User:Drmaik/tunisian
Syllable
Tunisian Arabic, like many other North African varieties, has a very different syllable structure from Standard Arabic. Two consonants in the onset is common, the nucleus may contain a short or long vowel, and the coda may have maximally three consonants. Word-internal syllables are generally heavy in that they either have a long vowel in the nucleus or consonant in the coda. Non-final syllables composed of just a consonant and a short vowel (i.e. light syllables) are very rare, and generally loans from Standard Arabic, as short vowels in this poistion have generally been lost, resulting in the many initial CC clusters. For example /ʒawa:b/ reply is a loan from Standard Arabic, but the same word has the natural development /ʒwa:b/, which is the usual word for letter.
In much of the verb morphology and vowel shifting and elision which occurs in possessed nouns, e.g.
stuff my stuff her stuff man my husband her husband
This regular morphological change mainatians haevy non-final syllables throughout, bit is not exceptionless: the reader will find mnay words given in this articvle do not conform to the ‘rule’. However we assume that thie aversion to light open syllables accounts for the devlopmetn of such forms as man, language and trust. A coda in CCC occurs mainly with the suffixation of // to verbs as part of the negatice circumfix, as in I did not see, where the suffix is soemtimes preceded by an epenthetic vowel. Phonetic epenthesis also occurs at a word boundary where the onset of the second word is CC and the preceding word ends in at least one consonant, e.g.
a strong man
This is one of the few cases where a Berber substratum may be usefully evoked.
conjugation
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd (m) | ktib | kitbu |
| 3rd (f) | kitbit | kitbu (as 3rd m.) |
| 2nd | ktibt | ktibtu |
| 1st | ktibt | ktibna |
imperfective
| Person | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| 3rd (m) | jiktib | jiktibu |
| 3rd (f) | tiktib | jiktibu (as 3rd m.) |
| 2nd | tiktibt | ktibtu |
| 1st | niktib | niktibu |
Vocabulary
The most immediately apparent difference between Tunisian and standard Arabic is the extensive use of words borrowed from Italian, Spanish, French, Berber and Turkish. For example: an appartment is ʃuqqa in standard Arabic, but It is burtma:n in Tunisian , from the French appartement. Other loans from French include and bya:sa 'coin', from pièce. 'Kitchen is matbax in standard Arabic, but is kuʒi:na in Tunisian, from the Italian word cucina. Shoe is hiða:ʔ in standard Arabic and is sˤabba:t in Tunisian, either from the Spanish word zapato or Turkish zabata. There are also various loans from Berber, such as ʃla:ɣim 'moustache' and fakru:n 'tortoise', and from Turkish, such as ba:lik, 'perhaps', baɾʃa 'very, much', and ga:wri 'European', as well as the suffix of occupation ʒi as in busta:ʒi 'postman' and kawwarʒi 'footballer'. Some more words similar to French, Italian or Spanish are below:
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other distinctive words
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These loans are not to be confused with the actual use of French words or sentences in everyday speech by Tunisians (codeswitching), which is common in business environments. However, many French words are used within Tunisian Arabic discourse, without being adapted to Tunisian phonology, apart from the French 'r' [ʁ] which is often replaced, especially by men, with [r] (Jabeur 1987). For example, many Tunisians, when asking "How are you doing?" will use the French "ça va?" instead of, and in addition to the Tunisian ʃniya ħwa:lik. It is difficult in this case to establish whether this is an example of using French or borrowing.
However, the greatest number of differences between Tunisian and Standard Arabic are not due to borrowing from another language, but due to shift in meaning of an Arabic root, as well as some neologisms. Almost all question words fall into the latter category: compare Tunisian ʃnuwwa and a:ʃ 'what' with Arabic ma:ða, waqta:ʃ 'when' with mata:, ʃku:n 'who' with man and ʕala:ʃ 'why' with lima:ða. Shifts in meaning are demonstrated by roots such as xdm which means 'work' in Tunisian and 'serve' in Arabic, ʕml which is narrowed to 'do', and cannot mean 'work' as in Arabic, and mʃj which has broadened to 'go' from 'walk'.
Common Phrases and Vocab: Hello: Aslema How are you: Labes Alik, Shnihawalik? Response: Labes/Alhamdulilah Thank you: Barakallahufik, Yaaychek A lot: Barcha Nothing: Hat Shay How Much: Qaddesh Suri: French When (In a question form): Waqtesh Who: Chkoun Goodbye: Bislema