View source for Tunisian Arabic

{{Short description|Arabic dialect spoken in Tunisia}}
{{about|a general description of the Arabic dialect|the grammatical cases and conjugation|Tunisian Arabic morphology}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2022}}
{{Infobox language
| name             = Tunisian Arabic
| image            = Tounsi.png
| nativename       = {{lang|aeb|تونسي}} ''{{transliteration|aeb|Tūnsi&nbsp;}}'' &nbsp;
| pronunciation    = {{IPA|aeb|ˈtuːnsi||Tounsi2.wav}}
| ethnicity        = [[Tunisians|Tunisian Arabs]]
| states           = [[Tunisia]]<ref>{{e28|aeb}}</ref>
| speakers         = {{sigfig|12.543420|2}} million
| date             = 2024
| ref              = <ref>{{e28|aeb}}</ref>
| speakers2        = 
| speakers_label   = Speakers
| familycolor      = Afro-Asiatic
| fam2             = [[Semitic languages|Semitic]]
| fam3             = [[West Semitic languages|West Semitic]]
| fam4             = [[Central Semitic languages|Central Semitic]]
| fam5             = [[Arabic]]
| fam6             = [[Maghrebi Arabic|Maghrebi]]
| script           = [[Arabic script]]
| sign             = [[Tunisian Sign Language]]
| agency           = 
| minority         = As a variety of Maghrebi Arabic on 7 May 1999 (Not ratified due to several Constitutional Matters):<ref name="recogn99">{{cite journal |lang=fr |url=http://www.hommes-et-migrations.fr/docannexe/file/2199/dossier_1252_dossier_1252_34_44.pdf |last=Caubet |first=Dominique |date=November–December 2004 |title=La 'darja', langue de culture en France |journal=Hommes et Migrations |number=1252, ''Langues de France'' |pages=34–44 |doi=10.3406/homig.2004.4263 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924031150/http://www.hommes-et-migrations.fr/docannexe/file/2199/dossier_1252_dossier_1252_34_44.pdf |archive-date=2015-09-24}}</ref><ref name="cairnL">{{cite journal |lang=fr |url=http://www.cairn.info/zen.php?ID_ARTICLE=LFA_158_0020 |last=Barontini |first=Alexandrine |year=2007 |title=Valorisation des langues vivantes en France: le cas de l'arabe maghrébin |journal=Le français aujourd'hui |number=158 |pages=20–27 | doi=10.3917/lfa.158.0020 |issn=2107-0857 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924133727/http://www.cairn.info/zen.php?ID_ARTICLE=LFA_158_0020 |archive-date=2015-09-24|url-access=subscription }}</ref>
| iso3             = aeb
| glotto           = tuni1259
| glottorefname    = Tunisian Arabic
| map              = Tunisian dialect.svg
| mapcaption       = Geographic distribution of Tunisian Arabic (in blue) <ref name="cantineau">{{in lang|fr}} Cantineau, Jean-Pierre. (1951) "Analyse du parler arabe d'El-Hâmma de Gabès" Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris 47, pp. 64–105</ref><ref name="borisg">{{in lang|fr}} Boris, G. (1951). Documents linguistiques et ethnographiques sur une région du Sud Tunisien (Néfzaoua). Imprimerie nationale de France.</ref><ref name="boris1">{{in lang|fr}} Boris, G. (1958). Lexique du parler arabe des Marazig. Klincksieck.</ref>
}}

'''Tunisian Arabic''', or simply '''Tunisian''' ({{Langx|ar|تونسي|translit=Tūnsi}}), is a [[Varieties of Arabic|variety of Arabic]] spoken in [[Tunisia]].<ref name="phon" /> It is known among its 13 million speakers as ''Tūnsi'',<ref>{{e28|aeb}}</ref> {{IPA|aeb|ˈtuːnsi||Tounsi2.wav}} "Tunisian"<ref name="sayahi">{{Cite book|title = Diglossia and Language Contact: Language Variation and Change in North Africa|url = https://books.google.com/books?id=ygFeAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA227|publisher = Cambridge University Press|date = 24 April 2014|isbn = 978-1-139-86707-8|first = Lotfi|last = Sayahi}}</ref> or ''[[Maghrebi Arabic|Derja]]'' ({{langx|ar|الدارجة}}; meaning "common or everyday dialect"<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wehr |first1=Hans |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WTak55pG-_IC&pg=PA319 |title=A Dictionary of Modern Written Arabic: (Arab.-Engl.) |date=1979 |publisher=Otto Harrassowitz Verlag |isbn=3447020024 |page=319 |access-date=30 September 2017}}</ref>) to distinguish it from [[Modern Standard Arabic]], the official language of Tunisia. Tunisian Arabic is mostly similar to eastern [[Algerian Arabic]] and western [[Libyan Arabic]].

As part of the [[Maghrebi Arabic]] [[dialect continuum]], Tunisian merges into [[Algerian Arabic]] and [[Libyan Arabic]] at the borders of the country. Like other Maghrebi dialects, it has a vocabulary that is predominantly [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] and Arabic<ref name="Abdou Elimam">{{cite journal |last1=Elimam |first1=Abdou |url=http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/elimam.pdf |title=Du Punique au Maghribi: Trajectoires d'une langue sémito-méditerranéenne |journal=Synergies Tunisie |year=2009 |number=1 |pages=29–38 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141217104852/http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/elimam.pdf |archive-date=2014-12-17}}</ref> with a [[Berber languages|Berber]], [[Latin]]<ref name="mohand">{{cite journal |lang=fr |last=Tilmatine |first=Mohand |title=Substrat et convergences: Le berbére et l'arabe nord-africain |year=1999 |journal=Estudios de Dialectologia Norteafricana y Andalusi |volume=4 |pages=99–119 |url=https://journals.uco.es/edna/article/view/7273}}</ref><ref name="corrient" /> and possibly [[Punic language|Neo-Punic]]<ref name="maghribi">{{Cite journal|title=« Le maghribi, langue trois fois millénaire » de ELIMAM, Abdou (Ed. ANEP, Alger 1997) |doi=10.4000/insaniyat.12102 |first=Farid |last=Benramdane |pages=129–130 |journal=Insaniyat|date=1998 |issue=6 |s2cid=161182954 }}</ref><ref>{{Cite thesis |title=Contact, Restructuring, and Decreolization: The Case of Tunisian Arabic |url=https://www.ldc.upenn.edu/sites/www.ldc.upenn.edu/files/leddy-cecere-thesis.pdf |publisher=Dartmouth College |date=2010 |pages=10–12–50–77 |first=Thomas A. |last=Leddy-Cecere}}</ref> [[Stratum (linguistics)#Substratum|substratum]]. Tunisian Arabic contains Berber loanwords which represent 8% to 9% of its vocabulary.<ref name=":02">{{Cite book |last=Wexler |first=Paul |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YJpdiPiG2g4C&pg=PA174 |title=The Non-Jewish Origins of the Sephardic Jews |date=2012-02-01 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-2393-7 |language=en}}</ref> However, Tunisian has also loanwords from [[French language|French]],<ref name="cota">{{cite book |url=https://www.researchgate.net/publication/270568583 |last1=Zribi |first1=I. |last2=Boujelbane |first2=R. |last3=Masmoudi |first3=A. |last4=Ellouze |first4=M. |last5=Belguith |first5=L. |last6=Habash |first6=N. |year=2014 |chapter=A Conventional Orthography for Tunisian Arabic |title=Proceedings of the Language Resources and Evaluation Conference (LREC), Reykjavik, Iceland}}</ref> [[Turkish language|Turkish]],<ref name="cota" /> [[Italian language|Italian]]<ref name="cota" /> and the [[languages of Spain]]<ref name="cota" /> and a little bit of [[ Persian language|Persian]].<ref name="cota" />

[[Multilingualism]] within Tunisia and in the [[Tunisian diaspora]] makes it common for Tunisians to [[code-switching|code-switch]], mixing Tunisian with French, English, Italian, Standard Arabic or other languages in daily speech.<ref name="dig">{{cite journal|doi=10.1080/14664200108668018 | volume=2 | title=The Language Situation in Tunisia | year=2001 | journal=Current Issues in Language Planning | pages=1–52 | last1 = Daoud | first1 = Mohamed| s2cid=144429547 }}</ref> Within some circles, Tunisian Arabic has thereby integrated new French and English words, notably in technical fields, or has replaced old French and Italian loans with standard Arabic words.<ref name="dig" /><ref name="digl" /> Moreover, 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 English loanwords in Tunisian.<ref name="dig" />

Tunisian Arabic is also closely related to [[Maltese language|Maltese]],<ref name="maltese">{{cite book |last1=Azzopardi-Alexander |first1=Marie |last2=Borg |first2=Albert |title=Maltese |year=1997 |page=xiii |publisher=Routledge |quote=The immediate source for the Arabic vernacular spoken in Malta was Muslim Sicily, but its ultimate origin appears to have been Tunisia. In fact, Maltese displays some areal traits typical of Maghrebi Arabic although during the past 800 years of independent evolution it has drifted apart from Tunisian Arabic. |isbn=9780415657150}}</ref> which is a separate language that descended from Tunisian and [[Siculo-Arabic]].<ref name="maltese"/><ref>{{Cite web|title=The Language in Tunisia, Tunisia {{!}} TourismTunisia.com|url=http://www.tourismtunisia.com/the-language-in-tunisia/|access-date=2017-07-31|website=www.tourismtunisia.com|language=en-US}}</ref> Maltese and Tunisian Arabic have about 30 to 40 per cent spoken [[mutual intelligibility]].<ref name="Arabic intelligibility">{{cite journal |title=Mutual Intelligibility of Spoken Maltese, Libyan Arabic and Tunisian Arabic Functionally Tested: A Pilot Study |journal=Folia Linguistica |doi=10.1515/flin-2016-0021 |first1=Slavomír |last1=Čéplö |first2=Ján |last2=Bátora |first3=Adam |last3=Benkato |first4=Jiří |last4=Milička |first5=Christophe |last5=Pereira |first6=Petr |last6=Zemánek|date=2016 |volume=50 |issue=2 |s2cid=266033859 }}</ref>

==Classification==
Tunisian Arabic is one of the [[Arabic languages]] within the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] branch<ref name="e18">[http://www.ethnologue.com/language/aeb Tunisian Arabic] at ''[[Ethnologue]]'' (18th ed., 2015)</ref> of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afroasiatic language family]].<ref name="e18" /> It is a variety of [[Maghrebi Arabic]] like [[Moroccan Arabic|Moroccan]] and [[Algerian Arabic]], which are mostly unintelligible to Modern Standard or [[Mashriqi Arabic]] speakers.<ref name="sayahi" /> It has a considerable number of [[Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects|pre-hilalian dialects]]<ref>{{cite journal |first=Dhouha |last=Lajmi |title=Spécificités du dialecte Sfaxien|journal=Synergies Tunisie|year=2009 |issue=1 |language=fr |url=https://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/lajmi.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150725222315/http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/lajmi.pdf |archive-date=2015-07-25}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic |editor-last=Ritt-Benmimoun |editor-first=Veronika |page=25}}</ref> but is usually considered in its [[Koiné language|koiné]] form to be a mostly [[Hilalian dialects|Hilalian variety of Maghrebi Arabic]] because it was affected by the immigration of [[Banu Hilal]] in the 11th century, as were the other Maghrebi varieties.<ref name="preh" /><ref name="ritt" />

As a part of the Arabic [[dialect continuum]], it is reported that Tunisian Arabic is partly [[Mutual intelligibility|mutually intelligible]] with Algerian Arabic,<ref name="sayahi" /> [[Libyan Arabic]],<ref name="sayahi" /> Moroccan,<ref name="sayahi" /> and [[Maltese language|Maltese]].<ref name="maltese" /> However, it is only slightly intelligible, if at all, with [[Egyptian Arabic|Egyptian]],<ref name="s'hiri" /> [[Levantine Arabic|Levantine]],<ref name="s'hiri" /> [[Mesopotamian Arabic|Mesopotamian]],<ref name="s'hiri" /> or [[Gulf Arabic]].<ref name="s'hiri" />

==History==
[[File:WIKITONGUES- Afek speaking Tunisian Arabic.webm|thumb|A Tunisian person from the town of [[Téboursouk]] speaking Tunisian Arabic]]
{{see also|History of Tunisia}}

===Beginnings of the dialect===
====Linguistic situation of Ancient Tunisia====
{{see also|History of early Tunisia|History of Carthage|History of Roman-era Tunisia|Roman Africans}}
During [[History of early Tunisia|classical antiquity]], Tunisia's population spoke [[Berber languages]] related to the [[Numidian language]].<ref name="berb">Gabsi, Z. (2003). An outline of the Shilha (Berber) vernacular of Douiret (southern Tunisia) (Doctoral dissertation, Univ. of Western Sydney Sydney).</ref> 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.<ref name="berb" />

Indeed, migrants from [[Phoenicia]] settled Tunisia during the 12th to the 2nd century BC, founded [[ancient Carthage]] and progressively mixed with the local population.<ref>{{cite book|last=Moscati|first=Sabatino|author-link=Sabatino Moscati|title=The Phoenicians|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1EEtmT9Tbj4C&pg=PA17|year=2001|publisher=I.B.Tauris|isbn=978-1-85043-533-4}}</ref> 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 [[Northwest Africa]], the [[Iberian Peninsula]] and the Mediterranean islands.<ref name="Aubet, Maria Eugenia 2001">Aubet, M. E. (2001). The Phoenicians and the West: politics, colonies and trade. Cambridge University Press.</ref> From the eighth century BC, most of Tunisia's inhabitants spoke the [[Punic language]], a variant of the [[Phoenician language]] influenced by the local Numidian language.<ref name="epig" /> 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]], possibly is derived from the name of the Berber tribe of the [[Afri]] that was one of the first to enter in contact with Carthage.<ref name="Michell">[https://www.jstor.org/pss/714549 Geo. Babington Michell, "The Berbers"], ''Journal of the Royal African Society'', Vol. 2, No. 6 (January 1903), pp.&nbsp;161–194.</ref> Also during this period and up to the third century BC, the [[Tifinagh]] alphabet developed from the [[Phoenician alphabet]].<ref>Penchoen, T. G. (1973). Tamazight of the Ayt Ndhir (Vol. 1). Undena Pubns, pp. 3</ref><ref>O'Connor, M. (1996). The Berber Scripts. The world's writing systems, 112–116.</ref>

After the arrival of Romans, following the fall of Carthage in 146 BC,<ref>[[Appian of Alexandria]] (162). ''[https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_punic_00.html The Punic Wars] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20151219232200/http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_punic_00.html |date=19 December 2015 }}. Roman History''</ref><ref>[[Appian of Alexandria]] (162). "[https://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_punic_19.html#%A793 The Third Punic War] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150524212607/http://www.livius.org/ap-ark/appian/appian_punic_19.html#%A793 |date=24 May 2015 }}. Roman History"</ref> the coastal population spoke mainly Punic, but that influence decreased away from the coast.<ref name="epig">Jongeling, K., & Kerr, R.M. (2005). Late Punic epigraphy: an introduction to the study of Neo-Punic and Latino- Punic inscriptions. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 114, {{ISBN|3-16-148728-1}}.</ref> From [[Africa (Roman province)|Roman period]] until the Arab conquest, [[Latin]], [[Greek language|Greek]] and Numidian further influenced the language, called Neo-Punic to differentiate it from its older version.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Lancel, S. (1992). Carthage. Paris: Fayard, pp. 587</ref><ref name="ency" /> This also progressively gave birth to [[African Romance]], a [[Romance languages|Latin dialect]], influenced by Tunisia's other languages and used along with them.<ref name="HaspelmathTadmor2009">{{cite book|author1=Martin Haspelmath|author2=Uri Tadmor|title=Loanwords in the World's Languages: A Comparative Handbook|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HnKeVbwTwyYC&pg=PA195|date=22 December 2009|publisher=Walter de Gruyter|isbn=978-3-11-021844-2|page=195}}</ref><ref name="belazi" /> Also, as it was the case for the other dialects,<ref name="ency" /><ref name="HaspelmathTadmor2009"/><ref name="lughat.blogspot.com">[http://lughat.blogspot.com/2007/07/berberised-afro-latin-speakers-in-gafsa.html Souag, L. (2007). Jabal Al-Lughat: Gafsa and the African neolatin language.]</ref> Punic probably survived the Arabic conquest of the [[Maghreb]]: the geographer [[al-Bakri]] described in the 11th century people speaking a language that was not Berber, Latin or [[Coptic language|Coptic]] in rural [[Ifriqiya]], a region where spoken Punic survived well past its written use.<ref name="jongel">Jongeling, K., & Kerr, R.M. (2005). Introduction ''in'' Late Punic epigraphy: an introduction to the study of Neo-Punic and Latino- Punic inscriptions. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, {{ISBN|3-16-148728-1}}.</ref> However, it may be that the existence of Punic facilitated the spread of Arabic in the region,<ref>Jongeling, K., & Kerr, R.M. (2005). Late Punic epigraphy: an introduction to the study of Neo-Punic and Latino- Punic inscriptions. Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, pp. 71, {{ISBN|3-16-148728-1}}.</ref> as Punic and Arabic are both Semitic languages and share many common roots.<ref name="omniglot">[http://www.omniglot.com/writing/punic.htm Ager, S. (1998). Punic. Omniglot]</ref><ref name="elimam">{{in lang|fr}} [http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/elimam.pdf Elimam, A. (2009). Du Punique au Maghribi: Trajectoires d'une langue sémito-méditerranéene'. Synergies Tunisie, (1), 25–38.]</ref>

====Middle Ages====
{{see also|History of early Islamic Tunisia|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 (Roman province)|Africa]]'' during the [[Muslim conquest of the Maghreb]] in 673.<ref>Holt, P. M., Lambton, A. K., & Lewis, B. (1977). The Cambridge History of Islam (Vol. 2). Cambridge University Press.</ref><ref name="history69">Chejne, A. G. (1969). The Arabic language: Its role in history. U of Minnesota Press.</ref> The people of several urban cities were progressively influenced by Arabic.<ref name="history69" /><ref name="history70">Julien, C. (1970). History of North Africa. Praeger.</ref> By the 11th century, through contact of local languages such as African Romance or Berber with Classical Arabic, some urban dialects appeared in the main coastal cities of Tunisia.<ref name="lughat.blogspot.com"/><ref name="DC">Dominique Caubet, [http://ieiop.unizar.es/pub/05caubet.pdf « Questionnaire de dialectologie du Maghreb »] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131112033226/http://ieiop.unizar.es/pub/05caubet.pdf |date=12 November 2013 }}, in: EDNA vol.5 (2000–2001), pp.73–92</ref><ref name="keesNT">Versteegh, K. (2014). The Arabic Language. Edinburgh University Press.</ref> 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.<ref>Mohand, T. (2011). Berber & Arabic Language Contact. The Semitic Languages. an International Handbook.</ref><ref name="fran">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.unice.fr/bcl/ofcaf/18/Intro16.pdf Queffelec, Y., & Naffati, H. (2004). Le français en Tunisie. Nice, Le français en Afrique, 18.]</ref> The new dialects were also significantly influenced by other historical languages.<ref name="preh">{{in lang|fr}} Vanhove, M. (1998). De quelques traits préhilaliens en maltais. Aguade et al., ed, 97–108.</ref><ref name="fran" /><ref name="quit">{{in lang|fr}} Quitout, M. (2002). Parlons l'arabe tunisien: langue & culture. Editions L'Harmattan.</ref>

