Université de Sfax

From the SelectedWorks of Houcemeddine Turki

Fall November 1, 2015

Tunisian Arabic

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons CC_BY-NC-SA International License.

Available at: http://works.bepress.com/houcemeddine_turki/10/

Tunisian Arabic
Houcemeddine Turki

Rafik Zribi

Maik Gibson

Emad Adel
 Tunisian Arabic
Customized Citation: Turki, H., Zribi, R., Gibson, M., & Adel, E. (2015). Tunisian Arabic.
In Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation.

Authors:

 Houcemeddine Turki: was born in May 24th, 1994 in Sfax, Tunisia and he is currently a B.Sc. Student, Faculty of Medicine of

Sfax, University of Sfax, Sfax, Tunisia. His fields of interest are Scientometrics and Computational Linguistics.

 Rafik Zribi is a B.B.A. Student, IESEG School of Management, Lille, France. His field of interest is Tunisian Arabic.

 Maik Gibson is a consultant in SIL International, Texas, United States of America. His fields of interest are language contact

and language literacy.

 Emad Adel is a student in Sbikha 1979 High School, Sbikha, Kairouan, Tunisia. His field of interest is Maghrebi Arabic

Standardization issue.

To contact the authors: turkiabdelwaheb@hotmail.fr

Keywords: Tunisian Arabic, Arabic dialect, morphology, phonology, language contact.

Chapters: Tunisian Arabic - Tunisian Arabic morphology - Help:IPA for Tunisian Arabic - Judeo-Tunisian Arabic - Music in Tunisian

Arabic - Tunisian Arabic phrasebook.

Acknowledgements: We thank Dr. Mohamed Maamouri (LDC, University of Pennsylvania), Dr. Lameen Souag (INALCO, Université

Sorbonne Paris Cité), Dr. Ines Dallaji (University of Vienna), Ms. Ines Zribi (Université de Sfax), Ms. Karen McNeil (University of

Virginia) and Dr. Nizar Habash (New York University Abu Dhabi) as well as the members of WikiProject Tunisia, the Languages in

Peril Project of Rutgers University and WikiProject Linguistics and the participants to WikiCup and GA Cup for their reviews and

helpful comments that have significantly contributed to the promotion of this final output.

Adopted Script: We used in this work a modified version of the Tunisian CODA guidelines as defined by Zribi et al. in 2014 to

transcribe Tunisian Arabic in Arabic Script and a modified version of the modified DMG transcription as defined by Turki et al. in 2015.

Edition Period: June 2015 - June 2016

Main Work
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tunisian Arabic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tunisian Arabic

‫ تونسي‬Tounsi

Pronunciation [tu:nsi] ( listen)

Native to Tunisia, North-easternAlgeria

Ethnicity Maghrebis

Native speakers 11.2 million native (2014 census)[1]

Language family Afro-Asiatic

 Semitic
 Central Semitic
 Arabic
 Maghrebi Arabic
 Tunisian Arabic

Writing system Arabic script, Latin script

Signed forms Tunisian Sign Language

Official status

Recognised As a variety of Maghrebi Arabic on 7 May 1999

minority (Not ratified due to several Constitutional
language in
Matters):[2][3] France

Language codes
 ISO 639-3 aeb

Glottolog tuni1259 [4]

This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. Without

proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or
other symbols instead of Unicode characters.

Tunisian Arabic, or Tunisian, is a set of dialects of Maghrebi Arabic spoken in Tunisia.[5] It is

known by its 11 million speakers as Tounsi [ˈtuːnsi] ( listen),[6] "Tunisian",[7][8] or Derja,[9] "colloquial
dialect" to distinguish it from standard Arabic, the official language of Tunisia.
As part of a dialect continuum, Tunisian merges into Algerian Arabic and Libyan Arabic at the
borders of the country. Tunisian Arabic's morphology, syntax, pronunciation, and vocabulary are
quite different from standard or classical Arabic.[6] Like other Maghrebi dialects, it has a
vocabulary that is mostly Arabic with a significant Berber substratum. However, Tunisian has also
a significant Latin component,[10][11] as well as many loanwords
from French,[12] Turkish,[12]Italian[12] and Spanish.[12]
Tunisian Arabic is mostly intelligible to speakers of other Maghrebi dialects but is hard to
understand or is unintelligible for speakers of Middle Eastern Arabic.[10] Multilingualism within
Tunisia and in the Tunisian diaspora makes it common for Tunisians to code-switch, mixing
Tunisian with French, English, Standard Arabic or other languages in daily speech.[13] Within
some circles, Tunisian Arabic has thereby integrated new French and English words, notably in
technical fields, or replaced old French and Spanish loans with standard Arabic words.[13][14]
However, code-switching between Tunisian Arabic and modern standard Arabic is mainly done
by more educated and upper-class people and has not negatively affected the use of more recent
French and Spanish loanwords in Tunisian.[13]
Moreover, Tunisian Arabic is closely related to Maltese,[15] which is not considered to be a dialect
of Arabic for sociolinguistic reasons.[16]

Classification
Tunisian Arabic is part of the Arabic languages family and is by that an Afroasiatic family.[1] It
belongs, particularly, to the Semitic languages branch.[1] Furthermore, it is part of the Maghrebi
Arabic dialects like Moroccan Arabic and Algerian Arabic which are mostly unintelligible
to standard or middle eastern Arabic.[8] It is also considered to be a mostly Hilalian set of dialects,
because it was affected by the immigration of Banu Hilal in the 11th century, as were other
Maghrebi dialects.[17][18]
As a part of the Arabic dialect continuum, it is reported that Tunisian Arabic is partly mutually
intelligible with Algerian Arabic,[8] Libyan Arabic[8] and Maltese.[16]However, it is slightly intelligible
or even not intelligible with Moroccan Arabic,[8] Egyptian Arabic,[19] Levantine Arabic,[19] Iraqi
Arabic,[19] and Gulf Arabic.[19]

History
See also: History of Tunisia

Beginnings
Linguistic situation of Ancient Tunisia
See also: History of early Tunisia, History of Carthage, and History of Roman-era Tunisia
During the Antiquity, Tunisia's population spoke old forms of Tamazight languages, close
to Numidian.[20] However, the languages progressively lost their function as main languages of
Tunisia since the 12th century BC, and their usage became restricted mainly to the western
regions of the country until their disappearance or evolution into other languages.[20]
Indeed, migrants from Phoenicia settled Tunisia during the 12th to the 2nd century BC,
founded Carthage and progressively mixed with the local population.[21] The migrants brought,
with them, their culture and language that progressively spread from Tunisia's coastal areas to
the rest of the coastal areas of North Africa, Hispania and Mediterranean islands along
the Carthaginian Empire.[22] From the 8th century BC, most of Tunisia's inhabitants spoke
the Punic language, a variant of the Phoenician language, influenced by the local Numidian
language.[23] Also, already at that time, in the regions near to Punic settlements, the Berber that
was used evolved considerably. In the urban centers such as Dougga, Bulla
Regia, Thuburnica or Chemtou, Berber lost its Maghrebi phonology but kept the essential of its
vocabulary. The word « Africa », which gave its name to the continent, is possibly from the name
of the Berber tribe of the Afri that was one of the first to enter in contact with Carthage.[24] Also,
during this period and up to the 3rd century BC, the Berber Tifinagh alphabet developed from
the Phoenician alphabet.[25][26]
After the arrival of Romans, following the fall of Carthage in 146 BC,[27][28] the coastal population
spoke mainly Punic, but that influence decreased away from the coast.[23] From Roman
period until the Arab conquest, Latin, Greek and Numidian further influenced the language, called
Neo-Punic to differentiate it from its older version.[29][30] This also progressively gave birth
to African Romance, a Latin dialect, influenced by Tunisia's other languages and used along with
them.[31][32] Also, as it was the case for the other dialects,[30][31][33] Punic probably survived the Arabic
conquest of the Maghreb: the geographer al-Bakrī described, in the 11th century, people
speaking a language that was not Berber, Latin or Coptic in rural Ifriqiya, a region where spoken
Punic survived well past its written use.[34]However, it may be that the existence of Punic
facilitated the spread of Arabic in the region,[35] as Punic and Arabic are both Semitic languages
and share many common roots.[36][37]
Middle Ages
See also: History of early Islamic Tunisia and History of medieval Tunisia

Classical Arabic began to be installed as a governmental and administrative language in Tunisia

that was called then Ifriqiya from its older name Africa when it became an Umayyad territory in
673.[38][39] The people of several urban cities were progressively influenced by Arabic.[39][40] By the
11th century, by contact of local dialects such as African Romance or Berber with Classical
Arabic, some urban dialects appeared in the main coastal cities of Tunisia.[33][41][42] The dialects
were slightly and characteristically influenced by several common Berber structures and
vocabulary like negation because Tamazight was the language of contact for citizens of that
period.[43][44] The new dialects were also significantly influenced by other historical
languages.[17][44][45]
In fact, many Tunisian and Maghrebi words, like qarnīṭ, have a Latin etymology.[11][46] The dialects
were later called Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects and were used along Classical Arabic for
communication in Tunisia.[47][48] Also, Sicilian, an Italian-Arabic dialect, was spoken in several
islands near Tunisia like Sicily, Malta or Sardinia and entered into contact with the Tunisian pre-
hilalian dialects.[47][49] Consequently, it ameliorated the divergence in grammar and structures of all
the concerned dialects from Classical Arabic.[30][42] By the mid-11th century, Banu Hilal immigrated
to northern and central Tunisia and Banu Sulaym immigrated to southern Tunisia.[18][30][45] The
immigrants played a major role in spreading the use of Tunisian Arabic in an important part of the
country.[30][45][50] However, they brought some of the characteristics of their local Arabic dialects as
well.[18][45] In fact, central and western Tunisian Arabic speakers began using the voiced velar
plosive [ɡ] instead of the voiceless uvular plosive [q] in words such as qāl "he said".[18][50] Main
linguists working about Hilalian dialects like Veronika Ritt-Benmimoum and Martine Vanhove
supposed that even the replacement of the diphthongs /aw/ and /aj/ respectively by /uː/ and /iː/
vowels was a Hilalian influence.[17][18][50]Furthermore, the phonologies brought to the new towns
speaking Tunisian Arabic are those of the immigrants and not Tunisian phonology.[18] The Sulaym
even spread a new dialect in southern Tunisia, Libyan Arabic.[18][50][51]
However, some dialects avoided the Hilalian influence: Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, a vernacular
spoken by Tunisian Jews and known for the conservation of foreign phonemes in loanwords and
slightly influenced by Hebrew phonology,[52][53][54] Sfax dialect[55] and Tunisian urban woman
dialect.[56]
By the 15th century, after the decline of Arabic-speaking Andalusia, many Andalusian people
immigrated to the Tunisian main coastal cities. These migrants brought some of the
characteristics of Andalusian Arabic to the sedentary urban dialects spoken in Tunisia. Among
others, it led to the reuse of the voiceless uvular plosive[q] instead of the nomadic hilalian voiced
velar plosive [ɡ] and to speech simplification in Tunisian,[51][57][58] which further differentiated the
language from Classical Arabic.[51] Furthermore, the changes were recognized by
the Hafsid scholar Ibn Khaldun in his Muqaddimah in 1377. He said that language contact
between classical Arabic and local languages caused the creation of many Arabic varieties very
distinct from formal Arabic[59][60][61]
Ottoman period
See also: Ottoman Tunisia

During the 17th to the 19th centuries, Tunisia came under Spanish, then Ottoman rule and
hosted Morisco then Italian immigrants from 1609.[45][60] That made
Tunisian, Spanish, Italian and Turkish languages connected.[60] Tunisian acquired several new
loanwords from Spanish and Turkish[45][60] and even some structures like the Turkish -jī suffix
added to several nouns to mean professions like kawwāṛjī, qahwājī...[40][57][60] During the mid-19th
century, Tunisian Arabic was studied by several European scientists.[62] In 1893, a first linguistic
study was completed by the German linguist Hans Stumme. That began a still ongoing research
trend on Tunisian Arabic.[6][63]
Modern history
See also: History of French-era Tunisia and History of modern Tunisia

During the French protectorate of Tunisia, the country encountered the Standard French
language.[44][57][64] That affected Tunisian considerably, as new loanwords, meanings and structures
were drawn from French.[65] The unintelligibility of Tunisian to Middle Eastern Arabic speakers was
worsened [19][44][64]

Geographic distribution of Tunisian Arabic as of 1960 (in blue). The fields in dark blue and light blue were
respectively the geographic dispositions of Algerian and Libyan Arabic[66][67][68]
Tunisian leader Habib Bourguiba usually delivered his speeches in Tunisian even for religious
celebrations[69][70]

However, the same period was characterized by the rise of interest toward Tunisian Arabic.
Indeed, this period was the beginning of the spread of the formal use of Tunisian Arabic as
by Taht Essour.[71] Also, more research about Tunisian was produced, mainly by French and
German linguists.[52] Tunisian Arabic became even taught in French high schools, as an optional
language.[72]
By the Tunisian independence in 1956, Tunisian Arabic was spoken only in coastal Tunisia while
the other regions spoke Algerian Arabic, Libyan Arabic or several Berber dialects.[73][74] The
profusion is from many factors including the length of time the country was inhabited, its long
history as a migration land and the profusion of cultures that have inhabited it,[75][76]and the
geographical length and diversification of the country, divided between mountain, forest, plain,
coastal, island and desert areas.[77]
That is why Tunisian leader Habib Bourguiba began a trial of Arabization and Tunisification of
Tunisia and spread free basic education for all Tunisians.[44][78][79] That contributed to the
progressive and partial minimisation of code-switching from European languages in Tunisian and
the use of code-switching from Standard Arabic.[44][61] Furthermore, the establishment
of Établissement de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne in 1966 and the nationwide spread of
television with the contact of dialects led to a dialect leveling by the 1980s.[80][81]
By then, Tunisian Arabic reached nationwide usage and became composed of six slightly
different but fully mutually intelligible dialects: Tunis dialect, considered the reference Tunisian
dialect; Sahil dialect; Sfax dialect; southwestern dialect; southeastern dialect and northwestern
dialect.[82] Older dialects became less commonly used and began disappearing.[80][83]Consequently,
Tunisian became the main prestigious language of communication and interaction within the
Tunisian community[82][84] and Tunisia became the most linguistically homogeneous state of
the Maghreb.[85] However, Berber dialects, Libyan and Algerian Arabic as well as several Tunisian
dialects like the traditional urban woman dialect, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic or even several Tunisian
structures like lā noun+š, also practically disappeared from Tunisia.[80][83][86]
The period after Tunisian independence was also marked by the spread of Tunisian Arabic usage
in literature and education. In fact, Tunisian Arabic was taught by the Peace Corps from 1966
until 1993[87][88] and more researches on it were made. Some which used new methods like
computing operations and the automated creation of several speech recognition-based
and Internet-based corpuses.[89][90][91][92] Others, more traditional, were also made about the
phonology, the morphology, the pragmatic and the semantics of Tunisian.[6][57] The language was
also used to write several novels since the 1990s[71] and even a Swadesh list in 2012.[93] Now, it is
taught by many institutions like the Institut national des langues et civilisations
orientales (in Paris with Tunisian Arabic courses since 1916)[94] and the Institut Bourguiba des
Langues Vivantes (in Tunis with Tunisian Arabic courses since 1990).[3][95][96] or in French high
schools as an optional language.[97] In fact, 1878 students sat for the Tunisian Arabic examination
in the 1999 French Baccalaureate.[97] Nowadays, the tendency in France is to
implement Maghrebi Arabic dialects and mainly Tunisian Arabic more in basic education.[3]
But, those were not the only trials of Tunisian Arabic in education. A project to teach basic
education for the elderly people using Tunisian Arabic was proposed in 1977 by Tunisian linguist
Mohamed Maamouri. It aimed to ameliorate the quality and intelligibility of basic courses for
elderly people who could not understand Standard Arabic as they did not learn it. However, the
project was not implemented.[98][99]
Nowadays, the linguistic classification of Tunisian Arabic causes controversies between
interested people.[71][100] The problem is caused because of the Arabic dialect
continuum.[101][102] Some linguists, such as Michel Quitout and Keith Walters, consider it an
independent language,[45][71][82] and some others, such as Enam El-Wer, consider it a divergent
dialect of Arabic that is still dependent of Arabic morphology and structures.[50]
Moreover, its political recognition is still limited as it is only recognized in France as a minority
language part of Maghrebi Arabic according to the European Charter for Regional or Minority
Languages of May 1999. However, even the charter was not agreed on by the Constitutional
Council of France because its conflicts with the Article 2 of the French Constitution of
1958.[2][3] Also, no official recognition or standardization in Tunisia was provided for Tunisian
Arabic until 2015.[82]

Distinctive features
Tunisian Arabic is a variety of Arabic, and as such shares many features with other modern
varieties, especially the Maghrebi varieties of Arabic. Some of its distinctive features (compared
to other Arabic dialects) are listed here.

 A conservative consonantal phonology (due to Berber substrates[10]), with the pre-

hilalian /q/ and interdental fricatives maintained.
 The use of ‫ˈ[ إنتِي‬ʔɪnti] in urban varieties meaning "you" when addressing both men and
women, and a concomitant loss of this gender distinction in the verbalmorphology. This
distinction is still maintained in rural varieties by using ‫ إنتَا‬/ʔinta/ for male and ‫ إنتِي‬/ʔinti/ for
female.[103]
 The lack of an indicative prefix in the verbal system, resulting in no distinction between
indicative and subjunctive moods.[103]
 The innovation of a progressive aspect by means of the participle ‫ˈ[ قاعد‬qɑːʕɪd], originally
meaning "sitting"; and the preposition ‫'[ في‬fi] "in" in transitive clauses.[103]
 The distinctive usage of future tense by using the
prefixes ‫ˈ[ ماش‬mɛːʃ] or ‫ˈ[ باش‬bɛːʃ] or ‫ˈ[ ْبِش‬bəʃ] + verb that is nearly equivalent to "will" + verb.[103]
 Some vocabulary such as ‫ˈ[ فيسع‬fiːsɑʕ] "fast", ‫ˈ[ باهي‬bɛːhi] "good" and ‫ˈ[ برشة‬bærʃæ] "very
much". (e.g.: [ˈbɛːhi ˈbærʃæ]="very good")[103]
 Unlike most of the other Muslim countries, the greeting as-salamu alaykum is not used as the
common greeting expression in Tunisia. Tunisians use the
expression ‫[ عالسالمة‬ʕɑsːˈlɛːmæ] (formal) or ‫[ أهال‬æhlæ] (informal) for greeting.
Also, ‫[ بالسالمة‬bɪsːˈlɛːmæ] (formal) or the Italian ciao (informal) or more rarely the
Italian arrivederci are used as the Tunisian "goodbye" expression.[6] ‫[ يعيشك‬jʕɑjːʃɪk] is used as
"thank you", in lieu of ‫ˈ[ شكرا‬ʃʊkræn].[103] However, Tunisian people do use some expressions
from standard Arabic such as ‫ˈ[ بارك هللا فيك‬bɑːræk ɑlˤˈlˤɑːhu ˈfiːk] and ‫[ أحسنت‬ʔɑħˈsænt] for thank
you. But, these expressions are used only as loan structures from standard Arabic and are
not used as they are used in standard Arabic.[6][78][103]
 The passive derivation of verbs is influenced by Berber and is different from the one of
classical Arabic.[10][104] It is obtained by prefixing the verb with /t-/, /tt-/,/tn-/ or /n-/ and the
choice of one of the four prefixes depends on the used verb (ex: ‫ شرب‬/ʃræb/ "to drink"
→ ‫ تّشرب‬/ttæʃræb/ "to be drunk").[6][103][104]
 Nearly all educated Tunisians can communicate in French that is widely used in business and
as the main language of communication with foreigners. That is why code switching into
French expressions and vocabulary is common in Tunisian.[32][105]
 Tunisian Arabic is an SVO language and it is most of the time a Null-subject
language.[103][106] In fact, the subject is only written in order to avoid meaning ambiguity.[103]
 Tunisian has more agglutinative structures than Standard Arabic or the other varieties of
Arabic,[107] a phenomenon that was further strengthened by the influence of Turkish on
Tunisian in the 17th century.[60]

Dialects

Geographic disposition of the Tunisian Arabic dialects as of 2015.[80][83] The fields in blue, light blue, dark
grey, light gray, green and yellow are respectively the geographic dispositions of southwestern
Tunisian,[108][109] southeastern Tunisian,[5][110] northwestern Tunisian,[111] Sahil dialect,[112][113]Sfax dialect[55] and
Tunis dialect[6][57][114]

The Arabic dialects of Tunisia belong to either pre-Hilalian or Hilalian dialectal families.[41][115]
Before 1980, The pre-Hilalian group included old (Baldī) Urban dialects of Tunis, Kairouan, Sfax,
Sousse, Nabeul and its region Cap Bon , Bizerte, old Village dialects (Sahil dialects), and
the Judeo-Tunisian. The Hilalian set includes the Sulaym dialects in the south and the Eastern
Hilal dialects in central Tunisia. The latter were also spoken in the Constantinois(eastern
Algeria).[41][115]
Nowadays and due to dialect leveling, the main dialect varieties of Tunisian Arabic are
Northwestern Tunisian (also spoken in Northeastern Algeria), southwestern Tunisian, Tunis
dialect, Sahil dialect, Sfax dialect and southeastern Tunisian.[6][80][83][112] All of these varieties are
Hilalian excepting the Sfax one.[55][57][80][112]
Tunis,[6][57] Sahil[112] and Sfax[55] dialects (considered sedentary dialects) use
the voiceless uvular plosive [q] in words such as ‫ قال‬/qaːl/ "he said" while
southeastern,[108] northwestern[111] and southwestern[5] varieties (considered nomadic dialects)
substitute it by the voiced velar plosive [ɡ] as in /ɡaːl/. Moreover, only Tunis, Sfax and Sahil
dialects use Tunisian phonology.[55][57]
Indeed, northwestern[111] and southwestern[108] Tunisians speak Tunisian with Algerian Arabic
phonology, which tends to simplify short vowels as short schwas while southeastern Tunisian
speak Tunisian with the Libyan Arabic phonology.[5][80][116]
Additionally, Tunis,[6][57] Sfax[55] and Sahil[112] dialects are known for not marking the second person
gender. Hence, the otherwise feminine ‫ إن ِتي‬/ʔinti/ is used to address both men and women, and no
feminine marking is used in verbs (inti mšīt). Northwestern,[111] southeastern[110] and
southwestern[108] varieties maintain the gender distinction found in Classical Arabic (‫ إنتَا مشيت‬inta
mšīt, ‫ إن ِتي مشيتي‬inti mšītī).
Furthermore, Tunis,[6][57] Sfax[55] and Sahil[112] varieties conjugate CCā verbs like mšā and klā in
feminine third person and in past tense as CCāt. For example, ‫ هية مشات‬hiya mšāt. However,
Northwestern,[111] southeastern[110] and southwestern[108]varieties conjugate them in feminine third
person and in past tense as CCat For example, ‫ هية مشت‬hiya mšat.
Finally, each of the six dialects have specific vocabulary and patterns.[80][112]
Tunis
The Tunis dialect is considered by some linguists as the standard form of Tunisian Arabic. It's
essentially spoken on the Northern East of Tunisia around Tunis , Cap Bon and Bizerte
.[6][57] However, it has a characteristic not shared with some of the other Tunisian Arabic
dialects.[6][57] It distinguishes the three short vowels[87][103] and tends to pronounce [æ] as [ɛ][57]and
the āš suffix, used in the end of question words, as an [ɛ:h].[6]
Sahil
The Sahil dialect is known for the use of the singular first person ānī instead of ānā.[112][113] It is also
known for the pronunciation of wā as [wɑː] and the pronunciation ū and ī as respectively [oː] and
[eː] when it is a substitution of the common Classical Arabic diphthongs /aw/ and /aj/.[5][112][113] For
example, ‫ جواب‬jwābis pronounced as [ʒwɑːb] and ‫ لون‬lūn is pronounced as
[lɔːn].[5][112][113] Furthermore, when ā is at the end of the indefinite or "il-" definite word, this final ā is
pronounced as [iː].[5][112][113] For example, ‫ سماء‬smā is pronounced as [smiː]. Moreover, If a word
begins with /θ/ or /ð/, these letters are pronounced respectively as [t] and [d].[112][117] For example,
‫ ثالثة‬/θlaːθa/ is pronounced as [tlɛːθæ].[5][112] As well, the Sahil dialect is known for using
‫ مش‬miš instead of ‫ موش‬mūš to mean the negation of future predicted action.[112] Similarly, the
conjugation of miš as a modal verb uses ‫ مشني‬mišnī instead of ‫ مانيش‬mānīš, ‫ مشك‬mišk instead of
‫ ماكش‬mākš, ‫شه‬ ّ ‫م‬miššū instead of ‫ موش‬mūš and ‫ ماهوش‬mēhūš, ‫ مشها‬mišhā instead of ‫ ماهيش‬māhīš,
‫ مشنا‬mišnā instead of ‫ ماناش‬mānāš, ‫ مشكم‬miškum instead of ‫ ماكمش‬mākumš and ‫مشهم‬mišhum instead
of ‫ ماهمش‬māhumš.[112]
The Sahil dialect is also known by the fact that female speakers tend to pronounce q as [kˤ].[112]
Sfax
The Sfax dialect is known mostly for its conservation of the Arabic diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/ and of
the short /a/ between two consonants[55] and its use of ‫ وحيد‬wḥīd instead of ‫ وحود‬wḥūd to mean the
plural of someone.[118]
Other dialects have substituted them respectively by /iː/ and /uː/ and dropped the short /a/
between the first and second consonant of the word.[57][117][119] It is also known by the substitution of
short /u/ by short /i/, when it comes in the beginning of the word or just after the first
consonant.[55] For example, ‫ خبز‬/χubz/ is pronounced as [χibz].[55]
It is also known for the use of specific words, like baṛmaqnī meaning window.[55] Furthermore, it is
known for the substitution of [ʒ] by [z] when it comes in the beginning of a word and when that
ّ /ʒazzaːrˤ/ is pronounced as
word contains [s] or [z] in its middle or end.[55][111] For example, ‫جزار‬
[zæzzɑːrˤ] and ‫ جرجيس‬/ʒarʒiːs/ is pronounced as [zærzi:s].[55]
Unlike other Tunisian dialects, Sfax dialect does not simplify the last long vowel at the end of a
word.[55][57] It is also known for some specific verbs like ‫ أرى‬aṛā (to see) and the use of the
demonstrative articles ‫ هاكومة‬hākūma for those and ‫ هاكة‬hāka (m.) and ‫ ٰهاكي‬hākī (f.) for that
respectively instead of ‫ هاذوكم‬hāđūkum and ‫هاذاكة‬hāđāka (m.) and ‫ هاذاكي‬hāđākī (f.)
determinants.[55] Finally, the conjugation of mūš as a modal verb uses ‫ ماهواش‬māhūwāš instead of
‫ ماهوش‬māhūš, ‫ ماهياش‬māhīyāšinstead of ‫ ماهيش‬māhīš, ‫ ماحناش‬māḥnāš instead of ‫ ماناش‬mānāš and
‫ ماهوماش‬māhūmāš instead of ‫ ماهمش‬māhumš.[12][120]
Sfax dialect is also known for its profusion of diminutives.[55] For example,

