Arabic.

My recommendation: if your trip includes the Atlas Mountains, a Berber homestay, or the desert, learn azul and tanmirt and use them freely — your hosts will beam, teach you more, and treat you like a guest who came to connect rather than just to look. If you're staying in the imperial cities, focus your energy on Darija and French instead. Either way, understanding that 'Berber' culture is alive, proud and distinct is itself a mark of respect that travellers too often miss.