How to read and say Tunisian Arabic

Pronunciation

Phonology

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.

However, there are some more specific characteristics related to Tunisian Arabic like the phenomenon of metathesis.

Metathesis

Metathesis is the shift of the position of the first vowel of the word. It occurs when the unconjugated verb or unsuffixed noun begins with CCVC, where C is an ungeminated consonant and V is a short vowel 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.

For example:

(he) wrote in Tunisian Arabic becomes كتب ktib and (she) wrote in Tunisian Arabic becomes كتبت kitbit.

some stuff in Tunisian Arabic becomes دبش dbaš and my stuff in Tunisian Arabic becomes دبشي dabšī.

Stress

Stress is not phonologically distinctive and is determined by the word's syllable structure. Hence,

it falls on the ultimate syllable if it is doubly closed : سروال sirwāl (trousers). Otherwise, it falls on the penultimate syllable, if there is one: جريدة jarīda (newspaper). Stress falls on all the word if there is only one syllable within it: مرا mṛa (woman). Affixes are treated as part of the word: نكتبولكم niktbūlkum (we write to you).

For example:

جابت jābit (She brought). ما جابتش mā jābitš (She did not bring).

Assimilation

Assimilation is a phonological process in Tunisian Arabic.

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/ > /d͡ʒ/ ^1 Only if C is a voiced consonant.

^2 Only if C is a voiceless consonant.

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] (the /g/ deriving from an originally Arabic [q]), and a specific species of date is always [digla] (the /g/ deriving from an originally Semitic [q] - e.g. Aramaic: /diqla/: date tree). Sometimes, substituting [g] by [q] can change the meaning of a words For example, garn means "horn" and qarn means "century".

Interdental fricatives are also maintained for several situations, except in the Sahil dialect.[258]

Furthermore, Tunisian Arabic merged /dˤ/ ⟨ض⟩ with /ðˤ/

Consonant phonemes of Tunisian Arabic

Labial Interdental Dental/Alveolar Palatal Velar Uvular Pharyngeal Glottal plain emphatic plain emphatic plain emphatic Nasal m m (mˤ) ṃ n n (nˤ) ṇ stop voiceless (p) p t t tˤ ṭ k k q q (ʔ) voiced b b (bˤ) ḅ d d ɡ g Affricate voiceless (t͡s) ts (t͡ʃ) tš voiced (d͡z) dz Fricative voiceless f f θ s s sˤ ṣ ʃ š χ x ħ ḥ h h voiced (v) v ð ð ðˤ ḍ z z (zˤ) ẓ ʒ j ʁ ġ ʕ ʿ Trill r r rˤ ṛ Approximant l l ɫ ḷ j y w w

Phonetic notes:

The emphatic consonants /mˤ, nˤ, bˤ, zˤ/ rarely occur, and most of them are found in words of non-Arabic etymology.

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. For example:

/baːb/ [bɛːb] "door" and /bˤaːbˤa/ [ˈbˤɑːbˤɑ] "Father" /ɡaːz/ [ɡɛːz] "petrol" and /ɡaːzˤ/ [ɡɑːzˤ] "gas" These emphatic consonants occur before or after the vowels /a/ and /aː/.

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.

/p/ and /v/ are found in words of non-Arabic etymology and are usually replaced by /b/, like in ḅāḅūr and ḅāla. However, they are preserved in some words, like pīsīn and talvza.

/t͡ʃ/ and /d͡z/ are rarely used, for example tšīša, dzīṛa and dzāyir.

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.

Like in Standard Arabic, shadda "gemination" is very likely to occur in Tunisian. For example, haddad هدد meaning to threaten.[254] Vowels Edit 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]).

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 /ɐ/.

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.

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/.

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 ɪ i iː ī (yː) ü u u uː ū Open-mid oral eː ā (œː) ë (ʊː) ʊ (oː) o nasal (ɛ̃) iñ (ɔ̃) uñ Open (ɑ̃) añ oral æ a ɐ a 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.

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, جاء jā [ʒeː] he came), otherwise short.

In non-pharyngealised environments, the open vowel /a/ is [e] in stressed syllables and [æ] or [ɛ] in unstressed syllables. In pharyngealised environments, the open vowel is [ɑ].

/ɔː/ and nasal vowels are rare in native words, for most of the varieties of Tunisian and mainly for the Tunis dialect, like منقوبة mañqūba and لنڨار lañgār and mainly occur in French loans.

/yː/ and /œː/ only exist in French loanwords.

Unlike other Maghrebi dialects, short u and i are reduced to [o] and [e] when written between two consonants unless when they are in stressed syllables.

Syllables and pronunciation simplification

Tunisian Arabic has a very different syllable structure from Standard Arabic like all other Northwest African varieties.

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.

For example, Standard Arabic book is كتاب /kitaːb/, while in Tunisian Arabic it is ktāb.

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.

Word-internal syllables are generally heavy in that they either have a long vowel in the nucleus or consonant in the coda.

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.

As well as those characteristics, Tunisian Arabic is also known for differently pronouncing words according to their orthography and position within a text. This phenomenon is known as pronunciation simplification 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].

For example, yībdā is practically pronounced as [jiːbdæ]

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).

The phenomenon is seen clearly when Arabic texts are compared to their Latin phonemic transliteration in several works.

If a word begins with two successive consonants, an epenthetic [ɪ] is added at the beginning.

A sequence of three consonants, not followed by a vowel, is broken up with an epenthetic [ɪ] before the third consonant. For example: يكتب yiktib, يكتبوا yiktbū.

For Arabic Script, see Arabic phrasebook and Arabic Script.