 ‫ قطيطس‬qṭayṭas (little or friendly cat) for ‫طوس‬ ّ ‫ ق‬qaṭṭūs (cat).[55]

 ‫ كليب‬klayib (little or friendly dog) for ‫ كلب‬kalb (dog).[55]
Northwestern
The northwestern dialect is known by pronouncing r as [rˤ] when it is written before an ā or
ū.[111][121] Furthermore, it is known for the substitution of [ʒ] by [z] when it comes at the beginning of
a word and when that word contains [s] or [z] in its middle or end.[111][121] Also, it is known for the
pronunciation of ū and ī respectively as [o:] and [e:] when they are in an emphatic or uvular
environment.[111][121] As well, northwestern dialect is known for using ‫ مش‬miš that is pronounced as
[məʃ] instead of ‫ مانيش‬mānīš to mean the negation of future predicted action.[111] Similarly, the
conjugation of ‫ مش‬miš as a modal verb uses ‫ مشني‬mišnī instead of ‫ مانيش‬mānīš, ‫مشك‬mišk instead of
‫ ماكش‬mākš, ‫شو‬ ّ ‫ م‬miššū instead of ‫ موش‬mūš and ‫ ماهوش‬māhūš, ‫ مشها‬mišhā instead of ‫ ماهيش‬māhīš,
‫ مشنا‬mišnā instead of ‫ ماناش‬mānāš, ‫ مشكم‬miškum instead of ‫ ماكمش‬mākumš and ‫ مشهم‬mišhum instead
of ‫ ماهمش‬māhumš.[111] Moreover, northwestern dialect is known for the use of ‫ نحنا‬naḥnā instead of
‫ أحنا‬aḥnā as a plural second person personal pronoun[111] and the southern area of this Tunisian
dialect like El Kef is known for the use of ‫ ناي‬nāy or ‫ ناية‬nāya instead of ‫ آنا‬ānā (meaning I)
excepting Kairouan that is known for using ‫ يانة‬yāna in this situation.[111]
Southeastern
The southeastern dialect is known for a different conjugation of verbs ending with ā in the third
person of plural. In fact, people speaking this variety of Tunisian Arabic do not add the
regular ū suffix after the vowel ā but used to drop the ā and then add the ū.[110] For example,
‫ مشى‬mšā is conjugated as ‫ مشوا‬mšū instead of ‫ مشاوا‬mšāw with the third person of
plural.[110] Furthermore, it is known for the substitution of [ʒ] by [z] at the beginning of a word and
when that word contains [s] or [z] in its middle or end.[5][66][110] Moreover, it is known like the Sahil
dialect for the pronunciation /uː/ and /iː/ as respectively [oː] and [eː] when it is a substitution of the
common classical Arabic diphthongs /aw/ and /aj/.[5][6][66] Furthermore, this dialect is also known for
the use of ‫ أنا‬anā instead of ‫ آنا‬ānā (meaning I), the use of ‫ حنا‬ḥnāinstead of ‫ أحنا‬aḥnā (meaning
we), the use of ‫ إنتم‬intumm (masc.) and ‫ إنتن‬intinn (fem.) instead of ‫ انتوما‬intūma (meaning you in
plural) and the use of ‫ هم‬humm (masc.) and ‫ هن‬hinn (fem.) instead of ‫ هوما‬hūma (meaning
they).[122][123]
Southwestern
The southwestern dialect is known for a different conjugation of verbs ending with ā in the third
person of plural. In fact, people who are speaking this variety of Tunisian Arabic do not add the
regular ū suffix after the vowel ā but used to drop the ā and then add the ū.[108][109] For example,
‫ مشى‬mšā is conjugated as ‫ مشوا‬mšū with the third person of plural.[108][109] Furthermore, this dialect is
also known for the use of ‫ ناي‬nāy instead of ‫ آنا‬ānā (meaning I), the use of ‫ حني‬ḥnī instead of
‫أحنا‬aḥnā (meaning we), the use of ‫ إنتم‬intumm (masc.) and ‫ إنتن‬intinn (fem.) instead of
‫ انتوما‬intūma (meaning you in plural) and the use of ‫ هم‬humm (masc.) and ‫ هن‬hinn(fem.) instead of
‫ هوما‬hūma (meaning they).[108][109] Moreover, it is known for the pronunciation of ū and ī respectively
as [o:] and [e:] in an emphatic or uvular environment.[108][109]

Use and geographical distribution

Tunisian Arabic is the mother tongue of the Arabic-speaking population in Tunisia.[60] It is also the
second language of the Berber minority living in the country, particularly in Djerba.[1]
However, Tunisian Arabic has the role of the low variety in an example of classic diglossia, and
Standard Arabic is the high variety.[14] As such, the use of Tunisian Arabic is mainly restricted to
spoken domains.[1][71] as its written and cultural use began in the 17th century[124] and regularly
developed since the 20th century only.[125] Now, it is used for a wide range of purposes, including
communication, politics, literature, theatre, and music.[71][126]
Society
From the 1990s, Tunisians began to write in Tunisian Arabic when communicating on the
Internet, especially on social networking sites, and in text messages.[127]This trend accelerated
during the 2011 street protests that brought down the regime of Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, in which
text messaging and social networking played a major role.[126]
In religion, the use of Tunisian Arabic in promoting Islam is limited although there are some trial
efforts.[128] In Christianity, the use of Tunisian Arabic is significant beginning with a 1903 New
Testament translation.[1][129]
Literature
Before Tunisian independence, there was a large body of folk tales and folk poems in Tunisian
Arabic.[130] It was mainly an oral tradition, told by wandering storytellers and bards at marketplaces
and festivals.[8][131] The most important of these folktales are ‫" الجازية الهاللية‬il-jāzya il-hlālīya" and ‫حكاية‬
‫" أ ّمي سيسي والذيب‬ḥkāyat ummī sīsī w il-đīb".[132] A few years after independence, the most famous of
them was recorded for ERTT broadcast, in Tunisian Arabic by Abdelaziz El Aroui,[133] or translated
mainly to French and standard Arabic by other authors.[132] The recorded Tunisian folktales were
transcribed in Tunisian Arabic using Arabic script only in the 2010s, thanks to the work of the
Kelemti Association of the promotion of Tunisian Arabic in 2013[134] and the work of Karen McNeil
of 2014.[135]
As for novels and short stories, most authors who fluently know Tunisian Arabic prefer to write in
Standard Arabic or in French. But since the initiative of the Taht Essour and particularly Ali
Douagi[136] to use Tunisian Arabic in transcribing dialogues in novels and writing some
newspapers, the dialogues in the Standard ArabicTunisian novels or romans became written in
Tunisian Arabic using the Arabic script.[125][137][138]
However, since the early 1990s, Hedi Balegh initiated a new trend in Tunisian literature.[71] He
was the first to translate a novel to Tunisian Arabic in 1997[100][139]and to make collections of
Tunisian idioms and proverbs in 1994 using Arabic script.[140] Some authors, particularly Tahar
Fazaa (mainly in ‫ تشنشينات تونسية‬Tšanšīnāt Tūnsīya)[141] and Taoufik Ben Brik (mainly when writing
‫ كلب بن كلب‬Kalb Bin Kalb[142][143] and ‫ كوازاكي‬Kawāzākī[144][145]) followed him and used Tunisian Arabic in
order to write novels, plays and books in Tunisian Arabic.
As for plays in Tunisian Arabic, the first ones were made by the Tunisian-Egyptian Company just
after World War I.[146] They faced several objections.[146] However, it acquired general recognition in
Tunisia by the end of World War II.[146] After Tunisian independence, the government encouraged
the development of theater in Tunisian Arabic through the creation of supporting
institutions.[146][147] That resulted in the creation of notable plays in Tunisian Arabic following the
trends of world literature between 1965 and 2005.[146][147] The main authors of these plays were
Jalila Baccar, Fadhel Jaibi and members of the National Theature Troops of theMedina of
Tunis, El Kef and Gafsa.[146][147]
Now, plays are almost always written in Tunisian Arabic except when they are placed in a
historical setting.[146] Plays written in Tunisian Arabic are widely considered as meaningful and
valuable ones.[146]
Music
See also: Music of Tunisia and Music in Tunisian Arabic

The oldest lyrics found written in Tunisian, dates back to the 17th century,[124] by Sheykh Abu el-
Hassan el-Karray, who died in 1693 in the medina quarter of Sfaxand wrote a poem in Tunisian
Arabic during his youth:[148]
The effective beginning of Tunisian Arabic written songs came in the early 19th century,
when Tunisian Jews in the Beylik of Tunis began writing songs in Tunisian Arabic about love,
betrayal and other libertine subjects.[124][149] The current strengthened at the beginning of the 20th
century and affected the Tunisian ma'luf and folklore.[124] Judeo-Tunisian song flowered in the
1930s, with such Jewish artists as Cheikh El Afrit and Habiba Msika.[149][150]
This tendency was promoted by the creation of Radio Tunis in 1938 and the creation
of Établissement de la radiodiffusion-télévision tunisienne in 1966,[150][151] which allowed many
musicians to better disseminate their works and helped spread the use of Tunisian Arabic in
songs.[150][151]
At the same time, popular music developed in the early 19th century, using Tunisian Arabic
poems accompanied by Tunisian musical instruments like the mizwad.[149][152] This kind of music
was promoted by the National Troupe of the Popular Arts, created in 1962.[153] Later adaptation
and promotion of popular songs, especially by Ahmed Hamza and later Kacem Kefi, further
developed Tunisian music.[151] Natives of Sfax, they were both influenced by Mohamed Ennouri
and Mohamed Boudaya, leading masters of popular music in that city.[124][151] Nowadays, this kind
of music is very popular.[154]
Tunisian Arabic became the main variety used in writing lyrics of songs in Tunisia and even the
main technical words in music have their synonyms in Tunisian Arabic.[124]
In the early 1990s, underground music in Tunisian Arabic appeared.[155] This mainly consisted of
rap and was not successful in the beginning because of the lack of media coverage.[155] Tunisian
Underground music, mainly written in Tunisian Arabic, became successful in the 2000s, thanks to
its spread over the Internet, and came to involve other alternative genres like reggae and
rock.[155][156]
In 2014, the first opera songs in Tunisian Arabic had appeared.[157] They were the ones of Yosra
Zekri that were written by Emna Rmilli and composed by Jalloul Ayed.[157]
Cinema and mass media
See also: Cinema of Tunisia

Of the few domestic movies produced since 1966, many tried to reflect new social dynamics,
development, identity research and modernity shock,[158][159] and were done in Tunisian
Arabic.[160][161] Some of them achieved relative success outside Tunisia, such as La Goulette ( ‫حلق‬
‫ الواد‬ḥalq il-wād, 1996), Halfaouine: Child of the Terraces (‫ عصفور السطح‬ɛaṣfūr il-sṭaḥ, 1990),
and The Ambassadors (‫ السفراء‬il-sufaṛā, 1975).[161]
Television and radio programs in Tunisian Arabic began officially in 1966 with the establishment
of the Établissement de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne.[162][163] Tunisian Arabic is now
widely used for all television and radio programs, with the exception of news, religious programs
and historical dramas.[69][133] There is even several translations of cartoon series in Tunisian
Arabic, like during the 1980s ‫ قرينط الشلواش‬Qrīnaṭ il-šalwāš and ‫ مفتّش كعبورة‬Mufattiš kaɛbūṛa.[164] As
well, foreign Television series begun to be translated to Tunisian Arabic in 2016.[165] The first
translation of foreign television series was entitled ‫ قلوب الرمان‬qlūb il-rummān and was developed
by Nessma TV from the Turkish television series Kaderimin Yazıldığı Gün.[165][166]
Some Tunisian Arabic works acquired some honors in the broader Arab world like the ASBU
Festival First Prize in 2015.[167] and the Festival of Arab Media Creation Prize in 2008.[168]
Moreover, since the 1990s, mass media advertisements increasingly use Tunisian Arabic, and
many advertising boards have their slogans and the original or alternative company name written
in Tunisian.[13]
However, the main newspapers in Tunisia are not written in Tunisian Arabic[13][14] although there
were trials to establish humoristic newspapers in Tunisian Arabic[169] like ‫ كل شيء بالمكشوف‬kull šay b-
il-makšūf that was directed by Hedi Saidi and Hechmi Bouaziz and led by Ali Douagi and that was
issued quite regularly from 23 April 1937 to 22 October 1959.[137] The leading newspapers are still
written either in Modern Standard Arabic or in Standard French, even if cartoons in most of them
can be written in Tunisian.[13][78]

Scripts
Arabic script
See also: Arabic script

The Arabic script used for Tunisian is largely the same as for Arabic. However, it includes
additional letters to support /g/ (‫)ڨ‬, /v/ (‫ )ڥ‬and /p/ (‫)پ‬.[12][170]
The first known use of Arabic script for Tunisian was recorded in the 17th century, when Sheykh
Karray wrote several poems in Tunisian Arabic for mystic purposes.[124] However, transcription of
Tunisian Arabic was not common until 1903, when the Gospel of John was transcribed in
Tunisian Arabic using Arabic script.[1][129] After the World War I, the use of Arabic script to Tunisian
Arabic became very common with the works of Taht Essour.[125][137] Nowadays, it has become the
main script used for Tunisian Arabic, even in published books,[139][144] but writing conventions for
Tunisian Arabic are not standardized and can change from one book to another.[12][139][144]
In 2014, Ines Zribi et al. proposed a Conventional Orthography for Tunisian Arabic based on the
principles of CODA as proposed in 2012. The orthography is based on eliminating phonological
simplifications by comparing the words and structures of Tunisian Arabic by their correspondent
etymological equivalent in Modern Standard Arabic.[12] Although the convention is quite important,
the orthography does not differentiate between [q] and [g] and does not involve several important
phonemes that are mainly used in loanwords.[12]
In 2015, Houcemeddine Turki et al. proposed an Arabic Script for Maghrebi Arabic that has quite
the same guidelines as Tunisian CODA but involved several reforms in order to let the Latin
Scripts simply convertible to it and in order to let NLP analysis on Maghrebi Arabic dialects and
mainly Tunisian:[171]

 The transcription of all emphatic consonants in order to avoid ambiguity in the pronunciation
of short and long fatḥa.[171]
 The separation of proclitics and prefixed prepositions from nouns after them in order to
ameliorate the tokenization for Maghrebi Arabic.[171]
 The simplification of the transcription of Ta Marbūṭa that became a marker of short fatha in
the end of the word and not a marker of feminineness.[171]
 The simplification of the transcription of glottal stop that became transcribed as ‫ ء‬if it is in the
end of the word and preceded by a long vowel and as ‫ ئ‬in other situations.[171]
 In order to disambiguate [ɪl] determinant from word beginning [ɪl], a tatweel is added between
the determinant and noun after it.[171]
Independently and in the same year, Emad Adel had proposed an informal[172] and a
formal[173] Arabic Script orthography for Maghrebi Arabic and mainly Tunisian based on the use of
Arabic Script for Maghrebi Arabic in Social networks and by getting inspired by the Tunisian,
Algerian, Maghrebi and Egyptian CODA guidelines and other created Arabic Script orthographies
for Maghrebi dialects.
Latin script
See also: Latin script and Romanization of Arabic
Phonemic transcription method of Tunisian Arabic and Algerian Arabic into Latin script used by William
Marçais in 1908[174]

Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft Umschrift

In 1845, the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft or DMG, a German scientific association
dedicated to the studies and the languages of the orient, was formed in Leipzig.[175] Soon, the
organization developed a transcription system for Arabic in Latin script.[176] Its system was a
phonemic transcription of Arabic written with an extended Latin alphabet and macrons for long
vowels.[176] However, this Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft transcription was first tried on
Tunisian only after the establishment of the French Protectorate of Tunisia in 1881.[57]
The first linguistic study about Tunisian to be completed was of German linguist Hans Stumme,
who, from 1893 to 1896, transcribed Tunisian Arabic with the DMG transcription.[63][177] In addition,
from 1897 to 1935, a series of linguistic works were conducted by several French members of the
DMG, like William Marçais,[178][179] Philippe Marçais,[180][181] David Cohen[52] and Alfred
Nicolas.[182] These works included corpuses,[178][179] grammar books,[180] dictionaries,[182] or
studies.[52]By 1935, the DMG transcription included many unique letters and diacritics for Tunisian
not used for Arabic,[183] such as, à, è, ù and ì, for short and accentuated vowels.[174] This is the
reason why the XIXth international congress of orientalists held in Rome, from 23 to 29
September 1935, adopted a modified simplified version of the DMG transcription specifically for
Arabic dialects.[183] From 1935 to 1985, most of the linguists working on Tunisian Arabic such as
Gilbert Boris,[67] Hans Rudolf Singer,[57][184] Lucienne Saada[185][186][187] and others,[6][87] adopted the
modified DMG.
As of 2016, the modified DMG is still used by institutions such as SIL International or
the University of Vienna for Tunisian Arabic written corpuses and linguistic books.[6][108][188]
Additional scripts

 Phonetic Transcription:
Even if the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft transcription was abundantly used in early
linguistic researches about Tunisian,[174][188] some trials were performed in order to create
alternative Latin scripts and writing methods.[127][189] The purpose of the trials was to have a simpler
and more intuitive Latin Script Writing system than DMG or to try to solve the lack of
interconvertibility between scripts as the transcription of Tunisian with the German DMG method
was phonetic and not syntactic.[12][72][170]
The first successful trial to create a specific Latin script and writing method for Tunisian was
the Practical Orthography of Tunisian Arabic, created by Joseph Jourdan in 1913.[190][191] Its
principle was to use French consonant and vowel digraphs and phonology to transcribe non-Latin
sounds.[190] In this method, kh is used to transcribe /χ/, ch to transcribe /ʃ/, th to transcribe
/θ/, gh to transcribe /ʁ/, dh to transcribe /ð/ or /ðˤ/ and ou to transcribe /u:/, a to transcribe /a:/ and
/ɛː/, i to transcribe /i:/ and e to transcribe the short vowels.[192] The layout was successful because
it did not involve additional Latin letters and could be transcribed efficiently. It was used in the
later linguistic works of Joseph Jourdan about Tunisian Arabic until 1956.[72][193][194] Moreover, it is
still presently used in French books to transcribe Tunisian Arabic.[192] The method was used in
1995 by the Tunisian Arabizi, an Arabic chat alphabet, converting the consonant digraphs into
digits.[8][60][126] It uses 2 to transcribe a glottal stop, 3 to transcribe /ʕ/, 5 to transcribe /χ/, 6 to
transcribe /tˤ/, 7 to transcribe /ħ/, 8 to transcribe /ʁ/ and 9 to transcribe /q/.[126][127] The ch, dh, and
th digraphs were kept in Tunisian Arabizi.[126] Vowels are transcribed according to their quality and
not to their length as a is used to transcribe short and long [ɐ] and [æ], e is used to transcribe
short and long [ɛ] and [e], u is used to transcribe short and long [y], eu is used to transcribe short
and long [œ], o is used to transcribe short and long [o], ou is used to transcribe short and long [u]
and i is used to transcribe short and long [i] and [ɪ].[127][195]Sometimes, users differentiate between
short and long vowels by dropping short ones.[127][195] Like all other Arabic chat alphabets, its use
spread considerably during the 1990s mainly with the Tunisian young people.[8][60][196] Nowadays, it
is used principally on social networks and mobile phones.[126][127] Also, during theTunisian
Revolution of 2011, Tunisian Arabizi was the main script used for message transmission on
internet.[197][198] After 2011, more interest was given to Tunisian Arabizi[195][199] and in 2013, a concise
grammar book about Tunisian, written with Tunisian Arabizi, was issued.[200] In 2016, Tunisian
Arabizi has been recognized by Ethnologue as an official informal script for writing
Tunisian.[201] However, this chat alphabet is not standardized and is seen as informal as the Arabic
sounds are transcribed as numbers and letters at the same time.[199][202] The use of digits as
numerals and letters at the same time made transcribing Tunisian difficult to users and did not
linguistically solve the matters that were faced by the Practical Transcription.[203]
Although they are popular, both methods have problems such as the possibility of ambiguity
between digraphs,[204] the absolute certainty of getting a rate of graphs per phoneme that is
significantly superior to 1 and of getting independent consonants having the same transliteration
as the digraphs,[204] and the lack of disambiguation between /ð/ and /ðˤ/.[192]

Logo ofPeace Corps

Separately, another Latin script transcription method was created by Patrick L. Inglefield and his
team of linguists from Peace Corps Tunisia and Indiana University in 1970.[189] Letters in this
method can be written in lowercase letters only, and even T and S are not equivalent to t and s as
T is used to transcribe /tˤ/ and S is used to transcribe /sˤ/.[189] Moreover, three additional Latin
letters are used in this writing method that are 3 (/ʕ/), ø (/ð/) and ħ (/ħ/).[189] Four common English
digraphs are used that are dh (/ðˤ/), gh (/ʁ/), th (/tˤ/) and sh (/ʃ/).[189] In order to distinguish the
digraphs from the independent letters written like the digraphs, the digraphs are underlined.[189] As
for the vowels, they are written as å (glottal stop or /ʔ/), ā (/æ/), ā: (/ɛ:/), a (Short an or /a/), a:
(long an or /a:/), i (short i or /i/), i: (long i or /i:/), u (short u or /u/), u: (Long u or /u:/).[189] This
method was used in the Peace Corps books about Tunisian Arabic until 1993, when Peace
Corps Tunisia became inactive.[88][205][206]

 Syntactic Transliteration:
After years of works on a phonetic transliteration of Tunisian, linguists decided that the
transliteration should be mainly syntactic.[207] Timothy Buckwalter created an orthography-based
transcription of Arabic texts during his work for Xerox.[208] Buckwalter transcription was created in
order to avoid the effect of phoneme simplification of spoken Modern Standard Arabic on the
morphological analysis of the language.[207] In 2004, Tunisian linguist Mohamed Maamouri
proposed to use the same transliteration for Arabic dialects and mainly Tunisian.[209] This idea was
later developed by Nizar Habash and Mona Diab in 2012 into CODA-based Buckwalter
transliteration that eliminates phonological simplification in the Arabic dialects through doing
comparisons between dialectal structures and their Modern Standard Arabic equivalents.[210][211] In
2013, a complete work about the regulations of the use of the Buckwalter transliteration for
Tunisian was issued by Ines Zribi and her team from the University of Sfax.[212] In fact, a
morphological analysis method and a conventional orthography for Tunisian Arabic using this
method were posted by 2014.[12][213] However, the method is currently used for computer
operations only[12] and it is not used by people, as it involves some ASCII non-alphanumeric
graphs as letters, and S, D and T do not correspond respectively to the same phonemes as s, d
and t.[214][215] Furthermore, p does not correspond to /p/ but to ‫ة‬.[216] Even the modified version of
Buckwalter transliteration that was proposed by Nizar Habash et al. in 2007 and that substitute
ASCII non-alphanumeric graphs by additional Latin letters did not solve the other problems of the
original Buckwalter transliteration.[216] That is why both versions of Buckwalter transliteration were
not adopted for daily use in writing Tunisian Arabic and are adopted only for NLP purposes.[215]

