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Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
Variety of Tunisian Arabic From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, also known as Judeo-Tunisian, 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][7] 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][7]
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]
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History
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Before 1901
A Jewish community existed in what is today Tunisia even prior to Roman rule in Africa.[8] 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][9] and had not been in contact with the languages of the communities that invaded Tunisia in the middle age.[3][10] 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 like Judeo-Spanish.[8] 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.[10][11][12] This also explains why Judeo-Tunisian words are generally less removed from their etymological origin than Tunisian words.[13]
The most famous author in Judeo-Arabic is Nissim B. Ya‘aqov b. Nissim ibn Shahin of Kairouan (990–1062). An influential rabbinical personality of his time, Nissim of Kairouan wrote a collection of folks stories intended for moral encouragement, at the request of his father-in-law on the loss of his son. Nissim wrote "An Elegant Compilation concerning Relief after Adversity" (Al-Faraj ba‘d al-shidda)[14] first in an elevated Judeo-Arabic style following Sa‘adia Gaon's coding and spelling conventions and later translated the work into Hebrew.[15]
The first Judeo-Arabic printing house opens in Tunis in 1860. A year after, the 1856 Fundamental Pact is translated and printed in Judeo-Arabic (in 1861[16] before its translation into Hebrew in 1862).
After 1901
In 1901, Judeo-Tunisian became one of the main spoken Arabic dialects of Tunisia, with thousands of speakers.[8] Linguists noted the unique character of this dialect, and subjected it to study.[8] Among the people studying Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, Daniel Hagege[17] listed a significant amount of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic newspapers from the early 1900s in his essay The Circulation of Tunisian Judeo-Arabic Books.[18] in 1903, David Aydan prints in Judeo-Arabic "Vidu-i bel arbi", a translation of the ritual text recited by the community on Yom Kippur's eve. The text is printed in Djerba, a significant point to mention as many works published by the Tunisian Jewish community in Hebrew are printed in Livorno, Italy.[19] Educated leaders within the Tunisian Jewish community like ceramic merchant Jacob Chemla translated several works into Judeo-Tunisian, including The Count of Monte Cristo.
However, its emergence has significantly declined since 1948 due to the creation of Israel.[8] 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][7] 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]
Current situation
Language vitality: Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is believed to be vulnerable with only 500 speakers in Tunisia[20] and with about 45,000 speakers in Israel[21]
Language variations: In Tunisia, geography plays a huge role in how Judeo-Tunisian Arabic varies between speakers.[22] In fact, Tunisian Judeo-Arabic can vary depending on the region in which it is spoken.[22] Accordingly, the main dialects of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic are:[22]
- The dialect of the North of Tunisia (Mainly spoken in Tunis)
- The dialect of the South of Tunisia (Mainly Spoken in Gabes)
- The dialect of the islands off the coast of the country (Mainly spoken in Djerba)
In addition, Judeo-Tunisian can vary within the same region based on the town in which it is spoken.[22]
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Distinctives from Tunisian Arabic
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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][23][24][25]
- Phonology: There are three main differences between Tunisian Arabic phonology and Judeo-Tunisian Arabic phonology:
- Substitution of phonemes: Unlike most dialects of Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic has merged Tunisian Arabic's glottal [ʔ] and [h] into [∅],[3][8] Interdental [ð] and [θ] have respectively been merged with [d] and [t],[3][8] Ḍah and Ḍād have been merged as [dˤ] and not as [ðˤ],[3][8] Prehilalian /aw/ and /ay/ diphthongs have been kept[3][8] (except in Gabes[26]), and [χ] and [ʁ] have been respectively substituted by [x] and [ɣ].[3][8] This is mainly explained by the difference between the language contact submitted by Jewish communities in Tunisia and the one submitted by other Tunisian people.[8]
