Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, also known as Judeo-Tunisian, is a variety of Tunisian Arabic mainly spoken by Jews living or formerly living in Tunisia.^[6] Speakers are older adults, and the younger generation has only a passive knowledge of the language.^[1]

The vast majority of Tunisian Jews have relocated to Israel and have shifted to Hebrew as their home language.^[3][7] Those in France typically use French as their primary language, while the few still left in Tunisia tend to use either French or Tunisian Arabic in their everyday lives.^[3][7]

Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is one of the Judeo-Arabic languages, a collection of Arabic dialects spoken by Jews living or formerly living in the Arab world.^[6]

History

Before 1901

A Jewish community existed in what is today Tunisia even prior to Roman rule in Africa.^[8] After the Arabic conquest of North Africa, this community began to use Arabic for their daily communication.^[3] They had adopted the pre-Hilalian dialect of Tunisian Arabic as their own dialect.^[3] As Jewish communities tend to be close-knit and isolated from the other ethnic and religious communities of their countries,^[6] their dialect spread to their coreligionists all over the country^[2][9] and had not been in contact with the languages of the communities that invaded Tunisia in the middle age.^[3][10] The primary language contact with regard to Judeo-Tunisian Arabic came from the languages of Jewish communities that fled to Tunisia as a result of persecution like Judeo-Spanish.^[8] This explains why Judeo-Tunisian Arabic lacks influence from the dialects of the Banu Hilal and Banu Sulaym, and has developed several phonological and lexical particularities that distinguish it from Tunisian Arabic.^[10][11][12] This also explains why Judeo-Tunisian words are generally less removed from their etymological origin than Tunisian words.^[13]

The most famous author in Judeo-Arabic is Nissim B. Ya‘aqov b. Nissim ibn Shahin of Kairouan (990-1062)[1]. An influential rabbinical personality of his time, Nissim of Kairouan wrote a collection of folks stories intended for moral encouragement, at the request of his father-in-law on the loss of his son. Nissim wrote "An Elegant Compilation concerning Relief after Adversity" (Al-Faraj ba‘d al-shidda)^[14] first in an elevated Judeo-Arabic style following Sa‘adia Gaon's coding and spelling conventions and later translated the work into Hebrew.^[15]

The first Judeo-Arabic printing house opens in Tunis in 1860. A year after, the 1856 Fundamental Pact is translated and printed in Judeo-Arabic (in 1861^[16] before its translation into Hebrew in 1862).

After 1901

In 1901, Judeo-Tunisian became one of the main spoken Arabic dialects of Tunisia, with thousands of speakers.^[8] Linguists noted the unique character of this dialect, and subjected it to study.^[8] Among the people studying Judeo-Tunisian Arabic, Daniel Hagege^[17] listed a significant amount of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic newspapers from the early 1900s in his essay The Circulation of Tunisian Judeo-Arabic Books.^[18] in 1903, David Aydan prints in Judeo-Arabic "Vidu-i bel arbi", a translation of the ritual text recited by the community on Yom Kippur's eve. The text is printed in Djerba, a significant point to mention as many works published by the Tunisian Jewish community in Hebrew are printed in Livorno, Italy.^[19] Educated leaders within the Tunisian Jewish community like ceramic merchant Jacob Chemla translated several works into Judeo-Tunisian, including The Count of Monte Cristo.

However, its emergence has significantly declined since 1948 due to the creation of Israel.^[8] In fact, the Jewish community of Tunisia has either chosen to leave or was forced to leave Tunisia and immigrate to France or Israel.^[3][7] Nowadays, the language is largely extinct throughout most of Tunisia, even if it is still used by the small Jewish communities in Tunis, Gabes and Djerba,^[2][3][4] and most of the Jewish communities that have left Tunisia have chosen to change their language of communication to the main language of their current country.^[3]

Current situation

Language vitality: Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is believed to be vulnerable with only 500 speakers in Tunisia^[20] and with about 45,000 speakers in Israel^[21]

Language variations: In Tunisia, geography plays a huge role in how Judeo-Tunisian Arabic varies between speakers.^[22] In fact, Tunisian Judeo-Arabic can vary depending on the region in which it is spoken.^[22] Accordingly, the main dialects of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic are:^[22]

• The dialect of the North of Tunisia (Mainly spoken in Tunis)
• The dialect of the South of Tunisia (Mainly Spoken in Gabes)
• The dialect of the islands off the coast of the country (Mainly spoken in Djerba)

In addition, Judeo-Tunisian can vary within the same region based on the town in which it is spoken.^[22]

Distinctives from Tunisian Arabic

Like all other Judeo-Arabic languages, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic does not seem to be very different from the Arabic dialect from which it derives, Tunisian Arabic.^{[3][6][23][24][25]}

