Levantine, Tunisian, Moroccan

Group Members: Jeanine, Nerdine, Tatiana, Aya, Sue

Consultants: Eman Yaghnam, Rihab Abid, Madiha Benelkour

Our Digital Study 

              For this study, we were interested in the Arabic language, while more specifically honing in on the three varieties- Levantine, Tunisian, and Moroccan and how they deviate or resemble Modern Standard Arabic. For Levantine we interviewed Eman Yaghnam (mother of Jeanine Nassar) who was born and raised in Palestine for 12 years. Arabic is Eman’s first language and she has lived in America since moving at age 12. For Tunisia we interviewed Rihab Abid (mother of Nerdine) who too was born in Tunisia and lived there before moving to the United States permanently. Rihab’s first language was also Tunisia. For Morocco we interviewed Madiha Benelkour (mother of Aya) who also was born and raised in Morocco.            

 We conducted two rounds of interviews for this study. For the first round, each student (Jeanine, Nerdine, Aya) each asked questions to the aforementioned consultants attempting to elicit responses regarding Belle’s criteria. Depending on the lengths of the answers the consultants provided us, each criteria’s answers may or may not be as thorough. After gathering some general information on Arabic as a whole, and its vitality, we decided to turn our focus to the more specific differences between varieties.For the second interview, the same consultants were interviewed again but with two swadesh lists, one to compare and contrast Modern Standard Arabic to Levantine, Tunisia, and Morocco and the other to specifically see differences between Tunisia and Morocco. As another part of this round of interviews, we also have separate questions that were answered in Arabic and transliterated into English to also help elicit a response that would give information on that variety compared to the standard. One of our focuses was that Arabic holds a large umbrella for many varieties through this connected feeling under religion and so we wanted to hone in on similarities and differences that might explain that feeling or show something completely new.