- Sibilant conversion:
- [ʃ] and [ʒ] are realized as [sˤ] and [zˤ] if there is an emphatic consonant or [q] later in the word (however in Gabes this change takes effect if [ʃ] and [ʒ] are either before or after an emphatic consonant or [q]).[4] For example, راجل rājil (meaning man) is pronounced in Gabes dialect of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic as /rˤa:zˤel/ and حجرة ḥajra (meaning stone) is pronounced in all Judeo-Tunisian dialects as /ħazˤrˤa/.[4]
- [ʃ] and [ʒ] are realized as [s] and [z] if there is an [r] later in the word (Not applicable to the dialect of Gabes).[4] For example, جربة jirba (meaning Djerba) is pronounced in all Judeo-Tunisian dialects except the one of Gabes as /zerba/.[4]
- Chibilant conversion: Unlike in the other Judeo-Arabic languages of the Maghreb,[27] [sˤ], [s] and [z] are realized as [ʃ], [ʃ] and [ʒ] in several situations.[4]
- [sˤ] is realized as [ʃ] if there is not another emphatic consonant or a [q] within the word (only applicable to Gabes dialect) or if this [sˤ] is directly followed by a [d].[26] For example, صدر ṣdir (meaning chest) is pronounced as /ʃder/[26] and صف ṣaff (meaning queue) is pronounced in Gabes dialect of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic as /ʃaff/.
- [s] and [z] are respectively realized as [ʃ] and [ʒ] if there is no emphatic consonant, no [q] and no [r] later in the word (In Gabes, this change takes effect if there is no [q] and no emphatic consonant within the word). For example, زبدة zibda (meaning butter) is pronounced as /ʒebda/.[4]
- Emphasis of [s] and [z]: Further than the possible conversion of [s] and [z] by [sˤ] and [zˤ] due to the phenomenon of the assimilation of adjacent consonants (also existing in Tunisian Arabic),[23] [s] and [z] are also realized as [sˤ] and [zˤ] if there is an emphatic consonant or [q] later in the word (however in Gabes this change takes effect if [ʃ] and [ʒ] are either before or after an emphatic consonant or [q]).[4] For example, سوق sūq (meaning market) is pronounced in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic as /sˤu:q/.[4]
- [q] and [g] phonemes: Unlike the Northwestern, Southeastern and Southwestern dialects of Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic does not systematically substitute Classical Arabic [q] by [g].[27] Also, the [g] phoneme existing in Tunis, Sahil and Sfax dialects of Tunisian Arabic is rarely maintained[28] and is mostly substituted by a [q] in Judeo-Tunisian.[3] For example, بقرة (cow) is pronounced as /bagra/ in Tunis, Sahil and Sfax dialects of Tunisian Arabic and as /baqra/ in Judeo-Tunisian.[3]
- Morphology: The morphology is quite the same as the one of Tunisian Arabic.[3][6][23] 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][29] For example, qayākil means he is eating.
- Unlike Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is characterized by its extensive use of the passive form.[3][10]
- The informal lack of subject-verb agreement found in Tunisian and in Modern Standard Arabic does not exist in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic. For example, we say ed-dyār tebnēu الديار تبناوا and not ed-dyār tebnēt الديار تبنات (The houses were built).[30]
- Vocabulary: There are some differences between the vocabulary of Tunisian Arabic and the one of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic. Effectively:
- Unlike Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic has a Hebrew adstratum.[2][6][31] In fact, Cohen said that almost 5 percent of the Judeo-Tunisian words are from Hebrew origin.[27] Furthermore, Judeo-Tunisian has acquired several specific words that do not exist in Tunisian like Ladino from language contact with Judaeo-Romance languages.[27][32]
- Unlike most of the Tunisian Arabic dialect and as it is Pre-Hilalian, Judeo-Tunisian kept Pre-Hilalian vocabulary usage patterns.[33] For example, rā را is used instead of šūf شوف (commonly used in Tunisian) to mean "to see".[33]
- Unlike the Tunis dialect of Tunisian Arabic,[11] Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is also known for the profusion of diminutives.[11] For example:
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