• Phonology: There are three main differences between Tunisian Arabic phonology and Judeo-Tunisian Arabic phonology:
  • Substitution of phonemes: Unlike most dialects of Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic has merged Tunisian Arabic's glottal [ʔ] and [h] into [∅],^[3][8] Interdental [ð] and [θ] have respectively been merged with [d] and [t],^[3][8] Ḍah and Ḍād have been merged as [dˤ] and not as [ðˤ],^[3][8] Prehilalian /aw/ and /ay/ diphthongs have been kept^[3][8] (except in Gabes^[26]), and [χ] and [ʁ] have been respectively substituted by [x] and [ɣ].^[3][8] This is mainly explained by the difference between the language contact submitted by Jewish communities in Tunisia and the one submitted by other Tunisian people.^[8]
  • Sibilant conversion:
    • [ʃ] and [ʒ] are realized as [sˤ] and [zˤ] if there is an emphatic consonant or [q] later in the word (however in Gabes this change takes effect if [ʃ] and [ʒ] are either before or after an emphatic consonant or [q]).^[4] For example, راجل rājil (meaning man) is pronounced in Gabes dialect of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic as /rˤa:zˤel/ and حجرة ḥajra (meaning stone) is pronounced in all Judeo-Tunisian dialects as /ħazˤrˤa/.^[4]
    • [ʃ] and [ʒ] are realized as [s] and [z] if there is an [r] later in the word (Not applicable to the dialect of Gabes).^[4] For example, جربة jirba (meaning Djerba) is pronounced in all Judeo-Tunisian dialects except the one of Gabes as /zerba/.^[4]
  • Chibilant conversion: Unlike in the other Judeo-Arabic languages of the Maghreb,^[27] [sˤ], [s] and [z] are realized as [ʃ], [ʃ] and [ʒ] in several situations.^[4]
    • [sˤ] is realized as [ʃ] if there is not another emphatic consonant or a [q] within the word (only applicable to Gabes dialect) or if this [sˤ] is directly followed by a [d].^[26] For example, صدر ṣdir (meaning chest) is pronounced as /ʃder/^[26] and صف ṣaff (meaning queue) is pronounced in Gabes dialect of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic as /ʃaff/.
    • [s] and [z] are respectively realized as [ʃ] and [ʒ] if there is no emphatic consonant, no [q] and no [r] later in the word (In Gabes, this change takes effect if there is no [q] and no emphatic consonant within the word). For example, زبدة zibda (meaning butter) is pronounced as /ʒebda/.^[4]
  • Emphasis of [s] and [z]: Further than the possible conversion of [s] and [z] by [sˤ] and [zˤ] due to the phenomenon of the assimilation of adjacent consonants (also existing in Tunisian Arabic),^[23] [s] and [z] are also realized as [sˤ] and [zˤ] if there is an emphatic consonant or [q] later in the word (however in Gabes this change takes effect if [ʃ] and [ʒ] are either before or after an emphatic consonant or [q]).^[4] For example, سوق sūq (meaning market) is pronounced in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic as /sˤu:q/.^[4]
  • [q] and [g] phonemes: Unlike the Northwestern, Southeastern and Southwestern dialects of Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic does not systematically substitute Classical Arabic [q] by [g].^[27] Also, the [g] phoneme existing in Tunis, Sahil and Sfax dialects of Tunisian Arabic is rarely maintained^[28] and is mostly substituted by a [q] in Judeo-Tunisian.^[3] For example, بقرة (cow) is pronounced as /bagra/ in Tunis, Sahil and Sfax dialects of Tunisian Arabic and as /baqra/ in Judeo-Tunisian.^[3]
• Morphology: The morphology is quite the same as the one of Tunisian Arabic.^[3][6][23] However:
  • Judeo-Tunisian Arabic sometimes uses some particular morphological structures such as typical clitics like qa- that is used to denote the progressivity of a given action.^[3][29] For example, qayākil means he is eating.
  • Unlike Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is characterized by its extensive use of the passive form.^[3][10]
  • The informal lack of subject-verb agreement found in Tunisian and in Modern Standard Arabic does not exist in Judeo-Tunisian Arabic. For example, we say ed-dyār tebnēu الديار تبناوا and not ed-dyār tebnēt الديار تبنات (The houses were built).^[30]
• Vocabulary: There are some differences between the vocabulary of Tunisian Arabic and the one of Judeo-Tunisian Arabic. Effectively:
  • Unlike Tunisian Arabic, Judeo-Tunisian Arabic has a Hebrew adstratum.^[2][6][31] In fact, Cohen said that almost 5 percent of the Judeo-Tunisian words are from Hebrew origin.^[27] Furthermore, Judeo-Tunisian has acquired several specific words that do not exist in Tunisian like Ladino from language contact with Judaeo-Romance languages.^[27][32]
  • Unlike most of the Tunisian Arabic dialect and as it is Pre-Hilalian, Judeo-Tunisian kept Pre-Hilalian vocabulary usage patterns.^[33] For example, rā را is used instead of šūf شوف (commonly used in Tunisian) to mean "to see".^[33]
  • Unlike the Tunis dialect of Tunisian Arabic,^[11] Judeo-Tunisian Arabic is also known for the profusion of diminutives.^[11] For example:
    • qṭayṭas قطيطس (little or friendly cat) for qaṭṭūs قطّوس (cat).^[11]
    • klayib كليب (little or friendly dog) for kalb كلب (dog).^[11]