Judeo-Tunisian Arabic

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 significant amount of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic newspapers from the early 1900s 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 or Israel.^[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 قطيطس (little or friendly cat) for qaṭṭūs قطّوس (cat).^[12]
  • klayib كليب (little or friendly dog) for kalb كلب (dog).^[12]

References

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.

External links

• http://www.endangeredlanguages.com/lang/3705
• https://www.ethnologue.com/language/ajt

Languages of Tunisia
Official languages	Modern Standard Arabic
Vernacular languages	Tunisian Arabic Berber Jerba Matmata Judeo-Tunisian Arabic French Tunisian Sign Language
Historical languages	African Romance† Mediterranean Lingua Franca† Greek† Latin† Punic language† Phoenician language† Numidian language† Vandalic language†
Main liturgical languages	Classical Arabic Biblical Hebrew
Main foreign languages	French English Italian Spanish