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Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 9 million people. It usually known by its own speakers as Darija, to distinguish it from Standard Arabic, or Tunsi, which means Tunisian. It is spoken all over Tunisia, and similar varieties are found in the eastern part of Algeria and the western part of Libya. Its morphology, syntax, pronunciation and vocabulary are quite different from Standard or Classical Arabic. Tunisian Arabic is hardly intelligible to Arabic-speaking Middle Easterners (including Egyptians), but much more readily understood by other Arabic-speaking North Africans such as Algerians, Libyans and Moroccans. Tunisian is also closely related to Maltese, which is not considered to be a dialect of Arabic for sociolinguistic reasons.

Almost all literate speakers of Tunisian also understand and can speak some Standard Arabic. Most Tunisians do not view Tunisian Arabic as a language in its own right, but as a corrupted form of Classical Arabic. Because of this, there is no official standard, and a limited interest in the variety as a topic worthy of study.

Distinctives

Tunisian Arabic is a spoken variety of Arabic, and as such shares many features with other modern varieties, especially North African. Some of its distinctives are listed here.

Dialects

The major distinction within Tunisian Arabic is that between sedentary (mainly urban) and Bedouin-origin (rural) dialects (see Sedentary vs. Bedouin). Note that most speakers of these rural varieties are not actually nomadic. Sedentary varieties are spoken in large cities on or near the coast, such as Tunis, Bizerte, Nabeul, Hammamet, Sousse, Monastir, Mahdia, Kairouan, and Sfax, while the rest of the country to the west and south of this coastal strip uses rural varieties, including the towns of Gabès, Gafsa, Tozeur, El Kef and Beja. Rural dialects are also found in small villages not far from the centres of the urban dialects.

All the urban varieties use the voiceless uvular plosive /q/ in words such as qa:l 'he said', while rural varieties have the voiced velar plosive /g/ in such words. Urban varieties also pronounce a final root vowel before another vowel, as in the word mʃa:u 'they went', while rural varieties delete this final vowel, giving mʃu. Urban varieties also share with Maltese the distinction amongst Arabic dialects of not marking gender in the second person. The otherwise feminine inti is used to address men and women, much to the bemusement of other Arabic speakers, while in the verb no feminine marking is used. Rural dialects maintain the usual distinctions found in Arabic, whether standard or spoken.

There is further variation within both urban and rural dialects. For example, the dialect of Sfax maintains the diphthongs of Standard Arabic in words such as lajl 'evening', a trait shared by Maltese and the traditional women's dialect of Tunis.

Further information on Tunisian dialectology can be found in Gibson (1998), Marçais (1950), Singer (1984), and Talmoudi (1980).

Domains of use

Tunisian Arabic has the role of the low variety in an example of classic diglossia, where Standard Arabic is the high variety. As such, the use of Tunisian is mainly restricted to spoken domains, though cartoons in newspapers may be written in it, and since the 1990s many advertising boards have their slogans (though not the name of the company) written in Tunisian.

The Berbers of the island of Jerba and the southern part of Tunisia speak Tunisian Arabic as a second language along with a Berber language called Shelha.

Literature in Tunisian Arabic

There are very few works of literature written in Tunsian Arabic. A large body of folk tales and folk poems existed in the past. This was mainly an oral tradition told by wandering storytellers and bards at marketplaces and festivals, but it has almost disappeared due to the widespread introduction of television and mass media in general. Notable examples of this folk literature are "El Jaziya El Hilaliya" and "Hkayet Ommi Sisi w'Dheeb". Most authors who write novels or short stories prefer to write in standard Arabic or in French. In some cases, the dialogue in a novel will be in Tunisian Arabic, but the main narrative will be in standard Arabic. An exception is Hedi Balegh, who has published collections of Tunisian proverbs and translated The Little Prince into Tunisian Arabic. Plays are almost always written in Tunisian Arabic, except when they are placed in a historical setting. The lyrics to folk and popular music are usually in Tunisian Arabic. Newspapers and magazines are printed either in standard French or standard Arabic. Television newscasts and documentaries are broadcast in standard Arabic, while locally-produced soap operas, sitcoms and movies are usually delivered in Tunisian.