Many Tunisian and Maghrebi words, like {{lang|aeb-Latn|qarnīṭ}} ("octopus"), have a Latin etymology.<ref name="corrient">{{cite book |lang=es |last=Corriente |first=Federico |year=1992 |title=Árabe andalusí y lenguas romances |publisher=Fundación MAPFRE |isbn=84-7100-208-6}}</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Baccouche, T. (1994). L'emprunt en arabe moderne. Académie tunisienne des sciences, des lettres, et des arts, Beït al-Hikma.</ref> The dialects were later called [[Pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects]] and were used along Classical Arabic for communication in Tunisia.<ref name="agiu">Agius, D. A. (1996). Siculo Arabic (No. 12). Routledge.</ref><ref>[https://ore.exeter.ac.uk/repository/bitstream/handle/10036/38016/WhoSpoke.pdf?sequence1 Agius, D. A. (2007). Who Spoke Siculo Arabic?. XII Incontro Italiano di Linguistica Camito-semitica (Afroasiatica). ATTI]</ref> Also, [[Siculo-Arabic]] was spoken in several islands near Tunisia like [[Sicily]], [[Pantelleria]], and [[Malta]] and entered into contact with the Tunisian pre-hilalian dialects.<ref name="agiu" /><ref>Grand'Henry, J. (2007). L'arabe sicilien dans le contexte maghrébin. XII Incontro Italiano di Linguistica Camito-semitica (Afroasiatica). ATTI</ref> Consequently, it ameliorated the divergence in grammar and structures of all the concerned dialects from Classical Arabic.<ref name="ency">K. Versteegh (Ed.), The encyclopedia of Arabic language and linguistics (Vol. I). Leiden: E. J. Brill.</ref><ref name="keesNT" />

By the mid-11th century, the Banu Hilal immigrated to rural northern and central Tunisia and [[Banu Sulaym]] immigrated to southern Tunisia.<ref name="ritt">Ritt-Benmimoum, V. (2014). The Tunisian Hilal and Sulaym dialects: A Preliminary Comparative Study. Proceedings of the IXth Conference of AIDA. pp.&nbsp;351–360</ref><ref name="ency" /><ref name="quit" /> The immigrants played a major role in spreading the use of Tunisian Arabic in an important part of the country.<ref name="ency" /><ref name="quit" /><ref name="dial">Al-Wer, E., & de Jong, R. (Eds.). (2009). Arabic dialectology: in honour of Clive Holes on the occasion of his sixtieth birthday. Brill.</ref> However, they brought some of the characteristics of their local Arabic dialects as well.<ref name="ritt" /><ref name="quit" /> In fact, central and western Tunisian Arabic speakers began using the [[voiced velar stop]] [ɡ] instead of the [[voiceless uvular stop]] [q] in words such as {{lang|aeb-Latn|qāl}} "he said".<ref name="ritt" /><ref name="dial" /> 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.<ref name="preh" /><ref name="ritt" /><ref name="dial" /> Furthermore, the phonologies brought to the new towns speaking Tunisian Arabic are those of the immigrants and not Tunisian phonology.<ref name="ritt" /> The Sulaym even spread a new dialect in southern Tunisia, Libyan Arabic.<ref name="ritt" /><ref name="dial" /><ref name="anda">[https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00150422/document Miller, C. (2004). Variation and changes in Arabic urban vernaculars. Approaches to Arabic Dialects: Collection of Articles presented to Manfred Woidich on the Occasion of his Sixtieth Birthday, 177–206.]</ref>

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 [[Biblical Hebrew|Hebrew phonology]],<ref name="cohend" /><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Cohen, David. Le parler arabe des juifs de Tunis: Textes et documents linguistiques et ethnographiques.-v. 2. Etude linguistique. Vol. 7. Mouton, 1964.</ref><ref>{{in lang|es}} [http://digibug.ugr.es/bitstream/10481/31714/1/22814966.PDF García Arévalo, T. M. (2014). Cuentística en judeo-árabe moderno: edición, traducción y estudio.]</ref> Sfax dialect<ref name="sfaxdt">{{in lang|fr}} [http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/lajmi.pdf Lajmi, D. (2009). Spécificités du dialecte Sfaxien. Synergies Tunisie, 1, 135–142.]</ref> and Tunisian urban woman dialect.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Saada, L. (1967). Le langage de femmes Tunisiennes. Mouton.</ref>

By the 15th century, after the [[Reconquista]] and subsequent decline of the formerly Arabic-speaking [[al-Andalus]], many Andalusians 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 stop [q] instead of the [[nomad]]ic Hilalian voiced velar stop [ɡ] and to speech simplification in Tunisian,<ref name="anda" /><ref name="singer" /><ref>{{in lang|de}} Singer, H. R. (1981). Zum arabischen Dialekt von Valencia. Oriens, 317–323.</ref> which further differentiated the language from Classical Arabic.<ref name="anda" /> Furthermore, the changes were recognized by the [[Hafsid dynasty|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.<ref>Khaldūn, I. (1969). The Muqaddimah: an introduction to history; in three volumes. 1 (No. 43). Princeton University Press.</ref><ref name="curr" /><ref name="LeddyC">[https://www.ldc.upenn.edu/sites/www.ldc.upenn.edu/files/leddy-cecere-thesis.pdf Leddy-Cecere, T. A. (2011). Contact, Restructuring, and Decreolization: The Case of Tunisian Arabic. University of Pennsylvania School of Arts and Sciences, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Languages and Literature. p. 116]</ref>

===Ottoman period===
{{see also|Ottoman Tunisia}}
During the 17th to the 19th centuries, Tunisia came under [[Spanish Empire|Spanish]], then [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman]] rule and hosted [[Expulsion of the Moriscos|Morisco]] then [[Italian diaspora|Italian]] immigrants from 1609.<ref name="quit" /><ref name="curr">{{cite journal | last1 = Sayahi | first1 = L | year = 2011 | title = Introduction. Current perspectives on Tunisian sociolinguistics | journal = International Journal of the Sociology of Language | issue = 211| pages = 1–8 | doi=10.1515/ijsl.2011.035| s2cid = 147401179 }}</ref> That made Tunisian, [[Spanish language|Spanish]], [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Mediterranean Lingua Franca]], and [[Turkish language|Turkish]] languages connected.<ref name="curr" /><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Toso | first1 = F | year = 2009 | title = Tabarchino, lingua franca, arabo tunisino: uno sguardo critico | journal = Plurilinguismo | volume = 16 | issue = 16| pages = 261–280 }}</ref> Tunisian acquired several new loanwords from [[Italian language|Italian]], [[Spanish language|Spanish]], and [[Turkish language|Turkish]]<ref name="quit" /><ref name="curr" /> and even some structures like the {{langx|ota-Latn|-jī}} suffix added to several nouns to mean professions like {{lang|aeb-Latn|kawwāṛjī}}, {{lang|aeb-Latn|qahwājī}}...<ref name="history70" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="curr" /> During the mid-19th century, Tunisian Arabic was studied by several European scientists.<ref>von Hesse-Wartegg, E. (1899). Tunis: the Land and the People. Chatto & Windus.</ref> In 1893, a first linguistic study was completed by the German linguist [[Hans Stumme]]. That began a still ongoing research trend on Tunisian Arabic.<ref name="gibson">{{Cite encyclopedia|title=Tunis Arabic|encyclopedia=Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics|publisher=Brill|url=https://referenceworks.brillonline.com/entries/encyclopedia-of-arabic-language-and-linguistics/tunis-arabic-EALL_COM_0355?s.num=19|last=Gibson|first=Maik|date=2011|editor-last=Lutz Edzard, Rudolf de Jong|isbn=9789004177024}} ([https://www.academia.edu/10178501/Tunis_Arabic full article])</ref><ref name="stumme" />

===Modern history===
{{see also|History of French-era Tunisia|History of modern Tunisia}}
During the [[French protectorate of Tunisia]], the country encountered the [[Standard French|Standard]] [[French language]].<ref name="fran" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="sayahidigl" /> That affected Tunisian considerably, as new loanwords, meanings and structures were drawn from French.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Walters | first1 = K | year = 2011 | title = Gendering French in Tunisia: language ideologies and nationalism | url = https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=ling_fac| journal = International Journal of the Sociology of Language | issue = 211| pages = 83–111 | doi=10.1515/ijsl.2011.039| s2cid = 145454117 | url-access = subscription }}</ref> The unintelligibility of Tunisian to Middle Eastern Arabic speakers was worsened.<ref name="s'hiri">S'hiri, S. (2002). Speak Arabic please! Tunisian Arabic Speakers' Linguistic Accommodation to Middle Easterners. Language Contact and Language Conflict in Arabic, 149–174.</ref><ref name="fran" /><ref name="sayahidigl" />

[[Image:Tunisian dialect.svg|thumb|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 Arabic|Algerian]] and [[Libyan Arabic]]<ref name="cantineau">{{in lang|fr}} Cantineau, Jean-Pierre. (1951) "Analyse du parler arabe d'El-Hâmma de Gabès" Bulletin de la Société Linguistique de Paris 47, pp. 64–105</ref><ref name="borisg">{{in lang|fr}} Boris, G. (1951). Documents linguistiques et ethnographiques sur une région du Sud Tunisien (Néfzaoua). Imprimerie nationale de France.</ref><ref name="boris1">{{in lang|fr}} Boris, G. (1958). Lexique du parler arabe des Marazig. Klincksieck.</ref>]]
[[File:Portrait officiel de Habib Bourguiba.png|thumbnail|Tunisian leader [[Habib Bourguiba]] usually delivered his speeches in Tunisian even for religious celebrations<ref name="enma">{{cite journal | last1 = Ennaji | first1 = M | year = 1991 | title = Aspects of multilingualism in the Maghreb | journal = International Journal of the Sociology of Language | issue = 1991| pages = 7–26 | doi=10.1515/ijsl.1991.87.7| s2cid = 143763557 }}</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Garmadi, S. (1968). La situation linguistique actuelle en Tunisie: problèmes et perspectives. Revue tunisienne de sciences sociales, 5(13), 13–32.</ref>]]
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]].<ref name="elodie" /> Also, more research about Tunisian was produced, mainly by French and German linguists.<ref name="cohend" /> Tunisian Arabic became even taught in French high schools, as an optional language.<ref name="Jourdan, J. 1952" />

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 languages|Berber dialects]].<ref>Applegate, J. R. (1970). The berber languages. Current Trends in linguistics, 6, 586–661.</ref><ref name="msit">Maamouri, M. (1973). The linguistic situation in independent Tunisia. The American Journal of Arabic Studies, 1, 50–65.</ref> 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,<ref>Lancel, S. (1992). ''Carthage''. Fayard.</ref><ref>Pellegrin, A. (1944). ''Histoire de la Tunisie: depuis les origines jusqu'à nos jours''. La rapide.</ref> and the geographical length and diversification of the country, divided between mountain, forest, plain, coastal, island and desert areas.<ref>{{cite book|last=Ewan W.|first=Anderson|title=International Boundaries: Geopolitical Atlas|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=E7-menNPxREC&pg=PA816|access-date=22 February 2013|date=1 November 2003|publisher=Psychology Press|isbn=978-1-57958-375-0|page=816}}</ref>

That is why Tunisian leader [[Habib Bourguiba]] began a trial of Arabization and Tunisification of Tunisia and spread free basic education for all Tunisians.<ref name="fran" /><ref name="dig1">Daoud, M. (1991). Arabization in Tunisia: The tug of war. Issues in Applied Linguistics, 2(1).</ref><ref name="lppt">[http://repository.cmu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=shr Callahan, C. L. (1994). Language Problems in Post-Colonial Tunisia: The Role of Education and Social Class.]</ref> 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.<ref name="fran" /><ref name="LeddyC" /> Furthermore, the creation of the [[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.<ref name="gibson12">[https://www.academia.edu/6013572/Dialect_Contact_in_Tunisian_Arabic_Sociolinguistic_and_Structural_Aspects._PhD_thesis_1999 Gibson, M. L. (1999). Dialect contact in Tunisian Arabic: sociolinguistic and structural aspects (Doctoral dissertation, University of Reading).]</ref><ref name="chin">Shao-hui, B. A. I. (2007). The Language Policy of the Republic of Tunisia. Journal of Yunnan Normal University (Teaching and Research on Chinese as a Foreign Language), 1, 017.</ref>

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.<ref name="ferg">Walters, K. (1998). Fergie's prescience: The changing nature of diglossia in Tunisia. International Journal of the Sociology of Language, 163-77.</ref> Older dialects became less commonly used and began disappearing.<ref name="gibson12" /><ref name="gibson11" /> Consequently, Tunisian became the main prestigious language of communication and interaction within the Tunisian community<ref name="ferg" /><ref>Aouina, H. (2013). Globalisation and language policy in Tunisia: Shifts in domains of use and linguistic attitudes (Doctoral dissertation, University of the West of England).</ref> and Tunisia became the most linguistically homogeneous state of the [[Maghreb]].<ref name="Laval">{{in lang|fr}}  [http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/afrique/tunisie.htm Aménagement linguistique en Tunisie (Université de Laval)]</ref> 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''{{Meaning?|date=October 2023}}, also practically disappeared from Tunisia.<ref name="gibson12" /><ref name="gibson11" /><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Taine-Cheikh, C. (2000). Les emplois modaux de la négation lā dans quelques dialectes arabes. Comptes rendus du Groupe Linguistique d'Etudes Chamito-Sémitiques (GLECS), 33, 39-86.</ref>

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<ref name="peacebg">Scholes, R. J., & Abida, T. (1966). Spoken Tunisian Arabic (Vol. 2). Indiana University</ref><ref name="peacend" /> and more studies were carried out. Some which used new methods like computing operations and the automated creation of several [[speech recognition]]-based and [[Internet]]-based [[Corpus linguistics|corpora]],<ref>Zaidan, O. F., & Callison-Burch, C. (2014). Arabic dialect identification. Computational Linguistics, 40(1), 171-202.</ref><ref>Chiang, D., Diab, M. T., Habash, N., Rambow, O., & Shareef, S. (2006). Parsing Arabic Dialects. In EACL.</ref><ref>Maamouri, M., Bies, A., & Kulick, S. (2008). Enhanced annotation and parsing of the Arabic treebank. Proceedings of INFOS.</ref><ref>Masmoudi, A., Ellouze Khmekhem, M., Estève, Y., Bougares, F., Dabbar, S., & Hadrich Belguith, L. (2014). Phonétisation automatique du Dialecte Tunisien. ''30ème Journée d’études sur la parole, Le Mans-France''.</ref> including the publicly available Tunisian Arabic Corpus<ref>{{Cite journal|last=McNeil|first=Karen|title=Tunisian Arabic Corpus: Creating a written corpus of an &quot; unwritten &quot; language|url=https://www.academia.edu/28966672|language=en}}</ref> Others, more traditional, were also made about the phonology, the morphology, the pragmatic and the semantics of Tunisian.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> The language has also been used to write several novels since the 1990s<ref name="elodie" /> and even a [[Swadesh list]] in 2012.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Goursau, H. (2012). Le tour du monde en 180 langues. éd. Goursau. {{ISBN|2-904105-36-0}}</ref> Now, it is taught by many institutions like the [[Institut national des langues et civilisations orientales]] (in [[Paris]] with Tunisian Arabic courses since 1916)<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.inalco.fr/langue/arabe-tunisien INALCO (2014). Arabe tunisien. Langues et civilisations.]</ref> and the Institut Bourguiba des Langues Vivantes (in [[Tunis]] with Tunisian Arabic courses since 1990).<ref name="cairnL" /><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Caubet, D. (2001). L'arabe dialectal en France. Arabofrancophonie, Les Cahiers de la francophonie, 10, 199-212.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.iblv.rnu.tn IBLV (2014). Official Website of IBLV.]</ref> or in French high schools as an optional language.<ref name="caub">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/flang_1244-5460_1999_num_7_13_1257 Caubet, D. (1999). Arabe maghrébin: passage à l'écrit et institutions. Faits de langues, 7(13), 235-244.]</ref> In fact, 1878 students sat for the Tunisian Arabic examination in the 1999 French [[Baccalauréat]].<ref name="caub" /> Nowadays, the tendency in [[France]] is to implement [[Maghrebi Arabic]], mainly Tunisian Arabic, in basic education.<ref name="cairnL" />

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.<ref>Maamouri, M. (1977). Illiteracy in Tunisia: An evaluation. Thomas P. Gorman (comp.), Language and literacy: Current issues and research. Teherán, Irán: International Institute for Adult Literacy Methods.</ref><ref>Maamouri, M. (1983). Illiteracy in Tunisia. Language in Tunisia, 149-58.</ref>

Nowadays, the linguistic classification of Tunisian Arabic causes controversies between interested people.<ref name="elodie" /><ref name="stanmd">{{in lang|fr}} [https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00822723/document Miller, C. (2013). Du passeur individuel au" mouvement linguistique": figures de traducteurs vers l'arabe marocain. In 2ème rencontre d'anthropologie linguistique," des passeurs au quotidien". pp. 10.]</ref> The problem is caused because of the Arabic dialect continuum.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Al-Jallad | first1 = A | year = 2009 | title = The polygenesis of the neo-Arabic dialects | journal = Journal of Semitic Studies | volume = 54 | issue = 2| pages = 515–536 | doi=10.1093/jss/fgp011}}</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Embarki, M. (2008). Les dialectes arabes modernes: état et nouvelles perspectives pour la classification géo-sociologique. Arabica, 55(5), 583-604.</ref> Some linguists, such as Michel Quitout and Keith Walters, consider it an independent language,<ref name="quit" /><ref name="elodie" /><ref name="ferg" /> and some others, such as Enam El-Wer, consider it a divergent dialect of Arabic that is still dependent of Arabic morphology and structures.<ref name="dial" />

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 (France)|Constitutional Council of France]] because its conflicts with the Article 2 of the [[French Constitution of 1958]].<ref name="recogn99" /><ref name="cairnL" /> Also, no official recognition or standardization in [[Tunisia]] was provided for Tunisian Arabic until 2011 despite the efforts of Tunisian professors Salah Guermadi and Hedi Balegh to prove that Tunisian is a language.<ref name="elodie" /><ref name="ferg" />

After the [[Tunisian Revolution|Tunisian revolution of 2011]] when Tunisian Arabic was the mainly used language of communication, efforts to have the Tunisian language recognised were reinvigorated.<ref name="elodie" />

In 2011, the Tunisian Ministry of Youth and Sports has launched a version of its official website in Tunisian Arabic.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [https://www.tekiano.com/2011/08/04/tunisie-la-derja-pour-le-nouveau-site-web-du-ministere-de-la-jeunesse/ Tunisie : La derja pour le nouveau site web du ministère de la jeunesse. ''Tekiano'', 4 August 2011.]</ref> However, this version was closed after a week of work because of an internet poll that has concluded that 53% of the users of the website were against using Tunisian Arabic in the website.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.slateafrique.com/23747/derja-dialecte-tunisien-arabe-ministere-jeunesse-sports Arabe classique ou dialecte tunisien?. ''Slate Afrique'', 9 August 2011.]</ref>

In 2013, Kélemti initiative was founded by Hager Ben Ammar, Scolibris, Arabesques Publishing House, and Valérie Vacchiani to promote and encourage the creation and publication of written resources about and in Tunisian Arabic.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20131026112545/http://www.huffpostmaghreb.com/elsa-despiney-ben-hammouda/larabe-dialectal-a-lhonne_b_4143462.html Despiney, E. (2014). L'arabe dialectal à l'honneur. ''Al Huffington Post Maghreb'', 23 October 2013.]}}</ref>

In 2014, a version of the [[Tunisian Constitution of 2014]] was published in Tunisian Arabic by the Tunisian Association of Constitutional Law.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20140427015956/http://www.huffpostmaghreb.com/2014/04/24/constitution-derja-tunisiens_n_5206580.html La Constitution publiée en "derja": Traduction, explication ou interprétation?. ''Al Huffington Post Maghreb'', 24 April 2014.]}}</ref>

In 2016 and after two years of work, the [[Derja Association]] has been launched by Ramzi Cherif and Mourad Ghachem in order to standardize and regulate Tunisian, to define a standard set of orthographic rules and vocabularies for it, to promote its use in daily life, literature and science, and to get an official recognition for it as a language in Tunisia and abroad.<ref name="irmc">{{in lang|fr}} [http://irmc.hypotheses.org/1815 Arrouès, O. (2015). « Littérature tunisienne et révolution », ''Le Carnet de l’IRMC'', 7 May 2015.]</ref><ref name="jo16">{{in lang|ar}} Imprimerie Officielle de la République Tunisienne. Association Derja. ''JORT Annonces'' 2016(68), 3845.</ref> The Derja Association also offers an annual prize, the [[Abdelaziz Aroui Prize]], for the best work written in Tunisian Arabic.