 Phonosyntactic Transcription:
- Writing systems inspired from the Maltese orthography guidelines:
As Maltese was developed from Tunisian Arabic, several linguists were convinced that Maltese
orthography guidelines are the most appropriate Latin Script common orthography guidelines for
Tunisian and have used them to create writing systems for Tunisian.[217] Like the original Maltese
writing method, these methods are mainly phonological transcriptions of Tunisian that eliminates
assimilation and centralization of short vowels and add a hyphen after il- determinant and an
apostrophe after prefixed prepositions and proclitics to avoid reading problems.[217]
In fact, Dominique Caubet have applied Maltese writing guidelines on Arabizi when translating Le
Petit Nicolas in Maghrebi Arabic dialects including Tunisian in 2013.[217][218]
Similarly, Ramzi Hachani had the idea in 2016 to adopt Maltese Latin Script Writing system for
Tunisian Arabic.[217] He added graphs for common phonemes in Tunisian that had disappeared
from Maltese to create his method that is entitled "the Elyssa Writing method".[217] This system is
used to teach Tunisian Arabic for the young Tunisian diaspora in Europe and North America.[217]
- Phonosyntactic transcriptions of Turki et al.:
In 2015 and 2016 and by getting inspired from the principles of DMG Transcription and
Buckwalter transliteration, Houcemeddine Turki et al. had the idea of creating transcriptions that
have two patterns in the same time:[171]

1. The representation of all the Maghrebi phonemes including foreign phonemes

like [p] and [v] as in DMG transcription.[171]
2. The elimination of phonological simplification through the comparison of the words and
structures of the dialects with Modern Standard Arabic root and patterns so that these
created writing systems can be interconvertible to Arabic Script without using a corpus-
based software as in Buckwalter transliteration.[171]
They have developed a modified phonosyntactic DMG transcription[171] and have also created a
simplified phonosyntactic transcription.[172]
These transcriptions also involved some innovations in the transcription of Arabic dialects that
were done to let NLP analysis of Maghrebi Arabic and mainly Tunisian easier. In fact,
prefixed prepositions and proclitics are separated from the nouns next to them to improve the
tokenization of the dialects, the word beginning with il and the il- determinant are differentiated by
adding a hyphen to the determinant, all emphatic letters are represented to avoid difficulties in
vowel transcription, the suffix of the conjugation of verbs in present in plural and the singular third
person direct object pronouns are differentiated by transcribing them differently, and the
transcriptions of glottal stop and of Ta Marbūṭa are simplified.[172][171]

Vocabulary
Loanwords
The most immediately apparent difference between Tunisian and Standard Arabic is the
extensive use of words borrowed from Italian, Spanish, French, Berber andTurkish.[57] For
example, electricity is ‫ كهرباء‬/kahrabaːʔ/ in standard Arabic. It is ‫ تريسيتي‬trīsītī in Tunisian Arabic (a
word used mainly by older people), from the Frenchélectricité.[57][219] Other loans from French
include ‫ برتمان‬buṛtmān (flat), and ‫ بياسة‬byāsa (coin).[57] Furthermore, there are words and structures
that came from Turkish, such as ‫ بالك‬bālik (perhaps), ‫ ڨاوري‬gāwrī (European) (Gavur) as well as
the suffix of occupation /-ʒi/ as in ‫ بوصطاجي‬būṣṭājī (post officer) and ‫كوارجي‬ ّ kawwāṛjī(football
player).[57] A sample of words derived from Latin, French, Italian, Turkish, Berber, Greek or
Spanish is below:[12]

Tunisian Arabic Standard Arabic English Etymology of Tunisian Arabic

‫ بابور‬ḅaḅūr ‫ سفينة‬/safiːna/ ship Turkish:[220] vapur meaning "steamboat"

‫ باكو‬bakū ‫ صندوق‬/sˤundu:q/ package Italian:[221] pacco

‫ بانكة‬ḅanka ‫ بنك‬/bank/ bank Italian:[221] banca

‫ بالصة‬bḷaṣa ‫ مكان‬/makaːn/ place Spanish:[222]plaza

‫ داكردو‬dakūrdū ‫ حسنا‬/ħasanan/ okay Italian:[221] d'accordo

‫ فيشتة‬fišta ‫ عيد‬/ʕiːd/ holiday Italian:[221] festa

‫كروسة‬
ّ kaṛṛūsa ‫ عربة‬/ʕaraba/ carriage Italian:[221] carrozza

‫ كوجينة‬kūjīna ‫ مطبخ‬/matˤbax/ kitchen Italian:[221] cucina

‫ كسكسي‬kusksī ‫ كسكسي‬/kuskusi/ couscous Berber:[223] seksu

‫ صبّاط‬ṣabbaṭ ‫ حذاء‬/ħiðaːʔ/ shoes Spanish:[222] zapatos

‫ قلسيطة‬qalsīta ‫ جورب‬/jawrab/ sock Spanish:[222] calceta

ّ ‫ ق‬qaṭṭūs
‫طوس‬ ‫ قط‬/qitˤː/ cat Latin:[224] cattus
‫ سبيطار‬sbīṭaṛ ‫ مستشفى‬/mustaʃfa:/ hospital Italian:[221] ospedale

‫ سفنارية‬sfinārya ‫ جزر‬/jazar/ carrot Greek:[225] σταφυλῖνος ἄγριος

The 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 everyday language and business
environments. However, many French words are used within Tunisian Arabic discourse, without
being adapted to Tunisian phonology, apart from the French r [ʁ], which is often replaced,
especially by men, with [r].[226] For example, many Tunisians, when asking "How are you?" will use
the French "ça va?" instead of, and in addition to the Tunisian ‫ شنية أحوالك‬šnīya aḥwālik. It is difficult
in this case to establish whether it is an example of using French or borrowing.[226]
In general, loanwords are adapted to Tunisian phonology for years until they become pronounced
with basic Tunisian Arabic sounds only.[57][227] For example, the French word apartement became
‫ برتمان‬buṛtmān and the Italian word ospedale became ‫ سبيطار‬sbīṭāṛ.[57][228]
Shift in meanings
The greatest number of differences between Tunisian and standard Arabic is not due to the
borrowing from other languages but to a shift in meaning of several Arabic roots.[83] For
example, /x-d-m/ means "serve" in Standard Arabic but "work" in Tunisian Arabic, as opposed
to /ʕ-m-l/ means "work" in Standard Arabic but was narrowed to "do" in Tunisian Arabic; and /m-ʃ-
j/ meaning in Tunisian Arabic was broadened to "go" from "walk".[6]
In general, meaning shift happens when there is a lexical implication of the society speaking the
language so the social situation and thoughts of the speakers of the languages obliged them to
change the meaning of some words so their language could be adapted to their
situation[229][230] and that is just what happened in Tunisia.[83] In fact, the borrowing of rhetoric and
semantic structures from other contact languages like French helped the meaning shift in
Tunisian.[64][83]
Word fusion
In Tunisian, some new words and structures were created through the fusion of two words or
more.[6] Almost all question words fall into the latter category.[6] The question words are noticeable
by beginning or ending with the sound š or āš and are not to be confused with the negation
mark, š, which agrees verbs, as in mā mšītš ‫( ما مشيتش‬I did not go).[6]
The table below shows a comparison of various question words in Tunisian, Standard Arabic and
English:[6][112]

Tunisian Arabic Construction Standard Arabic English

škūn ‫شكون‬ āš + kūn ‫ كون‬+ ‫آش‬ ‫ من‬/man/ who

šnūwa ‫( شنو‬masc.) āš + n + (h)ūwa ‫ هو‬+ ‫آش‬

šnīya (fem.) ‫شني‬ āš + n + (h)īya ‫ هي‬+ ‫ ماذا آش‬/maːða/ what
āš ‫آش‬ āš ‫آش‬
waqtāš ‫وقتاش‬ waqt + āš ‫ آش‬+ ‫وقت‬ ‫ متى‬/mata/ when

lwāš ‫لواش‬ l- + āš ‫ آش‬+ ‫ل‬ ‫ لماذا‬/limaːða/ for what reason

ɛlāš ‫عالش‬ ɛlā + āš ‫ آش‬+ ‫على‬ ‫ لماذا‬/limaːða/ why

kīfāš ‫كيفاش‬ kīf + āš ‫ آش‬+ ‫كيف‬ ‫ كيف‬/kajfa/ how

qaddāš ‫قد ّاش‬ qadd + āš ‫ آش‬+ ّ ‫قد‬ ‫ كم‬/kam/ how much

mnāš ‫مناش‬ min + āš ‫ آش‬+ ‫من‬ ‫ من أين‬/man ʔajna/ from what

fāš ‫فاش‬ fī + āš ‫ آش‬+ ‫في‬ ‫ في من‬/fi man/ in what, what

wīn ‫وين‬ w + ayn ‫ اين‬+ ‫و‬ ‫ أين‬/ʔajna/ where

Some of the question words can be merged with other structures such as the prepositions and
object pronouns. For example, "who are you" becomes ‫شكونك إنت‬škūnik intī or simply
‫ شكونك‬škūnik and "how much is this" becomes ‫ بقد ّاش‬b-qaddāš.[6]
Another example of word fusion in Tunisian is the spelling of numerals between 11 and 19, which
are pronounced as one word, composed of the name of the digit obtained by subtracting 10 to the
number and the suffix ‫ طاش‬ṭāš derived from the standard Arabic word ‫ َعش ََر‬/ʕaʃara/, those numbers
ّ ‫ ثل‬ŧlaṭṭāš, ‫ أربعطاش‬aṛbaɛṭāš, ‫ خمسطاش‬xmasṭāš, ‫طاش‬
are in order: ‫ احداش‬aḥdāš, ‫اثناش‬ŧṇāš, ‫طاش‬ ّ ‫ س‬sitṭāš,
‫ سبعطاش‬sbaɛṭāš, ‫ ثمنطاش‬ŧmanṭāš and ‫ تسعطاش‬tsaɛṭāš. [6]

Pattern and root-based creation of new words

In Tunisian Arabic, as in other Semitic languages, the creation of new words is based on a root
and pattern system, also known as the Semitic root.[231] That means that new words can be
created through the association of a root that is composed most of the time of three letters that
have a meaning with a rhythm or pattern that informs about the position of the object in the
fact.[231] For example, K-T-B is a root meaning to write and ‫ مفعول‬mafɛūl is a pattern meaning that
the object submitted the fact. Thus, the combination of the root and the given pattern
render maKTūB, which means something that was written.[231]

Phonology
See also: Help: IPA for Tunisian Arabic

There are several differences in pronunciation between Standard and Tunisian

Arabic. Nunation does not exist in Tunisian Arabic, and short vowels are frequently omitted,
especially if they would occur as the final element of an open syllable, which was probably
encouraged by the Berber substratum.[114][227][232]
However, there are some more specific characteristics related to Tunisian Arabic like the
phenomenon of metathesis.[232]
Metathesis
Metathesis is the shift of the position of the first vowel of the word.[232][233] It occurs when the
unconjugated verb or unsuffixed noun begins with CCVC, where C is an ungeminated consonant
and V is a short vowel.[232][233][234] When a suffix is added to this kind of noun or when the verb is
conjugated, the first vowel changes of position and the verb or noun begins with CVCC.[232][233][234]
For example:

 (he) wrote in Tunisian Arabic becomes ‫ كتب‬ktib and (she) wrote in Tunisian Arabic becomes
‫ كتبت‬kitbit.[103][232]
 some stuff in Tunisian Arabic becomes ‫ دبش‬dbaš and my stuff in Tunisian Arabic becomes
‫ دبشي‬dabšī.[103][232]
Stress
Stress is not phonologically distinctive[233] and is determined by the word's syllable structure.
Hence,

 it falls on the ultimate syllable if it is doubly closed:[233] ‫ سروال‬sirwāl (trousers).

 Otherwise, it falls on the penultimate syllable,[6] if there is one: ‫ جريدة‬jarīda (newspaper).
 Stress falls on all the word if there is only one syllable within it:[233] ‫ مرا‬mṛa (woman).
 Affixes are treated as part of the word:[233] ‫ نكتبولكم‬niktbūlkum (we write to you).
For example:

 ‫ جابت‬jābit (She brought).[6][233]

 ‫ ما جابتش‬mā jābitš (She did not bring).[6][233]
Assimilation
Assimilation is a phonological process in Tunisian Arabic.[63][112][233] The possible assimilations are:

/ttˤ/ > /tˤː/ /tˤt/ > /tˤː/ /χh/ > /χː/ /χʁ/ > /χː/

/tɡ/ > /dɡ/ /fd/ > /vd/ /ħh/ > /ħː/ /nl/ > /lː/

/sd/ > /zd/ /td/ > /dː/ /dt/ > /tː/ /ln/ > /nː/

/hʕ/ > /ħː/ /tð/ > /dð/ /hħ/ > /ħː/ /nr/ > /rː/

/nf/ > /mf/ /qk/ > /qː/ /kq/ > /qː/ /lr/ > /rː/

/ndn/ > /nː/ /ħʕ/ > /ħː/ /ʁh/ > /χː/ /ʕh/ > /ħː/
/ʃd/ > /ʒd/ /fC/1 > /vC/1 /bC/2 > /pC/2 /nb/ > /mb/

/ʕħ/ > /ħː/ /tz/ > /d͡z/ /tʒ/ > /dʒ͡ /

 ^1 Only if C is a voiced consonant.[112][233]

 ^2 Only if C is a voiceless consonant.[112][233]
Consonants
Tunisian Arabic qāf has [q] and [ɡ] as reflexes in respectively sedentary and nomadic
varieties: he said is [qɑːl] instead of [ɡɑːl]). However, some words have the same
form [ɡ] whatever the dialect: cow is always [baɡra].[235] Sometimes, substituting [g] by [q] can
change the meaning of a word.[103] For example, garn means "horn" and qarn means "century".[103]
Interdental fricatives are also maintained for several situations, except in the Sahil dialect.[236]
Furthermore, Tunisian Arabic merged /dˤ/ ⟨‫ ⟩ض‬with /ðˤ/ ⟨‫⟩ظ‬.[237]

Consonant phonemes of Tunisian Arabic

Dental/Alveol
Labial Interdental
ar
Palat Vela Uvul Pharynge Glott
al r ar al al
plai emphat plai emphat emphat
plain
n ic n ic ic

m (mˤ)
Nasal nn (nˤ) ṇ
m ṃ

voicele (p)
tt tˤ ṭ kk qq (ʔ) '
ss p
Plosive

voiced bb (bˤ) ḅ dd ɡg

voicele
(t͡s) ts ͡ tš
(tʃ)
ss
Affrica
te
(d͡z) d
voiced
z
 voicele
ff θŧ ss sˤ ṣ ʃš χx ħḥ hh
ss
Fricativ
e
(v)
voiced ðđ ðˤ ḑ zz (zˤ) ẓ ʒj ʁġ ʕɛ
v

Trill rr rˤ ṛ

Approximant ll ɫḷ jy ww

Phonetic notes:

 The emphatic consonants /mˤ, nˤ, bˤ, zˤ/ rarely occur, and most of them are found in
borrowed words.[57][87][112] Minimal pairs are not always easy to find for these contrasts, but
there are nonetheless examples, which show that these marginal forms do not
represent allophones of other phonemes.[6][227] For example:
/baːb/ [bɛːb] "door" and /bˤaːbˤa/ [ˈbˤɑːbˤɑ] "Father"[6][227]
/ɡaːz/ [ɡɛːz] "petrol" and /ɡaːzˤ/ [ɡɑːzˤ] "gas"[6][227]
These emphatic consonants occur before or after the vowels /a/ and /aː/.[6][112] A different
analysis is that the posited allophones of /a/ and /aː/ are phonemically distinct, and it is
the marginal emphatic consonants that are allophonic.[5][227][233]

 /p/ and /v/ are found in borrowed words and are usually replaced by /b/, like
in ḅāḅūr and ḅāla. However, they are preserved in some words,
like pīsīn andtalvza.[6][57][233]
 /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡z/ are rarely used, for example tšīša, dzīṛa and dzāyir.[57][238]
 The glottal stop /ʔ/ is usually dropped but tends to occur in the learned register, in
loans from Standard Arabic, often in maṣdar (verbal noun) forms at the onset of the
word but also in other words like /biːʔa/ "environment" and /jisʔal/ "he asks", though
many (mainly less educated) speakers substitute /ʔ/ for /h/ in the latter word.[6][57]
 Like in Standard Arabic, Shaddah (Gemination) is very likely to occur in Tunisian. For
example, haddad ‫ هدد‬meaning to threaten.[233]
Vowels
There are two primary analyses of Tunisian vowels:

 Three vowel qualities, /a, i, u/ and a large number of emphatic consonants,

namely /tˤ, sˤ, ðˤ, rˤ, lˤ, zˤ, nˤ, mˤ, bˤ/. /a/ has distinct allophones
near guttural(emphatic, uvular and pharyngeal) consonants ([ɐ]) and near non-
guttural consonants ([æ]).[6][112]
 Four vowel qualities, /æ, ɐ, i, u/, and only the three phonemic emphatic
consonants /tˤ, sˤ, ðˤ/. The other emphatic consonants are allophones found in the
environment of /ɑ/.[5][57][103]
It is more likely that the first analysis is the accurate one, as the same phenomenon
happens for [u] and [i] in Algerian and Moroccan Arabic that are also Maghrebi
Arabic dialects.[180][171]
Regardless of the analysis, Hilalian influence has provided the additional
vowels /eː/ and /oː/ to the Sahil and southeastern dialects. These two long vowels are
reflexes of the diphthongs /aj/ and /aw/.[66][111][112]

Tunisian Arabic vowels. It is unclear if the vowels written a are allophones or phonemic.

Front
Back

unrounded rounded

short long long short long

Close ɪi iː ī (yː) ü uu uː ū

oral ɛː ā (œː) ë (ʊː) ʊ (oː) o

Open-mid

(ɛ̃) iñ (ɔ̃) uñ

nasal

(ɑ̃ ) añ

Open

oral æa ɐa ɐː ā

 By assuming that pharyngealisation is a property of consonants, most dialects have

three vowel qualities /a, i, u/, all also distinguished for length, as in Standard
Arabic.[57][114]
 The length distinction is suspended at the end of the word. A final vowel is realised
long in accent-bearing words of one syllable (For example, ‫ جاء‬jā [ʒɛː] he came),
otherwise short.[6][57]
 In non-pharyngealised environments, the open vowel /a/ is [ɛ] in stressed syllables
and [æ] or [ɐː] in unstressed syllables. In pharyngealised environments, the open
vowel is [ɑ].[6][57][111]
 /ɔː/ and nasal vowels are rare in native words, for most of the varieties of Tunisian
and mainly for the Tunis dialect, like ‫ منقوبة‬mañqūba and ‫ لنڨار‬lañgār and mainly occur
in French loans.[112][227] /yː/ and /œː/ only exist in French loanwords.[6][57]
 Unlike other Maghrebi dialects,[180] short u and i are reduced to [o] and [e] when
written between two consonants unless when they are in stressed syllables.[239][240]
Syllables and pronunciation simplification
Tunisian Arabic has a very different syllable structure from Standard Arabic like all other
North African varieties.[10] While Standard Arabic can have only one consonant at the
beginning of a syllable, after which a vowel must follow, Tunisian Arabic commonly has
two consonants in the onset.[227] For example, Standard Arabic book is ‫ كتاب‬/kitaːb/, while
in Tunisian Arabic it is ktāb.[6][57]
The syllable 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 ‫( ما دخلتش‬/ma dχaltʃ/ I did not enter).
Standard Arabic can have no more than two consonants in this position.[6][57]
Word-internal syllables are generally heavy in that they either have a long vowel in the
nucleus or consonant in the coda.[6][57]
Non-final syllables composed of just a consonant and a short vowel (light syllables) are
very rare, generally in loans from Standard Arabic. Short vowels in this position have
generally been lost (Syncope), resulting in the many initial CC clusters. For example,
‫ جواب‬/ʒawaːb/ reply is a loan from Standard Arabic, but the same word has the natural
development /ʒwaːb/, which is the usual word for letter.[6][57]
As well as those characteristics, Tunisian Arabic is also known for differently pronouncing
words according to their orthography and position within a text.[241][242]This phenomenon is
known as pronunciation simplification[243] and has four rules:

 [iː] and [ɪ], at the end of a word, are pronounced [i] and [uː]. Also, [u] is pronounced
[u] and [aː]. [ɛː], [a] and [æ] are pronounced [æ].[244][245] For example, yībdā is
practically pronounced as [jiːbdæ][246][247]
 If a word finishes with a vowel and the next word begins with a short vowel, the short
vowel and the space between the two words are not pronounced
(Elision).[227][232][248] The phenomenon is seen clearly when Arabic texts are compared
to their Latin phonemic transliteration in several works.[103]
 If a word begins with two successive consonants, an epenthetic [ɪ] is added at the
beginning.[72][103][246]
 A sequence of three consonants, not followed by a vowel, is broken up with an
epenthetic [ɪ] before the third consonant.[87][189] For example: ‫ يكتب‬yiktib, ‫يكتبوا‬
yiktbū.[87][189]

Morphology
Main article: Tunisian Arabic Morphology

Nouns and adjectives in Tunisian Arabic are classified into nouns having a regular plural
and ones having an irregular plural.[6][112] Several nouns in Tunisian Arabic have
even duals.[6][57][103] Irregular or broken plurals are quite the same as the ones of Standard
Arabic.[6][112] gender shift is achieved for singular nouns and adjectives by adding an -a
suffix.[6][57] However, that fact cannot occur for the most of the plural nouns.[6][112]
Tunisian Arabic has five types of pronouns: personal, possessive, demonstrative, indirect
object and indefinite pronouns.[6][112] Unlike in Standard Arabic, there is a unique pronoun
for the second person in singular and a unique pronoun for the second person in
plural.[6][57] Furthermore, there are three types of
articles: definite,demonstrative and possessive articles.[6][112] Most of them can be written
before or after the noun.[6][57]
As for verbs, they are conjugated in five
tenses: perfective, imperfective, future, imperative, conditional present and conditional
past Tenses and in four
forms:affirmative, exclamative, interrogative and negative forms.[6][57] They can be
preceded by modal verbs to mean a particular intention, situation, belief or obligation
when they are conjugated in perfective or imperfective tenses.[6][57] Tunisian Arabic
questions could be āš (wh question) or īh/lā (yes/no question).[6][112]
The question words for āš questions can be either a pronoun or an adverb.[6][112] As
for negation, it is usually done using the structure mā noun+š.[6][57]
There are three types of nouns that can be derived from verbs: present participle, past
participle and verbal noun. There are even nouns derived from simple verbs having the
root fɛal or faɛlil.[6][57] The same is true in Standard Arabic. Tunisian Arabic also involves
several prepositions and conjunctions.[6][112] These structures ultimately derive from the
ones of Standard Arabic even if they are radically different in Tunisian today because of
major Berber, Latin and other European components in it.[6][57]

Semantics and pragmatics

Discourses in Tunisian Arabic are likely to use some rhetorical styles
like metaphors.[249] Furthermore, Tunisian Arabic styles and tenses hold several figurative
meaning.[250] For example, the use of past tense can mean that the situation is
uncontrollable.[251] As well, the use of the third person pronouns can be figurative to mean
saints and/or supernatural beings[252] and the use of demonstrative can have figurative
meanings like underestimation.[253] Moreover, the name of some parts of the body can be
used in several expressions to get figurative meanings.[251][254][255] That is entitled the
embodiment.[254]
Some structures like nouns and verbs have figurative meanings,[103] and the use and the
adoption of these figurative meanings depends on the circumstances of the discourse
like the political situation of the country and the ages of the people participating in the
discussion.[256][257]

International influences
Several Tunisian words were used in the lyrics of some famous Arabic songs and poems
like ɛa- il-slāma of Majda Al Roumi.[258] Furthermore, some famous Arabic singers were
acknowledged for singing several old Tunisian Arabic songs like Hussain Al
Jassmi[259] and Dina Hayek.[260] Tunisian Arabic influenced several Berber dialects by
transferring to them several Arabic or Tunisian structures and words.[261] It was as well the
origin of Maltese[16][262] and some of its words like ‫ بريك‬Brīk and ‫ فريكساي‬frīkasāy were
inspired by French as loanwords.[263] The Il-Ţalyānī Tunisian Arabic word meaning "the
Italian" (‫ )الطلياني‬was used as a title of a roman in standard Arabic which received the
Booker Prize for Arabic literature in 2015.[264] Also, several prestigious television series
from other Arabic countries like the Lebanese Cello Series involved a character talking in
Tunisian Arabic.[265]

Notes and References

1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Tunisian Arabic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
2. ^ Jump up to:a b (French) Caubet, D. (2004). La" darja", langue de culture en France.
Hommes et migrations, 34–44.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d (French) Barontini, A. (2007). Valorisation des langues vivantes en
France: le cas de l'arabe maghrébin. Le Français aujourd'hui, 158(3), 20–27.
4. Jump up^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath,
Martin, eds. (2013)."Tunisian Arabic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for
Evolutionary Anthropology.
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l (French) Baccouche, T., Skik, H., & Attia, A. (1969). Travaux
de Phonologie, parlers de Djemmal, Gabès et Mahdia. Tunis: Cahiers du CERES.
6. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa abac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at auav aw ax ay az ba bb b
c bd be bf bg Gibson, M. (2009). Tunis Arabic. Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and