Vocabulary

The most immediately apparent difference between Tunisian and standard Arabic is the extensive use of words borrowed from Italian, Spanish, French, Berber and Turkish. For example: Electricity is kahraba:ʔ in standard Arabic. It is trisiti in Tunisian (a word mainly used by older people), from the French électricité. Other loans from French include burtma:n 'apartment', and bya:sa 'coin', from pièce. Kitchen is matbax in standard Arabic, but is kuʒi:na in Tunisian, from the Italian word cucina. Shoe is hiða:ʔ in standard Arabic and is sˤabba:t in Tunisian, from the Spanish word zapato. There are also various loans from Berber, such as ʃla:ɣim 'moustache' and fakru:n 'tortoise', and from Turkish, such as ba:lik, 'perhaps', baɾʃa 'very, much', and ga:wri 'European', as well as the suffix of occupation ʒi as in busta:ʒi 'postman' and kawwarʒi 'footballer'.

These loans are not to be confused with the actual use of French words or sentences in everyday speech by Tunisians (codeswitching), which is common in business environments. However, many French words are used within Tunisian Arabic discourse, without being adapted to Tunisian phonology, apart from the French 'r' which is often replaced, especially by men, with [r (Jabeur 1987). For example, many Tunisians, when asking "How are you doing?" will use the French "ça va?" instead of, and in addition to the Tunisian ʃnuwa ħwa:lik. It is difficult in this case to establish whether this is an example of using French or borrowing.

However, the greatest number of differences between Tunisian and Standard Arabic are not due to borrowing from another language, but due to shift in meaning of an Arabic root, as well as some neologisms. Almost all question words fall into the latter category: compare Tunisian ʃnuwwa and a:ʃ 'what' with Arabic ma:ða, waqta:ʃ 'when' with mata:, ʃku:n 'who' with man and ʔala:ʃ 'why' with lima:ða. Shifts in meaning are demonstrated by roots such as xdm which means 'work' in Tunisian and 'serve' in Arabic, ʕml which is narrowed to 'do', and cannot mean 'work' as in Arabic, and mʃj which has broadened to 'go' from 'walk'.

Phonology

There are several differences in pronunciation between Standard Arabic and Tunisian. Short vowels are frequently omitted, especially where they would occur as the final element of an open syllable. This was probably encouraged by the Berber substratum. For example, /kataba/ he wrote in standard Arabic becomes /ktib/. /katabat/ she wrote in standard Arabic becomes /kitbit/. Regular verbs exhibit this shifting of the vowel in their conjugation, and it also occurs in nouns: /dbiʃ/ stuff /dibʃi/ my stuff

Consonants

Standard Arabic qâf has both /q/ and /g/ as reflexes in both urban and rural varieties, with /q/ predominating in urban varieties and /g/ in rural ones (e.g. He said is /qa:l/ vs. /ga:l/). But some words have the same form whatever the dialect: cow is always /bagra/ and I study /naqra/. Interdental fricatives are also maintained, except in the traditional dialect of Mahdia. Old Arabic /dˁ/ has merged with /ðˁ/.

Tunisian Arabic consonant phonemes
  Bilabial Inter-
dental 		Dental Post-
alveolar 		Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyn-
geal 		Glottal
 plain  emphatic  plain  emphatic
Stop voiceless          
voiced              
Fricative voiceless      
voiced        
Nasal   (nˁ}            
Lateral              
Tap                  
Approximant                  

See Arabic alphabet for explanations on the IPA phonetic symbols found in this chart. Pharyngealisation in Arabic can also be represented with a dot below the letter, e.g. ‹›.

The bracketed phonemes are not universally considered separate phonemes, but there is strong evidence indicating this. There are two sources for these bracketed consonants: the pharyngealised forms are internal developments while the other three are due to borrowing from French, or Standard Arabic in the case of /ʔ/. Minimal pairs are not always easy to find for these contrasts, but there are nonetheless examples showing that these marginal forms do not represent allophones of other phonemes, e.g.

door

(my) father

alongside a minimal pair:

petrol

gas

The realisation of the vowels within each pair is dramatically different. Pharyngealiastion on the consonants themselves is relatively weak, the main realisation being on adjacent vowels, and is amongst some speakers being lost, such as in morning, with there being no vowel to carry any pharyngealisation on the first consonant. There are other words such as old lady, whose form, while not having any minimal or analogous pairs, cannot be attributed to conditioned variation, and which justify an (admittedly rare) phoneme . Minimal pairs for the more commonly admitted phonemes /rˁ/ and /lˁ/ can be given, as in

he ran

it happened

or

by God!

Singer (1984:37-60) gives a full list of oppositions for each phoneme. Tunisian Arabic has substantial borrowing from French, and many words and expressions used by those who do not speak French maintain /p/ and /v/, e.g.

pisi:n swimming pool

mgarrap suffering from influenza (derived from French gripe)

jnarvisni He annoys me

ga:riv on strike (derived from French grève)''.