Since the 2011 revolution, there have been many novels published in Tunisian Arabic.<ref name=":0">{{Cite news|last=Ayadi|first=Boubaker|date=April 25, 2019|title=الظاهرة اللغوية في تونس… عَوْدٌ على بدء|language=ar|trans-title=The linguistic phenomenon in Tunisia: A return to the beginning|work=صحيفة العرب (Al Arab)|url=https://alarab.co.uk/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%BA%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3%E2%80%A6-%D8%B9%D9%8E%D9%88%D9%92%D8%AF%D9%8C-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A1|access-date=2020-10-30}}</ref> The first such novel was [[Taoufik Ben Brik]]'s ''Kelb ben Kelb'' (2013); several prominent novels have been written by [[Anis Ezzine]] and [[Faten Fazaâ]] (the first woman to publish a novel in Tunisian Arabic).<ref>{{Cite news|last=Grira|first=S.|date=2018-04-10|title=العامية... لغة كتابة وترجمة؟|language=ar|trans-title=Vernacular Arabic ... A language for writing and translating?|work=الاخبار (Al-Akhbar)|url=https://al-akhbar.com/Literature_Arts/247693|access-date=2020-10-30}}</ref> Although often criticized by literary critics,<ref name=":0" /> the Tunisian Arabic novels have been commercially successful: the first printing of [[Faten Fazaâ]]'s third novel sold out in less than a month.<ref>{{Cite news|date=May 24, 2020|title=Sujets tabous et amour pour la Tunisie : le phénomène Faten Fazaâ|language=fr|url=http://www.middleeasteye.net/fr/actu-et-enquetes/tunisie-faten-fazaa-livres-tabous-romans|access-date=2020-10-30}}</ref>

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

* A conservative [[consonant]]al [[phonology]] (due to [[Berber languages|Berber]] [[Stratum (linguistics)#Substratum|substrates]]<ref name="mohand" />), with the pre-hilalian {{IPAslink|q}} and [[dental fricative|interdental fricatives]] generally maintained. {{IPAslink|q}} is usually pronounced {{IPAslink|ɡ}} in Bedouin dialects.<ref name="pereira2011">Pereira, C. (2011). Arabic in the North African region. The Semitic Languages, 954-969.</ref> The interdental fricatives are lost in the dialect of Mahdia, the Jewish dialect of Tunis, and the Jewish dialect of Soussa.<ref name="pereira2011" />
* The use of {{lang|aeb|إنتِي}} {{IPA|[ˈʔɪnti]}} in urban varieties meaning "you" when addressing both men and women, and a concomitant loss of second person [[grammatical gender|gender]] distinction in the [[verb]]al [[morphology (linguistics)|morphology]]. Second person gender distinction is still maintained in rural varieties by using {{lang|aeb|إنتَا}} {{IPA|/ʔinta/}} for male and {{lang|aeb|إنتِي}} {{IPA|/ʔinti/}} for female, with corresponding distinctions in verbal morphology.<ref name="peac">[http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED183017.pdf Ben Abdelkader, R. (1977). Peace Corps English-Tunisian Arabic Dictionary.]</ref>
* The lack of an [[indicative]] [[Prefix (linguistics)|prefix]] in the verbal system, resulting in no distinction between indicative and [[subjunctive mood]]s.<ref name="peac" />
* The innovation of a [[continuous aspect|progressive]] [[Grammatical aspect|aspect]] by means of the [[participle]] {{lang|aeb|قاعد}} {{IPA|[ˈqɑːʕɪd]}}, originally meaning "sitting"; and the [[preposition]] {{lang|aeb|في}} {{IPA|['fi]}} "in" in [[transitivity (grammatical category)|transitive]] [[clauses]].<ref name="gibson" /><ref>McNeil, Karen (2017). “''Fī'' (‘in’) as a Marker of the Progressive Aspect in Tunisian Arabic.” In ''Tunisian and Libyan Arabic Dialects: Common Trends – Recent Developments – Diachronic Aspects''. Zaragoza: University of Zaragoza Press.</ref>
* The distinctive usage of future tense by using the prefixes {{lang|aeb|ماش}} {{IPA|[ˈmɛːʃ]}} or {{lang|aeb|باش}} {{IPA|[ˈbɛːʃ]}} or {{lang|aeb|ْبِش}} {{IPA|[ˈbəʃ]}} + verb that is nearly equivalent to "will" + verb.<ref name="peac" />
* Some vocabulary such as {{lang|aeb|فيسع}} {{IPA|[ˈfiːsɑʕ]}} "fast", {{lang|aeb|باهي}} {{IPA|[ˈbɛːhi]}} "good" and {{lang|aeb|برشة}} {{IPA|[ˈbærʃæ]}} "very much". (e.g.: {{IPA|[ˈbɛːhi ˈbærʃæ]}}="very good")<ref name="peac" />
* 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 {{lang|aeb|عالسلامة}} {{IPA|[ʕæsˈlɛːmæ]}} (formal) or {{lang|aeb|أهلا}} {{IPA|[æhlæ]}} (informal) for greeting. Also, {{lang|aeb|بالسلامة}} {{IPA|[bɪsːˈlɛːmæ]}} (formal) or the Italian ''ciao'' (informal) or more rarely the Italian ''arrivederci'' are used as the Tunisian "goodbye" expression.<ref name="gibson" /> {{lang|aeb|يعيشك}} {{IPA|[jʕæjʃɪk]}} is used as "thank you", in lieu of {{lang|ar|شكرا}} {{IPA|[ˈʃʊkræn]}}.<ref name="peac" /> However, Tunisian people do use some expressions from standard Arabic such as {{lang|ar|بارك الله فيك}} {{IPA|[ˈbɑːræk ɑlˤˈlˤɑːhu ˈfiːk]}} and {{lang|ar|أحسنت}} {{IPA|[ʔɑħˈsænt]}} 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.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="dig1" /><ref name="peac" />
* The passive derivation of verbs is influenced by [[Berber languages|Berber]] and is different from the one of classical Arabic.<ref name="mohand"/><ref name="pass">Maalej, Z. (1999). Passives in modern standard and Tunisian Arabic. Matériaux Arabes et Sudarabiques-Gellas, 9, 51-76.</ref> It is obtained by prefixing the verb with {{IPA|/t-/}}, {{IPA|/tt-/}}, {{IPA|/tn-/}} or {{IPA|/n-/}} and the choice of one of the four prefixes depends on the used verb (ex: {{lang|aeb|شرب}} {{IPA|/ʃræb/}} "to drink" → {{lang|aeb|تّشرب}} {{IPA|/ttæʃræb/}} "to be drunk").<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="peac" /><ref name="pass" />
* Nearly all educated Tunisians can communicate in French, which is widely used in business and as the main language of communication with foreigners. [[Code switching]] into French is common in Tunisian.<ref name="belazi">Belazi, H. M. (1992). Multilingualism in Tunisia and French/Arabic code switching among educated Tunisian bilinguals. Cornell University, Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics.</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Lawson | first1 = S. | last2 = Sachdev | first2 = I. | year = 2000 | title = Code switching in Tunisia: Attitudinal and behavioral dimensions | journal = Journal of Pragmatics | volume = 32 | issue = 9| pages = 1343–1361 | doi=10.1016/S0378-2166(99)00103-4}}</ref>
* Tunisian Arabic is an [[SVO language]] and it is most of the time a [[Null-subject language]].<ref name="peac" /><ref>Restō, J. (1983). Subject less sentences in Arabic dialects. Or. Suec. 31-32, pp.&nbsp;71–91.</ref> In fact, the subject is only written in order to avoid meaning ambiguity.<ref name="peac" />
* Tunisian has more [[Agglutinative language|agglutinative structures]] than Standard Arabic or the other varieties of Arabic,<ref>[http://www.aclweb.org/anthology/F13-1029 Hamdi, A., Boujelbane, R., Habash, N., & Nasr, A. (2013, June). Un système de traduction de verbes entre arabe standard et arabe dialectal par analyse morphologique profonde. In Traitement Automatique des Langues Naturelles (pp. 396-406).]</ref> a phenomenon that was further strengthened by the influence of Turkish on Tunisian in the 17th century.<ref name="curr" />

==Dialects==
{{cleanup lang|date=May 2019}}
[[Image:Tunisian dialect 1.png|thumb|Geographic disposition of the Tunisian Arabic dialects as of 2015.<ref name="gibson12" /><ref name="gibson11" /> 
{{Legend|#F0E68C|Tunis dialect<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="jabe">Jabeur, M. (1987). A sociolinguistic study in Rades, Tunisia. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Reading: University of Reading.</ref>}} {{Legend|#2E8B57|Sfax dialect<ref name="sfaxdt" />}} {{Legend|#D3D3D3|Sahel dialect<ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="msak">{{in lang|fr}} [http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/bouhlel.pdf Bouhlel, E. (2009). Le Parler m'sakenien. Synergies Tunisie, pp.&nbsp;125–134.]</ref>}} {{Legend|#696969|Northwestern Tunisian<ref name="mateur">{{in lang|fr}} [http://rodin.uca.es/xmlui/bitstream/handle/10498/17320/57_77.pdf?sequence=1 Mion, G. (2014). Éléments de description de l'arabe parlé à Mateur (Tunisie). AL-ANDALUS MAGHREB (11338571)-2014, n. 21, 57-77.]</ref>}}{{Legend|#1E90FF|Southwestern Tunisian<ref name="douz">{{in lang|de}} Ritt-Benmimoun, V. (2011). Texte im arabischen Beduinendialekt der Region Douz (Südtunesien). Harrassowitz.</ref><ref name="saadat">{{in lang|fr}} Saada, L. (1984). Éléments de description du parler arabe de Tozeur. Paris: Geuthner Diff.</ref>}} {{Legend|#87CEEB|Southeastern Tunisian<ref name="phon">{{cite book |lang=fr |last1=Baccouche |first1=T. |last2=Skik |first2=H. |last3=Attia |first3=A. |year=1969 |title=Travaux de Phonologie, parlers de Djemmal, Gabès et Mahdia |location=Tunis |publisher=Cahiers du CERES}}</ref><ref name="Djerba">{{in lang|de}} Behnstedt, P. (1998). Zum Arabischen von Djerba (Tunesien) I. Zeitschrift für arabische Linguistik, (35), 52-83.</ref>}} ]]

The Arabic dialects of Tunisia belong to either [[pre-Hilalian Arabic dialects|pre-Hilalian]] or [[Hilalian dialects|Hilalian]] dialectal families.<ref name="DC"/><ref name="tme" />

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 (Sahel dialects), and the [[Judeo-Tunisian Arabic|Judeo-Tunisian]]. The Hilalian set includes the [[Libyan Arabic|Sulaym dialects]] in the south and the Eastern Hilal dialects in central Tunisia. The latter were also spoken in the [[Constantinois]] (eastern Algeria).<ref name="DC"/><ref name="tme">Kees Versteegh, [http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=113&sequence=5 Dialects of Arabic: Maghreb Dialects] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150715181940/http://acc.teachmideast.org/texts.php?module_id=1&reading_id=113&sequence=5 |date=15 July 2015 }}, [http://acc.teachmideast.org/index.php TeachMideast.org] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150307080732/http://acc.teachmideast.org/index.php |date=7 March 2015 }}</ref>

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, Sahel dialect, Sfax dialect and southeastern Tunisian.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="gibson12" /><ref name="gibson11" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> All of these varieties are Hilalian excepting the Sfax one.<ref name="sfaxdt" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="gibson12" /><ref name="talmoudi" />

Tunis,<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> Sahel<ref name="talmoudi" /> and Sfax<ref name="sfaxdt" /> dialects (considered sedentary dialects) use the voiceless uvular stop {{IPAblink|q}} in words such as قال {{IPA|/qaːl/}} "he said" while southeastern,<ref name="douz" /> northwestern<ref name="mateur" /> and southwestern<ref name="phon" /> varieties (considered [[nomadic]] dialects) substitute it by the voiced velar stop {{IPAblink|ɡ}} as in {{IPA|/ɡaːl/}}. Moreover, only Tunis, Sfax and Sahel dialects use Tunisian phonology.<ref name="sfaxdt" /><ref name="singer" />

Indeed, northwestern<ref name="mateur" /> and southwestern<ref name="douz" /> Tunisians speak Tunisian with Algerian Arabic phonology, which tends to simplify short vowels as short [[schwa]]s while southeastern Tunisian speak Tunisian with the Libyan Arabic phonology.<ref name="phon" /><ref name="gibson12" /><ref>Abumdas, A. H. A. (1985). Libyan Arabic Phonology. University of Michigan.</ref>

Additionally, Tunis,<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> Sfax<ref name="sfaxdt" /> and the urban Sahel<ref name="talmoudi" /> dialects are known for not marking the second person gender. Hence, the otherwise feminine {{lang|aeb|إنتِي}} {{IPA|/ʔinti/}} is used to address both men and women, and no feminine marking is used in verbs (''inti mšīt''). Northwestern,<ref name="mateur" /> southeastern<ref name="Djerba" /> and southwestern<ref name="douz" /> varieties maintain the gender distinction found in Classical Arabic ({{lang|aeb|إنتَا مشيت}} ''inta mšīt'', {{lang|aeb|إنتِي مشيتي}} ''inti mšītī'').

Furthermore, Tunis,<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> Sfax<ref name="sfaxdt" /> and Sahel<ref name="talmoudi" /> varieties conjugate CCā verbs like mšā and klā in feminine third person and in past tense as CCāt. For example, {{lang|aeb|هية مشات}} ''hiya mšāt''. However, Northwestern,<ref name="mateur" /> southeastern<ref name="Djerba" /> and southwestern<ref name="douz" /> varieties conjugate them in feminine third person and in past tense as CCat For example, {{lang|aeb|هية مشت}} ''hiya mšat''.

Finally, each of the six dialects have specific vocabulary and patterns.<ref name="gibson12" /><ref name="talmoudi" />

===Tunis===
As the prestige variety of media, the Tunis dialect is considered the standard form of Tunisian Arabic and is the variety described in pedagogical and reference materials about "Tunisian" Arabic.<ref name="gibson" /> It is spoken on the Northern East of Tunisia around Tunis, Cap Bon and Bizerte.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> However, it has a characteristic not shared with some of the other Tunisian Arabic dialects.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> It distinguishes the three short vowels<ref name="peacebg" /><ref name="peac" /> and tends to pronounce [æ] as [ɛ]<ref name="singer" /> and the āš suffix, used in the end of question words, as an [ɛ:h].<ref name="gibson" />

===Sahel===
The sociolinguistic centre of the Sahel dialect is the city of Sousse. It is known for the use of the singular first person ''ānī'' instead of ''ānā''.<ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="msak" /> It is also known for the pronunciation of ''wā'' as [wɑː] in some variations 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/.<ref name="phon" /><ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="msak"  /> For example, {{lang|aeb|زيت}} ''zīt'' is pronounced as [ze:t] and {{lang|ar|لون}} ''lūn'' is pronounced as [lɔːn].<ref name="phon" /><ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="msak" /> Furthermore, when ''ā'', pronounced in most urban varieties as [ɛː], is at the end of the word, it is pronounced as [eː] or [iː] in some varieties. The latter is particularly attested in the town of Msaken. <ref name="phon" /><ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="msak" /> For example, {{lang|aeb|سماء}} ''smā'' is pronounced as [smeː] or [smiː]. Moreover, If a word begins with a consonant cluster starting with /θ/ or sometimes /ð/, these sounds are pronounced respectively as [t] and [d].<ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="cohenK" /> For example, {{lang|aeb|ثلاثة}} /θlaːθa/ is pronounced as [tlɛːθæ].<ref name="phon" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> As well, the Sahel dialect is known for using {{lang|aeb|مش}} ''miš'' instead of {{lang|aeb|موش}} ''mūš'' to mean the negation of future predicted action.<ref name="talmoudi" />

===Sfax===
The Sfax dialect is known mostly for its conservation of the Arabic [[diphthong]]s /aj/ and /aw/ and of the short /a/ between two consonants<ref name="sfaxdt" /> and its use of {{lang|aeb|وحيد}} wḥīd instead of {{lang|aeb|وحود}} wḥūd to mean the plural of someone.<ref>{{in lang|ar}} Zouari, A., & Charfi, Y. (1998). Dictionary of Words and Popular Traditions of Sfax. Sfax, {{ISBN|978-9973-31-072-9}}</ref>

Other dialects have substituted them respectively by /iː/ and /uː/ and dropped the short /a/ between the first and second consonant of the word.<ref name="singer" /><ref name="cohenK">{{in lang|fr}} Cohen, D. (1962). Koinè, langues communes et dialectes arabes. Arabica, 119-144.</ref><ref>[https://www.webcitation.org/6aNfBNfyz?url=http://web.mit.edu/suyeon/www/Suyeon_Yuns_website/Presentations_files/ALS27_Suyeon.pdf Yun, S. (2013). To Metathesize or Not to Metathesize: Phonological and Morphological Constraints. 27th Annual Arabic Linguistics Symposium. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.]</ref>
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.<ref name="sfaxdt" /> For example, {{lang|aeb|خبز}} /χubz/ is pronounced as [χibz].<ref name="sfaxdt" />

It is also known for the use of specific words, like ''baṛmaqnī'' meaning window.<ref name="sfaxdt" /> Furthermore, it is known for the substitution of [ʒ] by [z] when it comes in the beginning of a word and when that word contains [s] or [z] in its middle or end.<ref name="sfaxdt" /><ref name="mateur" /> For example, {{lang|aeb|جزّار}} /ʒazzaːrˤ/ is pronounced as [zæzzɑːrˤ] and {{lang|aeb|جرجيس}} /ʒarʒiːs/ is pronounced as [zærzi:s].<ref name="sfaxdt" />