Linguistics, 4, 563–71.
7. Jump up^ Written in Arabic script as ‫ تونسي‬or in Latin script (Arabizi) as Tounsi
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Sayahi, Lotfi (24 April 2014).Diglossia and Language Contact:
Language Variation and Change in North Africa. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-
1-139-86707-8.
9. Jump up^ Like the other Maghrebi dialects that are calledDerja by all their Native
Speakers
10. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e (French) Tilmatine Mohand, Substrat et convergences: Le berbére et
l'arabe nord-africain(1999), in Estudios de dialectologia norteafricana y andalusi 4, pp
99–119
11. ^ Jump up to:a b (Spanish) Corriente, F. (1992). Árabe andalusí y lenguas romances.
Fundación MAPFRE.
12. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m Zribi, I., Boujelbane, R., Masmoudi, A., Ellouze, M.,
Belguith, L., & Habash, N. (2014). A Conventional Orthography for Tunisian Arabic. In
Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC), Reykjavik,
Iceland.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Daoud, M. (2001). The language situation in Tunisia. Current Issues
in Language Planning, 2(1), 1–52.
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17. ^ Jump up to:a b c (French) Vanhove, M. (1998). De quelques traits préhilaliens en maltais.
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127. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Younes, J., & Souissi, E. (2014). A quantitative view of
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128. Jump up^ Soliman, A. (2008). The changing role of Arabic in religious discourse:
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129. ^ Jump up to:a b (Tunisian Arabic) La Voix de Carthage (2014). New Testament in
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130. Jump up^ Peek, P. M., & Yankah, K. (Eds.). (2004). African folklore: An
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131. Jump up^ (French) Marçais, W., & Guîga, A. (1925). Textes arabes de Takroûna:
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133. ^ Jump up to:a b (French) Bouamoud, M. (2012). Where did drama disappear? La
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134. Jump up^ (French) Despiney, E. (2013). Colloquial Arabic in honour. Al
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135. Jump up^ McNeil, K., Faiza, M. (2014). The Tunisian Arabic Corpus. University of
Virginia, tunisiya.org
136. Jump up^ Granara, William (2010), "Ali al-Du'aji (1909–1949)", in Allen, Roger,
Essays in Arabic Literary Biography: 1850–1950, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag,ISBN 3-447-
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137. ^ Jump up to:a b c (Arabic) Tunisian Front (2014). Ali Douagi. Artistic and Literary
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138. Jump up^ (Arabic) Yousfi, M.L. (2008). The Grapes. Al Ittihad, 31 January 2008
139. ^ Jump up to:a b c (Tunisian Arabic) Hédi Balegh, Le Petit Prince, avec des dessins
de l'auteur. Traduit en arabe tunisien par Hédi Balegh, éd. Maison tunisienne de l'édition,
Tunis, 1997
140. Jump up^ (French) Hédi Balegh, Proverbes tunisiens (tomes I et II), éd. La
Presse de Tunisie, Tunis, 1994
141. Jump up^ (French) Ben Gamra, M. (2008). "Tunisian Tricks" : If the tricks were
narrated to me. LeQuotidien, 2008
142. Jump up^ (Tunisian Arabic) Ben Brik, T. (2013). Kalb Ben Kalb. Tunis: ed.
Apollonia
143. Jump up^ (French) Tanit, S. (2013). The Kalb Ben Kalb Book has a full video
version in Youtube signed by User Z. Tekiano, 08 November 2013
144. ^ Jump up to:a b c (Tunisian Arabic) Ben Brik, T. (2014). Kawazaki, Tunis: ed. Sud
Editions
145. Jump up^ (French) Tanit, S. (2015). Kawazaki, the new book of the author and
journalist Taoufik Ben Brik. Tekiano, 14 January 2015
146. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Maleh, G., Ohan, F., Rubin, D., Sarhan, S., & Zaki, A.
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147. ^ Jump up to:a b c Fontaine, J., & Slama, M. B. (1992). Arabic-language Tunisian
literature (1956–1990). Research in African Literature, 183–193.
148. Jump up^ (Arabic) KARRÂY, Abû-l-Hassan al-. "Dîwân Abi-l-Hassan al-
KARRÂY" in Fakhfakh, N. (2007). Le répertoire musical de la confrérie religieuse" al-
Karrâriyya" de Sfax (Tunisie) (Doctoral dissertation, Paris8).
149. ^ Jump up to:a b c (French) Manoubi Snoussi, Initiation à la musique tunisienne,
vol. I " Musique classique ", Tunis, Centre des musiques arabes et méditerranéennes
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150. ^ Jump up to:a b c (French) Hamadi Abassi, Tunis chante et danse. 1900–1950,
Tunis/Paris, Alif/Du Layeur, 2001
151. ^ Jump up to:a b c d (French) Tahar Melligi, Les immortels de la chanson tunisienne,
Carthage Dermech, MediaCom, 2000 (ISBN 978-9973-807-16-8)
152. Jump up^ (French) MuCEM (2005). Cornemuse Mezwed. Cornemuses de
l'Europe et la Méditerranée, Version 2005
153. Jump up^ (Arabic) Ben Nhila, A. (2011). Recruitment needed: National Troupe of
the Popular Arts. alchourouk, 22 March 2011
154. Jump up^ Barone, S. (2015). Metal Identities in Tunisia: Locality, Islam,
Revolution. International Academic Conference, IAC 2015
155. ^ Jump up to:a b c Neil Curry, " Tunisia's rappers provide soundtrack to a revolution
", CNN, 2 mars 2011
156. Jump up^ (French) Almi, H. (2009). "The Rock Scene in Tunisia". Réalités, 21
avril 2009
157. ^ Jump up to:a b (French) Sayadi, H. (2014). Un goût d'inachevé, Festival
international de musique symphonique d'El Jem «Dreams of Tunisia» de Jalloul Ayed. La
Presse de Tunisie, 02 September 2014.
158. Jump up^ (French) Un cinéma dynamique (Tangka Guide)
159. Jump up^ Florence Martin, "Cinema and State in Tunisia" in: Josef Gugler
(ed.) Film in the Middle East and North Africa: Creative Dissidence, University of Texas
Press and American University in Cairo Press, 2011,ISBN 978-0-292-72327-6, ISBN 978-
977-416-424-8, pp 271–283
160. Jump up^ Armes, R. (2006). African filmmaking: North and South of the Sahara.
Indiana University Press.
161. ^ Jump up to:a b Robert Lang, New Tunisian Cinema: Allegories of Resistance,
Columbia University Press, 2014,ISBN 978-0-231-16507-5.
162. Jump up^ Perkins, K. (2014). A history of modern Tunisia. Cambridge University
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163. Jump up^ Khalil, J., & Kraidy, M. M. (2009). Arab television industries. Palgrave
Macmillan.
164. Jump up^ (Arabic) Guirat, A. (2011). Codified Nessma TV message. AlHiwar.net,
11 October 2011
165. ^ Jump up to:a b (Arabic) Tuniscope Journal (2016). Nessma TV shows her
translated Turkish television series qlūb il-rummān. Tuniscope, 07 January 2016
166. Jump up^ (Arabic) Gammouâ, N. (2016). On Nessma, qlūb il-rummān is the first
Turkish television series to be translated to Tunisian Arabic dealing with surrogacy.
Assabah News, 01 January 2016
167. Jump up^ (French) TAP (2015). Tunisian Television series "Naaouret El Hwa"
received the first prize in ASBU Festival. La Presse de Tunisie, 17 May 2015
168. Jump up^ (French) Ouertani, N. (2008). "Sayd Errim", A recognition at least!
Mosaique FM, 17 November 2008
169. Jump up^ Baccouche, T. (1998). La langue arabe dans le monde
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Related Works
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Tunisian Arabic morphology
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The grammar, the conjugaison and the morphology of Tunisian Arabic is very similar to that
of other Maghrebi Arabic varieties.[1] It is based on Classical Arabicand influenced by Berber
languages and Latin, with some morphological inventions. The Berber influence is more
noticeable in Pre-Hilalian dialects.[1]

Pronouns
Personal pronouns
Tunisian Arabic has 7 personal pronouns since gender differentiation of the 2nd person in the
singular form is absent.[1][2][3][4]

Person[1][2][3][4] Singular[1][2][3][4] Plural[1][2][3][4]

1st ānā ‫آنا‬ aḥnā ‫أحنا‬

2nd intī ‫إن ِتي‬ intūmā ‫انتوما‬

3rd (m) hūwa ‫هوة‬ hūma ‫هومة‬

3rd (f) hīya ‫هية‬ hūma ‫هومة‬

Example : ‫ « آنا زادة‬Āna zāda. » — "Me too."[1][2][3][4]

Possessive pronouns
The possessive pronouns are used as possessive articles when put as a suffix to a preposition or
a noun.[1][2][3][4] When it is used after a verb, their functions are rather direct object
pronouns.[1][2][3][4] The ones between parenthesis are the ones used after a structure finishing by a
vowel.[1][2][3][4]

Person[1][2][3][4] Singular[1][2][3][4] Plural[1][2][3][4]

1st -ī (-yā) ‫ي‬- -nā ‫نا‬-

2nd -ik (-k) ‫ك‬- -kum ‫كم‬-

3rd (m) -ū (-h) ‫ه‬- -hum ‫هم‬-

 3rd (f) -hā ‫ها‬- -hum ‫هم‬-

Note, that with feminine words which are generally finished with an ‫ ة‬a, a ‫ ت‬t is added before the
suffixes which become tī, tik, tū, thā, tnā, tkum and thum[2][3]
Indirect object pronouns
Indirect Object Pronouns are used as a suffix after the verb and before the ‫ش‬- -š of the
negation.[1][2][3][4] When there is a combination of direct and indirect object pronouns, indirect object
pronouns are always written in the end.[4][5] Furthermore, the first short i for the indirect Object
pronoun is always dropped when it is written after a vowel.[3][6]

Person[1][2][3][4] Singular[1][2][3][4] Plural[1][2][3][4]

1st -lī ‫لي‬- -ilnā ‫لنا‬-

2nd -lik ‫لك‬- -ilkum ‫لكم‬-

3rd (m) -lū ‫له‬- -ilhum ‫لهم‬-

3rd (f) -ilhā ‫لها‬- -ilhum ‫لهم‬-

Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns are used as a subject to explain general ideas or to report the facts which
were done by an unknown person:[1][3][4][6]

 ‫ واحد‬wāḥid (m.), ‫ واحدة‬waḥda (f.), ‫ وحود‬wḥūd (pl.) “Someone”

 ‫ الواحد‬il-wāḥid “The individual”
 ‫ فالن‬flān, Fem. ‫ فالنة‬flāna “such”
 ‫ي‬
ّ ‫ أ‬eyy “Any”
 ‫ إلّي يجي‬illī yjī, Fem. ‫ إلّي تجي‬illī tjī “Anyone”
 ‫ كل واحد‬kull wāḥid “Everyone”
 ‫ حاجة‬ḥāja “Something”
 ‫ حتّى واحد‬ḥattā wāḥid “No one”
 ‫ آخر‬āxir (m.), ‫ أخرة‬uxra (f.), ‫ أخرين‬uxrīn (pl.) “Other”
 ‫ الكل‬il-kull “Everybody”

Interrogative pronouns
The next interrogative pronouns are used when asking a question in Tunisian Arabic.[3][4]

Tunisian Arabic English Notes

‫ شنوة‬šnūwa (m.), ‫ شنية‬šnīya (f.), šnīya is used with feminine words. šnūma is used
What
‫ شنومة‬šnūma (pl.) with plural words.

‫ آش‬āš or ‫ش‬- š- What Used with verbs and some nouns.

‫ شكون‬škūn Who

‫ آما‬āmā Which

‫ وقتاش‬waqtāš When

‫ عالش‬ɛlāš Why

‫ لواش‬lwāš What for

‫ وين‬wīn or ‫ فين‬fīn Where

Where ...
‫ منين‬mnīn
from

‫ لوين‬lwīn Where ... to

‫ كيفاش‬kīfāš How

‫ قد ّاش‬qaddāš How many

‫ بقد ّاش‬bqaddāš How much

‫ فاش‬fāš What ... in

‫ مناش‬mnāš What ... of

‫ آناهو‬ānāhū (m.), ‫ آناهي‬ānāhī (f.), Which
‫ آناهم‬ānāhum (pl.) one(s)

Articles
Definite articles
Translated in English as "The" Article, "il-" (‫ )ال‬is used as an added prefix to denote nouns as
definite.[1][2][3][5] If the defined nouns begins with a Sun Consonant (n, ṇ, t, ṭ, d, dz, s, ṣ, š, z, ẓ, j, ŧ, đ,
ḑ, l, r and ṛ), "il-" would be pronounced as i + the Sun Consonant with which the noun
begins.[1][2][3][5] For example:

 ‫ الجريدة‬il-jarīda [ɪʒ:æri:dæ] meaning the Newspaper[3][6]

 ‫ الكرسي‬il-kursī [ɪlkʊrsi] meaning the chair[3][6]
Demonstrative articles
Like in Standard Arabic, Demonstrative Articles can be used as demonstrative pronouns when
they are put alone as subjects.[2][3] When they are articles, they can be written before or after the
considered noun which should be definite by "il-".[2][3]

Demonstrative Articles Tunisian Arabic[1][2][3][7] Pronunciation[1][2][3][7]

This (near the speaker) ‫ هاذا‬or ‫( هاذاية‬m), ‫ هاذي‬or ‫( هاذية‬f) hāđa or hāđāya (m), hāđī or hāđīya (f)

This (far from the speaker) ‫ هاكا‬or ‫( هاكاية‬m), ‫ هاكي‬or ‫( هاكية‬f) hāka or hākāya (m), hākī or hākīya (f)

That ‫( هاذاكة‬m), ‫( هاذيكة‬f) hāđāka, hāđīka

These ‫هاذومة‬ hāđūma

Those ‫هاذوكم‬ hāđūkum

For example: "This book" could be written in Tunisian as ‫ ٰهاذا الكتاب‬hāđā il-ktāb or even as ‫الكتاب‬
‫ ٰهاذا‬il-ktāb hāđā.[7]
When the demonstrative article is before the noun, it can be substituted by an abbreviated form
which is ‫ ها‬hā for this and these, ‫ هاذ‬hāđ for this and ‫ ٰهاك‬hāk for that and those.[1][7]
For example, "This book" could be written in Tunisian as ‫ ها الكتاب‬hā il-ktāb.[7]
Possessive articles

Possessive article[2][3][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][6][8] Pronunciation[2][3][6][8]

 my ‫متاعي‬ mtāɛī

your (in Singular) ‫متاعك‬ mtāɛik

his ‫متاعه‬ mtāɛū

her ‫متاعها‬ mtāɛhā

our ‫متاعنا‬ mtāɛnā

your (in Plural) ‫متاعكم‬ mtāɛkum

their ‫متاعهم‬ mtāɛhum

Although they do exist, possessive articles in Tunisian Arabic are not used the same way as in
English. They mainly show possession valorization in a sentence. Furthermore, they are only
used after a definite noun.[2][3][6][8]
For example: ‫" الكورة متاعك‬il-kūra mtāɛik"- "Your ball"
Indeed, as in Arabic and other languages, possessive pronouns replaces them when there is not
a valorization and a stress of the fact of possessing the item. These suffixes are the same as the
ones used for conjugation of some verbs, and represent the ending sound of the possessive
articles.[1][2]
For example: ‫" كورتك‬kūrtik"- "Your ball"

Modal verbs
Differently from English which uses base form for the second verb (invariable for all pronouns),
Tunisian Arabic uses present (or rather imperfect) form for it.[2][9]However, the second verb could
be in the past (or rather perfect) form for the three modal verbs ‫ راه‬rāh, ‫ حقّه‬Haqqū and ‫ماذابيه‬
māđābīh (‫ لوكان‬lūkān should be written before the second verb) which do not have a past
form.[3][9] Moreover, ‫ قاعد‬qāɛid could be used before an active participle.[2][3][4][5] Furthermore, all the
modal verbs could be in negative form as in Standard English excepting ‫ راهه‬rāhū and ‫ماذابيه‬
māđābīh.[3][9] For example, ‫ ماذابينا نمشيوا‬māđābīnā nimšīū becomes in negative form ‫ماذابينا ما‬
‫ نمشيوش‬māđābīnā mā nimšīūš and ‫ راهه تكلّم‬Rāhū tkallim becomes in negative form ‫ راهه ما تكلّمش‬Rāhū
mā tkallimš.[3][9]
Hāhū (To be, drawing attention to the presence of the referent)

Person[4][8] Tunisian Arabic[1][10] Pronunciation[1][10]

 I am ‫هاني‬ hānī

You are (in Singular) ‫هاك‬ hāk

He is ‫هاهه‬ hāhū

She is ‫هاهي‬ hāhī

We are ‫هانا‬ hānā

You are (in Plural) ‫هاكم‬ hākum

They are ‫هاهم‬ hāhum

Example: ‫ « هاني هوني‬Hānī hūnī. » "I'm here."

Ṛāhū (To be, with more intensity by emphasizing it)

Person[4][8] Tunisian Arabic[4][8] Pronunciation[4][8]

I am ‫راني‬ ṛānī

You are (in Singular) ‫راك‬ ṛāk

He is ‫راهه‬ ṛāhū

She is ‫راهي‬ ṛāhī

We are ‫رانا‬ ṛānā

You are (in Plural) ‫راكم‬ ṛākum

 They are ‫راهم‬ ṛāhum

Example : ‫ « راني هوني‬Ṛānī hūnī. » — "attention, I'm here."

Māhū (To be, as an evidence marker or in a questioning manner as in tag
questions)

Person[4][8] Tunisian Arabic[11][12] Pronunciation[11][12]

Am I not ‫ماني‬ mānī

Are you not ‫ماك‬ māk

Is he/it not ‫ماهه‬ māhū

Is she not ‫ماهي‬ māhī

Are we not ‫مانا‬ māna

Are you not (in Plural) ‫ماكم‬ mākum

Are they not ‫ماهم‬ māhum

Example : ‫ « ماني هوني‬Mānī hūnī. » — "Am I not, here ?." or « Māchīn, māhū ?. » — "We are going,
isn't it?."
Qāɛid (To be, at the immediate moment)

Person[2][3][4][6] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][4][6] Pronunciation[2][3][4][6]

I am ‫قاعد‬ Qāɛid

You are (in Singular) ‫قاعد‬ Qāɛid

He is ‫قاعد‬ Qāɛid
 She is ‫قاعدة‬ Qāɛda

We are ‫قاعدين‬ Qāɛdīn

You are (in Plural) ‫قاعدين‬ Qāɛdīn

They are ‫قاعدين‬ Qāɛdīn

Example : ‫ « قاعدين ناكلوا‬Qāɛdīn nāklū. » — "we are eating."

Najjam (Could)

Person[2][3][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][6][8] Pronunciation[2][3][6][8]

I could ‫ن ّجمت‬ najjamt

You could (in Singular) ‫ن ّجمت‬ najjamt

He could ‫ن ّجم‬ najjam

She could ‫ن ّجمت‬ najjmit

We could ‫ن ّجمنا‬ najjimnā

You could (in Plural) ‫ن ّجمتوا‬ najjimtū

They could ‫ن ّجموا‬ najjmū

Example : ‫ « نجموا ياكلوا‬najjmū yāklū. » — "They could eat."

Ynajjam (Can, To be able to)

Person[2][3][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][6][8] Pronunciation[2][3][6][8]

I can ‫نَّ ّجم‬ nnajjam

You can (in Singular) ‫تن ّجم‬ tnajjam

He can ‫ين ّجم‬ ynajjam

She can ‫تن ّجم‬ tnajjam

We can ‫نَّ ّج ُموا‬ nnajjmū

You can (in Plural) ‫تن ّجموا‬ tnajjmū

They can ‫ين ّجموا‬ ynajjmū

Example : ‫ « ين ّجموا ياكلوا‬Ynajjmū yāklū. » — "They can eat."

Ḥaqū (Should)

Person[2][3][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][6][8] Pronunciation[2][3][6][8]

I should ‫حقني‬ ḥaqnī

You would better (in Singular) ‫حقك‬ ḥaqik

He should ‫حقه‬ ḥaqū

She should ‫حقها‬ ḥaqhā

We should ‫حقنا‬ ḥaqnā

You should (in Plural) ‫حقكم‬ ḥaqkum

They should ‫حقهم‬ ḥaqhum

Example : ‫ « حقه يتكلّم‬Ḥaqū yitkallim. » — "He should speak."

Kaṛū (Would better, stronger intensity than should)
 Person[2][3][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][6][8] Pronunciation[2][3][6][8]

I would better ‫كارني‬ kaṛnī

You would better (in Singular) ‫كارك‬ kaṛik

He would better ‫كاره‬ kaṛū

She would better ‫كارها‬ kaṛhā

We would better ‫كارنا‬ kaṛnā

You would better (in Plural) ‫كاركم‬ kaṛkum

They would better ‫كارهم‬ kaṛhum

Example : ‫ « كارني تتكلّم‬kaṛnī tkāllimt. » — "I would better have spoken."

Yilzmū (Have to)

Person[2][3][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][6][8] Pronunciation[2][3][6][8]

I have to ‫يلزمني‬ yilzimnī

You have to (in Singular) ‫يلزمك‬ yilzmik

He has to ‫يلزمه‬ yilzmū

She has to ‫يلزمها‬ yilzimhā

We have to ‫يلزمنا‬ yilzimnā

 You have to (in Plural) ‫يلزمكم‬ yilzimkum

They have to ‫يلزمهم‬ yilzimhum

Example : ‫ « يلزمنا نمشيوا‬Yilzimnā nimšīū. » — "We have to go."

Lāzmū (Must)

Person[2][3][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[2][3][6][8] Pronunciation[2][3][6][8]

I must ‫الزمني‬ lāzimnī

You must (in Singular) ‫الزمك‬ lāzmik

He must ‫الزمه‬ lāzmū

She must ‫الزمها‬ lāzimhā

We must ‫الزمنا‬ lāzimnā

You must (in Plural) ‫الزمكم‬ lāzimkum

They must ‫الزمهم‬ lāzimhum

Example : ‫ « الزمنا نمشيوا‬Lāzimnā nimšīū. » — "We must go."

Māđābīh (Had better)

Person[3][5][6][8] Tunisian Arabic[3][5][6][8] Pronunciation[3][5][6][8]

I had better ‫ماذابيا‬ māđābīyā

You had better (in Singular) ‫ماذابيك‬ māđābīk

He had better ‫ماذابيه‬ māđābīh

 She had better ‫ماذابيها‬ māđābīhā

We had better ‫ماذابينا‬ māđābīnā

You had better (in Plural) ‫ماذابيكم‬ māđābīkum

They had better ‫ماذابيهم‬ māđābīhum

Example : ‫ « ماذابينا نمشيوا‬Māđābīnā nimšīū. » — "We had better go."

Discourse markers
Tunisian Arabic involve Discourse markers that are used to emphasize some facts in
discussions.[11] These facts could be even evidences and conclusions.[11]
Evidence markers
Evidence markers are mainly modal verbs. ṛāhū ‫ راهه‬is used to mark a fact as evident in the
affirmative form.[11] It is substituted by ṃāhū ‫ ماهه‬when asking about a supposed evident fact.[11]
Conclusion markers
Conclusion markers are mainly conjunctions. yāxī ‫ ياخي‬is used to mark a fact as a conclusion in
the affirmative form.[11] It is substituted by mālā ‫ ماال‬when asking to approve supposed
conclusion.[11]

Preverbal markers
Preverbal markers or auxiliaries are verbs that are used to denote the status of a given action.
They are conjugated as Subject + Preverbal marker (Any tense and form) + Action Verb (In
present unless the preverbal marker is in imperative.[13] The verb is in imperative in this
situation).[13][14] For example, qūm ixdim ‫ قوم اخدم‬meaning go to work.

