WikiJournal Preprints/Tunisian Arabic

Abstract

Tunisian Arabic, or Tunisian, is a set of dialects of Maghrebi Arabic spoken in Tunisia. It is known by its 11 million speakers as Tounsi [ˈtuːnsi]  ( listen) (تونسي) "Tunisian" or Derja "everyday language" to distinguish it from Modern 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 considerably different from Modern Standard Arabic or Classical Arabic to such an extent that it is not mutually intelligible with either. Like other Maghrebi dialects, it has a vocabulary that is mostly Arabic with a significant Berber, Latin and possibly Neo-Punic substratum. However, Tunisian has also many loanwords from French, Turkish, Italian and the languages of Spain.

Tunisian Arabic is closely related to Maltese and is mostly intelligible to speakers of other Maghrebi dialects. But, it is hard to understand or is unintelligible for speakers of Middle Eastern Arabic.