Unlike other Tunisian dialects, Sfax dialect does not simplify the last long vowel at the end of a word.<ref name="sfaxdt" /><ref name="singer" /> It is also known for some specific verbs like {{lang|aeb|أرى}} ''aṛā'' (to see) and the use of the demonstrative articles {{lang|aeb|هاكومة}} ''hākūma'' for those and {{lang|aeb|هاكة}} ''hāka'' (m.) and {{lang|aeb|هٰاكي}} ''hākī'' (f.) for that respectively instead of {{lang|aeb|هاذوكم}} ''hāðūkum'' and {{lang|aeb|هاذاكة}} ''hāðāka'' (m.) and {{lang|aeb|هاذيكة}} ''hāðākī'' (f.) determinants.<ref name="sfaxdt" /> Finally, the conjugation of ''mūš'' as a modal verb uses {{lang|aeb|ماهواش}} ''māhūwāš'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماهوش}} ''māhūš'',  {{lang|aeb|ماهياش}} ''māhīyāš'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماهيش}} ''māhīš'', {{lang|aeb|ماحناش}} ''māḥnāš'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماناش}} ''mānāš'' and {{lang|aeb|ماهوماش}} ''māhūmāš'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماهمش}} ''māhumš''.<ref name="cota" /><ref>Harrat, S., Meftouh, K., Abbas, M., Jamoussi, S., Saad, M., & Smaili, K. (2015). Cross-Dialectal Arabic Processing. In Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing (pp.&nbsp;620–632). Springer International Publishing.</ref>

Sfax dialect is also known for its profusion of diminutives.<ref name="sfaxdt" /> For example, 
* {{lang|aeb|قطيطس}} q'''ṭ'''ay'''ṭ'''as (little or friendly cat) for {{lang|aeb|قطّوس}} qa'''ṭṭ'''ūs (cat).<ref name="sfaxdt" /> 
* {{lang|aeb|كليب}} k'''l'''ayi'''b''' (little or friendly dog) for {{lang|aeb|كلب}} ka'''lb''' (dog).<ref name="sfaxdt" />

===Northwestern===
The northwestern dialect is known by pronouncing r as [rˤ] when it is written before an ā or ū.<ref name="mateur" /><ref name="korb">Walters, S. K. (1989). Social Change and Linguistic Variation in Korba a Small Tunisian Town.</ref> 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.<ref name="mateur" /><ref name="korb" /> 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.<ref name="mateur" /><ref name="korb"/> As well, northwestern dialect is known for using {{lang|aeb|مش}} ''miš'' that is pronounced as [məʃ] instead of {{lang|aeb|مانيش}} ''mānīš'' to mean the negation of future predicted action.<ref name="mateur" /> Similarly, the conjugation of {{lang|aeb|مش}} ''miš'' as a modal verb uses {{lang|aeb|مشني}} ''mišnī'' instead of {{lang|aeb|مانيش}} ''mānīš'', {{lang|aeb|مشك}} ''mišk'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماكش}} ''mākš'', {{lang|aeb|مشّو}} ''miššū'' instead of {{lang|aeb|موش}} ''mūš'' and {{lang|aeb|ماهوش}} ''māhūš'', {{lang|aeb|مشها}} ''mišhā'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماهيش}} ''māhīš'', {{lang|aeb|مشنا}} ''mišnā'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماناش}} ''mānāš'', {{lang|aeb|مشكم}} ''miškum'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماكمش}} ''mākumš'' and {{lang|aeb|مشهم}} ''mišhum'' instead of {{lang|aeb|ماهمش}} ''māhumš''.<ref name="mateur" /> Moreover, northwestern dialect is known for the use of {{lang|aeb|نحنا}} ''naḥnā'' instead of {{lang|aeb|أحنا}} ''aḥnā'' as a plural second person personal pronoun<ref name="mateur" /> and the southern area of this Tunisian dialect like [[El Kef]] is known for the use of {{lang|aeb|ناي}} ''nāy'' or {{lang|aeb|ناية}} ''nāya'' instead of {{lang|aeb|آنا}} ''ānā'' (meaning I) excepting [[Kairouan]] that is known for using {{lang|aeb|يانة}} ''yāna'' in this situation.<ref name="mateur" />

===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''.<ref name="Djerba" /> For example, مشى ''mšā'' is conjugated as مشوا ''mšū'' instead of مشاوا ''mšāw'' with the third person of plural.<ref name="Djerba" /> 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.<ref name="phon" /><ref name="cantineau" /><ref name="Djerba" /> 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/.<ref name="phon" /><ref name="gibson"  /><ref name="cantineau" /> Furthermore, this dialect is also known for the use of أنا ''anā'' instead of آنا ''ānā'' (meaning I), the use of حنا ''ḥnā'' instead of أحنا ''aḥnā'' (meaning we), the use of إنتم ''intumm'' (masc.) and إنتن ''intinn'' (fem.) instead of انتوما ''intūma'' (meaning you in plural) and the use of هم ''humm'' (masc.) and هن ''hinn'' (fem.) instead of هوما ''hūma'' (meaning they).<ref name="stud">{{in lang|fr}} Cantineau, J. (1960). Études de linguistique arabe (Vol. 2). Librairie C. Klincksiek.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Saada, L. (1965). Vocabulaire berbère de l'île de Djerba (Gellala). Centre de dialectologie générale.</ref>

===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''.<ref name="douz" /><ref name="saadat" /> For example, مشى ''mšā'' is conjugated as مشوا mšū with the third person of plural.<ref name="douz" /><ref name="saadat" /> Furthermore, this dialect is also known for the use of ناي ''nāy'' instead of آنا ''ānā'' (meaning I), the use of حني ''ḥnī'' instead of أحنا ''aḥnā'' (meaning we), the use of إنتم ''intumm'' (masc.) and إنتن ''intinn'' (fem.) instead of انتوما ''intūma'' (meaning you in plural) and the use of هم ''humm'' (masc.) and هن ''hinn'' (fem.) instead of هوما ''hūma'' (meaning they).<ref name="douz" /><ref name="saadat" /> Moreover, it is known for the pronunciation of ū and ī respectively as [o:] and [e:] in an emphatic or uvular environment.<ref name="douz" /><ref name="saadat" />

==Use and geographical distribution==
Tunisian Arabic is the mother tongue of the Arabic-speaking population in [[Tunisia]].<ref name="curr" /> It is also the second language of the [[Berbers|Berber]] minority living in the country, particularly in some villages of [[Djerba]] and  [[Tataouine]].<ref name="e18" />

However, Tunisian Arabic has the role of the low variety in an example of classic [[diglossia]], and Standard Arabic is the high variety.<ref name="digl">{{cite journal |lang=fr |url=http://gerflint.fr/Base/Tunisie1/salah1.pdf |last1=Mejri |first1=S. |last2=Said |first2=M. |last3=Sfar |first3=I. |year=2009 |title=Pluringuisme et diglossie en Tunisie |journal=Synergies Tunisie |number=1 |pages=53–74}}</ref> As such, the use of Tunisian Arabic is mainly restricted to spoken domains.<ref name="e18" /><ref name="elodie">{{Cite web |title=Le tunisien, l’écrit de la rue |url=https://www.liberation.fr/planete/2014/04/14/le-tunisien-l-ecrit-de-la-rue_997402/ |last=Auffray |first=Elodie |date=2014-04-14 |website=Libération|lang=fr}}</ref> as its written and cultural use began in the 17th century<ref name="histoire" /> and regularly developed since the 20th century only.<ref name="ref1" /> Now, it is used for a wide range of purposes, including communication, politics, literature, theatre, and music.<ref name="elodie"/><ref name="volkme">Volk, L. (Ed.). (2015). The Middle East in the World: An Introduction. Routledge.</ref>

===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.<ref name="eltw">Younes, J., & Souissi, E. (2014). A quantitative view of Tunisian dialect electronic writing. 5th International Conference on Arabic Language Processing, CITALA 2014.</ref> This trend accelerated during the [[Tunisian Revolution|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.<ref name="volkme" />

In religion, the use of Tunisian Arabic in promoting [[Islam]] is limited although there are some trial efforts.<ref>Soliman, A. (2008). The changing role of Arabic in religious discourse: A sociolinguistic study of Egyptian Arabic. ProQuest.</ref> In [[Christianity]], the use of Tunisian Arabic is significant beginning with a 1903 [[New Testament]] translation.<ref name="e18" /><ref name="voix">{{in lang|aeb}} [http://lavoixdecarthage.com/fr/nt?v=1 La Voix de Carthage (2014). New Testament in Tunisian]</ref>
In 2013 and subsequent years, Tunisian author and linguist Mohamed Bacha<ref name="amazon.com/author/mohamedbacha">amazon.com/author/mohamedbacha</ref> published very popular textbooks and references to learn Tunisian Arabic and explore Tunisian culture, aimed to international readers who are fluent in English : ''Tunisian Arabic in 24 lessons'',<ref>{{Cite book |isbn = 978-1494370534|title = Tunisian Arabic in 24 Lessons|last1 = Bacha|first1 = Mohamed|date = 2013-12-04| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> ''Tunisian Arabic in 30 lessons'',<ref>{{Cite book |isbn = 978-1494706982|title = Tunisian Arabic in 30 Lessons: A Course in Tunsi: The Spoken Language in Tunisia|last1 = Bacha|first1 = Mohamed|date = 2013-12-25| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> ''Tunisian Arabic - English dictionary'',<ref>{{Cite book |isbn = 978-1519363428|title = Tunisian Arabic - English Dictionary|last1 = Bacha|first1 = Mohamed|date = 2015-11-17| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> ''Tunisian folklore: folktales, songs, proverbs'',<ref>{{cite book | url=https://www.amazon.com/dp/B076YV8L2S | title=Tunisian Folklore: Folktales. Songs. Proverbs | date=28 October 2017 | publisher=Tunisian Arabic 24 }}</ref> This unique book contains a selection of Tunisia's oral literature and culture : folktales, proverbs, popular songs. In the latter book, the author Mohamed Bacha adapted into written form (through transliteration) and translated into English some of the most representative oral folklore of Tunisia, while keeping its authenticity and unique cultural flavor. In addition to multilingual editions of oral folktales: ''Jabra and the lion'', in Tunisian Arabic, English, French.<ref>{{Cite book |isbn = 978-1986496087|title = Jabra and the Lion Jabra W ESSid: Folktale by the Great Tunisian Storyteller Abdelaziz el Aroui Multilingual Edition of English, Tunisian Arabic (Arabic and Latin Scripts), French, Italian|last1 = Bacha|first1 = Mohamed|date = 2018-03-14| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref> ''Eternal Classic Songs of Tunisia'' (Tunisian, English, French)<ref name="ReferenceA">{{Cite book |isbn = 978-1987544107|title = Eternal Classic Songs of Tunisia to Learn Tunisian Arabic the Fun Way|last1 = Bacha|first1 = Mohamed|date = 2018-04-05| publisher=CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform }}</ref>

===Literature===
Before [[Tunisian independence]], there was a large body of [[folklore|folk tales]] and folk poems in Tunisian Arabic.<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=SmmUAgAAQBAJ&dq=African+Folklore:+An+Encyclopedia&pg=PP1 Peek, P. M., & Yankah, K. (Eds.). (2004). African folklore: An encyclopedia. Routledge.]</ref> It was mainly an [[oral tradition]], told by wandering storytellers and bards at marketplaces and festivals.<ref name="sayahi"/><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Marçais, W., & Guîga, A. (1925). Textes arabes de Takroûna: Textes, transcription et traduction annotée (Vol. 8). Imprimerie nationale</ref> The most important of these folktales are ''il-Jāzya il-hlālīya'' ({{Lang|ar|الجازية الهلالية}}) and ''ḥkāyat ummī sīsī w il-ðīb'' ({{Lang|ar|حكاية أمّي سيسي والذيب}}).<ref name="takamt">. The linguist and author Mohamed Bacha was the first to adapt some folktales from the oral tradition into bilingual publications in English and Tunisian Arabic, using a special latin transliteration system. Mohamed Bacha's transformation of Tunisian oral literature into written form includes folktales such as ''ummī sīsī''{{in lang|fr}}  and folktales told decades ago on radio by the famous storyteller Abdelaziz El Aroui, such as Jabra and the lion, ''jabra w essid'', ''The great and marvelous Akarek'', all met with success by readers worldwide. [http://takamtikou.bnf.fr/categories/Monde%20Atold , (rabe/Contes Takamtikou BNF (2015). Contes du monde arabe. Bibliothèque Nationale de France, BNF 2015]</ref> A few years after independence, the more popular ones were recorded for [[Établissement de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne|ERTT]] broadcast, in Tunisian Arabic by Abdelaziz El Aroui,<ref name="turn">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.turess.com/fr/lapresse/55624 Bouamoud, M. (2012). Where did drama disappear? La Presse de Tunisie, 20 September 2012]</ref> or translated mainly to French and standard Arabic by other authors.<ref name="takamt" /> 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<ref>{{in lang|fr}} {{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20131026112545/http://www.huffpostmaghreb.com/elsa-despiney-ben-hammouda/larabe-dialectal-a-lhonne_b_4143462.html Despiney, E. (2013). Colloquial Arabic in honour. Al Huffington Post, 23 October 2013]}}</ref> and the work of Karen McNeil of 2014.<ref>[http://tunisiya.org/ McNeil, K., Faiza, M. (2014). The Tunisian Arabic Corpus. University of Virginia, tunisiya.org]</ref>

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]]<ref>Granara, William (2010), "Ali al-Du'aji (1909–1949)", in Allen, Roger, Essays in Arabic Literary Biography: 1850–1950, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, {{ISBN|3-447-06141-3}}.</ref> to use Tunisian Arabic in transcribing dialogues in novels and writing some newspapers, the dialogues in the [[Standard Arabic]] Tunisian novels or romans became written in Tunisian Arabic using the Arabic script.<ref name="ref1">{{in lang|ar}} Dhaoudi, R. &, Lahmar, M. (2004). Ali Douagi, The Ghalba Artist and the Taht Essour Troupe ''in'' the Taht Essour Troupe. Cairo: General Egyptian Book Organization, pp.&nbsp;134–145 {{ISBN|978-977-01-8950-4}}</ref><ref name="douagi">{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.tunisianfront.org/%D8%AA%D9%88%D8%A7%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%87-%D8%B9%D8%A8%D8%B1-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AA%D8%A7%D8%B1%D9%8A%D8%AE/%D8%B4%D8%AE%D8%B5%D9%8A%D8%A7%D8%AA-%D9%81%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D8%A3%D8%AF%D8%A8%D9%8A%D8%A9/145-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%8A-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AF%D9%88%D8%B9%D8%A7%D8%AC%D9%8A Tunisian Front (2014). Ali Douagi. Artistic and Literary Personalities, 23 February 2014]</ref><ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.alittihad.ae/details.php?id=4960&y=2008 Yousfi, M.L. (2008). The Grapes. Al Ittihad, 31 January 2008]</ref>

However, since the early 1990s, Hedi Balegh initiated a new trend in Tunisian literature.<ref name="elodie" /> He was the first to translate a novel to Tunisian Arabic in 1997<ref name="stanmd"/><ref name="balegh">{{in lang|aeb}} 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</ref> and to make collections of Tunisian idioms and proverbs in 1994 using Arabic script.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Hédi Balegh, Proverbes tunisiens (tomes I et II), éd. La Presse de Tunisie, Tunis, 1994</ref> Some authors, particularly Tahar Fazaa (mainly in ''Tšanšīnāt Tūnsīya'' ({{Lang|ar|تشنشينات تونسية}}))<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.tunisia-today.com/archives/46146 Ben Gamra, M. (2008). "Tunisian Tricks" : If the tricks were narrated to me. LeQuotidien, 2008] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150702021527/http://www.tunisia-today.com/archives/46146 |date=2 July 2015 }}</ref> and [[Taoufik Ben Brik]] (mainly when writing ''Kalb Bin Kalb'' ({{Lang|ar|كلب بن كلب}})<ref>{{in lang|aeb}} Ben Brik, T. (2013). Kalb Ben Kalb. Tunis: ed. Apollonia</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.tekiano.com/2013/11/08/le-livre-l-kalb-ben-kalb-r-de-taoufik-ben-brick-a-sa-video-sur-youtube-signe-z/ Tanit, S. (2013). The Kalb Ben Kalb Book has a full video version in Youtube signed by User Z. Tekiano, 08 November 2013]</ref> and ''Kawāzākī'' ({{Lang|ar|كوازاكي}})<ref name="brik">{{in lang|aeb}} Ben Brik, T. (2014). Kawazaki, Tunis: ed. Sud Editions</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.tekiano.com/2015/01/14/l-kawazaki-r-le-nouveau-livre-de-lecrivain-et-journaliste-taoufik-ben-brik/ Tanit, S. (2015). Kawazaki, the new book of the author and journalist Taoufik Ben Brik. Tekiano, 14 January 2015]</ref>) 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]].<ref name="thea">[https://books.google.com/books?id=wHHVTax7l20C&dq=%22World+Encyclopedia+of+Contemporary+Theatre+Volume+4%22+%22Tunisian-Egyptian%22&pg=PT263 Maleh, G., Ohan, F., Rubin, D., Sarhan, S., & Zaki, A. (1999). World Encyclopedia of Contemporary Theatre Volume 4: The Arab World. Routledge.]</ref> They faced several objections.<ref name="thea" /> However, it acquired general recognition in Tunisia by the end of [[World War II]].<ref name="thea" /> After [[Tunisian independence]], the government encouraged the development of theater in Tunisian Arabic through the creation of supporting institutions.<ref name="thea" /><ref name="ayed">[https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820405 Fontaine, J., & Slama, M. B. (1992). Arabic-language Tunisian literature (1956–1990). Research in African Literatures, 183–193.]</ref> That resulted in the creation of notable plays in Tunisian Arabic following the trends of world literature between 1965 and 2005.<ref name="thea" /><ref name="ayed" /> The main authors of these plays were [[Jalila Baccar]], {{ill|Fadhel Jaïbi|fr}} and members of the National Theatre troupes of the [[Medina of Tunis]], [[El Kef]] and [[Gafsa]].<ref name="thea" /><ref name="ayed" />

Now, plays are almost always written in Tunisian Arabic except when they are placed in a historical setting.<ref name="thea" /> Plays written in Tunisian Arabic are widely considered as meaningful and valuable ones.<ref name="thea" />

Since the 2011 [[Tunisian Revolution]], there has been a trend of novels written in Tunisian Arabic.<ref>{{Cite web|last=Ayadi|first=Boubaker|date=2019-04-25|title=الظاهرة اللغوية في تونس… عَوْدٌ على بدء {{!}} أبو بكر العيادي|trans-title=The linguistic phenomenon in Tunisia: A return to the beginning|url=https://alarab.co.uk/home-page|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210313192658/https://alarab.co.uk/%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B8%D8%A7%D9%87%D8%B1%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%84%D8%BA%D9%88%D9%8A%D8%A9-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3%E2%80%A6-%D8%B9%D9%8E%D9%88%D9%92%D8%AF%D9%8C-%D8%B9%D9%84%D9%89-%D8%A8%D8%AF%D8%A1|archive-date=2021-03-13|access-date=2021-03-14|website=صحيفة العرب al-Arab|language=ar}}</ref> Since [[Taoufik Ben Brik]]'s ''Kalb Bin Kalb'' ({{Lang|ar|كلب بن كلب}}) in 2013, Tunisian Arabic novels have been written by [[Faten Fazaâ]], [[Anis Ezzine]], [[Amira Charfeddine]], and [[Youssef Chahed (writer)|Youssef Chahed]]. Translation of Tunisian and world literature into Tunisian Arabic have been done by [[Dhia Bousselmi]] and [[Majd Mastoura]].