Tunisian Arabic English Status

kān ‫ كان‬+ Action Verb[13] to be doing something Finalization

bdā ‫ بدا‬+ Action Verb[13] to begin doing something Initiation

qɛad ‫ قعد‬+ Action Verb[13] to stay doing something Progression

ɛāwid ‫ عاود‬+ Action Verb[13] to return doing something Repetition

 ḥabb ‫ حب‬+ Action Verb[13] to like doing something Passion

jā ‫ جا‬+ Action Verb[13] to come doing something Intention

qām ‫ قام‬+ Action Verb[13] to stand up to do something Intention

ṣār ‫ صار‬+ Action Verb[14] to become doing something Initiation

wallā ‫ ولى‬+ Action Verb[6] to become doing something Initiation

mšā ‫ مشى‬+ Action Verb[13] to be going to do something Intention

bqā ‫ بقى‬+ Action Verb[14] to remain doing something Progression

rjaɛ ‫ رجع‬+ Action Verb[13] to return doing something Repetition

jarrib ‫ جرب‬+ Action Verb[13] to try doing something Experimentation

ittilizim ‫ اتلزم‬+ Action Verb[13] to engage oneself in doing something Engagement

kammal ‫ كمل‬+ Action Verb[14] to finish doing something Finalization

Verb conjugation
Perfective and imperfective tenses
Regular verbs
There are significant differences in morphology between Tunisian and Standard
Arabic.[1][2][15] Standard Arabic marks 13 person/number/gender distinctions in theverbal paradigm,
whereas the dialect of Tunis marks only 7 (the gender distinction is found only in the third person
singular).[1][2][15] Nomadic Tunisian Arabic dialects also mark gender for the second person in
singular, in common with most spoken varieties of Arabic elsewhere in the Arabic world.[1][15]
In general, the regular verbs are conjugated according to the following pattern:[1][2][4][5][15]

k-t-b "to write"

 perfective imperfective
(Past) (Present)

singular plural singular plural

1st person ktibt ‫كتبت‬ ktibnā ‫كتبنا‬ niktib ‫ نكتب‬niktbū ‫نكتبوا‬

2nd person ktibt ‫كتبت‬ ktibtū ‫ كتبتوا‬tiktib ‫تكتب‬ tiktbū ‫تكتبوا‬

masculine ktib ‫كتب‬ yiktib ‫يكتب‬

3rd kitbū ‫كتبوا‬ yiktbū ‫يكتبوا‬

feminine kitbit ‫كتبت‬ tiktib ‫تكتب‬

The second-person singular of the three Nomadic Tunisian Arabic dialects has distinct masculine
and feminine forms, with the masculine forms being as above ‫ كتبت‬ktibt and ‫ تكتب‬tiktib, and the
feminine forms being ‫ت‬
ِ ‫ كتب‬ktibtī (perfective) and ‫ تكتبي‬tiktbī (imperfective).[1]
Weak verbs
Verbs with a final semivowel ā, known as "weak" verbs, have a different pattern.[1][16] This pattern
is determinated according to the third letter in the root of the verb.[1][16] Moreover, the verbs having
a glottal stop as a first letter of their root are also considered as weak verbs.[2][5][17][18][19]
Nomadic dialects have a different third-person singular feminine perfective form as in ‫[ مشيت‬mʃit],
‫[ حبيت‬ħbit], ‫[ بديت‬bdit] and ‫[ خذيت‬χðit][1][19][20] and delete the stem vowel in the plural imperfective
forms, giving forms such as ‫[ نمشوا‬nimʃu], ‫[ نحبوا‬niħbu], ‫[ نبدوا‬nibdu] and
‫[ نوخذوا‬nu:χðu].[1][19] Furthermore, Sahil and Southeastern dialects tend to use /eː/ in place of /iː/ in
the perfective conjugation. For example, ‫ تمشيوا‬timcīū is pronounced as [timʃe:u] in Sahil and
southeastern dialects.[1]

[j] as a third letter of the root (y aspect)

m-ʃ-j mšā "to go"[1][2]

perfective imperfective
(Past) (Present)

singular plural singular plural

1st person mšīt ‫مشيت‬ mšīnā ‫مشينا‬ nimšī ‫ نمشي‬nimšīū ‫نمشيوا‬

 2nd person mšīt ‫مشيت‬ mšītū ‫ مشيتوا‬timšī ‫تمشي‬ timšīū ‫تمشيوا‬

masculine mšā ‫مشى‬ yimšī ‫يمشي‬

3rd mšāū ‫مشاوا‬ yimšīū ‫يمشيوا‬

feminine mšāt ‫مشات‬ timšī ‫تمشي‬

[w] as a third letter of the root (w aspect)

ħ-b-w ḥbā "to crawl"[1][2]

perfective imperfective
(Past) (Present)

singular plural singular plural

1st person ḥbīt ‫حبيت‬ ḥbūnā ‫ حبونا‬niḥbū ‫نحبو‬ niḥbāū ‫نحباوا‬

2nd person ḥbīt ‫حبيت‬ ḥbītū ‫حبيتوا‬ taḥbū ‫تحبو‬ taḥbāū ‫تحباوا‬

masculine ḥbā ‫حبا‬ yaḥbū ‫يحبو‬

3rd ḥbāū ‫حباوا‬ yaḥbāū ‫يحباوا‬

feminine ḥbāt ‫حبات‬ taḥbū ‫تحبو‬

[ʔ] as a third letter of the root

b-d-ʔ bdā "to begin"[5][19]

perfective imperfective
(Past) (Present)

singular plural singular plural

1st person bdīt ‫بديت‬ bdīnā ‫ بدينا‬nibdā ‫ نبدا‬nibdāū ‫نبداوا‬

 2nd person bdīt ‫بديت‬ bdītū‫ بديتوا‬tibdā ‫تبدا‬ tibdāū ‫تبداوا‬

masculine bdā ‫بدا‬ yibdā ‫يبدا‬

3rd bdāū ‫بداوا‬ yibdāū ‫يبداوا‬

feminine bdāt ‫بدات‬ tibdā ‫تبدا‬

[ʔ] as a first letter of the root

ʔ-χ-ð xđā "to take"[16][19]

perfective imperfective
(Past) (Present)

singular plural singular plural

1st person xđīt ‫خذيت‬ xđīnā ‫خذينا‬ nāxđ ‫ ناخذ‬nāxđū ‫ناخذوا‬

2nd person xđīt ‫خذيت‬ xđītū ‫ خذيتوا‬tāxđ ‫تاخذ‬ tāxđū ‫تاخذوا‬

masculine xđā ‫ْٰخذا‬ yāxđ ‫ياخذ‬

3rd xđāū ‫خذاوا‬ yāxđū ‫ياخذوا‬

feminine xđāt ‫خذات‬ tāxđ ‫تاخذ‬

Irregular verbs

Pronoun ɛandū “to have”[4][6] ḥājtū “to need”[4][6]

ānā ‫آنا‬ ɛandī ‫عندي‬ ḥājtī ‫حاجتي‬

intī ‫إنتِي‬ ɛandik ‫عندك‬ ḥājtik ‫حاجتك‬

hūwa ‫هوة‬ ɛandū ‫عنده‬ ḥājtū ‫حاجته‬

hīya ‫هية‬ ɛandhā ‫عندها‬ ḥājthā ‫حاجتها‬

aḥnā ‫أحنا‬ ɛandnā ‫عندنا‬ ḥājtnā ‫حاجتنا‬

intūmā ‫ إنتوما‬ɛandkum ‫عندكم‬ ḥājtkum ‫حاجتكم‬

hūma ‫هومة‬ ɛandhum ‫عندهم‬ ḥājthum ‫حاجتهم‬

Future tense
The future tense in Tunisian Arabic is also similar to Berber, more precisely Zenata Berber[21] that
was spoken by the majority of Tunisians ancestors:[1]

 ‫ باش‬bāš + verb → "will" + verb (ex: ‫ باش تتكسّر‬/baːʃ titkassir/ → it will break)[1][3]
 ‫ ماش‬māš or ‫ باش‬bāš + verb → "will" + verb (ex: ‫ ماش نكسّرها‬/maːʃ nkassirha/ → I will break it)[1][3]
Taw or Tawwa can be used as a time indicator with a verb in present to mean "being going to do
something".[3][6]
Imperative tense
The imperative form is considered the stem for the present tense.[3][6]

Singular Plural

ušrub ‫ اُش ُرب‬ušrbū ‫اُشربوا‬

aɛṭī ‫اَعطي‬ aɛṭīū ‫اَع ِطيوا‬

Conditional tenses
Conditional present
The conditional present is conjugated as Kaṛū or Ḥaqqū + Verb in Present tense.[2][4] This tense is
generally used to show regret.[2][4]

Pronoun Auxiliary Verbs

ānā ‫آنا‬ kāṛnī ‫كارني‬ ḥaqqnī ‫حقّني‬

intī ‫إنتِي‬ kāṛik ‫كارك‬ ḥaqqik ‫حقّك‬

hūwa ‫هوة‬ kāṛū ‫كاره‬ ḥaqqū ‫حقّه‬

hīya ‫هية‬ kāṛhā ‫كارها‬ ḥaqqhā ‫حقّها‬

aḥnā ‫أحنا‬ kāṛnā ‫كارنا‬ ḥaqqnā ‫حقّنا‬

intūmā ‫ إنتوما‬kāṛkum ‫كاركم‬ ḥaqqkum ‫حقّكم‬

hūma ‫هومة‬ kāṛhum ‫ كارهم‬ḥaqqhum ‫حقّهم‬

Conditional past
I should have done something
For the past conditional, the same structures seen above are used, but instead of the present
tense, the past tense is used.[3][6]
I could have done something
This structure is conjugated as kān ynajjam + Verb in the present tense.[4][6]

Pronoun Auxiliary Verb

ānā ‫آنا‬ kunt nnajjam ‫كنت نّ ّجم‬

intī ‫إنتي‬ kunt tnajjam ‫كنت تن ّجم‬

hūwa ‫هوة‬ kān ynajjam ‫كان ين ّجم‬

hīya ‫هية‬ kānit tnajjam ‫كانت تن ّجم‬

aḥnā ‫أحنا‬ kunnā nnajjmū ‫كنّا نّ ّجموا‬

intūmā ‫ إنتوما‬kuntū tnajjmū ‫كنتوا تن ّجموا‬

hūma ‫هومة‬ kānū ynajjmū ‫كانوا ين ّجموا‬

I would have done something

This structure is conjugated as ṛāhū + Verb in the present tense.[4][6]

Verb derivation
Verb derivation is done by adding prefixes or by doubling consonants to the simple verb having
the root fɛal (Triconsonantal) or faɛlil (Quadriconsonantal). The verb’s root determines the
possible derivations.[1][3][6][22] Generally, the patterns used in Verb Derivation are the same as in
Standard Arabic.[1][3]
Triconsonantal verbs

 Causative: is obtained by doubling consonants :

‫ خرج‬/χraʒ/ "to go out" → ‫خرج‬ ّ /χarraʒ/ "to take out"[3][6]
‫ دخل‬/dχal/ "to enter" → ‫ د ّخل‬/daχχal/ "to bring in, to introduce"[3][6]

 Adding ā between the first two radical consonants, e.g. xālaṭ “to frequent”[3][6]
 Inchoative: Adding ā between the last two radical consonants, e.g. ḥmār “turn red”[3][6]
 Passive: This derivation is influenced by Berber and is different from the one of Classical
Arabic (the passive voice in classical Arabic uses vowel changes and not verb
derivation), it is obtained by prefixing the verb with /t-/ (First letter in the root as Moon
Consonant), /tt-/ (First letter in the root as Sun Consonant), /tn-/(can efficiently substitute
tt- when the verb is conjugated in Present Tense) or /n-/ (can efficiently substitute t- when
the verb is conjugated in Present Tense):[1][2][3][4][6][23]
‫ قتل‬/qtal/ "to kill" → ‫ تقتل‬/taqtal/ "to be killed"[1]
‫ شرب‬/ʃrab/ "to drink" → ‫ تّشرب‬/ttaʃrab/ "to be drunk".[1]

 Prefixing ist– to the verb, e.g. istaxbar “to get informed”[3][6]

 Prefixing i- to the verb and Infixing t after the first radical consonant, e.g. ‫ اجتمع‬ijtmaɛ
“to assemble”[3][6]
Quadriconsonantal verbs

 Prefixing it– to the verb, e.g. ‫ اتفركس‬itfarkis “to be searched” [6][22]

Verb forms
Exclamative form
The exclamative form can be formed by the intonation and in this particular situation, the
sentence ends with an exclamation mark to distinguish it from an affirmative
sentence[2][3][4][6] Furthermore, it can be formed using Qaddāš + Noun or Possessive
Pronoun + Adjective or Imperfective verb + !.[2][3][4][6]
Interrogative form
The interrogative form can be formed by two methods: The intonation and the Suffix -
š.[4][6] When an interrogative adverb or pronoun exists, the question is an āš question that
is equivalent to the English wh question and if the question does not involve any
interrogative adverb or pronoun, it is an īh/lā question that is equivalent to the English
Yes/No Question.[4][6][24]

 The Intonation: Which is a variation of the spoken pitch to distinguish a question

from an affirmative sentence. In writing, a question mark is used after an affirmative
sentence to transform it into an interrogative sentence.[3][4][5][6][24]
Example: ‫ تحبّ تمشي لتونس‬tḥibb timšī l- tūnis?, Do you want to go to Tunisia?
 The Suffix -š: -š or -šī can be suffixed to the verb to indicate an interrogative
sentence.[3][4][5][6][24]
Example: ‫ تعرفوشي؟‬taɛṛfūšī?, Do you know him?
Negative form

 With verbs conjugated in the present, past and conditional tenses:

To make the negative form, we put me in front of the verb and š at the end of the
verb.[1][2][3][5]
[24]
Example: ‫ ما فهمش الدرس‬mā fhimš il-dars, He didn’t understand the lesson.
N.B.: With the past conditional (would have) this negative form is used with the main
verb.[3][4][24]
Example: ‫ لوكان عرفت راني ما جيتش‬lūkān ɛṛaft rānī mā jītš, If I knew I would not have come.

 With The Future And Present Participle:

To negate the present participles and the verbs conjugated in the future, mūš, or its
conjugated form, is added in front of the verb.[1][2][3][5][24]
Example: ‫ موش باش نشوفه الجمعة هاذي‬mūš bāš nšūfū ij-jumɛa hāđī, I won’t see him this week.
‫ موش‬mūš is conjugated as follows:[3][4]

Pronoun Auxiliary Verb

ānā ‫آنا‬ mānīš ‫مانيش‬

intī ‫إنتي‬ mākiš ‫ماكش‬

hūwa ‫هوة‬ māhūš ‫ماهوش‬

hīya ‫هية‬ māhīš ‫ماهيش‬

aḥnā ‫أحنا‬ mānāš ‫مناش‬

intūmā ‫ انتوما‬mākumš ‫مكمش‬

hūmā ‫هومة‬ māhumš ‫مهمش‬

Relative clause
The only relative pronoun used in Tunisian Arabic is illī meaning who or that and its short
form is lī.[5][6]
Nouns
Gender
Masculine gender
Nouns ending either in a consonant, u, i, ū or ī are usually masculine.[4][6] For example: ‫باب‬
bāb “door”, ‫ كرسي‬kursī “chair”.[4][6] There are, however, some exceptions. Indeed, some
consonant-final and some ī-final nouns are in the feminine gender (usually, names of
countries and cities, and names of parts of the body, and nouns ending in –t are in the
feminine).[4][6] For example: ‫ پاريز‬Pārīz “Paris”, ‫ بيت‬bīt “room”, ‫ بسكالت‬bisklāt “bicycle”.[4][6]
Uninflected feminine gender
Nouns ending with a or ā vowel are usually in the feminine.[1][4]
For example: ‫ سنّة‬sinna “tooth”, ‫ خريطة‬xarīṭa “map”.
There are, however, a few exceptions: ‫ أعمى‬aɛmā “blind man”, ‫ ممشى‬mamšā “alley”, ‫عشاء‬
ɛšā “dinner”.[4]
Inflected feminine gender

 Feminization: Generally, male nouns form their feminine by the suffixation of a

vowel.[4][6] For example, ‫ كلب‬kalb > ‫ كلبة‬kalba, ّ ‫ جد‬jadd > ‫ جد ّة‬jadda, ‫ بطل‬bṭal > ‫ بطلة‬baṭla.
Some male nouns, however, do not form their feminine by the suffixation of a, but
have suppletive female counterparts.[4][6] For example, ‫ راجل‬rājel > ‫ مرا‬mra, ‫ ولد‬wlad >
‫ طفلة‬ṭufla, ‫ بو‬bū > ‫ أ ّم‬umm.[4][6]
 Individual singular of collective plural and mass nouns: Similarly, collective
plural and mass nouns form their feminine by the suffixation of a. For example, ‫زيتون‬
zītūn “olive” > ‫ زيتونة‬zītūna “an olive”, ‫ تمر‬tmar “dates” > ‫ تمرة‬tamra “a date”.[4]
 Individual singular of verbal nouns: Generally, verbal nouns form their individual
singulars by the suffixation of a. For example, ‫ بني‬bany > ‫ بنية‬banya, ‫ تفركيس‬tfarkīs >
‫ تفركيسة‬tfarkīsa.[4][6]
The dual
Marking of the dual for nouns by adding -īn as a suffix to them is only used for quantity
measures, for nouns having the CCVC form such as C is an ungeminated consonant and
V is a short vowel and things often occurring in twos (e.g. eyes, hands, parents).[1][6] In
general, these nouns have broken plurals and not regular ones.[6] Marking of the dual is
also done by writing zūz before the regular or irregular plural noun.[3][6] For example:

 ‫ سبوع‬sbūɛ (finger) becomes ‫ سبوعين‬sūbɛīn

 ‫ ليل‬līl (night) becomes ‫ زوز ليالي‬zūz lyālī
The plural
The plural in Tunisian can be classified according to its structure. There are mainly two
types of structure: suffixed structure and internal structure.[4] However and as reported in
many studies, the rate of broken plurals for Tunisian and by that the rate of the use of the
Pluralization Internal Structure is more important than the one for Standard Arabic and
several other Arabic dialects.[3][4][6][25][26][27][28][29][30][31] This considerable use of the Internal
Structure of Pluralization is considered by most of the linguists as an influence of the
Berber substratum.[32][33]
Using the Suffixed Structure, Singular nouns may form their plural by the suffixation of
any of the following plural suffixes:[4]

Word end Suffix

-uw, a vowel or a consonant –āt

-iy –īn

This kind of plural is considered as regular plurals.[3][4] However, There is a suffixed

structure which is considered as a broken plural which is the plural of name of the noun
constituted of the name of a town or a group of people and the suffix ī.[3][4] This structure is
done to attribute the person to a group or a city and its plural is obtained by adding ā
after the second letter of the root and adding a as a suffix in the end of the word.[4]
Using the Internal Structure, the plural in Tunisian follows the following patterns such as
C is an ungeminated consonant, V is a short vowel, C: is a geminated consonant:[4][6]

Singular pattern Plural pattern

CūC CCāCī

CāC CīCān

CaCCaC CaCāCiC

CCaC5 CCūCāt

CaCC5 CCāC

CCāC CCuC

CiCC CCūC

CVCCVC or CVCCVCa CCāCiC

CāCiC or CaCC5 CCūC

CāCiC5 CVC:āC
CVCC5 CCūCa

CiCCa CCiC

CCaC5 uCCCa

CaCCa CCaC

^5 CaCC, CCaC and CāCiC could have multiple patterns as plural noun patterns.[4] The criterion of
the choice of the plural form for CaCC, CCaC and CāCiC is still not known.[4]

Adjectives
Gender
Masculine
Uninflected adjectives are masculine singular.[4] There are two main types of adjectives:[4]

 Participial adjectives: Participles, whether real or historical, may function both as

adjectives and nouns.[5]
ّ ‫ متغ‬mtġaššaš “angry”.
E.g. ‫شش‬

 Other adjectives: These include any non-participial adjectives.[4]

E.g. ‫ طويل‬ṭwīl “tall”.
Feminine
Like participles and some nouns, adjectives form their feminine by the suffixation of
a.[4] For example, ‫ جيعان‬jīɛān > ‫ جيعانة‬jīɛāna “hungry”, ‫ سخون‬sxūn > ‫ سخونة‬sxūna “hot”.
In some cases, when the adjective ends with an i vowel, the i becomes a y.[4] E.g. ‫باهي‬
bāhi > ‫ باهية‬bāhya Some uninflected adjectives are in the feminine. Their masculine
counterparts are either suppletive or do not exist.[4]
For example: ‫ حبلة‬ḥibla “pregnant”, ‫ عزوزة‬ɛzūza “old woman”.
The masculine counterpart of ‫ عزوزة‬ɛzūza is ‫ شايب‬šāyib, though, ‫ عزوز‬ɛzūz exists in some
idiolects.[4]
Some adjectives cannot be inflected either for gender or number.[4] E.g. ‫ وردي‬wardi “pink”,
‫ حموم‬ḥmūm “disastreous”.
Number
Unlike nouns, adjectives are not inflected for dual. The plural is used instead.[4] Like
nouns, there are two main types of structure: suffixed structure and internal structure.[4]

 Suffixed Structure: There are two types of plural suffixes which can be suffixed to a
singular adjective: –īn (when the adjective finishes with an i+Consonant) and –a (for
all other situations excepting the ones having an internal form).[4]
 Internal Structure: Generally, adjective’s plural follows the following structures:
CCāC (for CCīC, CCūC, CVCCūn and CVC: as singular patterns), CuCCā (for CCīC
and CCiy as singular patterns), CCāCiC (for CVCâC, CVC:ūC, CCV:CV, CVCCV:C
 as singular patterns), CCuC (for CCīC, aCCā and aCCaC as singular patterns),
CCaC (for CaCCī as a singular pattern), CCāCa (for CCīC and CVCCV as singular
patterns and for adjectives finishing by an ān), CCī (for aCCaC and aCCā as singular
patterns), CuCCān (for CuCāC as a singular pattern), CCaC:Ca (for CaCCūC as a
singular pattern), CVC:āC (for CāCiC as a singular pattern), CūCa (for CīC as a
singular pattern) and CCāCCa (for CVCCV:C as a singular pattern and for adjectives
finishing by an ī).[4][6]

Adjective forms
Comparative form
The comparative of superiority: The comparative form is the same whether the
adjective is feminine or masculine.[3][6]

 Adjectives composed of 3 consonants with a full vowel on the second The

comparative form is formed by adding a before the adjective and by replacing the full
vowel with a breve vowel, plus min after the adjective. E.g. ‫ كبير‬kbīr > ‫ أكبر من‬akbir min
“bigger than”[3][6]
 Adjectives ending with a vowel The comparative is formed by adding a as a prefix,
and replacing the final vowel with ā. When the first syllable of the adjective has a
long vowel, this vowel is removed. E.g. ‫ عالي‬ɛālī > ‫ أعلى‬aɛlā min “higher than”.[3][6]
The comparative of inferiority: It’s formed by the following structure: ‫ أق ّل‬aqall + noun +
‫ من‬min. For example, ‫ أق ّل طول من خوها هي‬hīya aqall ṭūl min xūha “she’s less tall than her
brother”[3][6]
The comparative of equality: It is formed by using the following structure: noun
(subject) + ‫ فرد‬fard + (comparative) noun + personal pronoun + ‫ و‬w + noun (compared).
For example, ‫ فاطمة فرد طول هي و خوها‬Fāṭma fard ṭūl hīya w xūha “Fatma is as tall as her
brother”. This structure can be simplified as follows: noun + ‫ و‬w + noun + ‫ فرد‬fard + noun.
For example, ‫ فاطمة و خوها فرد طول‬Fāṭma w xūha fard ṭūl “Fatma is as tall as her brother”[3][6]
Superlative form
It is formed by adding ‫ واحد‬wāḥid (m.), ‫ واحدة‬waḥda (f.) or ‫ وحود‬wḥūd (pl.) after the
comparative of superiority.[3][6]

Proportion in Tunisian Arabic

In order to denote the proportion of the participants in the given action from a greater
community, the adjectives and adverbs of proportion shown here are used.[3][6]

 ‫ کل‬kull (adj.) “Every”

 ‫ جميع‬or ‫ معا بعضنا‬jmīɛ (adj.) or mɛā bɛaḑnā (adv.) “Together”
 ‫ بعض‬or ‫ شويّة‬baɛḑ or šwayya (adj.) “Some”
 ‫ فرد‬fard (adj.) “Same”
 ‫ وحد‬waḥd with possessive pronoun (adv.) “Alone”

Numerals
Cardinals

 Cardinal numbers: The transcription of cardinal numbers is the same as in English

and some other European languages.[6][34] The number is read from left to
right.[6][34] This table provides several examples of names of cardinals in Tunisian
Arabic and can give a better overview about this fact.[6][34]
 Cardinal Tunisian Arabic

0 ṣfir ‫صفر‬

1 wāḥid ‫واحد‬

2 iŧnīn or zūz ‫ اثنين‬or ‫زوز‬

3 ŧlāŧa ‫ثالثة‬

4 arbɛa ‫أربعة‬

5 xamsa ‫خمسة‬

6 sitta ‫ستّة‬

7 sabɛa ‫سبعة‬

8 ŧmanya ‫ثمانية‬

9 tisɛa ‫تسعة‬

10 ɛacra ‫عشرة‬

11 ḥdāc ‫احداش‬

12 ŧnāc ‫اثناش‬

13 ّ ‫ثل‬
ŧluṭṭāc ‫ظاش‬
14 arbaɛṭāc ‫اربعطاش‬

15 xumsṭāc ‫خمسطاش‬

16 ّ ‫س‬
sutṭāc ‫طاش‬

17 sbaɛṭāc ‫سبعطاش‬

18 ŧmanṭāc ‫ثمنطاش‬

19 tsaɛṭāc ‫تسعطاش‬

20 ɛicrīn ‫عشرين‬

21 wāḥid w ɛicrīn ‫واحد وعشرين‬

30 ŧlāŧīn ‫ثالثين‬

40 arbɛīn ‫أربعين‬

50 xamsīn ‫خمسين‬

60 sittīn ‫ستّين‬

70 sabɛīn ‫سبعين‬

80 ŧmanīn ‫ثمانين‬

90 tisɛīn ‫تسعين‬
100 mya ‫مية‬

101 mya w wāḥid ‫مية وواحد‬

110 mya w ɛacra ‫مية وعشرة‬

200 mītīn ‫ميتين‬

300 ŧlāŧamya ‫ثالثة مية‬

1000 alf ‫الف‬

1956 alf w tisɛamya w sitta w xamsīn ‫الف وتسعة مية وستّة وخمسين‬

2000 alfīn ‫الفين‬

10000 ɛacra lāf ‫عشرة االف‬

100000 myat elf ‫مية الف‬

1000000 malyūn ‫مليون‬

mya w ŧlāŧa w ɛicrīn malyūn w arbɛa mya w sitta w xamsīn alf w sabɛa mya w tisɛa
123456789
w ŧmanīn ‫مية وثالثة وعشرين مليون وأربعة مية وستّة وخمسين الف وسبعة ميه وتسعة وثمانين‬

