Tunisian Arabic

Infobox Language
name=Tunisian Arabic
nativename= Tu:nsi تونسي
familycolor=Afro-Asiatic
states=Tunisia
speakers=11,000,000 +
fam2=Semitic
fam3=West Semitic
fam4=Central Semitic
fam5=South Central Semitic
fam6=Arabic
script=Arabic alphabet
nation="none"
agency="none"
iso2="none"|iso3=aeb

Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 11 million people. It is usually known by its own speakers as Darija, to distinguish it from Standard Arabic, or as "Tunsi", which means Tunisian. It is spoken all over Tunisia, and merges, as part of a dialect continuum, into similar varieties in eastern Algeria and western 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 [Borg and Azzopardi-Alexander "Maltese" (1997:xiii) 'The immediate source for the Arabic vernacular spoken in Malta was Muslim Sicily, but its ultimate origin appears to have been Tunisia. In fact Maltese displays some areal traits typical of Maghrebine Arabic, although during the past eight hundred years of independent evolution it has drifted apart from Tunisian Arabic'.] , 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 (from other Arabic dialects) are listed here.

* A conservative consonantal phonology, with IPA|/q/ and interdental fricatives maintained.
* The use of "inti" in urban varieties meaning 'you' when addressing both men and women, and a concomitant loss of this gender distinction in the verbal morphology.
* The lack of an indicative prefix in the verbal system, resulting in no distinction between indicative and subjunctive moods.
* The innovation of a progressive aspect by means of the participle "qa:Unicode|ʕd", originally 'sitting' and the preposition "fi" 'in' in transitive clauses.
* Some vocabulary such as "ba:hi" 'good' and "barUnicode|ʃa" 'very, much'.

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 IPA|/q/ in words such as "qa:l" 'he said', while rural varieties have the voiced velar plosive IPA|/g/ in such words. Urban varieties also pronounce a final root vowel before another vowel, as in the word "mUnicode|ʃa:u" 'they went', while rural varieties delete this final vowel, giving "mUnicode|ʃu". 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 Tunisian 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 IPA|"kahraba:ʔ" in standard Arabic. It is "trisiti" in Tunisian (a word mainly used by older people), from the French "électricité" (though IPA|"karahba:ʔ" is used for "car"). Other loans from French include "burtma:n" 'apartment', and "bya:sa" 'coin', from "pièce".Kitchen is "matbax" in standard Arabic, but is IPA|"kuʒi:na" in Tunisian, from the Italian word "cucina".Shoe is IPA|"hiða:ʔ" in standard Arabic and is IPA|"sˤabba:t" in Tunisian, either from the Spanish word "zapato" or Turkish "zabata". There are also various loans from Berber, such as IPA|"ʃla:ɣim" 'moustache' and "fakru:n" 'tortoise', and from Turkish, such as "ba:lik", 'perhaps', IPA|"baɾʃa" 'very, much', and "ga:wri" "(Gavur)" 'European', as well as the suffix of occupation Unicode|"ʒi" as in IPA|"busta:ʒi" "(postacı)" 'postman' and Unicode|"kawwarʒi" 'footballer'. Some more words similar to French, Italian or Spanish are below (taken from Tunisien):

Most rural dialects add a second person singular feminine form "ArabDIN|ktibti".

"Imperfective"

Rural dialects have delete the stem vowel in the plural, giving forms such as "ArabDIN|nimʃu".

Noun

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

* Varieties of Arabic
* Maghrebi Arabic
* Algerian Arabic
* Libyan Arabic
* Moroccan Arabic

Notes and References

Notes

References

* [http://www.ethnologue.com/show_language.asp?code=aeb Ethnologue entry for Tunisian Arabic]
* 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.
* Mion, Giuliano (2004) “Osservazioni sul sistema verbale dell'arabo di Tunisi” "Rivista degli Studi Orientali" 78, pp. 243-255.
* 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)". Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.

Links

[http://www.magharebia.com/cocoon/awi/xhtml1/en_GB/features/awi/reportage/2007/07/20/reportage-01 Linguistics expert Tayeb Bacouche discusses the value of dialect]