/ʔ/ tends to occur in the learnèd register, in loans from Standard Arabic, often in masdar (verbal noun) forms at the onset of the word, but also in other words like /bi:ʔa/ environment and /jisʔal/ he asks, though many (mainly less educated) speakers substitute /h/ for the /ʔ/ in the latter word.

Vowels

Given that pharyngealisation is a property of consonants, most dialects have three vowel qualities /i, a, u/, all also distinguished for length, as in Standard Arabic. The length distinction is suspended word finally. A final vowel is realised long in accent-bearing words of one syllable (e.g. /ʒa/ he came), otherwise short. Some dialects, for example those of Monastir and Gabès, also have long vowels /e:/ and /o:/, derived from Old Arabic /aj/ and /aw/. These latter forms are maintained in Sfax, and in the more traditional, but receding, women's dialect of Tunis, but are merged with /i:/ and /u:/ in most dialects. Tunisian maintains a robust distinction between all short vowels, unlike Moroccan and Algerian: e.g. /qimt/ I resided vs. /qumt/ I rose. Except in varieties where Old Arabic forms are maintained, there are no diphthongs. In non-pharyngealised environments there is a strong fronting and closing of /a:/, which, especially among younger speakers in Tunis can reach as far as [e:, and to a lesser extent of /a/.

Syllable

Tunisian Arabic, like many other North African varieties, has a very different syllable structure from Standard Arabic. While Standard Arabic can have only one consonant at the beginning of a syllable, after which a vowel must come, Tunisian commonly has two consonants in the onset. For example Standard Arabic book is /kita:b/, while in Tunisian it is /kta:b/. The nucleus may contain a short or long vowel, and at the end of the syllable, in the coda, it may have up to three consonants, e.g. /ma dxaltʃ/ I did not enter. Standard Arabic can have no more than two consonants in this position. Word-internal syllables are generally heavy in that they either have a long vowel in the nucleus or consonant in the coda. Non-final syllables composed of just a consonant and a short vowel (i.e. light syllables) are very rare, and are generally loans from Standard Arabic: short vowels in this poistion have generally been lost, resulting in the many initial CC clusters. For example /ʒawa:b/ reply is a loan from Standard Arabic, but the same word has the natural development /ʒwa:b/, which is the usual word for letter.

Morphology

There are significant differences in morphology between Tunisian and Standard Arabic. Standard Arabic marks 13 person/number/gender distinctions in the verbal paradigm, whereas the dialect of Tunis marks only seven (the gender distinction is found only in the third person singular). Rural or Bedouin-origin dialects in the interior also mark gender in the second person singular, in common with most spoken varieties of Arabic elsewhere in the Arabic world.

Marking of the dual for nouns is only used for quantity measures and things often occurring in twos (e.g. eyes, hands, parents).

See also

Notes and References

Notes

  1. An extensive list of such words is given by Baccouche (1972)

References

  • Baccouche, Taieb (1972) “Le phonème “ g “ dans les parlers arabes citadins de Tunisie” Revue Tunisienne de Sciences Sociales 9 (30/31) pp. 103-137

  • Baccouche, Taieb, Hichem Skik and Abdelmajid Attia (1969) Travaux de Phonologie, parlers de Djemmal, Gabès et Mahdia. Tunis: Cahiers du CERES.

  • Cantineau, Jean-Pierre. (1951) “Analyse du parler arabe d’El-Hâmma de Gabès” Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris 47, pp. 64-105

  • Gibson, Michael (1998) “Dialect Contact in Tunisian Arabic: sociolinguistic and structural aspects” Ph.D. Thesis, University of Reading

  • Jabeur, Mohamed (1987) “A Sociolinguistic Study in Rades: Tunisia”. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Reading

  • Marçais, W. (1950) “Les Parlers Arabes” in Basset et al. Initiation à la Tunisie. Paris: Adrien-Maissonneuve 195-219.

  • Saada, Lucienne (1984) Elements de description du parler arabe de Tozeur. Paris: Geuthner Diff.

  • Singer, Hans-Rudolf (1984) Grammatik der arabischen Mundart der Medina von Tunis. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.

  • Stumme, H. (1896) Grammatik des tunisischen Arabisch, nebst Glossar Leipzig.

  • Talmoudi, Fathi (1980) The Arabic Dialect of Sûsa (Tunisia). Goteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.

Languages of Tunisia | Arabic languages

Arabeg Tunizia | Tunesisch-Arabisch | Tunisien | Tunisisk arabiska

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Tunisian Arabic".

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