1000000000 milyār ‫مليار‬

 Nouns following a cardinal number:

 Number one is generally not used with the single object counted unless we want
to emphasize that there is only a single thing. E.g. ‫ طاولة‬ṭāwla “a table”, ‫طاولة واحدة‬
ṭāwla waḥda “one table”.[6][34]
 For the number two, we use the dual of the noun or we use ‫ زوز‬zūz plus the plural
of the noun.[6][34]
  From 3 to 10, we use the number plus the plural of the noun. E.g. ‫ خمسة كتب‬xamsa
ktub “five books”.[6][34]
 From 11 to 19, we use the number to which we add the consonant n plus the
noun in singular. E.g. ‫ سبعطاش كتاب‬sbaɛţācn ktāb “17 books”.[6][34]
 From 20 to 99, we use the number plus the singular. E.g. ‫ ثمانين دينار‬ŧmānīn dinār
“80 Dinars”[6][34]
 For numbers ending with a like ‫ مية‬mya, an –at is suffixed to it when used with a
noun. E.g. ‫ مية دوالر‬myāt dolār “100 dollars”.[6][34]
 For the other numbers, we use the number plus the singular. E.g. ‫ الف ميترو‬alf mītrū
“1000 meters”.[6][34]
 Number zero is generally expressed as ‫ حتّى‬ḥatta + noun. E.g. ‫ حتّى كرهبة‬ḥatta
karhba “zero cars”.[6][34]
Days of the week

Standard English[2][6] Tunisian Arabic[2][6]

Monday il-iŧnīn ‫اإلثنين‬

Tuesday il-ŧlāŧ ‫الثالث‬

Wednesday il-irbɛa ‫اإلربعة‬

Thursday il-xmīs ‫الخميس‬

Friday il-jimɛa ‫الجمعة‬

Saturday il-sibt ‫السبت‬

Sunday il-aḥadd ّ ‫األحد‬

Months of the year

Standard English[2][6] Tunisian Arabic[2][6]

January Jānfī ‫جانفي‬

February Fīvrī ‫فيڥري‬

March Mārs ‫مارس‬

April Avrīl ‫أڥريل‬

May Māy ‫ماي‬

June Jwān ‫جوان‬

July Jwīlya ‫جويلية‬

August Ūt ‫أوت‬

September Siptumbir ‫سپتمبر‬

October Uktobir ‫أكتوبر‬

November Nūvumbir ‫نوڥمبر‬

December Dīsumbir ‫ديسمبر‬

Note, that in this case, the months are a tunisification of the name of the months from
French, inherited from the protectorate times. Before, the names of the months were that
of their original Latin names.
Ordinals
The ordinals in Tunisian are from one to twelve only, in case of higher numbers, the
cardinals are used.[5]

English Ordinals[5][6] Masculine[5][6] Feminine[5][6] Plural[5][6]

First ‫ أول‬uwwil or ‫ أوالني‬ūlānī ‫ أولى‬ūlā or ‫ أوالنية‬ūlānīya ‫ أولين‬ūlīn or ‫ أوالنين‬ūlānīn

Second ‫ ثاني‬ŧāni ‫ ثانية‬ŧānya ‫ ثانين‬ŧānīn

Third ‫ ثالت‬ŧāliŧ ‫ ثالتة‬ŧālŧa ‫ ثالتين‬ŧālŧīn

Fourth ‫ رابع‬rābiɛ ‫ رابعة‬rābɛa ‫ رابعين‬rābɛīn

Fifth ‫ خامس‬xāmis ‫ خامسة‬xāmsa ‫ خامسين‬xāmsīn

Sixth ‫ سادس‬sādis ‫ سادسة‬sādsa ‫ سادسين‬sādsīn

Seventh ‫ سادسين‬sābiɛ ‫ سابعة‬sābɛa ‫ سابعين‬sābɛīn

Eighth ‫ ثامن‬ŧāmin ‫ ثامنة‬ŧāmna ‫ ثامنين‬ŧāmnīn

Ninth ‫ تاسع‬tāsiɛ ‫ تاسعة‬tāsɛa ‫ تاسعين‬tāsɛīn

Tenth ‫ عاشر‬ɛāšir ‫ عاشرة‬ɛāšra ‫ عاشرين‬ɛāšrīn

Eleventh ‫ حادش‬ḥādiš ‫ حادشة‬ḥādša ‫ حادشين‬ḥādšīn

Twelfth ‫ ثانش‬ŧāniš ‫ ثانشة‬ŧānšā ‫ ثانشين‬ŧānšīn

Fractions
There are special forms for fractions from two to ten only, elsewhere percentage is
used.[5][6] The Fractions can be used for various purposes like the expression of proportion
and the expression of time...[6] For example, the expression of 11:20 in Tunisian Arabic is
il-ḥdāc w ŧluŧ and the expression of 11:40 in Tunisian Arabic is nuṣṣ il-nhār
ġīr ŧluŧ.[6] Similarly, midnight is nuṣṣ il-līl and noon is nuṣṣ il-nhār.[2]

Standard English[5] Tunisian Arabic[5]

one half ‫ نصف‬nuṣf or ‫نص‬

ّ nuṣṣ

one third ‫ ثلث‬ŧluŧ

one quarter ‫ ربع‬rbuɛ

one fifth ‫ خمس‬xmus

one sixth ‫ سدس‬sdus

one seventh ‫ سبع‬sbuɛ

one eighth ‫ ثمن‬ŧmun

one ninth ‫ تسع‬tsuɛ

one tenth ‫ عشر‬ɛšur

Time measurement during the day

As said above, time measurement method and vocabulary below 1 hour is very peculiar
in Tunisian and is not found in neither the other dialects of Maghrebi Arabicor standard
Arabic. Indeed, Tunisian, uses fractions of 1 hour and a special unit of 5 minutes called
‫" دراج‬drāj", to express time. Also, as in English as "it's 3 am/pm" or just "it's 3" and
contrary to other languages such as standard Arabic, Tunisian do not precise the word
"sāɛa (hour)" when expressing the time of the day as the subject is considered implied.
Below is the list of the vocabulary used for time indication:

Standard English[5][6][22] Tunisian Arabic[5][6][22]

1 second ‫ ثانية‬ŧānya or ‫ سيڨوندة‬sīgūnda

1 minute ‫ دقيقة‬dqīqa

5 minutes ‫ درج‬draj

15 minutes ‫ ربع‬rbuɛ

20 minutes ‫ ثلث‬ŧluŧ or ‫ أربعة دراج‬arbɛa drāj

30 minutes ‫ نصف‬nuṣf or ‫نص‬
ّ nuṣṣ

Basic measures
The Basic units for Tunisian Arabic are used in the same way as in English.[5][6][22]

Standard English[5][6][22] Tunisian Arabic[5][6][22]

Three kānūn ‫كانون‬

Four ḥāra ‫حارة‬

Five ɛiddat īdik ‫عد ّة إيدك‬

Twelve ّ
ṭuzzīna ‫طزينة‬

One centimeter ṣāntī ‫صانتي‬

One meter mītrū ‫ميترو‬

One deciliter ɛšūrīya ‫عشورية‬

Two deciliters xmūsīya ‫خموسية‬

A quarter of a litre (fluid) rbuɛ ītra ‫ربع إيترة‬

One litre ītra ‫إيترة‬

Ten litres (fluid) dīga ‫ديڨة‬

Ten liters (mass) galba ‫ڨلبة‬

Twenty liters (mass) wība ‫ويبة‬

Three grams ūqīya ‫أوقية‬

One pound rṭal ‫رطل‬

One kilogram kīlū ‫كيلو‬

One ton ṭurnāṭa ‫طرناطة‬

One second ŧānya or sīgūnda ‫ ثانية‬or ‫سيڨوندة‬

One minute dqīqa ‫دقيقة‬

Five minutes draj ‫درج‬

One hour sāɛa ‫ساعة‬

One day nhar ‫نهار‬

One week jumɛa ‫جمعة‬

One month šhar ‫شهر‬

One year ɛām ‫عام‬

One century qarn ‫قرن‬

The measure units are accorded when in dual or in plural, for example:[2][5][6][22]

 dqīqa becomes ‫ دقيقتين‬dqīqtīn (2 minutes) in dual

 sāɛa becomes ‫ سوايع‬swāyaɛ (hours) in plural
Prepositions
There are two types of prepositions: single (commonly used) and compound prepositions
(rarely used).[5]
Single prepositions

Standard English[5][6] Tunisian Arabic[5][6]

In ‫ في‬fi- (fī before indefinite nouns or prepositions)

With ‫ بـ‬b-

To (Place, Person) ‫ لـ‬l-

From ‫ مـ‬m- (‫ من‬min before indefinite nouns or prepositions)

At ‫ عند‬ɛand

With ‫ معا‬mɛā

On, About ‫ عـ‬ɛa- (‫ على‬ɛlā before indefinite nouns or prepositions)

Between ‫ بين‬bīn

Before ‫ قبل‬qbal

After ‫ بعد‬baɛd

Behind ‫ ورا‬wrā

Over ‫ فوق‬fūq

Under ‫ تحت‬taḥt
In the middle of ‫ وسط‬wusṭ

Inside ‫ فسط‬fusṭ

Like ‫ كـ‬ki- (kīf before indefinite nouns or prepositions)

As much as, as big as … ّ ‫ قد‬qadd

Without ‫ بالش‬blāš

Even ‫ حتّى‬ḥattā

Round ‫ جيهة‬jīhit, ‫ شيرة‬šīrit

In front of ‫ قد ّام‬quddām

Of ‫ متاع‬mtāɛ

Compound prepositions
Compound prepositions are the prepositions that are obtained through the succession of
two single prepositions.[5] ‫ وسط‬Wusṭ, ‫ جيهة‬jīhit, ‫ شيرة‬šīrit and ‫ متاع‬mtāɛ can be used as
second prepositions with any single preposition before it excepting ‫ وسط‬Wusṭ, ‫ جيهة‬jīhit,
‫ شيرة‬šīrit and ‫ متاع‬mtāɛ.[5] The other prepositions are: ‫ من بين‬min bīn, ‫ من بعد‬min baɛd, ‫من عند‬
min ɛand, ‫ من تحت‬min taḥt, ‫ من قبل‬min qbal, ‫ من فوق‬min fūq, ‫ من ورا‬min wrā, ‫ كيف بعد‬kīf baɛd,
‫ كيف عند‬kīf ɛand, ‫ كيف تحت‬kīf taḥt, ‫ كيف قبل‬kīf qbal, ‫ كيف فوق‬kīf fūq, ‫ كيف ورا‬kīf wrā, ‫ كيف معا‬kīf
mɛā, ‫ قبل فوق‬qbal fūq, ‫ على فوق‬ɛlā fūq, ‫ بتحت‬b- taḥt, ‫ في تحت‬fī taḥt, ‫ ببالش‬b- blāš, ‫ من قد ّام‬min
quddām and ‫ حتّى قد ّام‬ḥattā quddām.[5]

Conjunctions
Coordinate conjunctions
Coordinate conjunctions link verbs, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, clauses, phrases and
sentences of the same structure.[5][6]

Standard English[5][6] Tunisian Arabic[5][6]

And w‫و‬
Or ّ ..‫وإال‬
w illā... wallā ‫وال‬ ّ

Either … or ّ \‫إال‬
ammā … w illā/wallā ‫وال‬ ّ ‫أ ّما و‬

But lākin ‫لكن‬, amā ‫أما‬

Without min/mā ğīr mā ‫من\ما غير ما‬

Only mā … kān ‫ كان‬..‫ما‬

The contrary of ɛaks min/mā ‫عكس من\ما‬

And then hāk il-sāɛa ‫هاك الساعة‬, sāɛathā ‫ساعتها‬, waqthā ‫وقتها‬, w iđā bīh ‫و إذا بيه‬

In brief il-ḥāṣil ‫الحاصل‬, il-ḥaṣīlū ‫الحصيلو‬

Sometimes … sometimes marra … marra ‫مرة‬

ّ ..‫مرة‬,
ّ sāɛa … sāɛa ‫ ساعة‬..‫ساعة‬, sāɛāt ‫ساعات‬

As far as qadd mā ‫قد ّ ما‬, qadd ّ ‫قد‬

Before qbal ‫قبل‬

Subordinate conjunctions
Subordinate conjunctions introduce dependent clauses only. There two types of
conjunctions: single and compound.[5][6] The compound conjunctions mainly consist of
prepositions that are compound with illī.[5][6] The main Subordinate conjunctions for
Tunisian are Waqt illī ‫“ وقت اللي‬When”, m- illī ‫“ ماللي‬Since”, qbal mā ‫“ قبل ما‬Before”, īđā ‫“ إذا‬If”,
lūkān ‫“ لوكان‬If”, mā ‫" ما‬what", bāš ‫“ باش‬In order to”, (ɛlā) xāṭir ‫“ )على) خاطر‬because”, (ɛlā)
ḥasb mā ‫“ )على) حسب ما‬According to”.[5][6]

Adverbs
Adverbs can be subdivided into three subgroups: single, compound and interrogative.[6][22]
Single adverbs

 Adverbs of time:[5][6]
 tawwa ‫ توة‬Now
  taww ‫ تو‬A moment ago
 dīmā ‫ ديما‬Always
 bikrī ‫ بكري‬Early
 fīsaɛ ‫ فيسع‬Fast, quickly
 māzāl ‫ مازال‬Still
 Adverbs of place:[5][6]
 hnā ‫ هنا‬Here
 ġādī ‫ غادي‬There
 Adverbs of manner:[5][6]
 hakka ‫ هكة‬Like this
 hakkāka, hakkīka ‫ هكيكة‬،‫ هكاكة‬Like that
 Adverbs of measure:[5][6]
 barša ‫ برشة‬Much, very
 šwayya ‫ شوية‬Little
 yāsir ‫ ياسر‬Very, much
 taqrīb ‫ تقريب‬About
 bark ‫ برك‬Only
Compound adverbs

 Adverbs of time:[5][6]
 taww taww ‫ تو تو‬Here and now / Immediately
 min baɛd ‫ من تو‬Afterwards
 min bikrī ‫ من بكري‬A moment ago
 min tawwa ‫ من توة‬From now on
 Adverbs of place:[5][6]
 l- fūq ‫ لفوق‬On (Up)
 l- il-ūṭa ‫ ألوطى‬Bellow
 l- dāxil ‫ لداخل‬In
 l- barra ‫ لبرة‬Out
 l- quddām ‫ لقدام‬Upwards
 l- tālī ‫ لتالي‬Backwards
 min hūnī ‫ من هوني‬From here
 min ġādī ‫ من غادي‬From there
 Adverbs of manner:[5][6]
 b- il-sīf ‫ بالسيف‬Forcibly
 b- il-syāsa ‫ بالسياسة‬Kindly
 b- il-ɛānī ‫ بالعاني‬Purposely
 b- il-šwaya ‫ بالشوية‬Slowly
 b- il-zarba ‫ بالزربة‬Rapidly
 Adverbs of measure:[5][6]
 ɛa- il-aqall ‫ عاالقل‬At least
Interrogative adverbs

 Adverbs of the time:[5][6]

 waqtāš ‫ وقتاش‬When
 nhārāš ‫ نهاراش‬Which day
 ɛāmāš ‫ عاماش‬Which year
 Adverbs of place:[5][6]
 wīn, fīn ‫ فين‬،‫ وين‬Where
 l- wīn ‫ لوين‬Where to
 min wīn, mnīn ‫ منين‬،‫ من وين‬Where from
 Adverbs of manner:[5][6]
 kīfāš ‫ كيفاش‬How
 Adverbs of measure:[5][6]
 qaddāš ‫ قداش‬How much

Nouns derived from verbs

The nouns derived from verbs are the Active Participle, the Passive Participle and the
Verbal Noun.[1][2][4][6]
Participles

 Active Participle: The Active Participle is the noun used to call the person or the
object who/that did the action. It can be used as a subject and an adjective.[1][2][4][6]
 They are obtained for the simple verb having the root fɛal or faɛlil by adding ā
between the first and the second letters of the root and changing the vowel
between the last but one and the last letters of the root into i.[1][2][4][6] For example,
ɛāzif ‫ عازف‬is instrument player in Tunisian and is obtained from the verb ɛzaf
‫عزف‬.[6]
 They are obtained for the derived verbs by adding m as a prefix and changing the
vowel between the last but one and the last letters of the root into i.[1][2][4][6]For
example, mšērik ‫ مشارك‬is a participant in Tunisian and is obtained from the verb
šērik ‫شارك‬.[6]
 Passive Participle: The Passive Participle is the noun used to call the person or the
object who/that received the action. It can be used as a subject and an
adjective.[1][2][4][6]
 They are obtained for the simple verb having the root fɛal or faɛlil by adding ma
as a prefix and changing the vowel between the last but one and the last letters
of the root into ū.[1][2][4][6] For example, maɛzūfa ‫ معزوفة‬is a musical composition in
Tunisian and is obtained from the verb ɛzaf ‫عزف‬.[6]
 They are obtained for the derived verbs by adding m as a prefix and changing the
vowel between the last but one and the last letters of the root into a.[1][2][4][6] For
example, mhaddad ‫ مهدد‬is threatened person in Tunisian and is derived from the
verb haddad ‫هدد‬.[6]
Verbal noun
The verbal noun is the noun that indicates the done action itself.[1][2][4][5][6] Its form is known
through the pattern and root of the verb from which it is derived or rather the pattern of its
singular imperative conjugation.[1][2][4][5][6]

 Simple Verb:
 CiCC or Triconsonantal Verb: According to the root[1][4]
 Regular: CiCC or CiCCa
 ʔ-C-C: māCCa
 C-C-ʔ: CCāya
 C-C-j: CiCy, CiCyān or CiCya
 C-w-C: CawCān
 C-C1-C1: CaC1C1ān
 CaCCiC or Quadriconsonantal Verb: CaCCCa[1][4]
 Derived Verb: According to the pattern[1][4]
 Regular: Verbal nouns for all regular derived verbs is obtained through the
addition of ā between the last and the last but one letter of the root.[1][4]
 Irregular:
 Doubling the second letter of the root: taCCīC[1][4]
 Adding t as a prefix and doubling the second letter of the root: tCaC1C1uC2[1][4]
  Adding t as a prefix and ā between the first and the second letter of the root:
tCāCuC[1][4]
 Adding i as a prefix and t between the first and second letter of the root:
iCtCāC[1][4]

References
1. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb
bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk blbm bn bo Gibson, M. (2009). Tunis Arabic. Encyclopedia of Arabic

Language and Linguistics, 4, 563–71.

2. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb
bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bvbw bx by bz (German) Singer, Hans-Rudolf

(1984) Grammatik der arabischen Mundart der Medina von Tunis. Berlin: Walter de
Gruyter.
3. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb
bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bvbw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn Ben

Abdelkader, R., & Naouar, A. (1979). Peace Corps/Tunisia Course in Tunisian Arabic.
4. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb
bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bvbw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn Chekili, F.

(1982). The morphology of the Arabic dialect of Tunis (Doctoral dissertation, University of
London).
5. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb
bc bd
Talmoudi, Fathi (1979) The Arabic Dialect of Sûsa (Tunisia). Göteborg: Acta
Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
6. ^ Jump up
to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad ae af ag ah ai aj ak al am an ao ap aq ar as at au av aw ax ay az ba bb
bc bd be bf bg bh bi bj bk bl bm bn bo bp bq br bs bt bu bvbw bx by bz ca cb cc cd ce cf cg ch ci cj ck cl cm cn co cp cq cr cs ct cu cv

cw cx cy cz da db dc dd de df dg dh di dj dk dl dm dn do dp dq dr ds dt du dv dw dx dy dz ea eb ec ed ee ef eg ehei
Ben
Abdelkader, R. (1977). Peace Corps English-Tunisian Arabic Dictionary.
7. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Khalfaoui, A. (2007). A cognitive approach to analyzing
demonstratives in Tunisian Arabic. Amesterdam Studies in the Theory and History of
Linguistic Science Series 4, 290, 169.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r s t u v w x y z aa ab ac ad Scholes, R. J., & Abida, T. (1966).
Spoken Tunisian Arabic (Vol. 2). Indiana University
9. ^ Jump up to:a b c d (French)Mion, G. (2013). Quelques remarques sur les verbes modaux
et les pseudo-verbes de l'arabe parlé à Tunis. Folia orientalia. Vol. 50, 51-65
10. ^ Jump up to:a b Magidow, A. (2013). Towards a sociohistorical reconstruction of pre-
Islamic Arabic dialect diversity (University of Texas, Doctoral Dissertation).
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h Adams, C. (2012). Six Discourse Markers in Tunisian Arabic: A
Syntactic and Pragmatic Analysis (Doctoral dissertation, University of North Dakota).
12. ^ Jump up to:a b Bach Baoueb, L. (2009). Social factors for code-switching in Tunisian
business companies: A case study. Multilingua 28, 425-458.
13. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m Talmoudi, F. (1984). Notes on the Syntax of the Arabic
Dialect of Sūsa. Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, (12), 48-85.
14. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Saddour, I. (2009). The expression of progressivity in Tunisian Arabic:
A study of progressive markers in oral retellings of simultaneous situations. Revue de
Sémantique et Pragmatique, 25(Espace temps, Interprétations spatiales/Interprétations
temporelles?), 265-280.
15. ^ Jump up to:a b c d (Italian) Mion, Giuliano (2004) "Osservazioni sul sistema verbale
dell'arabo di Tunisi" Rivista degli Studi Orientali 78, pp. 243–255.
16. ^ Jump up to:a b c Talmoudi, F. (1986). A Morphosemantic Study of Romance Verbs in the
Arabic Dialects of Tunis, Susa and Sfax: Part I: Derived Themes, II, III, V, VI and X (Vol.
9). Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
17. Jump up^ (French) Cohen, D. (1970). Les deux parlers arabes de Tunis. Notes de
phonologie comparee. In his Etudes de linguistique semitique et arabe, 150(7).
18. Jump up^ (German) Stumme, H. (1896). Grammatik des tunisischen Arabisch, nebst
Glossar. Leipzig: Henrichs.
19. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e Hammett, S. (2014). Irregular verbs in Maltese and their counterparts
in the Tunisian and Moroccan dialects. Romano-Arabica, Vol. XIV, 193-209.
20. Jump up^ (German) Ritt-Benmimoun, V. (2011). Texte im arabischen Beduinendialekt
der Region Douz (Südtunesien). Harrassowitz.
21. Jump up^ (French) Tilmatine Mohand, Substrat et convergences: Le berbére et l'arabe
nord-africain (1999), in Estudios de dialectologia norteafricana y andalusi 4, pp 99–119
22. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i (French) Marçais, P. (1977). Esquisse grammaticale de l’arabe
maghrébin. Langues d'Amerique et d'Orient, Paris, Adrien Maisonneuve.
23. Jump up^ Maalej, Z. (1999). Passives in modern standard and Tunisian Arabic.
Matériaux Arabes et Sudarabiques-Gellas, 9, 51-76.
24. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Wilmsen, D. (2014). Arabic Indefinites, Interrogatives, and Negators:
A Linguistic History of Western Dialects. Oxford University Press.
25. Jump up^ Masmoudi, A., Habash, N., Ellouze, M., Estève, Y., & Belguith, L. H. (2015).
Arabic Transliteration of Romanized Tunisian Dialect Text: A Preliminary Investigation. In
Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing (pp. 608–619). Springer
International Publishing.
26. Jump up^ Owens, J. (2010). What is a Language?: Review of Bernard Comrie, Ray
Fabri, Elizabeth Hume, Manwel Mifsud, Thomas Stolz & Martine Vanhove
(eds.),'Introducing Maltese Linguistics. Selected papers from the 1st International
Conference on Maltese Linguistics, Bremen, 18–20 October. 2007, 2009. XI, 422 pages.
Studies in Language Companion Series 113. Amsterdam-Philadelphia: John Benjamins.
Journal of Language Contact, 3(1), 103-118.
27. Jump up^ Meftouh, K., Bouchemal, N., & Smaïli, K. (2012, May). A study of a non-
resourced language: an Algerian dialect. In SLTU (pp. 125-132).
28. Jump up^ Shimron, I. (2003). Language Processing and Acquisition in Languages.
Amesterdam: John Benjamin Publishing Company, pp. 116-129.
29. Jump up^ Daniels, P. T. (1997). Phonologies of Asia and Africa: Including the Caucasus.
A. S. Kaye (Ed.). Eisenbrauns.
30. Jump up^ Kilani-Schoch, M., & Dressler, W. U. (1984). Natural morphology and classical
vs. Tunisian Arabic. Wiener Linguistische Gazette, 33(34), 51-68.
31. Jump up^ Xanthos, A. (2008). Apprentissage automatique de la morphologie: Le cas
des structures racine-schème (Vol. 88). Peter Lang.
32. Jump up^ Gabsi, Z. (2003). An outline of the Shilha (Berber) vernacular of Douiret
(Southern Tunisia) (Doctoral dissertation, Univ. of Western Sydney Sydney).
33. Jump up^ Caubet, D. (2001). Maghrebine arabic in France. Multilingual Matters, 261-
278.
34. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k Biţuna, G. (2011). The Morpho-Syntax of the Numeral in the
Spoken Arabic of Tunis. Romano-Arabica 8-11, pp. 25-42.
Help:IPA for Tunisian Arabic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The charts below show the way in which the International Phonetic Alphabet
(IPA) represents Tunisian Arabic pronunciations in Wikipedia articles.
See Tunisian phonology for a more thorough look at the sounds of Tunisian.