===Music===
{{See also|Music of Tunisia|Music in Tunisian Arabic}}
The oldest lyrics found written in Tunisian, dates back to the 17th century,<ref name="histoire">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.theses.fr/2007PA083097 Fakhfakh, N. (2007). Le répertoire musical de la confrérie religieuse" al-Karrâriyya" de Sfax (Tunisie) (Doctoral dissertation, Paris8).]</ref> by 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:<ref>{{in lang|ar}} KARRÂY, Abû-l-Hassan al-. "Dîwân Abi-l-Hassan al-KARRÂY" ''in'' [http://www.theses.fr/2007PA083097 Fakhfakh, N. (2007). Le répertoire musical de la confrérie religieuse" al-Karrâriyya" de Sfax (Tunisie) (Doctoral dissertation, Paris8).]</ref>

The effective beginning of Tunisian Arabic written songs came in the early 19th century, when [[History of the Jews in Tunisia|Tunisian Jews]] in the [[Beylik of Tunis]] began writing songs in Tunisian Arabic about love, betrayal and other [[libertine]] subjects.<ref name="histoire" /><ref name="hist">{{in lang|fr}} Manoubi Snoussi, Initiation à la musique tunisienne, vol. I " Musique classique ", Tunis, Centre des musiques arabes et méditerranéennes Ennejma Ezzahra, 2004</ref> The current strengthened at the beginning of the 20th century and affected the Tunisian [[ma'luf]] and folklore.<ref name="histoire" /> Judeo-Tunisian song flowered in the 1930s, with such Jewish artists as Cheikh El Afrit and Habiba Msika.<ref name="hist" /><ref name="comp">{{in lang|fr}} Hamadi Abassi, Tunis chante et danse. 1900–1950, Tunis/Paris, Alif/Du Layeur, 2001</ref>

This tendency was promoted by the creation of [[Radio Tunis]] in 1938 and the creation of [[Établissement de la radiodiffusion-télévision tunisienne]] in 1966,<ref name="comp" /><ref name="history">{{in lang|fr}} Tahar Melligi, Les immortels de la chanson tunisienne, Carthage Dermech, MediaCom, 2000 ({{ISBN|978-9973-807-16-8}})</ref> which allowed many musicians to better disseminate their works and helped spread the use of Tunisian Arabic in songs.<ref name="comp" /><ref name="history" />

At the same time, popular music developed in the early 19th century, using Tunisian Arabic poems accompanied by Tunisian musical instruments like the [[mizwad]].<ref name="hist" /><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.cornemuses.culture.fr/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=479&Itemid=104 MuCEM (2005). Cornemuse Mezwed. Cornemuses de l'Europe et la Méditerranée, Version 2005]</ref> This kind of music was promoted by the National Troupe of the Popular Arts, created in 1962.<ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.turess.com/assabah/51250 Ben Nhila, A. (2011). Recruitment needed: National Troupe of the Popular Arts. alchourouk, 22 March 2011]</ref> Later adaptation and promotion of popular songs, especially by Ahmed Hamza and later Kacem Kefi, further developed [[Music of Tunisia|Tunisian music.]]<ref name="history" /> Natives of Sfax, they were both influenced by Mohamed Ennouri and Mohamed Boudaya, leading masters of popular music in that city.<ref name="histoire" /><ref name="history" /> Nowadays, this kind of music is very popular.<ref>[http://iipc.utu.fi/MHM/Barone.pdf Barone, S. (2015). Metal Identities in Tunisia: Locality, Islam, Revolution. International Academic Conference, IAC 2015]</ref>

Tunisian Arabic became the main variety used in writing lyrics of songs in [[Tunisia]] and even the main [[musicology|technical words]] in music have their synonyms in Tunisian Arabic.<ref name="histoire" />

In the early 1990s, [[underground music]] in Tunisian Arabic appeared.<ref name="curry">[https://web.archive.org/web/20160420045127/http://edition.cnn.com/2011/WORLD/meast/03/02/tunisia.rappers.balti/ Neil Curry, " Tunisia's rappers provide soundtrack to a revolution ", ''CNN'', 2 mars 2011]</ref> This mainly consisted of rap and was not successful in the beginning because of the lack of media coverage.<ref name="curry" /> 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 music|Rock]].<ref name="curry" /><ref name="rock">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.jetsetmagazine.net/culture/revue,presse/la-scene-rock-en-tunisie.21.7601.html Almi, H. (2009). "The Rock Scene in Tunisia". ''Réalités'', 21 avril 2009]</ref>

In 2014, the first [[opera]] songs in Tunisian Arabic had appeared.<ref name="tun1">{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.turess.com/fr/lapresse/87420 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.]</ref> They were the ones of Yosra Zekri that were written by Emna Rmilli and composed by Jalloul Ayed.<ref name="tun1" />
In 2018, the Tunisian linguist Mohamed Bacha<ref name="amazon.com/author/mohamedbacha"/><ref name="tunisianarabic24.blogspot.com">{{cite web |url=https://tunisianarabic24.blogspot.com/ |title=Home |website=tunisianarabic24.blogspot.com}}</ref> published ''Eternal Classic Songs of Tunisia''<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The mythical classic Tunisian songs presented in this book were performed by artists popular in Tunisia's urban centers in the 1950s, 60s, 70s, 80s. The lyrics of these beautiful songs are in natural and authentic Tunisian Arabic, the spoken language of Tunisia. The singers performed with Western and Egyptian-like orchestra ensembles, in addition to a Chorus that repeats some verses in a beautiful, unique Tunisian manner, in some songs like ‘’O The Beauty of The Desert”<ref name="tunisianarabic24.blogspot.com"/> and ‘’How Could you believe it!?’’<ref name="tunisianarabic24.blogspot.com"/> 
The music of the songs was composed by great professional musicians such as Boubaker El Mouldi, Mohamed Triki, Salah El Mahdi, Ridha Kalaï, Ali Riahi, Kaddour Srarfi, Chedly Anouar, Hedi Jouini. The lyrics written by poets like Omar Ben Salem, Mahmoud Bourguiba, Mohamed Bouthina. Only rarely was the singer himself at the same time the music composer, as in the case of Ali Riahi in some of his songs. Some of the best Tunisian classic songs were selected from the rich traditional musical folklore.

===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,<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.tangka.com/guide/guide-voyage-tunisie/arts-tunisie.php Un cinéma dynamique (Tangka Guide)]</ref><ref>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</ref> and were done in Tunisian Arabic.<ref>Armes, R. (2006). African filmmaking: North and South of the Sahara. Indiana University Press.</ref><ref name="lang">Robert Lang, ''New Tunisian Cinema: Allegories of Resistance'', Columbia University Press, 2014, {{ISBN|978-0-231-16507-5}}.</ref> Some of them achieved relative success outside Tunisia, such as ''La Goulette'' (''ḥalq il-wād'' ({{Lang|ar|حلق الواد}}), 1996), ''Halfaouine: Child of the Terraces'' (''ʿaṣfūr il-sṭaḥ'' ({{Lang|ar|عصفور السطح}}), 1990), and ''[[Les Ambassadeurs (film)|The Ambassadors]]'' (''il-sufaṛā'' ({{Lang|ar|السفراء}}), 1975).<ref name="lang" />

Television and radio programs in Tunisian Arabic began officially in 1966 with the establishment of the [[Établissement de la Radiodiffusion-Télévision Tunisienne]].<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=N05kAgAAQBAJ&dq=A+History+of+Modern+Tunisia&pg=PR6 Perkins, K. (2014). A history of modern Tunisia. Cambridge University Press.]</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=6WsdBQAAQBAJ&dq=Arab+Television+industries&pg=PP1 Khalil, J., & Kraidy, M. M. (2009). Arab television industries. Palgrave Macmillan.]</ref>
Tunisian Arabic is now widely used for all television and radio programs, with the exception of news, religious programs and historical dramas.<ref name="enma"/><ref name="turn" /> There is even several translations of cartoon series in Tunisian Arabic, like during the 1980s Qrīnaṭ il-šalwāš ({{Lang|ar|قرينط الشلواش}}) and Mufattiš kaʿbūṛa ({{Lang|ar|مفتّش كعبورة}}).<ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.alhiwar.net/ShowNews.php?Tnd=22200 Guirat, A. (2011). Codified Nessma TV message. AlHiwar.net, 11 October 2011]</ref> As well, foreign [[Television series]] begun to be translated to Tunisian Arabic in 2016.<ref name="ness">{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.turess.com/tuniscope/86009 Tuniscope Journal (2016). Nessma TV shows her translated Turkish television series qlūb il-rummān. Tuniscope, 07 January 2016]</ref> The first translation of foreign television series was entitled Qlūb il-rummān ({{Lang|ar|قلوب الرمان}}) and was developed by [[Nessma TV]] from the Turkish television series Kaderimin Yazıldığı Gün.<ref name="ness" /><ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.turess.com/assabahnews/115991 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]</ref>

Some Tunisian Arabic works acquired some honors in the broader [[Arab world]] like the ASBU Festival First Prize in 2015.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [http://www.lapressenews.tn/article/le-feuilleton-tunisien-naaouret-el-hwa-premier-prix-au-festival-de-l-asbu/151/1788 TAP (2015). Tunisian Television series "Naaouret El Hwa" received the first prize in ASBU Festival. La Presse de Tunisie, 17 May 2015] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304114343/http://www.lapressenews.tn/article/le-feuilleton-tunisien-naaouret-el-hwa-premier-prix-au-festival-de-l-asbu/151/1788 |date=4 March 2016 }}</ref> and the Festival of Arab Media Creation Prize in 2008.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} [https://archive.today/20151108103212/http://archive.mosaiquefm.net/index/a/ActuDetail/Element/5355-%C2%ABSayd-Errim%C2%BB-une-reconnaissance-et-pas-des-moindres.html Ouertani, N. (2008). "Sayd Errim", A recognition at least! Mosaique FM, 17 November 2008]</ref>

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.<ref name="dig" />

However, the main newspapers in Tunisia are not written in Tunisian Arabic<ref name="dig" /><ref name="digl" /> although there were trials to establish humoristic newspapers in Tunisian Arabic<ref>Baccouche, T. (1998). La langue arabe dans le monde arabe. ''L'Information Grammaticale'', 2(1), 49-54.</ref> like ''kull šay b- il-makšūf'' ({{Lang|ar|كل شيء بالمكشوف}}) 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.<ref name="douagi" /> 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.<ref name="dig" /><ref name="dig1"/>

==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/ (ڥ) and /p/ (پ).<ref name="cota" /><ref name="Brustad, K. 2000">Brustad, K. (2000). The syntax of spoken Arabic: A comparative study of Moroccan, Egyptian, Syrian, and Kuwaiti dialects. Georgetown University Press.</ref>

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.<ref name="histoire"/> However, transcription of Tunisian Arabic was not common until 1903, when the [[Gospel of John]] was transcribed in Tunisian Arabic using Arabic script.<ref name="e18" /><ref name="voix"/> After the [[World War I]], the use of Arabic script to Tunisian Arabic became very common with the works of [[Taht Essour]].<ref name="ref1"/><ref name="douagi"/> Nowadays, it has become the main script used for Tunisian Arabic, even in published books,<ref name="balegh"/><ref name="brik"/> but writing conventions for Tunisian Arabic are not standardized and can change from one book to another.<ref name="cota" /><ref name="balegh" /><ref name="brik" />

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]].<ref name="cota" /> 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.<ref name="cota" />

===Latin script===
{{See also|Latin script|Romanization of Arabic}}
[[File:marcaisl.png|thumbnail|Phonemic transcription method of Tunisian Arabic and [[Algerian Arabic]] into [[Latin script]] used by [[William Marçais]] in 1908<ref name="marcaisl">{{in lang|fr}} Marçais, W. (1908). Le dialecte arabe des Ulad Brahim de Saîda. Paris: BNF, pp. 101–102</ref>]]

====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]].<ref>{{in lang|de}} Holger Preissler: ''[http://menadoc.bibliothek.uni-halle.de/dmg/periodical/titleinfo/150669 Die Anfänge der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft]''. In: [[Zeitschrift der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft]] 145/2, Hubert, Göttingen 1995.</ref> Soon, the organization developed a transcription system for Arabic in Latin script.<ref name="guddat">{{in lang|de}} Guddat, T. H. (Ed.). (2010). Das Gebetbuch für Muslime. Verlag Der Islam.</ref> Its system was a phonemic transcription of Arabic written with an [[extended Latin alphabet]] and [[Macron (diacritic)|macron]]s for long vowels.<ref name="guddat" /> However, this Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft transcription was first tried on Tunisian only after the establishment of the [[French Protectorate of Tunisia]] in 1881.<ref name="singer">{{in lang|de}} Singer, Hans-Rudolf (1984) ''Grammatik der arabischen Mundart der Medina von Tunis''. Berlin: Walter de Gruyter.</ref>

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.<ref name="stumme">{{in lang|de}} Stumme, H. (1896). Grammatik des tunisischen Arabisch, nebst Glossar. Leipzig: Henrichs.</ref><ref>{{in lang|de}} Stumme, H. (1893). Tunisische Maerchen und Gedichte.. (Vol. 1). JC Hinrichs.</ref> In addition, from 1897 to 1935, a series of linguistic works were conducted by several French members of the DMG, like William Marçais,<ref name="takr">{{in lang|fr}} Marçais, W., & Guîga, A. (1925). Textes arabes de Takroûna (Vol. 2). Éditions E. Leroux.</ref><ref name="gabe">{{in lang|fr}} Marçais, W., & Farès, J. (1933). Trois textes arabes d'El-Hâmma de Gabès. Impr. nationale.</ref> [[Philippe Marçais]],<ref name="marcaisp">{{in lang|fr}} Marçais, P. (1977). Esquisse grammaticale de l'arabe maghrébin. Langues d'Amerique et d'Orient, Paris, Adrien Maisonneuve.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Marçais, P., & Hamrouni, M. S. (1977). Textes d'arabe maghrébin. J. Maisonneuve.</ref> David Cohen<ref name="cohend">{{in lang|fr}} Cohen, D. (1970). Les deux parlers arabes de Tunis. Notes de phonologie comparée. In his Études de linguistique semitique et arabe, 150(7).</ref> and Alfred Nicolas.<ref name="dico">{{in lang|fr}} Nicolas, A. (1911). Dictionnaire français-arabe: idiome tunisien. J. Saliba & Cie.</ref> These works included corpuses,<ref name="takr" /><ref name="gabe" /> grammar books,<ref name="marcaisp" /> dictionaries,<ref name="dico" /> or studies.<ref name="cohend" />  By 1935, the DMG transcription included many unique letters and diacritics for Tunisian not used for Arabic,<ref name="dmgt">{{in lang|de}} Brockelmann, C. (eds.). Die Transliteration der arabischen Schrift in ihrer Anwendung auf die Hauptliteratursprachen der islamischen Welt. Denkschrift dem 19. Internationalen Orientalistenkongreß in Rom. vorgelegt von der Transkriptionskommission der Deutschen Morgenländischen Gesellschaft. Brockhaus, Leipzig 1935.</ref> such as, à, è, ù and ì, for short and accentuated vowels.<ref name="marcaisl" /> 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.<ref name="dmgt" /> From 1935 to 1985, most of the linguists working on Tunisian Arabic such as Gilbert Boris,<ref name="borisg"/> Hans Rudolf Singer,<ref name="singer" /><ref>{{in lang|de}} Singer, H. R. (1994). Ein arabischer Text aus dem alten Tunis. Semitische Studien unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der Südsemitistik, 275–284.</ref> Lucienne Saada<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Saada, L. (1964). Caractéristiques du parler arabe de l'île de Djerba (Tunisie).
Groupe Linguistique d'Études Chamito-Sémitiques 10: 15–21.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Saada, L. (1984). Eléments de description du parler arabe de Tozeur, Tunisie: phonologie, morphologie, syntaxe. Paris: Geuthner Diff.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Houri-Pasotti, M., & Saada, L. (1980). Dictons et proverbes tunisiens. Littérature Orale Arabo-Berbère. Bulletin Paris, (11), 127–191.</ref> and others,<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="peacebg" /> adopted the modified DMG.

As of 2016, [[DIN 31635|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.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="douz"/><ref name="dallaji">{{in lang|de}} [http://othes.univie.ac.at/11105/1/2010-09-08_0502303.pdf Dallaji-Hichri, I. (2010). Hochzeitsbräuche in Nābil (Tunesien) (Doctoral dissertation, uniwien).]</ref>

====Additional scripts====
* '''[[Phonetic transcription|Phonetic Transcription]]''':

Even if the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft transcription was abundantly used in early linguistic researches about Tunisian,<ref name="marcaisl" /><ref name="dallaji" /> some trials were performed in order to create alternative Latin scripts and writing methods.<ref name="eltw" /><ref name="inglefield1">Inglefield, P. L. (1970). Tunisian Arabic Basic Course. Volumes 1 and 2.</ref> 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 [[syntax|syntactic]].<ref name="cota" /><ref name="Jourdan, J. 1952">{{in lang|fr}} Jourdan, J. (1952). Cours pratique et complet d'arabe vulgaire, grammaire et vocabulaire: dialecte tunisien, 1. année. C. Abela.</ref><ref name="Brustad, K. 2000"/>

