Tunisian Dialect
Literature Review
Tunsian Arabic, is a form of dialect found in Maghribi Arabic spoken by around 11 million people in tunisia. It’s also a part of the Afroasiatic language family and specifically part of the Semitic branch (2015. Tunisian Arabic). This dialect of Arabic belongs to the Maghrebi Arabic group which also includes Moroccan and Algerian Arabic.
These dialects are significantly different from Modern Standard Arabic and Middle Eastern Arabic Varieties because of the Tunidian grammar, pronunciation and vocabulary that is used. The Tunisian Arabic dialect is reported to be mutually intelligible with Algerian Arabic, Libyan Arabic and Maltese. However, it is not intelligible with Moroccan Arabic, Egyptian Arabic, Levantine Arabic, or Iraqi Arabic. The Tunsian dialect is strongly influenced by French, Italian, and Berber.
In addition, the everyday speech of Tunisians never consist of soly Arabic words like the other Arabic speaking countries. In addition, Tunisian Arabic shares close linguistic similarities with Maltese, even though Maltese is considered a separate language for cultural and social reasons. The unintelligibility between Tunisian dialect and the middle eastern Arabic speakers became much worse during the French invasion. This tremendously affected the tunisian dialect since loanwords and language structures were being used from French.
Since many Tunisians are multilingual it is common for them to switch between languages during conversations, they would likely use other languages such as French, English and Standard Arabic. The mixing with different languages is called code-switching which happens among people who are educated in multiple languages and use it in their everyday speech. Interestingly enough, even though different foreign words are being used, Tunisians haven’t lost their unique vocabulary or identity.
There are some distinctive features about the Tunisian dialect that are viewed strangely by other Arabic speaking countries. The first thing is that the word إنتيِ [inti] meaning “you” is used to address both male and female, this word does not have gender distinction. Unlike other dialects of arabic إنتيِ [inti] is used to refer to female “you” and إنتَا [inta] is used to refer to male “you”. In addition, in relation to other muslim countries, the people of tunisia do not use the greeting as-salamu alaykum (the islamic hello) to greet each other instead they say عاسلامة (aaslema) formal or أهلا (ahla) informal to say hello. Another interesting feature is that
Tunisian dialect follows a Subject-Verb-Object order similar to English (“Sam eats oranges” Sam is the subject, eats in the verb and food is the object). However, Tunisian dialect is most of the time a null-subject language, meaning that they can omit the subject since it’s understood through the context. Instead of saying, “he eats,” they would say “eats” since it’s clear from the conversation of who’s doing the action.
In the present time, there is debate among many linguists on how to classify Tunisian Arabic. This controversy arises because of the Arabic dialect continuum. Meaning a group of dialects that gradually change across different regions. Some linguists such as Michel Quitout and Keith Walters, view Tunisian Arabic as its own language. Others, such as Enam El-Wer, see it as just a different dialect of Arabic that still relies on the standard Arabic grammar and structure. (2015. Tunisian Arabic)
Our First Round of Interviews Are Below:
We interviewed Rihab, and attempted to receive information on Arabic regarding Belle’s criteria. Here is the information we have received:
Language Name – Arabic
Variety #2 – Tunisian Dialect
Location – Tunisia
Interviewer- Nerdine Ben Amor
Interviewee- Rihab Abid from Tunisia
Vitality-
When Rihab came to the United States with her husband they only spoke Arabic. English was their third language. When they moved here it was very important to them that their kids learned how to speak Arabic. Rihab spoke Arabic (tunisian dialect) at home and also taught her kids how to read modern standard arabic. The tunisian dialect was not necessarily taught formally to her kids. They just picked the language up from hearing it spoken in the house. However, only Rihabs oldest child still knows the language and how to speak it fluently. Her other kids have lost the language, especially the middle child. She understands the language but doesn’t know how to speak it. Rihab also stated that the tunisian friends she has here, their kids do not speak arabic at all and now that they have kids their kids will not speak it as well. Therefore the Tunisian dialect is very alive in Tunisia but outside of the country not many speak the dialect.
Historicity–
Rihab expresses that when she meets other people who can speak the tunisian dialect she gets really excited and it makes her feel as if she never left Tunisia.
Standardization–
Rihab states that she rarely ever uses modern standard Arabic unless it is to read the Quran. However, in Tunisia modern standard Arabic is used on the news, or newspapers or on the radio or when someone higher up such as the president is giving a speech. So it’s used much more back in her country than it is used in her household.
Autonomy–
Rihab states that she feels that the Tunisian dialect is different from the other Arabic dialects. Since rarely anyone from the middle east or north africa understands her dialect when she speaks she feels that her dialect of arabic is different.
Mixture–
Tunisia was once colonized by the French and for that reason there are alot of French words mixed in with the tunisian dialect. French is also the second language in Tunisia and the french language is still being taught in schools. Tunisians didn’t borrow words from French by choice.