Consonants

IPA Example IPA English approximation

b ballūna [bælːuːnæ] boy

d dār [dɑːr] duck

ð đāb [ðɛːb] thus

d͡z 2 dzāyir [d͡zɛːjir] pads

ʒ jālāṭ [ʒɛːlɑːtˤ] vision

f furšīṭa [fʊrʃiːtˤɑ] four

ɡ gaṭṭū [gætˤːuː] game

h hakāka [hækɛːkæ] help

ħ ħākim [ħɑːkɪm] somewhat like hat but further back; Semitic ḥāʾ (‫)ح‬

j yūm [juːm] yes

k kalb [kælb] scar

 l libsa [libsæ] look

m mrā [mrɑː] mole

n nđif [nðif] no

θ ŧlāŧa [θlɛːθæ] thing

q qdim [qdim] somewhat like cup but further back; Semitic Qāf (‫)ق‬

p1 pīsīn [piːsiːn] spat

r rāy [rɑːj] real, better

s sqaf [sqæf] sow

ʃ šarka [ʃærkæ] shell

t tiāqa [tiɛːqæ] stake

t͡ʃ 2 tšīša [t͡ʃiːʃæ] chew

v1 talvza [tælvzæ] vet

w warda [wærdæ] wall

χ būxā [buːχɑ] loch (Scottish)

ʁ maġrīb [mæʁrɪːb] The same as the French R; Semitic Ghayn (‫)غ‬

z zlābia [zlɛːbiæ] zoo

ʕ ɛārṣa [ʕɑːrsˤæ] No english equivalent; Semitic Ayin (‫)ع‬

ʔ3 yisʔil [jisʔil] RP button; Semitic Aleph (‫)ا‬

Vowels

IPA Example IPA English approximation

ɑ qārn [qɑrn father

æ mahzūz [mæhzuːz] bat

ɛː ɛlāš [ʕlɛːʃ] bed

ɪ gid [gɪd] bit

i fīsaɛ [fisæʕ] mee't

iː dīk [diːk] need

ɔ mux [mɔχ] got (RP)

ʊ kuntrātū [kʊntrɑːtuː] look

uː māhūš [mɑhuːʃ] pool

Suprasegmentals
IPA Explanation

◌ˤ pharyngealised vowel or consonant

long vowel or geminate consonant;

◌ː
consonants occur both long and short word-medially and word-finally

Notes
 ^1 /p/ and /v/ are found in borrowed words and they are usually replaced by /b/, like
in ḅāḅūr and ḅāla. However, they are preserved in some words, like pīsīnand talvza.[1]
 ^2 Rarely used, for example tšīša, dzīṛa and dzāyir.[2]
 ^3 Usually dropped but tends to occur in the learned register, in loans from standard Arabic,
often in maṣdar (verbal noun) forms at the onset of the word, but also in other words
like /jisʔil/ "he asks", though many speakers substitute /ʔ/ for /h/ in the latter word.[3][4]

References
1. Jump up^ Talmoudi, Fathi (1979) The Arabic Dialect of Sûsa (Tunisia). Göteborg: Acta
Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
2. Jump up^ (French) Ben Farah, A. (2008). Les affriquées en dialectal tunisien. In Atlas linguistique
de Tunisie.
3. Jump up^ Gibson, M. (2009). Tunis Arabic. Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, 4,
563–71.
4. Jump up^ (German) Singer, H. R. (1981). Zum arabischen Dialekt von Valencia. Oriens, 317–323.
Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Judeo-Tunisian Arabic

Native to Beit Shemesh, Jerusalem District, Israel[1]

Houmt Souk, Djerba, Tunisia[2]
Tunis, Tunisia[3]
Gabes, Tunisia[4]

Native speakers 46,000 (1995)[5]

Language family Afro-Asiatic

 Semitic
 Central Semitic
 South Central Semitic
 Arabic
 Maghrebi Arabic
 Tunisian Arabic
 Judeo-Tunisian Arabic

Writing system Arabic script[1]

Hebrew alphabet[1][6]

Language codes

ISO 639-3 ajt

Glottolog jude1263 [7]

Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is a variety of Tunisian Arabic mainly spoken by Jews living or formerly
living in Tunisia.[6]Speakers are older adults and the younger generation has only a passive
knowledge of the language.[1]
The vast majority of Tunisian Jews have relocated to Israel and have shifted to Hebrew as
their home language.[3][8]Those in France typically use French as their primary language, while the
few still left in Tunisia tend to use either French or Tunisian Arabic in their everyday lives.[3][8]
Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is one of the Judeo-Arabic languages, a collection of Arabic dialects
spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world.[6]

History
Before 1901
A Jewish community existed in what is today Tunisia even prior to Roman rule in Africa.[9] After
the Arabic conquest of North Africa, this community began to use Arabic for their daily
communication.[3] They had adopted the pre-Hilalian dialect of Tunisian Arabic as their own
dialect.[3] As Jewish communities tend to be close-knit and isolated from the other ethnic and
religious communities of their countries,[6] their dialect spread to their coreligionists all over the
country[2][10] had not been in contact with the languages of the communities that invaded Tunisia in
the middle age.[3][11] The primary language contact with regard to Judeo-Tunisian Arabic came
from the languages of Jewish communities that fled to Tunisia as a result of persecution.[9] This
explains why Judeo-Tunisian Arabic lacks influence from the dialects of the Banu Hilal and Banu
Sulaym, and has developed several phonological and lexical particularities that distinguish it from
Tunisian Arabic.[11][12][13] This also explains why Judeo-Tunisian words are generally less removed
from their ethymological origin than Tunisian words.[14]
After 1901
In 1901, Judeo-Tunisian became one of the main spoken Arabic dialects of Tunisia, with
thousands of speakers.[9] Linguists noted the unique character of this dialect, and subjected it to
study.[9] Among the people studying Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, Daniel Hagege listed a signifcant
amount of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic newspapers from the early 1900's in his essay The Circulation
of Tunisian Judeo-Arabic Books.[15] However, its emergence has significantly declined since 1948
due to the creation of Israel.[9] In fact, the Jewish community of Tunisia has either chosen to leave
or was forced to leave Tunisia and immigrate to France orIsrael.[3][8] Nowadays, the language is
largely extinct throughout most of Tunisia, even if it is still used by the small Jewish communities
in Tunis, Gabes and Djerba,[2][3][4] and most of the Jewish communities that have left Tunisia have
chosen to change their language of communication to the main language of their current
country.[3]

Language Vitality
Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is believed to be vulnerable with only 500 speakers in Tunisia [16] and with
about 45,000 speakers in Israel[17]

Variations of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic

In Tunisia, geography plays a huge role in how Judeo-Tunisian Arabic varies between
speakers.[18] Yehudit Henshke found that these variations of Tunisian Judeo-Arabic can be divided
by certain regions such as the North and South of Tunisia as well as the islands off the coast of
the country. In addition, Judeo-Tunisian can vary based on the town in which it is spoken.[18]

Distinctives from Tunisian Arabic

Like all other Judeo-Arabic languages, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic does not seem to be very different
from the Arabic dialect from which it derives, Tunisian Arabic.[3][6][19][20][21]

 Phonology: Mostly unlike Tunisian Arabic dialects, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic has merged
Tunisian Arabic's glottal [ʔ] and [h] into [ø],[3] Interdental [ð] and [θ] have respectively been
merged with [d] and [t],[3] Ḍah and Ḍād have been merged as [dˤ] and not as
[ðˤ],[3] Prehilalian /aw/ and /ay/ diphthongs have been kept,[3]and [χ] and [ʁ] have been
respectively substituted by [x] and [ɣ].[3] This is mainly explained by the difference of language
contact between Jewish communities in Tunisia and Tunisian people.[9] [ʃ] and [ʒ] are realized
as [ʂ] and [ʐ] if there is a [q] later in the word (however in Gabes this change takes effect if [ʃ]
and [ʒ] are either before or after [q])[4]
 Morphology: The morphology is quite the same as the one of Tunisian
Arabic.[3][6][19] However, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic sometimes uses some particular morphological
structures such as typical clitics like qa- that is used to denote the progressivity of a given
action.[3][22] For example, qayākil means he is eating. Unlike Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian
Arabic is characterized by its overuse of the passive form.[3][11]
 Vocabulary: Unlike Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic has a hebrew substratum.[2][6][23] In
fact, Cohen said that 5 percent of the Judeo-Tunisian words are from Hebrew
origin.[24] Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is also known for the profusion of diminutives.[12] For example,
 qṭayṭas ‫( قطيطس‬little or friendly cat) for qaṭṭūs ‫طوس‬ ّ ‫( ق‬cat).[12]
 klayib ‫( كليب‬little or friendly dog) for kalb ‫( كلب‬dog).[12]

References
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Raymond G. Gordon, Jr, ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th
edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
2. ^ Jump up to:a b c d (Hebrew) Henschke, J. (1991). Hebrew elements in the Spoken Arabic of
Djerba. Massorot, 5-6, 77-118.
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r (French) Cohen, D. (1975). Le parler arabe des Juifs de Tunis.
La Haye: Mouton.
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c Sumikazu, Yoda. ""Sifflant" and "Chuitant" in the Arabic Dialect of the Jews of
Gabes (south Tunisia)". Jounal of Arabic Linguistics 46: 21. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
5. Jump up^ Judeo-Tunisian Arabic at Ethnologue (18th ed., 2015)
6. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g (French) Bar-Asher, M. (1996). La recherche sur les parlers judéo-arabes
modernes du Maghreb: état de la question. Histoire épistémologie langage, 18(1), 167-177.
7. Jump up^ Nordhoff, Sebastian; Hammarström, Harald; Forkel, Robert; Haspelmath, Martin, eds.
(2013). "Judeo-Tunisian Arabic". Glottolog. Leipzig: Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary
Anthropology.
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c Bassiouney, R. (2009). Arabic sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press, pp.
104.
9. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Leddy-Cecere, T. A. (2010). Contact, Restructuring, and Decreolization: The
Case of Tunisian Arabic. University of Pennsylvania, pp. 47-71.
10. Jump up^ (French) Saada, L. (1956). Introduction à l'étude du parler arabe des juifs de Sousse.
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c (French) Vanhove, M. (1998). De quelques traits préhilaliens en maltais. Aguade
et al., ed, 97-108.
12. ^ Jump up to:a b c d (French) Cohen, D. (1970). Les deux parlers arabes de Tunis. Notes de
phonologie comparee. In his Etudes de linguistique semitique et arabe, 150(7).
13. Jump up^ (French) Caubet, D. (2000). Questionnaire de dialectologie du Maghreb (d'après les
travaux de W. Marçais, M. Cohen, GS Colin, J. Cantineau, D. Cohen, Ph. Marçais, S. Lévy,
etc.). Estudios de dialectología norteafricana y andalusí, EDNA, (5), 73-90.
14. Jump up^ Aslanov, C. (2016). Remnants of Maghrebi Judeo-Arabic among French-born Jews of
North-African Descent. Journal of Jewish Languages, 4(1), 69-84.
15. Jump up^ Tobi, Joseph (2014). Judeo-Arabic Literature In Tunisia, 1850-1950. Detroit,Michigan:
Wayne State University Press. pp. 241–320. ISBN 978-0-8143-2871-2.
16. Jump up^ "UNESCO Atlas of the World's Languages in Danger". Unesco.org. UNESCO.
Retrieved 3 May 2016.
17. Jump up^ "Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian". Ethologue Languages of the World. Ethnologue. Retrieved 3
May 2016.
18. ^ Jump up to:a b Henshke, Yehudit (2010). "Different Hebrew Traditions: Mapping Regional
Distinctions in the Hebrew Component of Spoken Tunisian Judeo-Arabic". Studies in the History
and Culture of North African Jewry: 109. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
19. ^ Jump up to:a b Talmoudi, Fathi (1979) The Arabic Dialect of Sûsa (Tunisia). Göteborg: Acta
Universitatis Gothoburgensis.
20. Jump up^ Hammet, Sandra (2014). "Irregular verbs in Maltese and Their Counterparts in The
Tunisian and Moroccan Dialects" (PDF). Romano-Arabica 14: 193–210. Retrieved 1 May2016.
21. Jump up^ Arevalo, Tania Marica Garcia (2014). "The General Linguistic Features of Modern
Judeo-Arabic Dialects in the Maghreb". Zutot 11: 54–56. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
22. Jump up^ Cuvalay, M. (1991). The expression of durativity in Arabic. The Arabist, Budapest
studies in Arabic, 3-4, 146.
23. Jump up^ Chetrit, J. (2014). Judeo-Arabic Dialects in North Africa as Communal Languages:
Lects, Polylects, and Sociolects. Journal of Jewish Languages, 2(2), 202-232.
24. Jump up^ Cohen, D. (1985). Some historical and sociolinguistic observations on the arabic
dialects spoken by north african Jews. Readings in the Sociology of Jewish Languages. Leiden:
Brill, 246-260.
Further reading
 Arévalo, T. M. G. (2014). The General Linguistic Features of Modern Judeo-Arabic Dialects in
the Maghreb. Zutot, 11(1), 49-56. doi:10.1163/18750214-12341266.
 Bar-Asher, M. &. (2010). Studies in the history and culture of North African
Jewry. In Proceedings of the symposium at Yale. New Haven: Program in Judaic Studies,
Yale.
 Sumikazu, Y., & Yoda, S. (2006). " Sifflant" and" chuintant" in the Arabic dialect of the Jews
of Gabes (south Tunisia). Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, (46), 7-25.
 Tobi, Y., & Tobi, T. (2014). Judeo-Arabic Literature in Tunisia, 1850-1950. Detroit, MI: Wayne
State UP. ISBN 978-0-8143-2871-2.
 Hammett, S. (2014). Irregular verbs in Maltese and their counterparts in the Tunisian and
Morccan dialects. Romano-Arabica, 14, 193-210.
Music in Tunisian Arabic
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Music in Tunisian Arabic has appeared in the 17th Century. It has developed a lot since the 19th
Century and has spread all over Tunisia mainly after the creation ofRadio
Tunis and Établissement de la radiodiffusion-télévision tunisienne. Nowadays, Tunisian Arabic
has become the main language of songs in Tunisia includingTunisian music, Underground
music and Opera.

The beginnings
The oldest lyrics found written in Tunisian, dates back to the 17th century,[1] by Sheykh Abu el-
Hassan el-Karray, who died in 1693 in the medina quarter of Sfax and wrote a poem in Tunisian
Arabic during his youth:[2]

‫عدِّيت‬ َ ‫صغر‬ ُّ ‫عدِّيت في ال‬ َ ɛaddīt fī il-ṣuġr ɛaddīt, I have passed my childhood
‫يَا َحسرتي على ز َماني‬ yā ḥasrtī ɛlā zmānī, that has already finished
‫ُّف غَنِّيت‬ َّ
ِّ ‫بـالطار و الد‬ b- il-ṭār w il-duff ġannīt, singing, playing with drums
‫و زهيت بـ ُحسن ال َمعَاني‬ w zhīt b-ḥusn il-maɛānī, and enjoying the meaning of songs.
‫وَليَا َولِّيت‬
َ ‫لـلربِّ ُم‬
َّ l- il-ṛabb mūlāyā wallīt, Now, I returned to the right way
َ
‫صو َحة عطاني‬ ُ َ‫ت َوبَة ن‬ tawba naṣūḥa ɛṭānī. thanks to God's blessing.

Moreover, another Tunisian Arabic poem was written later in the 17th century to cite the qualities
of Karray:[1]

‫خموسي يا كراي قاصد‬ xmūsī yā karrāy qāṣid līk

‫ليك بـنية‬ b- niyya
Saint Karray, I believe in you.
‫جيتك يا مولى الراي‬ jītik yā mūlā il-ṛāy tubrī
I came to you to cure my weakness
‫تبري سقمان بيا‬ suqmān biyyā
by the mercy of God and by blessing
‫شيلة مولى البرهان و‬ šīlatt mūlā il-burhān w il-
me.
‫البركة وصايا‬ baṛka waṣṣāyā
Oh Shaykh! Oh Sir! Please Support
‫يا شيخ يا سلطان باهلل‬ yā šīx yā sulṭān b- il-lah
me.
‫كون معايا‬ kūn mɛāyā
Stop leaving me. Your help will
‫يكفي من ذا الهجران‬ yikfī min đā il-hijṛān
recover me.
‫وصلك يبري دايا‬ waṣlik yubrī dāyā
Because I am lethal and
‫ حبك‬،‫ألني فاني عاشق‬ l- annī fānī ɛāšiq, ḥubbik
compassionate, I truly love you.
‫زاد عليا‬ zād ɛlayyā
Saint Karray, I believe in you.
‫خموسي يا كراي قاصد‬ xmūsī yā karrāy qāṣid līk
‫ليك بـنية‬ b- niyya

The effective beginning of Tunisian Arabic written songs came in the early 19th century,
when Tunisian Jews in the Beylik of Tunis began writing songs in Tunisian Arabic about love,
betrayal and other libertine subjects.[1][3] The current strengthened at the beginning of the 20th
century and affected the Tunisian ma'luf and folklore.[1] Judeo-Tunisian song flowered in the
1930s, with such Jewish artists as Cheikh El Afrit and Habiba Msika.[3][4]
Naama

This tendency was promoted by the creation of Radio Tunis in 1938,[4] which allowed many
musicians to better disseminate their works and helped spread the use of Tunisian Arabic in
songs.[4] The pioneers of Tunisian Arabic song between 1930 and 1950 drew most of their
inspiration from traditional Tunisian music, oriental or to occidental colors were Kaddour Srarfi,
Hedi Jouini, Saliha, Salah El Mahdi, Hassiba Rochdi, Fethia Khaïri, Hassiba Rochdi, Mohamed
Triki, Mohamed Jamoussi, Sadok Thraya and Ali Riahi.[4]

The rise of Tunisian formal songs

Following the creation of the ERTT broadcasting organization in 1966,[5] a generation of
composers and interpreters, mostly working in the ERTT orchestra, emerged.[5] In this wave, the
range occupies a prominent place. Kalaï Ridha, Salah El Mahdi (regarded as a disciple of
Tarnane), Kaddour Srarfi, Ali Shalgham, Chedly Anwar, Abdelhamid Sassi and others helped to
train several singers, including Naâma, Oulaya, Zouheïra Salem, Soulef, Safia Chamia, Youssef
Temimi, Mustapha Charfi, Hana Rached, Choubeila Rached, Ezzeddine Idir and many others.[5]
Tahar Gharsa (another disciple of Tarnane) worked to promote the characteristically modal and
rhythmic traditional music written with Tunisian Arabic lyrics.[5] The director Raoul Journo, in the
same line,[5] is a judeo-Tunisian singer, distinguished by his interpretation of taâlila (traditional
songs associated with birth, circumcision, marriage and other rites).[5] This kind of music
developed under the National Troupe of Music, created in the early 1980s.[6]

Band of popular music of the period 1900–1950

Mizwad player in Tozeur

The rise of Tunisian popular songs

At the same time, popular music developed in the early 19th century, using Tunisian Arabic
poems accompanied by Tunisian musical instruments.[3][7] Popular music includes Rboukh that is
accompanied by a Mezoued,[8] Salhi that is accompanied by a Ney[8] and Sufi music that are
religious songs mainly accompanied by Tambourins.[8] This kind of music was promoted by the
National Troupe of the Popular Arts, created in 1962.[9] Later adaptation and promotion of popular
songs, especially by Ahmed Hamza and later Kacem Kefi, further developed Tunisian
music.[5] Natives of Sfax, they were both influenced by Mohamed Ennouri and Mohamed
Boudaya, leading masters of popular music in that city.[1][5] Nowadays, this kind of music is very
popular.[10]
Tunisian Arabic became the main variety used in writing lyrics of songs in Tunisia and even the
main technical words in music have their synonyms in Tunisian Arabic.[1]

Underground and alternative music

In the early 1990s, underground music in Tunisian Arabic appeared.[11] This mainly consisted of
rap and was not successful in the beginning because of the lack of media coverage.[11] Tunisian
Underground music became successful in the 2000s, thanks to its spread over the Internet, and
came to involve other alternative genres like reggae and rock.[11][12] Underground music reached a
height of popularity during and just after the Tunisian Revolution of 2011, as it spoke to the dire
social matters faced by people in Tunisia.[11][13]
In 2014, the first opera songs in Tunisian Arabic had appeared.[14] They were the ones of Yosra
Zekri that were written by Emna Rmilli and composed by Jalloul Ayed.[14]

References
1. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f (French) Fakhfakh, N. (2007). Le répertoire musical de la confrérie religieuse"
al-Karrâriyya" de Sfax (Tunisie) (Doctoral dissertation, Paris8).
2. Jump up^ (Arabic) KARRÂY, Abû-l-Hassan al-. "Dîwân Abi-l-Hassan al-KARRÂY" in Fakhfakh, N.
(2007). Le répertoire musical de la confrérie religieuse" al-Karrâriyya" de Sfax (Tunisie) (Doctoral
dissertation, Paris8).
3. ^ Jump up to:a b c (French) Manoubi Snoussi, Initiation à la musique tunisienne, vol. I " Musique
classique ", Tunis, Centre des musiques arabes et méditerranéennes Ennejma Ezzahra, 2004
4. ^ Jump up to:a b c d (French) Hamadi Abassi, Tunis chante et danse. 1900–1950, Tunis/Paris,
Alif/Du Layeur, 2001
5. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g h (French) Tahar Melligi, Les immortels de la chanson tunisienne, Carthage
Dermech, MediaCom, 2000 (ISBN 978-9973-807-16-8)
6. Jump up^ (Arabic) Alchourouk Team (2005). National Troupe of Music: Means of realization.
However,... alchourouk, 18 June 2005
7. Jump up^ (French) MuCEM (2005). Cornemuse Mezwed. Cornemuses de l'Europe et la
Méditerranée, Version 2005
8. ^ Jump up to:a b c (French) El Mahdi, S. (1995). La danse folklorique en Tunisie. Música oral del
Sur: revista internacional. I. La música y la danza del ciclo productivo agrario en la cuenca del
Mediterráneo. II. La música de Al-Andalus, (1), 108-115.
9. Jump up^ (Arabic) Ben Nhila, A. (2011). Recruitment needed: National Troupe of the Popular
Arts. alchourouk, 22 March 2011
10. Jump up^ Barone, S. (2015). Metal Identities in Tunisia: Locality, Islam, Revolution. International
Academic Conference, IAC 2015
11. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Neil Curry, " Tunisia's rappers provide soundtrack to a revolution ", CNN, 2
mars 2011
12. Jump up^ (French) Almi, H. (2009). "The Rock Scene in Tunisia". Réalités, 21 avril 2009
13. Jump up^ Dallaji, I. (2015). Tunisian Rap Music and the Arab Spring: Revolutionary Anthems and
Post-Revolutionary Tendencies. Orient-Institut Studies 2, pp. 1–13
14. ^ Jump up to:a b (French) Sayadi, H. (2014). Un goût d'inachevé, Festival international de musique
symphonique d'El Jem «Dreams of Tunisia» de Jalloul Ayed. La Presse de Tunisie, 02 September
2014.
Tunisian Arabic phrasebook
From Wikivoyage, the free worldwide travel guide

Tunisian Arabic is the main language of communication in Tunisia. For further information about
it, see Tunisian Arabic in the English Wikipedia.

Pronunciation guide
For pronunciation, see Phonology and IPA help in the English Wikipedia.

For Arabic Script, see Arabic phrasebook and Arabic Script.