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.<ref name="abel">{{in lang|fr}} [http://books.openedition.org/editionsbnf/247 Messaoudi, A. (2013). Progrès de la science, développement de l'enseignement secondaire et affirmation d'une " méthode directe " (1871–1930). ''in'' Larzul, S., & Messaoudi, A. (2013). Manuels d'arabe d'hier et d'aujourd'hui : France et Maghreb, XIXe-XXIe siècle. Paris : Éditions de la Bibliothèque nationale de France.] {{ISBN|978-2-7177-2584-1}}.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Jourdan, J. (1913). Cours normal et pratique d'arabe vulgaire. Vocabulaire, historiettes, proverbes, chants. Dialecte tunisien. Mme. veuve L. Namura.</ref> Its principle was to use French consonant and vowel digraphs and phonology to transcribe non-Latin sounds.<ref name="abel" /> 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.<ref name="Battesti">{{in lang|fr}} [http://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00004609 Battesti, Vincent (2005). Jardins au désert: Évolution des pratiques et savoirs oasiens: Jérid tunisien. Paris: IRD éditions.] {{ISBN|978-2-7177-2584-1}}.</ref> 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.<ref name="Jourdan, J. 1952" /><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Jourdan, J. (1937). Cours normal et pratique d'arabe vulgaire. Vocabulaire, historiettes, proverbes, chants. Dialecte tunisien, 2 me année. Mme. veuve L. Namura.</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Jourdan, J. (1956). Cours pratique d'Arabe dialectal. C. Abela.</ref> Moreover, it is still presently used in French books to transcribe Tunisian Arabic.<ref name="Battesti" /> The method was used in 1995 by the Tunisian Arabizi, an [[Arabic chat alphabet]], converting the consonant digraphs into digits.<ref name="sayahi" /><ref name="curr" /><ref name="volkme"/> 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/.<ref name="volkme"/><ref name="eltw" /> The ch, dh, and th digraphs were kept in Tunisian Arabizi.<ref name="volkme"/> 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].<ref name="eltw" /><ref name="pluT" /> Sometimes, users differentiate between short and long vowels by dropping short ones.<ref name="eltw" /><ref name="pluT" /> Like all other Arabic chat alphabets, its use spread considerably during the 1990s mainly with the Tunisian young people.<ref name="sayahi" /><ref name="curr" /><ref>Gelbukh, A. (2011). Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing. Springer.</ref> Nowadays, it is used principally on social networks and mobile phones.<ref name="volkme"/><ref name="eltw" /> Also, during the [[Tunisian Revolution of 2011]], Tunisian Arabizi was the main script used for message transmission on internet.<ref>[http://languagemagazine.com/LangPages/Arabic_Script_Aug11.pdf Saghbini, S., & Zaidi, R. (2011). Changing the Face of Arabic. Language Magazine, August 2011, pp. 31–36]</ref><ref>{{in lang|fr}} Cifoletti, G. (2009). Italianismes dans les dialectes arabes (surtout Égyptien et Tunisien). Romanisierung in Afrika: der Einfluss des Französischen, Italienischen, Portugiesischen und Spanischen auf die indigenen Sprachen Afrikas</ref> After 2011, more interest was given to Tunisian Arabizi<ref name="pluT">Masmoudi, A., [[Nizar Habash|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.</ref><ref name="arabizi1">Mohamed, R., Farrag, M., Elshamly, N., & Abdel-Ghaffar, N. (2011). Summary of Arabizi or Romanization: The dilemma of writing Arabic texts</ref> and in 2013, a concise grammar book about Tunisian, written with Tunisian Arabizi, was issued.<ref>Bacha, M. (2013), Tunisian Arabic in 24 Lessons. Amazon.com. First Edition</ref> In 2016, Tunisian Arabizi has been recognized by ''Ethnologue'' as an official informal script for writing Tunisian.<ref name="e19">Lewis, M. P., Simons, G. F., & Fennig, C. D. (2016). Ethnologue: Languages of the world (Vol. 19). Dallas, TX: SIL international.</ref> 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.<ref name="arabizi1" /><ref>Bies, A., Song, Z., Maamouri, M., Grimes, S., Lee, H., Wright, J., ... & Rambow, O. (2014). Transliteration of Arabizi into Arabic Orthography: Developing a Parallel Annotated Arabizi-Arabic Script SMS/Chat Corpus. ANLP 2014, 93.</ref> 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.<ref>[http://dar.aucegypt.edu/bitstream/handle/10526/3167/ThesisArabizi_is_it_a_writing_variety_worth_learning.pdf?sequence=1 Farrag, M. (2012). Arabizi: a writing variety worth learning? an exploratory study of the views of foreign learners of Arabic on Arabizi. (American University of Cairo, M.Sc. Thesis)]</ref>

Although they are popular, both methods have problems such as the possibility of ambiguity between digraphs,<ref name="unesco">[http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0003/000334/033415EB.pdf UNESCO Organization (1978). Memorandum on the Transcription and Harmonization of African Languages. The 1978 UNESCO meeting on the transcription and harmonization of African Languages, June 1978]</ref> 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,<ref name="unesco" /> and the lack of disambiguation between /ð/ and /ðˤ/.<ref name="Battesti" />

A translation of ''[[Le Petit Nicolas]]'' by Dominique Caubet uses a phonetic transcription.<ref>Goscinny, R., & Sempé, J.-J. (2013). ''Le Petit Nicolas en arabe maghrébin''. (D. Caubet, Trans.) Paris: IMAV éditions.</ref>

[[File:US-Official-PeaceCorps-Logo.svg|thumbnail|100 px|Logo of [[Peace 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.<ref name="inglefield1"/> 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/.<ref name="inglefield1" /> Moreover, three additional Latin letters are used in this writing method that are 3 (/ʕ/), ø (/ð/) and ħ (/ħ/).<ref name="inglefield1" /> Four common English digraphs are used that are d͟h (/ðˤ/), g͟h (/ʁ/), t͟h (/tˤ/) and s͟h (/ʃ/).<ref name="inglefield1" /> In order to distinguish the digraphs from the independent letters written like the digraphs, the digraphs are underlined.<ref name="inglefield1" /> As for the vowels, they are written as å (glottal stop or /ʔ/), ā (/æ/), ā: (/ɛ:/), a (short a or /a/), a: (long a or /a:/), i (short i or /i/), i: (long i or /i:/), u (short u or /u/), u: (Long u or /u:/).<ref name="inglefield1" /> This method was used in the Peace Corps books about Tunisian Arabic until 1993, when [[Peace Corps]] Tunisia became inactive.<ref name="peacend">Choura, A. (1993). Competency Based Language Education Curriculum Guide.[Tunisian Arabic.].</ref><ref name="peacecs">[http://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED183018.pdf Ben Abdelkader, R., & Naouar, A. (1979). Peace Corps/Tunisia Course in Tunisian Arabic.]</ref><ref name="begp">Amor, T. B. (1990). A Beginner's Course in Tunisian Arabic.</ref>

* '''[[Transliteration|Syntactic Transliteration]]''':

After years of works on a phonetic transliteration of Tunisian, linguists decided that the transliteration should be mainly [[syntax|syntactic]].<ref name="buck" /> Timothy Buckwalter created an orthography-based transcription of Arabic texts during his work for Xerox.<ref>[http://www.qamus.org/transliteration.htm Buckwalter, T. (2002). Arabic transliteration.]</ref> [[Buckwalter transliteration|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.<ref name="buck">[https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Alexander_Clark3/publication/227194548_Supervised_and_Unsupervised_Learning_of_Arabic_Morphology/links/0c9605266d1e8df524000000.pdf%23page%3D31 Buckwalter, T. (2007). Issues in Arabic morphological analysis. In Arabic computational morphology (pp. 23–41). Springer Netherlands.]</ref> In 2004, Tunisian linguist Mohamed Maamouri proposed to use the same transliteration for Arabic dialects and mainly Tunisian.<ref>[https://www.ldc.upenn.edu/sites/www.ldc.upenn.edu/files/ears-rt04-dialectal-arabic-transcription.pdf Maamouri, M., Graff, D., Jin, H., Cieri, C., & Buckwalter, T. (2004). Dialectal Arabic Orthography‐based Transcription. In EARS RT‐04 Workshop.]</ref> 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.<ref>[[Nizar Habash|Habash, N.]], [[Mona Diab|Diab, M. T.]], & Rambow, O. (2012). Conventional Orthography for Dialectal Arabic.
In LREC (pp. 711‐718).</ref><ref>[[Nizar Habash|Habash, N.]], Roth, R., Rambow, O., Eskander, R., & Tomeh, N. (2013). Morphological Analysis and Disambiguation for Dialectal Arabic. In HLT‐NAACL(pp. 426‐432).</ref>
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]].<ref>Zribi, I., Graja, M., Khmekhem, M. E., Jaoua, M., & Belguith, L. H. (2013). Orthographic transcription for spoken tunisian arabic. In Computational Linguistics and Intelligent Text Processing (pp. 153–163). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.</ref> In fact, a morphological analysis method and a conventional orthography for Tunisian Arabic using this method were posted by 2014.<ref name="cota" /><ref>Zribi, I., Khemakhem, M. E., & Belguith, L. H. (2013). Morphological Analysis of Tunisian Dialect. In proceeding of the International Joint Conference on Natural Language Processing, Nagoya, Japan (pp. 992–996).</ref>
However, the method is currently used for computer operations only<ref name="cota" /> 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.<ref>[http://www.ils.unc.edu/MSpapers/3385.pdf Lawson, D. R. (2008). An Evaluation of Arabic transliteration methods. School of Information and Library Science, North Carolina.]</ref><ref name="syst">Lawson, D. R. (2010). An assessment of Arabic transliteration systems. Technical Services Quarterly, 27(2), 164-177.</ref> Furthermore, p does not correspond to /p/ but to ﺓ.<ref name="hbsone">[[Nizar Habash|Habash, N.]], Soudi, A., & Buckwalter, T. (2007). "[http://nizarhabash.com/publications/chapter2BisHabash_et_al-2007-web.pdf On Arabic transliteration]". In ''Arabic computational morphology'' (pp.&nbsp;15–22). Springer Netherlands.</ref> 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.<ref name="hbsone" /> 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.<ref name="syst" />

==Vocabulary==
{{cleanup lang|date=May 2019}}

===Non-Arabic words===
The most immediately apparent difference between Tunisian and Standard Arabic is the extensive use of native, substratum words of Latin and [[Berber languages|Berber]] etymology or borrowed ones from Italian, Spanish, French and [[Turkish language|Turkish]].<ref name="singer" /> For example, electricity is كهرباء ''kahraba'' in standard Arabic. It is تريسيتي ''trīsītī'' in Tunisian Arabic (a word used mainly by older people), from the French ''électricité''.<ref name="singer" /><ref name="Larousse">{{in lang|fr}} Larousse Editions. (2004). Le petit Larousse illustré en couleurs: 87000 articles, 5000 illustrations, 321 cartes, cahiers thématiques, chronologie universelle. 2005. Larousse Editions.</ref> Other loans from French include برتمان ''buṛtmān'' (flat), and بياسة ''byāsa'' (coin).<ref name="singer" /> Furthermore, there are words and structures that came from Turkish, such as ڨاوري ''gāwrī'' (foreigner) (''[[Giaour|Gavur]]'') as well as the suffix of occupation  as in بوصطاجي ''būṣṭājī'' (post officer) and كوّارجي ''kawwāṛjī'' (football player).<ref name="singer" /> A sample of words derived from Latin, French, Italian, Turkish, Berber, Greek or Spanish is below:<ref name="cota" />

{| class="wikitable"
! Tunisian Arabic !! Standard Arabic !! English !! Etymology of Tunisian Arabic{{Citation needed|date=March 2022|reason=Citations for how the Tunisian word derives from its alleged etymon, not for the etymology of the foreign word.}}
|-
| {{lang|aeb|بابور}} ḅaḅūr || {{lang|ar|سفينة}} {{IPA|/safiːna/}} || ship || Turkish:<ref>{{in lang|tr}} [http://www.nisanyansozluk.com/?k=vapur&x=0&y=0 Nişanyan, S. (2009). Sözlerin soyağacı: çağdaş Türkçenin etimolojik sözlüğü (Vol. 1). Everest Yayınları.]</ref> ''vapur'' meaning "steamboat"
|-
| {{lang|aeb|باكو}} bakū || {{lang|ar|صندوق}} {{IPA|/sˤundu:q/}} || package || Italian:<ref name="italiano" /> ''pacco''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|بانكة}} ḅanka || {{lang|ar|بنك}} {{IPA|/bank/}} || bank || Italian:<ref name="italiano" /> ''banca''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|بلاصة}} bḷaṣa || {{lang|ar|مكان}} {{IPA|/makaːn/}} || place ||Spanish:<ref name="spagnolo">{{in lang|es}} Real Academia Española (2014). Diccionario de la lengua española. Planeta Publishing.</ref>{{Failed verification|date=March 2022|reason=The DRAE does not mention Tunisian derivations.}}''plaza''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|داكردو}} dakūrdū || {{lang|ar|حسنا}} {{IPA|/ħasanan/}} || okay || Italian:<ref name="italiano">{{in lang|it}} Cortelazzo, M., & Zolli, P. (1988). Dizionario etimologico della lingua italiana. Zanichelli.</ref> ''d'accordo''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|فيشتة}} fišta || {{lang|ar|عيد}} {{IPA|/ʕiːd/}} || holiday || Latin:<ref name="Glare, P. G. 1982">Glare, P. G. (1982). Oxford latin dictionary. Clarendon Press. Oxford University Press.</ref> ''festa''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|كرّوسة}} kaṛṛūsa || {{lang|ar|عربة}} {{IPA|/ʕaraba/}} || carriage || Italian: ''carrozza''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|كيّاس}} kayyās || {{lang|ar|طريق معبد}} {{IPA|/tˤarīq maʕbad/}} || roadway || Spanish: ''calles''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|كوجينة}} kūjīna || {{lang|ar|مطبخ}} {{IPA|/matˤbax/}} || kitchen || Italian: ''cucina''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|كسكسي}} kusksī || {{lang|ar|كسكسي}} {{IPA|/kuskusi/}} || [[couscous]] || Berber:<ref>Bourdieu, P. (1977). A theory of practice. (Trans. R. Nice). Cambridge University Press.</ref> ''seksu''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|كلسيطة}} kalsīta || {{lang|ar|جورب}} {{IPA|/jawrab/}} || sock || Italian: ''calzetta''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|قطّوس}} qaṭṭūs || {{lang|ar|قط}} {{IPA|/qitˤː/}} || cat || Latin:<ref name="Glare, P. G. 1982"/> ''cattus''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|سبيطار}} sbīṭaṛ || {{lang|ar|مستشفىً}} {{IPA|/mustaʃfa:/}} || hospital || Latin:<ref name="Glare, P. G. 1982"/> ''hospitor''
|-
| {{lang|aeb|سفنارية}} sfinārya || {{lang|ar|جزر}} {{IPA|/jazar/}} || carrot || Greek:<ref>[https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.04.0057%3Aentry%3Dstafuli%3Dnos George, L. H., Scott, R., & Jones, H. S. (1948). A Greek-English Lexicon.]</ref>{{Failed verification|date=March 2022|reason=No mention of Tunisian Arabic}} ''σταφυλῖνος ἄγριος'' (stafylīnos ā́grios)
|}

Those words are not to be confused with the actual use of French words or sentences in everyday speech by Tunisians ([[code-switching|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'' {{IPAblink|ʁ}}, which is often replaced, especially by men, with {{IPAblink|r}}.<ref name="jabeur">Jabeur, Mohamed (1987) "A Sociolinguistic Study in Rades: Tunisia".  Ph.D. Thesis, University of Reading</ref> For example, many Tunisians, when asking "How are you?" will use the French ''"ça va?"'' instead of, and in addition to the Tunisian لاباس ''(lebes) ''. It is difficult in this case to establish whether it is an example of using French or borrowing.<ref name="jabeur" />

In general, concerning the case of loanwords, they are adapted to Tunisian phonology for years until they become pronounced with basic Tunisian Arabic sounds only.<ref name="singer" /><ref name="maamouri">Maamouri, M. (1967). The Phonology of Tunisian Arabic. Ithaca: Cornell University.</ref> For example, the French word ''apartement'' became برتمان ''buṛtmān'' and the Italian word ''pacco'' became باكو ''bakū''.<ref name="singer" /><ref>Bacha, S., Ghozi, R., Jaidane, M., & Gouider-Khouja, N. (2012, July). Arabic adaptation of Phonology and Memory test using entropy-based analysis of word complexity. In Information Science, Signal Processing and their Applications (ISSPA), 2012 11th International Conference on (pp.&nbsp;672–677). IEEE.</ref>

===Shift in meanings===
The greatest number of differences between Tunisian and standard Arabic is not due to the influences from other languages but to a shift in meaning of several Arabic roots.<ref name="gibson11">Gibson, M. (2002). Dialect levelling in Tunisian Arabic: towards a new spoken standard. Language Contact and Language Conflict Phenomena in Arabic, 24-40.</ref> For example, {{IPA|/x-d-m/}} means "serve" in Standard Arabic but "work" in Tunisian Arabic; meanwhile, {{IPA|/ʕ-m-l/}} means "work" in Standard Arabic but has a broader meaning of "do" in Tunisian Arabic; and {{IPA|/m-ʃ-j/}} in Tunisian Arabic means "go" rather than "walk" as in Standard Arabic.<ref name="gibson" />

In general, meaning shift happens when there is a lexical implication of the society speaking the language so the social situation and the 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<ref>[http://www.justinecassell.com/discourse09/readings/EckertLSA2005.pdf Eckert, P. (2005, January). Variation, convention, and social meaning. In Annual Meeting of the Linguistic Society of America. Oakland CA (Vol. 7).]</ref><ref>[http://ucrel.lancs.ac.uk/acl/W/W91/W91-0208.pdf Ostler, N., & Atkins, B. T. S. (1992). Predictable meaning shift: some linguistic properties of lexical implication rules. In Lexical Semantics and knowledge representation (pp.&nbsp;87–100). Springer Berlin Heidelberg.]</ref> and that is exactly what happened in Tunisia.<ref name="gibson11" /> In fact, the influences of rhetoric and semantic structures from other contact languages like French helped the meaning shift in Tunisian.<ref name="sayahidigl">{{cite journal | last1 = Sayahi | first1 = L | year = 2007 | title = Diglossia and contact-induced language change | journal = International Journal of Multilingualism | volume = 4 | issue = 1| pages = 38–51 | doi=10.2167/ijm046.0| s2cid = 143846996 }}</ref><ref name="gibson11" />

===Word fusion===
In Tunisian, some new words and structures were created through the fusion of two words or more.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}} Almost all question words fall into the latter category. 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 مشيتش (I did not go).<ref name="gibson" />

The table below shows a comparison of various question words in Tunisian, Standard Arabic and English:<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi">Talmoudi, Fathi (1979) ''The Arabic Dialect of Sûsa (Tunisia)''. Göteborg: Acta Universitatis Gothoburgensis.</ref>

{| class="wikitable"
|-
! Tunisian Arabic !! Construction !! Standard Arabic !! English
|-
| škūn {{lang|aeb|شكون}} || āš + kūn {{lang|aeb|آش + كون}} || {{lang|ar|من}} {{IPA|/man/}} || who
|-
| šnūwa {{lang|aeb|شنو}} (masc.)<br />šnīya (fem.) {{lang|aeb|شني}} <br /> āš {{lang|aeb|آش}} || āš + n + (h)ūwa {{lang|aeb|آش + هو}} <br /> āš + n + (h)īya {{lang|aeb|آش + هي}} <br /> āš {{lang|aeb|آش}} || {{lang|ar|ماذا}} {{IPA|/maːða/}} || what
|-
| waqtāš {{lang|aeb|وقتاش}} || waqt + āš {{lang|aeb|وقت + آش}} || {{lang|ar|متى}} {{IPA|/mata/}} || when
|-
| lwāš {{lang|aeb|لواش}} || l- + āš {{lang|aeb|ل + آش}} || {{lang|ar|لماذا}} {{IPA|/limaːða/}} || for what reason
|-
| ʿlāš {{lang|aeb|علاش}} || ʿlā + āš {{lang|aeb|على + آش}} || {{lang|ar|لماذا}} {{IPA|/limaːða/}} || why
|-
| kīfāš {{lang|aeb|كيفاش}} || kīf + āš {{lang|aeb|كيف + آش}} || {{lang|ar|كيف}} {{IPA|/kajfa/}} || how
|-
| qaddāš {{lang|aeb|قدّاش}} || qadd + āš {{lang|aeb|قدّ + آش}} || {{lang|ar|كم}} {{IPA|/kam/}} || how much
|-
| mnāš {{lang|aeb|مناش}} || min + āš {{lang|aeb|من + آش}} ||  {{lang|ar|من أين}} {{IPA|/man ʔajna/}} || from what
|-
| fāš {{lang|aeb|فاش}} || fī + āš {{lang|aeb|في + آش}} ||  {{lang|ar|في من}} {{IPA|/fi man/}} || in what, what
|-
| wīn {{lang|aeb|وين}} || w + ayn {{lang|aeb|و + اين}} ||  {{lang|ar|أين}} {{IPA|/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 إنت ''škūnik intī'' or simply شكونك ''škūnik'' and "how much is this" becomes بقدّاش ''b-qaddāš''.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

Another example of word fusion in Tunisian is the formation 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 طاش ''ṭāš'' derived from the standard Arabic word عَشَرَ /ʕaʃara/, those numbers are in order: احداش ''aḥdāš'', اثناش ''θṇāš'', ثلطّاش ''θlaṭṭāš'', أربعطاش ''aṛbaʿṭāš'', خمسطاش ''xmasṭāš'', سطّاش ''sitṭāš'', سبعطاش ''sbaʿṭāš'', ثمنطاش ''θmanṭāš'' and تسعطاش ''tsaʿṭāš''.{{citation needed|date=November 2019}}

===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]].<ref name="genC">Habash, N., Rambow, O., & Kiraz, G. (2005, June). Morphological analysis and generation for Arabic dialects. In proceedings of the ACL Workshop on Computational Approaches to Semitic Languages (pp.&nbsp;17–24). Association for Computational Linguistics.</ref> 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.<ref name="genC" /> For example, K-T-B is a root meaning ''to write'' and مفعول ma'''f‘'''ū'''l''' 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.<ref name="genC" />

===Conjugation in Tunisian===

In this representation, we are going to use Latin letters from the [[Standard Tunisian (Latin) Alphabet|Standard Tunisian Alphabet]]
{| class="wikitable"
|+Conjugation of the CVC verb "Qal" (to say)
|-
!Pronouns in Eng !! Pronouns !! Present !! Past !! Future !! Imperative !! Passive form !! Subjunctive I !! Subjunctive II !! Conditional
|-
!I
|Ani
|Nqoul
|Qolt
|Beç nqoul
|  
|Netqal
|Kên nqoul
|Rani nqoul
|Taw nqoul
|-
!You sg.
|Inti
|Tqoul
|Qolt
|Beç tqoul
|Qoul
|Tetqal
|Kên tqoul
|Rak tqoul
|Taw tqoul
|-
!She
|Hia
|Tqoul
|Qalet
|Beç tqoul
| 
|Tetqal
|Kên tqoul
|Rahi tqoul
|Taw tqoul
|-
!He
|Houa
|Yqoul
|Qal
|Beç yqoul
| 
|Yetqal
|Kên yqoul
|Rahu yqoul
|Taw yqoul
|-
!We
|Aħna
|Nqoulu
|Qolna
|Beç nqoulu
| 
|netqalu
|Kên nqoulu
|Rana nqoulu
|Taw nqoulu
|-
!You pl.
|Entuma
|Tqoulu
|Qoltu
|Beç tqoulu
|Qoulu
|Tetqalu
|Kên tqoulu
|Rakom tqoulu
|Taw tqoul
|-
!They
|Huma
|Yqoulu
|Qalu
|Beç yqoulu
| 
|Yetqalu
|Kên yqoulu
|Rahom yqoulu
|Taw yqoulu
|}

Studying Tunisian verbs, we have found out that we can classify verbs depending on the number and the position of consonants and vowels in a verb. There are more than 11 possible verb patterns/groups, however Tunisians mostly use 4-5: CVC-CCV-CCVC-CVCC-CV.