Phrase list
Basics

Common signs

OPEN
‫محلول‬
CLOSED
‫مسكر‬
ENTRANCE
‫دخلة‬
EXIT
‫خرجة‬
PUSH
‫دز‬
PULL
‫إجبد‬
TOILET
‫ميحاض‬
MEN
‫راجل‬
WOMEN
‫مرة‬
FORBIDDEN
‫ممنوع‬

Hello.
‫عالسالمة‬. ( ԑa- is-slāma )
Hello. (informal)
‫أهال‬. ( ahlā )
How are you?
‫ ( ?اش حالك‬āš ḥālik? )
Fine, thank you.
‫ يعيشك‬،‫الباس‬. ( lābās, yԑayšik )
What is your name?
‫ ( ?شنوة إسمك‬šnuwwa ismik? )
My name is ______ .
... ‫ إسمي‬. ( ismī _____ . )
Nice to meet you.
‫ تشرفنا‬. ( tšarrafnā )
Please.
‫أمان‬. ( aṃān )
Thank you.
‫يعيشك‬. ( yԑayšik )
You're welcome.
‫؛مرحبا‬. ( marḥbā )
Yes.
‫إيه‬. ( īh )
No.
‫ ال‬. ( lā )
Excuse me. (getting attention)
‫سامحني‬. ( sāmaḥnī )
Excuse me. (begging pardon)
‫سامحني‬. ( sāmaḥnī )
I'm sorry.
‫سامحني‬. ( sāmaḥnī )
Goodbye
‫بالسالمة‬. ( b- is-slāma )
Goodbye (informal)
‫فيلمان‬. ( fīlamān )
I can't speak name of language [well].
‫ [بالڨدا‬... ‫]ما ناحكيش‬. ( mā naḥkīš... [ b- il-gdā ] )
Do you speak English?
‫ ( ?تحكي إنڨليزي‬taḥkī inglīzī? )
Is there someone here who speaks English?
‫ ( ?فمة شكون يحكي إنڨليزي هوني‬famma škūn yaḥkī inglīzī hūnī? )
Help!
‫ ( !إجريولي‬ijrīwli ! )
Look out!
‫ ( !رد بالك‬rud bālik ! )
Good morning.
‫صباح الخير‬. ( ṣbāḥ il-xīr )
Good evening.
‫مسا الخير‬. ( msā il-xīr )
Good night.
‫ليلتك زينة‬. ( līltik zīna )
Good night (to sleep)
‫تصبح على خير‬. ( tusbaḥ ԑlā xīr )
I don't understand.
‫ما فهمتش‬. ( mā fhimtiš )
Where is the toilet?
‫ ( ?وين الميحاض‬wīn il-mīḥāḍ? )
Problems
Leave me alone.
‫خليني وحدي‬. ( xallīnī waḥdī. )
Don't touch me!
‫ ( !ما تمسنيش‬mā tmisnīš! )
I'll call the police.
‫تو نكلم البوليسية‬. ( taw nkallam il-būlīsiyya. )
Police!
‫ ( !حاكم‬ḥākim ! )
Stop! Thief!
‫ ( !شدوه! سارق‬šiddũh! sāraq! )
I need your help.
‫حاجتي بيك‬. ( ḥājtī bīk. )
It's an emergency.
‫راهي حالة مستعجلة‬. ( rāhī ḥāla mustaԑjla.)
I'm lost.
‫انا ضعت‬. ( ānā ḑuԑt. )
I lost my bag.
‫ضيعت ألساك متاعي‬. ( ḑayyaԑt is-sāk mtāԑī. )
I lost my wallet.
‫ضيعت مكتوبي‬. ( ḑayyaԑt maktūbi. )
I'm sick. (fem.)
‫انا مريضة‬. ( ānā mrīḑa. )
I've been injured. (fem.)
‫انا مجروحة‬. ( ānā majrūḥa. )
I'm sick. (mas.)
‫انا مريض‬. ( ānā mrīḑ. )
I've been injured. (mas.)
‫انا مجروح‬. ( ānā majrūḥ. )
I need a doctor.
‫حاجتي بطبيب‬. ( ḥājtī b- ṭbīb. )
Can I use your phone?
‫ ( ? تنجم تسلفني تليفونك‬tnajjam tsallafnī talīfūnik? )
Numbers
For numbers, see Cardinals in the English Wikipedia
Time
now
‫ ( توة‬tawwa )
later
‫ ( من بعد‬min baԑd )
before
‫ ( قبل‬qbal )
morning
‫ ( صباح‬sbāḥ )
afternoon
‫ ( وقت القايلة‬waqt il-qāyla)
evening
‫ ( عشية‬ԑšiya)
night
‫ ( ليل‬līl )
Clock time and Writing time and date

For clock time and writing time, see Time measurement during the day and Fractions in the
English Wikipedia.

Writing date in Tunisian Arabic uses the format Day Name + " " + Day + " " + Month Name + " " +
Year just in Standard Arabic.
Duration

For duration, see Basic measures in the English Wikipedia.

Days
today
‫ ( اليومة‬il-yūma )
yesterday
‫ ( البارح‬il-bāraḥ )
tomorrow
‫ ( غدوة‬ġudwa )
this week
‫ ( هاذي الجمعة‬hāđī ij-jumԑa )
last week
‫ ( الجمعة إلي فاتت‬ij-jumԑa illī fātit )
next week
‫ ( الجمعة الجاية‬ij-jumԑa ij-jāya )
Sunday
ّ ‫ ( األحد‬il-aḥadd )
Monday
‫ ( اإلثنين‬il-iŧnīn )
Tuesday
‫ ( الثالث‬iŧ-ŧlāŧ )
Wednesday
‫ ( اإلربعة‬il-irbɛa )
Thursday
‫ ( الخميس‬il-xmīs )
Friday
‫ ( الجمعة‬ij-jimɛa )
Saturday
‫ ( السبت‬is-sibt )
Months

For months, see months of the year in the English Wikipedia.

Colors
black
‫ ( أكحل‬akḥal )
white
‫ ( أبيض‬abyaḍ )
gray
‫ ( رمادي‬rmādī )
red
‫ ( أحمر‬aḥmar )
blue
‫ ( أزرق‬azraq )
yellow
‫ ( أصفر‬aṣfar )
green
‫ ( أخضر‬axḍar )
orange
‫ ( مشماشي‬mišmāšī )
purple
‫ ( خزامة‬xzāma )
brown
‫ ( بني‬bunnī )
Transportation
Bus and train
How much is a ticket to _____?
‫بقداش البالصة ل‬... ( b- qaddāš il-blāṣa l-...? )
One ticket to _____, please.
‫ يعيشك‬...‫ ( بالصة ل‬blāṣa l-... yԑayšik? )
Where does this train/bus go?
‫ لوين ماشية هاذي الكار‬،‫( لوين ماشي هاذا الترينو‬l-wīn māš(ī/ya) (hāđā it-trīnū/hāđī il-kāṛ)? )
Where is the train/bus to _____?
‫ الكار بعيدة) من‬،‫ قداش من كيلومآتر (الترينو بعيد‬... ( qaddāš min (it-trīnū bԑīd/il-kāṛ bԑīda) min...? )
Does this train/bus stop in _____?
‫ هاذي الكار تاقف في‬، ... ‫ هاذا الترينو ياقف في‬... ( (hāđā it-trīnū/hāđī il-kāṛ) (yāqif/tāqif) fī ...? )
When does the train/bus for _____ leave?
‫ تخرج‬...‫ وقتاش الكار الماشية ل‬،‫ يخرج‬...‫ ( وقتاش الترينو الماشي ل‬waqtāš (it-trīnū il-māšī/il-kāṛ il-māšya) l-...
(yuxruj/tuxruj)? )
When will this train/bus arrive in _____?
‫ وقتاش الكار توصل ل‬،...‫وقتاش الترينو يوصل ل‬... ( waqtāš (it-trīnū yūṣil/il-kāṛ tūṣil) l-...? )
Directions
How do I get to _____ ?
‫كيفاش نّجم نمشي ل‬... ( kīfāš nnajjam nimšī l-... )
...the train station?
‫ ( المحطة متاع الترينو‬il-mḥaṭṭa mtāԑ it-trīnū )
...the bus station?
‫ ( المحطة متاع الكار‬il-mḥaṭṭa mtāԑ il-kāṛ )
...the airport?
‫ ( المطار‬il-maṭār )
...downtown?
‫ ( وسط البالد‬wisṭ il-blād )
...the youth hostel?
‫ ( مصايف الشباب‬mṣāyif iš-šbāb )
...the _____ hotel?
‫ أوتيل‬... ( il-ūtīl )
...the American/Canadian/Australian/British consulate?
‫ البريطانية‬،‫ األسترالية‬،‫ الكندية‬،‫ ( السفارة األمريكية‬is-sfāŗa il-amarīkiyya/il-kanadiyya/il-ustrāliyya/il-brīṭāniyya )
Where are there a lot of...
‫وين فمة برشة‬... ( wīn famma barša...)
...hotels?
‫ ( وتلة‬witla )
...restaurants?
‫ ( مطاعم‬mṭāԑim )
...bars?
‫ ( بيران‬bīrān )
...sites to see?
‫ ( باليص تتشاف‬bḷāyiṣ titšāf )
Can you show me on the map?
‫ ( تنجم توريني عالخريطة‬tnajjam twarrīni ԑa- il-xarīṭa )
street
‫ ( شارع‬šāriԑ )
Turn left.
‫ ( دور عاليسار‬dūr ԑa- il-ysāṛ )
Turn right.
‫ ( دور عاليمين‬dūr ԑa- il-ymīn )
left
‫ ( يسار‬ysāṛ )
right
‫ ( يمين‬ymīn )
straight ahead
‫ ( طول‬ṭūl )
towards the _____
،،، ‫ (مقابل‬mqābil )
past the _____
‫ بعد‬... ( baԑd )
before the _____
،،، ‫ (قبل‬qbal )
Watch for the _____.
،،،‫ (رد بالك م ال‬rud bālik m- il-...)
north
‫ ( شمال‬šmāl )
south
‫ ( جنوب‬jnūb )
east
‫ ( شرق‬šarq )
west
‫ ( غرب‬ġarb )
uphill
‫ ( فوق الهضبة‬fūq il-haḍba )
downhill
‫ ( تحت الهضبة‬taḥt il-haḍba )
Taxi
Taxi!
‫ ( تاكسي‬tāḳsī )
Take me to _____, please.
‫ يعيشك‬...‫ ( هزني ل‬hizznī l-... yԑayšik )
How much does it cost to get to _____?
‫بقداش الركوب ل‬... ( b- qaddāš ir-rkūb l-...? )
Take me there, please.
‫ يعيشك‬،‫ ( هزني لفمة‬hizznī l- famma, yԑayšik )
Lodging
Do you have any rooms available?
‫ ( عندكم بيوت فاضيين‬ԑandkum byūt fāḍyīn )
How much is a room for one person/two people?
‫ زوز عباد‬،‫ ( )بقداش البيت ل(عبد واحد‬b-qaddāš il-bīt l- (ԑabd wāḥid/zūz ԑbād)? )
Does the room come with...
‫ ( البيت فيهاشي‬il-bīt fīhāšī )
...bedsheets?
‫ ( أغطية‬uġṭya )
...a bathroom?
‫ ( بانو‬bānū )
...a telephone?
‫ ( تاليفون‬tāḷīfūn )
...a TV?
‫ ( تلفزة‬talfza )
May I see the room first?
‫ ( نّجمشي نارى البيت قبل‬nnajjamšī nāṛā il-bīt qbal )
Do you have anything quieter?
‫ ( ما فماش حاجة أهدى‬mā fammāš ḥāja ahdā )
...bigger?
‫ ( أكبر‬akbar )
...cleaner?
‫ ( أنظف‬anḍaf )
...cheaper?
‫ ( أرخص‬arxaṣ )
OK, I'll take it.
‫ باش ناخدها‬،‫ ( باهي‬bāhī, bāš nāxiđhā )
I will stay for _____ night(s).
‫ ليالي‬... ‫ ( باش نقعد‬bāš nuqԑud ... lyālī )
Can you suggest another hotel?
‫ ( تنجمشي تنصحني بأوتيل أخر‬tnajjamšī tinṣaḥnī b- ūtīl āxir )
Do you have a safe?
‫ ( عندكم خزنة‬ԑandkum xazna )
...lockers?
‫ ( كزيايات‬kazyāyāt )
Is breakfast/supper included?
(‫ الفطور) داخل في التاريفة‬،‫( ( فطور الصباح‬fṭūr iṣ-ṣbāḥ/il-fṭūr) dāxil fī it-tāṛīfa? )
What time is breakfast/supper?
‫ الفطور‬،‫ ( )وقتاش (فطور الصباح‬waqtāš (fṭūr iṣ-ṣbāḥ/il-fṭūr)? )
Please clean my room.
‫ ( نظفلي البيت يعيشك‬naḍḍaflī il-bīt yԑayšik )
Can you wake me at _____?
‫ تنجمشي تقيّمني في‬... ( tnajjamšī tqayyamnī fi ...? )
I want to check out.
‫ ( نحب نسلم البيت‬nḥib nsallam il-bīt )
Money
Do you accept American/Australian/Canadian dollars?
‫ الكندي‬،‫ األسترالي‬،‫ ( تقبل الخالص بالدوالر األمريكي‬tiqbil il-xlāṣ b- id-dūlāṛ il-amarīkī/il-ustṛālī/il-kanadī? )
Do you accept British pounds?
‫ ( تقبل الخالص بالليرة البريطانية‬tiqbil il-xlāṣ b- il-līra il-brīṭāniyya? )
Do you accept Euros?
‫ ( تقبل االورو‬tiqbil il-ūrū? )
Do you accept credit cards?
‫ ( تقبل الخالص بكوارط البانكة‬tiqbil il-xlāṣ b- kwāṛiṭ il-bāṇka? )
Can you change money for me?
‫ ( تنجم تبدلّي الفلوس‬tnajjam tbaddallī il-flūs? )
Where can I get money changed?
‫ ( وين نّجم نبدل الفلوس‬wīn nnajjam nbaddal il-flūs? )
What is the exchange rate?
‫ ( بقداش تبديل الفلوس‬b- qaddāš tabdīl il-flūs? )
Where is an automatic teller machine (ATM)?
‫ ( وين ماكينة الفلوس متاع البانكة‬wīn mākinat il-flūs mtāԑ il-bāṇka? )
Eating
A table for one person/two people, please.
‫زوز عباد‬/‫ ( )طاولة ل(عبد واحد‬ṭāwla l- (ԑabd wāḥid/zūz ԑbād) )
Can I look at the menu, please?
‫ ( ?نّجم نشوف الليستة متاع الماكلة‬nnajjam nšūf il-līsta mtāԑ il-mākla? )
Can I look in the kitchen?
‫ ( ?نّجم نشوف الكوجينة‬nnajjam nšūf il-kūjīna? )
Is there a house specialty?
‫ ( ?فمة شكون يطيّب ماكلة متاع دار‬famma škūn yṭayyab mākla mtāԑ dāṛ? )
Is there a local specialty?
‫ ( ?فمة شكون يطيّب ماكلة متاع الجيهة هاذي‬famma škūn yṭayyab mākla mtāԑ il-jīha hāđī? )
I'm a vegetarian.
‫ ( آنا ما ناكلش لحم‬ānā mā nākilš lḥam )
I don't eat pork.
‫ ( آنا ما ناكلش لحم الحلّوف‬ānā mā nākilš lḥam il-ḥallūf )
I don't eat beef.
‫ ( آنا ما ناكلش لحم البڨري‬ānā mā nākilš lḥam il-bagrī )
I only eat kosher food.
ّ ‫ ( آنا ما ناكلش‬ānā mā nākilš illā mākla ḥlāl )
‫إال ماكلة حالل‬
Can you make it "lite", please? (less oil/butter/lard)
‫ ( تنجم تخلي الماكلة هاذي ماهيش مزيتة برشة يعيشك‬tnajjam txallī il-mākla hāđī māhīš mzayta barša yԑayšik? )
fixed-price meal
‫ ( فطور سومو ما يتبدلش‬fṭūr sūmū mā yitbiddilš )
a la carte
‫ ( بالميني‬b- il-mënü )
breakfast
‫ ( فطور الصباح‬fṭūr iṣ-ṣbāḥ )
lunch
‫ ( الفطور‬il-fṭūr )
tea (meal)
‫ ( لمجة األربعة متاع العشية‬lumjat il-arbԑa mtāԑ il-ԑšiyya )
supper
‫ ( العشاء‬il-ԑša )
I want _____.
‫ نحب‬... ( nḥibb ...)
I want a dish containing _____.
‫نحب صحن فيه‬... ( nḥibb ṣḥun fīh ... )
chicken
‫ ( دجاج‬djāj )
beef
‫ ( لحم بڨري‬lḥam bagrī )
fish
‫ ( حوت‬ḥūt )
ham
‫ ( حلّوف قد ّيد‬ḥallūf qaddīd )
sausage
‫ ( مرڨاز‬mirgāz )
cheese
‫ ( جبن‬jbin )
eggs
‫ ( عظم‬ԑḍam )
salad
‫ ( سالطة‬slāṭa )
(fresh) vegetables
‫ ( )خضرة (فرشكة‬xuḍra (friška) )
(fresh) fruit
‫( )غلّة (فرشكة‬ġalla (friška) )
bread
‫ ( خبز‬xubz )
toast
‫ ( بشماط‬bišmāṭ )
rice
‫ ( روز‬rūz )
beans
‫ ( لوبيا‬lūbya )
May I have a glass of _____?
‫نّجم ناخذ كاس‬... ( nnajjam nāxiđ kās ...? )
May I have a cup of _____?
‫نّجم ناخذ فنجان‬... ( nnajjam nāxiđ finjān ...? )
May I have a bottle of _____?
‫نّجم ناخذ دبّوزة‬... ( nnajjam nāxiđ dabbūza ...? )
coffee
‫ ( قهوة‬qahwa )
tea (drink)
‫ ( تاي‬tāy )
juice
‫ ( عصير‬ԑaṣīr )
orange juice
‫ ( برتڨان معصور‬burtgān maԑṣūr )
orange
‫ ( برتڨان‬burtgān )
(bubbly) water
‫ ( ماء بالڨاز‬mā b- il-gāẓ )
(still) water
‫ ( ماء‬mā )
beer
‫بيرة‬
ّ ( bīrra )
red/white wine
‫أبيض‬/‫ ( شراب أحمر‬šṛāb aḥmar/abyaḍ )
May I have some _____?
‫نّجم ناخذ شويّة‬... ( nnajjam nāxiđ šwayya ...? )
salt
‫ ( ملح‬milḥ )
black pepper
‫ ( فلفل أكحل‬filfil akḥal )
butter
‫ ( زبدة‬zibda )
Excuse me, waiter? (getting attention of server)
‫ ( سامحني خويا‬sāmaḥnī xūyā )
I'm finished.
‫ ( ك ّملت‬kammilt )
It was delicious.
‫ ( الماكلة بنينة‬il-mākla bnīna )
Please clear the plates.
‫ ( لم األصحنة يعيشك‬limm il-aṣḥna yԑayšik )
The check, please.
‫ ( الحساب يعيشك‬il-ḥsāb yԑayšik )
Bars
Do you serve alcohol?
‫ ( ?تسربيوا شراب‬tsarbīw šṛāb )
Is there table service?
‫ ( ?ف ّمة شكون يسربي‬famma škūn ysarbī )
A beer/two beers, please.
‫ يعيشك‬,‫بيرة‬
ّ ‫ زوز‬/ ‫بيرة وحدة‬
ّ ( (bīrra waḥda/zūz bīrra) yԑayšik )
A glass of red/white wine, please.
‫ يعيشك‬,‫أبيض‬/‫ ( كاس شراب أحمر‬kās šṛāb (aḥmar/abyaḍ) yԑayšik )
A pint, please.
‫ يعيشك‬,‫نص إيترة شراب‬
َ ( nuṣṣ ītra šṛāb yԑayšik )
A bottle, please.
‫ يعيشك‬,‫ ( دبّوزة شراب‬dabbūza šṛāb yԑayšik )
_____ (hard liquor) and _____ (mixer), please.
...‫ بال‬... (... b- il-... )
whiskey
‫ ( ويسكي‬wīskī )
vodka
‫ ( ݡودكا‬vodka )
water
‫ ( ماء‬mā )
tonic water
‫ ( شويپس‬šwīps )
Coke (soda)
‫ ( كوكا‬kūka )
Do you have any bar snacks?
‫ ( ما تبيعوش حاجة تتاكل في ها البار‬mā tbīԑūš ḥāja titākil fi hā il-bāṛ )
One more, please.
‫ ( زيدني وحدة أخرى يعيشك‬zidnī waḥda uxṛā yԑayšik )
Another round, please.
‫مرة أخرى يعيشك‬
ّ ‫ ( زيد سربينا‬zidnī sarbīnī marra uxṛā yԑayšik )
When is closing time?
‫ ( ?وقتاش تسكروا البار‬waqtāš tsakrū il-bāṛ )
Cheers!
‫ ( بصحتكم‬b- ṣaḥḥitkum )
Shopping
Do you have this in my size?
‫ ( ?عندك هاذا في قياسي‬ԑandik hāđā fī qyāsī )
How much is this?
‫ ( ?بقد ّاش‬b- qaddāš )
That's too expensive.
‫ ( غالي برشة‬ġālī barša )
Would you take _____?
‫تحب تاخذ‬...? ( tḥibb tāxiđ ...? )
expensive
‫ ( غالي‬ġālī )
cheap
‫ ( رخيص‬rxīṣ )
I can't afford it.
‫ ( ما نّجمش نشريه‬mā nnajjamš nišrīh )
I don't want it.
‫ ( ما نّحبش نشريه‬mā nḥibbiš nišrīh )
You're cheating me.
‫ ( راك قاعد تغش فيّا‬ṛāk qāԑid tġišš fiyyā )
I'm not interested.
‫ ( ما يهمنيش‬mā yhimnīš )
OK, I'll take it.
‫ توة ناخذو‬,‫ ( باهي‬bāhi, tawwa nāxđū )
Can I have a bag?
‫ ( ?نّجم ناخذ ساك‬nnajjam nāxiđ sāḳ )
Do you ship (overseas)?
‫برة‬
ّ ‫ ( ?تجيب حوايج من‬tjīb ḥwāyij min barra? )
I need...
‫ ( الزمني‬lāzimnī )
...toothpaste.
‫ ( معجون سنان‬maԑjūn snān )
...a toothbrush.
‫ ( شيتة سنان‬šītat snān )
...soap.
‫ ( صابون‬ṣābūn )
...shampoo.
‫ ( شمپوان‬šañpwāṇ )
...pain reliever. (e.g., aspirin or ibuprofen)
‫ ( دوا وجيعة راس‬dwā wjīԑat ṛās )
...cold medicine.
‫ ( دوا ڨريپ‬dwā grīp )
...stomach medicine.
‫ ( دوا معدة‬dwā māԑda )
...a razor.
‫ ( ماكينة حجامة‬mākīnat ḥjāma )
...an umbrella.
‫ ( مطرية‬maṭariyya)
...sunblock lotion.
‫ ( كريمة شمس‬krīmat šams )
...a postcard.
‫ ( كارطة متاع جوابات‬kāṛṭa mtāԑ jwābāt )
...postage stamps.
‫ ( طابع بوسطة‬ṭābaԑ būsṭa )
...batteries.
‫ ( پيالت‬pīlāt )
...writing paper.
‫ ( ورقة‬warqa )
...a pen.
‫ ( قلم‬qlam )
...English-language books.
‫ ( كتاب باإلنڨليزي‬ktāb b- il-inglīzī )
...English-language magazines.
‫ ( مجلّة باإلنڨليزي‬mjalla b- il-inglīzī )
...an English-language newspaper.
‫ ( جريدة باإلنڨليزي‬jarīda b- il-inglīzī )
...an English-English dictionary.
‫ ( منجد باإلنڨليزي‬munjid b- il-inglīzī )
Driving
I want to rent a car.
‫ ( نحب نكري كرهبة‬nḥibb nikrī karhba )
Can I get insurance?
‫ ( نّجم ناخذ تأمين‬nnajjam nāxiđ ta'mīn? )
stop (on a street sign)
‫ ( أوقف‬ūqif )
one way
‫ ( تعد ّي و ما تر ّجعش‬tԑaddī w mā tjībiš )
yield
‫ ( أولويّة‬awlawiyya )
no parking
‫ ( التراكيّة ممنوعة‬it-tṛākiyya mamnūԑa )
speed limit
‫ ( أعلى جرية‬aԑlā jarya )
gas (petrol) station
‫ ( محطة إيسانس‬mḥaṭṭat īsañs )
petrol
‫ ( إيسانس‬īsañs )
diesel
ّ ( māẓẓūṭ )
‫مازوط‬
Authority
I haven't done anything wrong.
‫ ( ما عملتش حاجة غالطة‬mā ԑmiltiš ḥāja ġālṭa )
It was a misunderstanding.
‫ ( فهمنا بعضنا بالغالط‬fhimnā bԑaḍnā b- il-ġāliṭ )
 Where are you taking me?
‫ ( ?لوين باش تاخذني‬l- win bāš tāxiđnī? )
Am I under arrest?
‫توة موقّف‬
ّ ‫ ( معناتها آنا‬maԑnāthā ānā tawwa mwaqqaf )
I am an American/Australian/British/Canadian citizen.
‫كندي‬/‫بريطاني‬/‫أسترالي‬/‫ ( آنا مواطن أمريكي‬ānā mwāṭin amarīkī/ustṛǎlī/brīțǎnī/kanadī )
I want to talk to the American/Australian/British/Canadian embassy/consulate.
‫الكندية‬/‫البريطانية‬/‫األسترالية‬/‫ ( نحب نكلّم السفارة األمريكية‬nḥibb nkallam is-sfāṛa (il-amarīkiyya/il-ustṛǎliyya/il-
brīțǎniyya/il-kanadiyya )
I want to talk to a lawyer.
‫ ( نحب نتكلّم مع محامي‬nḥibb nitkallam mԑa muḥāmī )
Can I just pay a fine now?
‫توة‬ ّ ‫ ( ?نّجم ما نخلّص‬nnajjam mā nxallaṣ illā xṭiyya tawwa? )
ّ ‫إال خطيّة‬

References

 Ben Abdelkader, R. (1977) Peace Corps English-Tunisian Arabic Dictionary.

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