'''Some examples of infinitive verbs from each category:'''
*CVC: Qal (to say), Çêf (to see), Qaas (to measure), Zeed (to add/to increase).
*CVCC: Ħatt (to put), Ħäbb (to love/to want), Jeewb (to respond/to answer), Xaalf (to disagree).
*CCV: Klee (to eat), Msce (to go), Qra (to read/to study)
*CCVC: Scrab (to drink), Sreq (to steal), Staad (to hunt), Mteez (to be different or special at something).
*CV: Je (to come), Ra (to see, less commonly used).

''Concerning the conjugation, each verb group has its way:''

'''Verbs starting with one consonant:'''

{| class="wikitable"
|+The form of conjugation for CVC verbs
|+
!Pronouns in Eng !! Pronouns !! Present !! Past !! Imperative
|-
!I
|Ani
|n+gav
|gav+t
|
|-
!You sg.
|Inti
|t+gav
|gav+t
|gav
|-
!He
|Houa
|y+gav
|infinitive
|
|-
!She
|Hia
|t+gav
|infinitive+(e)t
|
|-
!We
|Aħna
|n+gav+u
|gav+na
|
|-
!You pl.
|Entuma
|t+gav+u
|gav+tu
|gav+u
|-
!They
|Huma
|y+gav+u
|infinitive+u
|
|}
As for CVCC verbs, things might change a bit. Both simple-voweled verbs and double-voweled ones will be conjugated differently.

{| class="wikitable"
|+Simple-voweled CVCC verbs
|-
!Pronouns in Eng!!Pronouns!!Present!!Past!!Imperative
|-
!I
|Ani
|n+gav
|infinitive+it
|
|-
!You sg.
|Inti
|t+gav
|infinitive+it
|gav
|-
!He
|Houa
|y+gav
|infinitive
|
|-
!She
|Hia
|t+gav
|infinitive+et
|
|-
!We
|Aħna
|n+gav+u
|infinitive+ina
|
|-
!You pl.
|Entuma
|t+gav+u
|infinitive+itu
|gav+u
|-
!they
|huma
|y+gav+u
|infinitive+u
|
|}

{| class="wikitable"
|+Double-voweled CVCC verbs
|-
!Pronouns in Eng!!Pronouns!!Present!!Past!!Imperative
|-
!I
|Ani
|n+infinitive
|CVC+e+C+t
|
|-
!You sg.
|Inti
|t+infinitive
|CVC+e+C+t
|infinitive
|-
!He
|Houa
|y+infinitive
|infinitive
|
|-
!She
|Hia
|t+infinitive
|infinitive+et
|
|-
!We
|Aħna
|n+infinitive+u
|CVC+e+C+na
|
|-
!You pl.
|Entuma
|t+infinitive+u
|CVC+e+C+tu
|infinitive+u
|-
!they
|huma
|y+infinitive+u
|CVC+e+C+u
|
|}
Examples:

'''Jeewb''':
*Huma: y+infinitive+u → y+jeewb+u →'''Yjeewbu''' (they answer).
'''Seefr''':
*Aħna: CVC+e+C+na → seef+e+r+na →'''Seeferna''' (We travelled).

Note:

'''gav''', as seen in the charts, or '''the grammatical aspect of the verb''' represents the new form, a verb could take corresponding to the tense.

It's just replacing the V in its CVC or CVCC form by another vowel Vs

{| class="wikitable"
|+gav chart for CVC verbs
|-
!Example!!V!!Vs!!Vs!!Vs!!Meaning
|-
! !! !!Present!!Past!!Imperative!! 
|-
!Qal
|a
|ou
|o
|ou
|"to say"
|-
!Scêf
|ê
|ou
|o
|ou
|"to see"
|-
!Qaas
|aa
|i
|e
|i
|"to measure"
|-
!Zeed
|ee
|i
|e
|i
|"to add"
|}

Depending on this chart, we can know the shifted vowels and be able to conjugate verbs in every tense.
 gav(CVC)=CVsC, gav(CVCC)=CVsCC.

*Ani: n+gav(q'''a'''l) → n+q'''ou'''l → Nqoul (I say).
*Entuma: gav(z'''ee'''d)+tu → z'''e'''d+tu → Zedtu (you added).

Of course there are some exceptions like "Thaë" (to be lost) and "Xaf" (to be scared).

{| class="wikitable"
|+gav chart for CVCC verbs
|-
!Example!!V!!Vs!!Vs!!Vs!!Meaning
|-
! !! !!Present!!Past!!Imperative!! 
|-
!Ħatt
|a
|o
|
|o
|"to put"
|-
!Ħäbb
|ä
|e
|
|e
|"to love/want"
|-
!Xaalf
|aa
|
|
|
|"to disagree"
|-
!Jeewb
|ee
|
|
|
|"to respond/answer"
|}

Other examples:

'''Fädd''':
*Entuma: t+gav(f'''ä'''dd)+u → t+f'''e'''dd+u → Tfeddu. (you get bored)
'''Ħatt''':
*Hia: infinitive+et → ħatt+et → Ħattet. (she put)
'''Ëaawd'''
*Inti: infinitive → Ëaawd. (repeat!)

'''Verbs starting with two consonants:'''

 Ongoing work

==Phonology==
{{cleanup lang|date=May 2019}}
{{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 [[Substrata (linguistics)|substratum]].<ref name="jabe" /><ref name="maamouri" /><ref name="wise">{{cite journal | last1 = Wise | first1 = H | year = 1983 | title = Some functionally motivated rules in Tunisian phonology | journal = Journal of Linguistics | volume = 19 | issue = 1| pages = 165–181 | doi=10.1017/s0022226700007507| s2cid = 145460630 }}</ref>

However, there are some more specific characteristics related to Tunisian Arabic like the phenomenon of [[metathesis (linguistics)|metathesis]].<ref name="wise"/>

===Metathesis===
Metathesis is the shift of the position of the first vowel of the word.<ref name="wise" /><ref name="chekili">Chekili, F. (1982). The morphology of the Arabic dialect of Tunis (Doctoral dissertation, University of London).</ref> It occurs when the unconjugated verb or unsuffixed noun begins with CCVC, where C is an ungeminated consonant and V is a short vowel.<ref name="wise" /><ref name="chekili"  /><ref name="suny">[http://web.mit.edu/suyeon/www/Suyeon_Yuns_website/Presentations_files/ALS27_Suyeon.pdf Yun, S. (2013). To Metathesize or Not to Metathesize: Phonological and Morphological Constraints. XXVIIth Annual Arabic Linguistics Symposium. Massachusetts Institute of Technology.]</ref> 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.<ref name="wise" /><ref name="chekili" /><ref name="suny" />

For example:
* ''(he) wrote'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes كتب ''kt'''i'''b'' and ''(she) wrote'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes كتبت ''k'''i'''tbit''.<ref name="peac" /><ref name="wise" />
* ''some stuff'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes دبش ''db'''a'''š'' and ''my stuff'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes دبشي ''d'''a'''bšī''.<ref name="peac" /><ref name="wise" />

{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
|The English pronoun||Pronoun||Dbaš||Wdhin||3mor
|-
|I||Ani||D'''a'''bš''i''||W'''i'''dhn''i''||3'''o'''mr''i''
|-
|You sg.||Inti||D'''a'''bš''k''||W'''i'''dhn''k''||3'''o'''mr''k''
|-
|He||Houa||D'''a'''bš''u''||W'''i'''thn''u''||3'''o'''mr''u''
|-
|She||Hia||Db'''a'''š''ha''||Wth'''i'''n''ha''||3m'''o'''r''ha''
|-
|We||Aħna||Db'''a'''š''na''||Wth'''i'''n''na''||3m'''o'''r''na''
|-
|You pl.||Entuma||Db'''a'''š''kom''||Wth'''i'''n''kom''||3m'''o'''r''kom''
|-
|They||Huma||Db'''a'''š'hom'||Wth'''i'''n''hom''||3m'''o'''r''hom''
|}

===Stress===
Stress is not phonologically distinctive<ref name="chekili" /> and is determined by the word's syllable structure. Hence, 
* it falls on the ultimate syllable if it is doubly closed:<ref name="chekili" /> سروال ''sir'''wāl''''' (trousers).
* Otherwise, it falls on the [[penult|penultimate syllable]],<ref name="gibson" /> if there is one: جريدة ''ja'''rī'''da'' (newspaper). 
* Stress falls on all the word if there is only one syllable within it:<ref name="chekili" /> مرا '''''mṛa''''' (woman).
* Affixes are treated as part of the word:<ref name="chekili" /> نكتبولكم ''nikt'''bū'''lkum'' (we write to you).

For example:
* جابت '''''jā'''bit'' (She brought).<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="chekili" />
* ما جابتش ''mā jā'''bitš''''' (She did not bring).<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="chekili" />

=== Assimilation ===
Assimilation is a phonological process in Tunisian Arabic.<ref name="stumme" /><ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="chekili" /> The possible assimilations are:
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center;"
|-
| /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/{{ref|1|1}} > /vC/{{ref|1|1}} || /bC/{{ref|2|2}} > /pC/{{ref|2|2}} || /nb/ > /mb/
|-
| /ʕħ/ > /ħː/ || /tz/ > /d͡z/ || /tʒ/ > /d͡ʒ/
|}

{{refbegin}}
* {{note|1|1}} Only if C is a voiced consonant.<ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="chekili" />
* {{note|2|2}} Only if C is a voiceless consonant.<ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="chekili" />
{{refend}}

===Consonants===
Tunisian Arabic ''[[qāf]]'' has {{IPAblink|q}} and {{IPAblink|ɡ}} as reflexes in respectively sedentary and nomadic varieties: ''he said'' is {{IPA|[qɑːl]}} instead of {{IPA|[ɡɑːl]}}). However, some words have the same form {{IPAblink|ɡ}} whatever the dialect: ''cow'' is always {{IPA|[baɡra]}}<ref name="baccouchel">{{in lang|fr}} Baccouche, T. (1972). Le phonème 'g' dans les parlers arabes citadins de Tunisie. Revue tunisienne de sciences sociales, 9(30-31), 103-137.</ref> (the /g/ deriving from an originally Arabic [q]), and a specific species of ''date'' is always {{IPA|[digla]}}<ref name="Dico Karmous">Abdellatif, K. (2010). Dictionnaire «le Karmous» du Tunisien</ref> (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 word.<ref name="peac" /> For example, garn means "horn" and qarn means "century".<ref name="peac" />

Interdental fricatives are also maintained for several situations, except in the Sahil dialect.<ref name="dialecit">{{in lang|it}} DURAND, O. (2007). L'arabo di Tunisi: note di dialettologia comparata. ''Dirāsāt Aryūliyya. Studi in onore di Angelo Arioli'', 241-272.</ref>

Furthermore, Tunisian Arabic merged {{IPAslink|dˤ}} {{angbr|{{lang|ar|ض}}}} with {{IPAslink|ðˤ}} {{angbr|{{lang|ar|ظ}}}}.<ref>Boussofara-Omar, H. (1999). Arabic Diglossic Switching in Tunisia: An Application of Myers-Scotton's MLF Model (̂Matrix Language Frame Model). (Doctoral dissertation, University of Texas at Austin).</ref>
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+Consonant phonemes of Tunisian Arabic
! colspan="2" rowspan="2" |
! colspan="2" | [[Labial consonant|Labial]]
! colspan="2" | [[Dental fricative|Interdental]]
! colspan="2" | [[Dental consonant|Dental]]/[[Alveolar consonant|Alveolar]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Palatal consonant|Palatal]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Velar consonant|Velar]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Uvular consonant|Uvular]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Pharyngeal consonant|Pharyngeal]]
! rowspan="2" | [[Glottal consonant|Glottal]]
|- style="font-size: 80%;"
! plain
! [[Emphatic consonant|emphatic]]
! plain
! [[Emphatic consonant|emphatic]]
! &nbsp;plain&nbsp;
! [[Emphatic consonant|emphatic]]
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align: left;" | [[Nasal consonant|Nasal]]
| {{IPA link|m}} ''m''
| ({{IPA link|m|mˤ}}) ''ṃ''
|
|
| {{IPA link|n}} ''n''
| ({{IPA|nˤ}}) ''ṇ''
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" style="text-align: left;" | [[Stop consonant|stop]]
! style="text-align: left; font-size: 80%;" | [[Voiceless consonant|voiceless]]
| ({{IPA link|p}}) ''p''
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|t}} ''t''
| {{IPA link|tˤ}} ''ṭ''
|
| {{IPA link|k}} ''k''
| {{IPA link|q}} ''q''
|
| ({{IPA link|ʔ}}) 
|-
! style="text-align: left; font-size: 80%;" | [[Voiced consonant|voiced]]
| {{IPA link|b}} ''b''
| ({{IPA link|b|bˤ}}) ''ḅ''
|
|
| {{IPA link|d}} ''d''
|
|
| {{IPA link|ɡ}} ''g''
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" style="text-align: left;" | [[Affricate consonant|Affricate]]
! style="text-align: left; font-size: 80%;" | [[Voiceless consonant|voiceless]]
|
|
|
|
| ({{IPA link|t͡s}}) ''ts''
|
| ({{IPA link|t͡ʃ}}) ''tš''
|
|
|
|
|-
! style="text-align: left; font-size: 80%;" |[[Voiced consonant|voiced]]
|
|
|
|
| ({{IPA link|d͡z}}) ''dz''
|
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! rowspan="2" style="text-align: left;" | [[Fricative consonant|Fricative]]
! style="text-align: left; font-size: 80%;" | [[Voiceless consonant|voiceless]]
| {{IPA link|f}} ''f''
|
| {{IPA link|θ}} ''þ''
|
| {{IPA link|s}} ''s''
| {{IPA link|sˤ}} ''ṣ''
| {{IPA link|ʃ}} ''š''
|
| {{IPA link|χ}} ''x''
| {{IPA link|ħ}} ''ḥ''
| {{IPA link|h}} ''h''
|-
! style="text-align: left; font-size: 80%;" | [[Voiced consonant|voiced]]
| ({{IPA link|v}}) ''v''
|
| {{IPA link|ð}} ''ð''
| {{IPA link|ðˤ}} ''ḍ''
| {{IPA link|z}} ''z''
| ({{IPA link|zˤ}}) ''ẓ''
| {{IPA link|ʒ}} ''j''
|
| {{IPA link|ʁ}} ''ġ'' 
| {{IPA link|ʕ}} ''ʿ''
|
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align: left;" | [[Trill consonant|Trill]]
|
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|r|r}} ''r''
| {{IPA link|ˤ|rˤ}} ''ṛ''
|
|
|
|
|
|-
! colspan="2" style="text-align: left;" | [[Approximant consonant|Approximant]]
|
|
|
|
| {{IPA link|l}} ''l''
| {{IPA link|ɫ}} ''ḷ''
| {{IPA link|j}} ''y''
| {{IPA link|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.<ref name="singer" /><ref name="peacebg" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> [[Minimal pair]]s are not always easy to find for these contrasts, but there are nonetheless examples, which show that these marginal forms do not represent [[allophone]]s of other phonemes.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="maamouri" /> For example:
::: {{IPA|/baːb/ [bɛːb]}} "door" and {{IPA|/bˤaːbˤa/ [ˈbˤɑːbˤɑ]}} "Father"<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="maamouri" />
::: {{IPA|/ɡaːz/ [ɡɛːz]}} "petrol" and {{IPA|/ɡaːzˤ/ [ɡɑːzˤ]}} "gas"<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="maamouri" />
: These emphatic consonants occur before or after the vowels {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}}.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> A different analysis is that the posited allophones of {{IPA|/a/}} and {{IPA|/aː/}} are phonemically distinct, and it is the marginal emphatic consonants that are allophonic.<ref name="phon" /><ref name="maamouri" /><ref name="chekili" /> 
* /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''.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="chekili" />
* /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡z/ are rarely used, for example ''tšīša'', ''dzīṛa'' and ''dzāyir''.<ref name="singer" /><ref>{{in lang|fr}} [https://halshs.archives-ouvertes.fr/halshs-00593352/document Ben Farah, A. (2008). Les affriquées en dialectal tunisien. In Atlas linguistique de Tunisie.]</ref>
* The glottal stop /ʔ/ is usually dropped but tends to occur in the learned [[register (sociolinguistics)|register]], in loans from Standard Arabic, often in ''{{transliteration|ar|maṣdar}}'' ([[verbal noun]]) forms at the onset of the word but also in other words like {{IPA|/biːʔa/}} "environment" and {{IPA|/jisʔal/}} "he asks", though many (mainly less educated) speakers substitute {{IPAslink|ʔ}} for  {{IPAslink|h}} in the latter word.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />
* Like in [[Standard Arabic]], ''[[shadda]]'' "[[gemination]]" is very likely to occur in Tunisian. For example, ''ha'''dd'''ad'' هدد meaning to threaten.<ref name="chekili" />

===Vowels===
There are two primary analyses of Tunisian vowels: 
*Three vowel qualities, {{IPA|/a, i, u/}} and a large number of emphatic consonants, namely {{IPA|/tˤ, sˤ, ðˤ, rˤ, lˤ, zˤ, nˤ, mˤ, bˤ/}}. {{IPA|/a/}} has distinct allophones near [[guttural]] (emphatic, uvular and pharyngeal) consonants ([ɐ], [ä]) and near non-guttural consonants ([æ]).<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" />
*Four vowel qualities, {{IPA|/æ, ɐ, i, u/}}, and only the three phonemic emphatic consonants {{IPA|/tˤ, sˤ, ðˤ/}}. The other emphatic consonants are allophones found in the environment of {{IPA|/ɐ/}}.<ref name="phon" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="peac" />

The first analysis is suggested by comparing other [[Maghrebi Arabic]] dialects, like [[Algerian Arabic|Algerian]] and [[Moroccan Arabic]], where the same phenomenon of vocalic allophony happens for /u/ and /i/ as well.<ref name="marcaisp" />

Regardless of the analysis, Hilalian influence has provided the additional vowels {{IPA|/eː/}} and {{IPA|/oː/}} to the Sahil and southeastern dialects. These two long vowels are reflexes of the [[diphthongs]] /aj/ and /aw/.<ref name="cantineau" /><ref name="mateur" /><ref name="talmoudi" />

{| class="wikitable" style="margin:aut"
|+Tunisian Arabic vowels. It is unclear if the vowels written ''a'' are allophones or phonemic.
!rowspan=3 colspan=2|
!colspan=3|[[Front vowel|Front]]
!colspan=2 rowspan=2|[[Back vowel|Back]]
|-
!colspan=2|{{small|[[Unrounded vowel|unrounded]]}}
!{{small|[[Rounded vowel|rounded]]}}
|-
!{{small|short}}
!{{small|long}}
!{{small|long}}
!{{small|short}}
!{{small|long}}
|- align=center
!colspan=2|[[Close vowel|Close]]
|{{IPA link|ɪ}} ''i''
|{{IPA link|iː}} ''ī''
|({{IPA link|yː}}) ''ü''
|{{IPA link|u}} ''u''
|{{IPA link|uː}} ''ū''
|- align=center
!rowspan=2|[[Open-mid vowel|Open-mid]]
! {{small|oral}}
|
|{{IPA link|eː}} ''ā''
|({{IPA link|œː}}) ''ë''
|({{IPA link|ʊː}}) ''ʊ''
|({{IPA link|oː}}) ''o''
|-
!rowspan=2|{{small|[[Nasal vowel|nasal]]}}
|({{IPA link|ɛ̃}}) ''iñ''
|
|
|({{IPA link|ɔ̃}}) ''uñ''
|
|- align=center
!rowspan=2|[[Open vowel|Open]]
|colspan=2|
|
|({{IPA link|ɑ̃}}) ''añ''
|
|- align=center
! {{small|oral}}
|{{IPA link|æ}} ''a''
|
|
|{{IPA link|ɐ}} ''a''
|{{IPA link|ɐː}} ''ā''
|}

* By assuming that pharyngealisation is a property of consonants, most dialects have three vowel qualities {{IPA|/a, i, u/}}, all also distinguished for length, as in Standard Arabic.<ref name="singer" /><ref name="jabe" /> 
* 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'' {{IPA|[ʒeː]}} ''he came''), otherwise short.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />
* In non-pharyngealised environments, the open vowel {{IPA|/a/}} is {{IPA|[e]}} in stressed syllables and {{IPA|[æ]}} or {{IPA|[ɛ]}} in unstressed syllables. In pharyngealised environments, the open vowel is {{IPA|[ɑ]}}.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="mateur" /> 
* {{IPA|/ɔː/}} and nasal vowels are rare in native words, for most of the varieties of Tunisian and mainly for the Tunis dialect, like منقوبة m'''añ'''qūba and لنڨار l'''añ'''gār and mainly occur in French loans.<ref name="talmoudi" /><ref name="maamouri" /> {{IPA|/yː/}} and {{IPA|/œː/}} only exist in French loanwords.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />
* Unlike other Maghrebi dialects,<ref name="marcaisp" /> short [[Ḍammah|u]] and [[Kasrah|i]] are [[Vowel reduction|reduced]] to {{IPA|[o]}} and {{IPA|[e]}} when written between two consonants unless when they are in stressed syllables.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Abou Haidar | first1 = L | year = 1994 | title = Norme linguistique et variabilité dialectale: analyse formantique du système vocalique de la langue arabe | journal = Revue de Phonétique Appliquée | volume = 110 | pages = 1–15 }}</ref><ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Belkaid | first1 = Y | year = 1984 | title = Arabic vowels, modern literature, spectrographic analysis | journal = Phonetic Works Strasbourg Institution | volume = 16 | pages = 217–240 }}</ref>

===Syllables and pronunciation simplification===
Tunisian Arabic has a very different syllable structure from Standard Arabic like all other Northwest African varieties.<ref name="mohand"/> 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 [[syllable onset|onset]].<ref name="maamouri" /> For example, Standard Arabic ''book'' is كتاب {{IPA|/kitaːb/}}, while in Tunisian Arabic it is ktāb.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />

The [[syllable nucleus]] may contain a short or long vowel, and at the end of the syllable, in the [[syllable coda|coda]], it may have up to three consonants ما دخلتش ({{IPA|/ma dχaltʃ/}} ''I did not enter''). Standard Arabic can have no more than two consonants in this position.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />

Word-internal syllables are generally [[syllable weight|heavy]] in that they either have a long vowel in the nucleus or consonant in the coda.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />

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 (phonology)|Syncope]]), resulting in the many initial CC clusters. For example, جواب {{IPA|/ʒawaːb/}} ''reply'' is a loan from Standard Arabic, but the same word has the natural development {{IPA|/ʒwaːb/}}, which is the usual word for ''letter''.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />

As well as those characteristics, Tunisian Arabic is also known for differently pronouncing words according to their orthography and position within a text.<ref>Ghazali, S., Hamdi, R., & Barkat, M. (2002). Speech rhythm variation in Arabic dialects. In Speech Prosody 2002 International Conference.</ref><ref>Newman, D., & Verhoeven, J. (2002). Frequency analysis of Arabic vowels in connected speech. Antwerp papers in linguistics., 100, 77-86.</ref> This phenomenon is known as pronunciation simplification<ref>Hudson, R. A. (1977). Arguments for a Non-transformational Grammar. University of Chicago Press.</ref> and has four rules:
* [iː] and [ɪ], at the end of a word, are pronounced [i]. Also, [uː] and [u] are pronounced [u]. [aː], [ɛː], [a] and [æ] are pronounced [æ].<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Barkat, M. (2000). Détermination d'indices acoustiques robustes pour l'identification automatique des parlers arabes. De la caractérisation…… à l'identification des langues, 95.</ref><ref>Barkat-Defradas, M., Vasilescu, I., & Pellegrino, F. (2003). Stratégies perceptuelles et identification automatique des langues. Revue PArole, 25(26), 1-37.</ref> For example, yībdā is practically pronounced as {{IPA|[jiːbdæ]}}<ref name="douzlr">{{in lang|de}} Ritt-Benmimoun, V. (2005). Phonologie und Morphologie des arabi-sehen Dialekts der Marazig (Südtunesien) (Doctoral dissertation, Dissertation, Wien).</ref><ref name="angoujard">{{in lang|fr}} Angoujard, J. P. (1978). Le cycle en phonologie? L'accentuation en Arabe Tunisien. Analyses, Théorie, 3, 1-39.</ref>
* 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]]).<ref name="maamouri" /><ref name="wise" /><ref>Heath, J. (1997). Moroccan Arabic phonology. Phonologies of Asia and Africa (including the Caucasus), 1, 205-217.</ref> The phenomenon is seen clearly when Arabic texts are compared to their Latin phonemic transliteration in several works.<ref name="peac" /> 
* If a word begins with two successive consonants, an [[epenthesis|epenthetic]] [ɪ] is added at the beginning.<ref name="Jourdan, J. 1952" /><ref name="peac" /><ref name="douzlr" />
* A sequence of three consonants, not followed by a vowel, is broken up with an epenthetic [ɪ] before the third consonant.<ref name="peacebg" /><ref name="inglefield1"/> For example: يكتب yi'''ktib''', يكتبوا yi'''ktb'''ū.<ref name="peacebg" /><ref name="inglefield1"/>

==Morphology==
{{main|Tunisian Arabic Morphology}}
Nouns and adjectives in Tunisian Arabic are classified into nouns that have a regular plural and nouns that have an irregular plural.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> Several nouns in Tunisian Arabic even have [[dual forms]].<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /><ref name="peac" /> Irregular or [[broken plurals]] are broadly similar to those of Standard Arabic.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> [[Gender (grammar)|gender]] shift is achieved for singular nouns and adjectives by adding an -a suffix.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> However, this cannot occur for most plural nouns.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" />

Tunisian Arabic has five types of pronouns: [[Personal pronoun|personal]], [[Possessive pronoun|possessive]], [[Demonstrative pronoun|demonstrative]], [[indirect object]] and [[indefinite pronoun]]s.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> Unlike in Standard Arabic, there is a unique pronoun for the second person singular and a unique pronoun for the second person in plural.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> Furthermore, there are three types of articles: [[Definite article|definite]], [[Demonstrative adjective|demonstrative]] and [[possessive article]]s.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> Most of them can be written before or after the noun.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />

As for verbs, they are conjugated in five tenses: [[Perfective aspect|perfective]], [[Imperfective aspect|imperfective]], [[Future tense|future]], [[Imperative (grammar)|imperative]], [[Conditional tense|conditional present]] and [[Conditional tense|conditional past]] Tenses and in four forms: [[Affirmative (linguistics)|affirmative]], [[Exclamation mark (punctuation)|exclamative]], [[Interrogative sentences|interrogative]] and [[Negation in Arabic|negative]] forms.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> They can be preceded by modal verbs to indicate a particular intention, situation, belief or obligation when they are conjugated in perfective or imperfective tenses.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> Questions in Tunisian Arabic can be āš ([[wh question]]) or īh/lā ([[yes–no question]]).<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" />

The [[question words]] for āš questions can be either a pronoun or an adverb.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> As for [[negation (linguistics)|negation]], it is usually done using the structure mā verb+š.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />

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 '''fʿ'''a'''l''' or '''f'''a'''ʿl'''i'''l'''.<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" /> The same is true in Standard Arabic. Tunisian Arabic also involves several [[prepositions]] and [[conjunction (grammar)|conjunctions]].<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="talmoudi" /> These structures ultimately derive from those of Standard Arabic, even if they are radically different in modern Tunisian because of heavy influence from [[Berber languages|Berber]], [[Latin language|Latin]] and other [[European languages]].<ref name="gibson" /><ref name="singer" />

==Semantics and pragmatics==
Discourses in Tunisian Arabic are likely to use some rhetorical styles like [[metaphor]]s.<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Maalej | first1 = Z | year = 1999 | title = Metaphoric discourse in the age of cognitive linguistics, with special reference to Tunisian Arabic (TA) | journal = Journal of Literary Semantics | volume = 28 | issue = 3| pages = 189–206 | doi=10.1515/jlse.1999.28.3.189| s2cid = 170738037 }}</ref> Furthermore, Tunisian Arabic styles and tenses hold several figurative meanings.<ref>Belazi, N. (1993). Semantics and pragmatics of the Tunisian tenses and aspects. UMI Dissertation Services.</ref> For example, the use of past tense can mean that the situation is uncontrollable.<ref name="figA" /> As well, the use of the third person pronouns can be figurative to mean saints and/or supernatural beings<ref>{{cite journal | last1 = Carpenter-Latiri | first1 = D | year = 2014 | title = The Ghriba pilgrimage in the island of Jerba: the semantics of otherness | url = http://ojs.abo.fi/index.php/scripta/article/viewFile/349/781 | journal = Scripta Instituti Donneriani Aboensis | volume = 22 | pages = 38–55 | doi = 10.30674/scripta.67361 | doi-access = free }}</ref> and the use of demonstrative can have figurative meanings like underestimation.<ref>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.</ref> Moreover, the name of some parts of the body can be used in several expressions to get figurative meanings.<ref name="figA">{{cite journal | last1 = Maalej | first1 = Z | year = 2004 | title = Figurative language in anger expressions in Tunisian Arabic: An extended view of embodiment | journal = Metaphor and Symbol | volume = 19 | issue = 1| pages = 51–75 | doi=10.1207/s15327868ms1901_3| citeseerx = 10.1.1.614.5701 | s2cid = 145296111 }}</ref><ref name="embo">Maalej, Z. (2008). The heart and cultural embodiment in Tunisian Arabic. Culture, body and language. Conceptualizations of internal body organs across cultures and languages, 395-428.</ref><ref>Maalej, Z. (2007). The embodiment of fear expressions in Tunisian Arabic. Applied cultural linguistics: Implications for second language learning and intercultural communication, 87.</ref> That is entitled the embodiment.<ref name="embo" />

Some structures like nouns and verbs have figurative meanings,<ref name="peac" /> 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.<ref>Maalej, Z. (2010). Addressing non-acquaintances in Tunisian Arabic: A cognitive-pragmatic account.</ref><ref>Guessoumi, M. (2012). The Grammars of the Tunisian Revolution. boundary 2, 39(1), 17-42.</ref>

==International influences==
Several Tunisian words were used in the lyrics of some famous Arabic songs and poems like ʿaslāma of [[Majida Al Roumi|Majda Al Roumi]].<ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.alchourouk.com/15412/674/1/%D8%AD%D9%81%D9%84-%D9%85%D8%A7%D8%AC%D8%AF%D8%A9-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%85%D9%8A-%D9%81%D9%8A-%D9%82%D8%B1%D8%B7%D8%A7%D8%AC:-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%AC%D9%85%D9%87%D9%88%D8%B1-%D9%8A%D8%B3%D8%AA%D8%AC%D9%8A%D8%A8-%D9%84%D9%86%D8%AF%D8%A7%D8%A1-%D8%A7%D8%B9%D8%AA%D8%B5%D8%A7%D9%85-%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D8%AD%D9%8A%D9%84-%D8%A8%D8%A8%D8%A7%D8%B1%D8%AF%D9%88.html Hidri, N. (2013). The concert of Majda Al Roumi in Carthage: The public approved the Bardo leaving protest. Alchourouk, 07 August 2013]</ref> Furthermore, some famous Arabic singers were acknowledged for singing several old Tunisian Arabic songs like [[Hussain Al Jassmi]]<ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.essahafa.info.tn/index.php?id=59&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=48480&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=5&cHash=f0ecbd5943 Guidouz, R. (2013). Successful Concert of Nawel Ghachem and Hussain Al Jessmi. Assahafa, 17 August 2013] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150924002403/http://www.essahafa.info.tn/index.php?id=59&tx_ttnews%5Btt_news%5D=48480&tx_ttnews%5BbackPid%5D=5&cHash=f0ecbd5943 |date=24 September 2015 }}</ref> and [[Dina Hayek]].<ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://www.turess.com/assabah/1719 Assabah Team (2007). Carthage gave to me the opportunity to access to all Arabic audience.... So, this is my present to Tunisian audience. Assabah, 17 July 2007]</ref> Tunisian Arabic influenced several Berber dialects by transferring to them several Arabic or Tunisian structures and words.<ref>Kossmann, M. (2013). The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber. Brill.</ref> It was as well the origin of [[Maltese language|Maltese]]<ref name="maltese" /><ref>Zammit, M. R. (2013). The Sfaxi (Tunisian) element in Maltese. Perspectives on Maltese Linguistics, 14, 23.</ref> and some of its words like {{lang|aeb|بريك}} Brīk and {{lang|aeb|فريكساي}} frīkasāy were inspired by French as loanwords.<ref>{{in lang|fr}} Tardivel, L. (1991). Répertoire des emprunts du français aux langues étrangères (Vol. 27). Les éditions du Septentrion.</ref> The Il-Ṭalyānī Tunisian Arabic word meaning "the Italian" ({{lang|aeb|الطلياني}}) was used as a title of a novel in standard Arabic which received the Booker Prize for Arabic literature in 2015.<ref>[http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContentP/18/129557/Books/VIDEO-Tunisian-writer-Shukri-Mabkhout-wins-Arabic-.aspx Saad, M. (2015). Video: Tunisian writer Shukri Mabkhout wins Arabic Booker 2015. Al Ahram, 06 May 2015]</ref> Also, several prestigious television series from other Arabic countries like the Lebanese Cello Series involved a character talking in Tunisian Arabic.<ref>{{in lang|ar}} [http://alchourouk.com/113573/691/1/-%D8%A8%D8%AD%D8%B6%D9%88%D8%B1_%D9%86%D8%AC%D9%88%D9%85_%D9%85%D9%86_%D8%AA%D9%88%D9%86%D8%B3_%D9%88%D9%84%D8%A8%D9%86%D8%A7%D9%86:_%D9%86%D8%A8%D9%8A%D9%84_%D8%A7%D9%84%D9%82%D8%B1%D9%88%D9%8A_%D9%8A%D9%82%D8%AF%D9%85_%D8%AA%D9%81%D8%A7%D8%B5%D9%8A%D9%84_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%A8%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%AC%D8%A9_%D8%A7%D9%84%D8%B1%D9%85%D8%B6%D8%A7%D9%86%D9%8A%D8%A9_%D9%84%D9%82%D9%86%D8%A7%D8%A9_%D9%86%D8%B3%D9%85%D8%A9-.html Aouini, F. (2015). In the presence of stars from Tunisia and Lebanon: Nabil El Karoui presents the Ramadhan Programmes of Nessma TV. alchourouk, 09 June 2015]</ref>

==See also==
{{Portal|Africa|Languages}}
{{Div col|colwidth=20em}}
* [[Mediterranean Lingua Franca]]
* [[African Romance]]
* [[Varieties of Arabic]]
* [[Maghrebi Arabic]]
* [[Maltese language]]
* [[Libyan Arabic]]
* [[Algerian Arabic]]
* [[Moroccan Arabic]]
* [[Berber languages]]
* [[Punic language]]
* [[Phoenician language]]
{{Div col end}}

==Notes and references==
{{Reflist|25em}}

==External links==
{{Incubator|code=aeb}}
{{Incubator|aeb|wiktionary}}
* [http://www.arabetunisien.com/ Tunisian Arabic Arabizi Dictionary]
* [http://tunisiya.org McNeil Tunisian Arabic Corpus]
* [https://archive.today/20160316005653/http://minerva.arz.oeaw.ac.at/vicav2/query/_settings/workspace/ Tunisian Arabic VICAV Dictionary]
* [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Tunisian_Arabic_Swadesh_list Tunisian Arabic Swadesh list] (from Wiktionary's [http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Appendix:Swadesh_lists Swadesh-list appendix])
{{Sister bar | wikt=Category:Tunisian Arabic language| commons=Category:Tunisian_Arabic_dialects| b=no| n=no| q=no| s=no| v=no| voy=Tunisian Arabic phrasebook| species=no| d=Q56240 |mw=no |m=no|iw=ar}}

{{Languages of Tunisia}}
{{Languages in Maghreb}}
{{Varieties of Arabic}}
{{Authority control}}

[[Category:Tunisian Arabic| ]]
[[Category:Languages of Tunisia]]
[[Category:Maghrebi Arabic]]