Tunisian Arabic phonology

There are several differences in pronunciation between Standard Arabic 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 substratum.Jabeur, M. (1987). A sociolinguistic study in Rades, Tunisia. Unpublished PhD dissertation. Reading: University of Reading.Wise, H. (1983). Some functionally motivated rules in Tunisian phonology. Journal of Linguistics, 19(01), 165-181.

However, there are some more specific characteristics related to Tunisian Arabic like the phenomenon of metathesis.

Metathesis

Metathesis is the shift of the position of the first vowel of the word.Chekili, F. (1982). The morphology of the Arabic dialect of Tunis (Doctoral dissertation, University of London). It occurs when the unconjugated verb or unsuffixed noun begins with CCVC, where C is an ungeminated consonant and V is a short vowel.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.

For example:
* ''(he) wrote'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes and ''(she) wrote'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes .
* ''some stuff'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes and ''my stuff'' in Tunisian Arabic becomes .

Stress

Stress is not phonologically distinctive and is determined by the word's syllable structure. Hence,
* it falls on the ultimate syllable if it is doubly closed: (trousers).
* Stress falls on all the word if there is only one syllable within it: (woman).
* Affixes are treated as part of the word: (we write to you).

For example:
* (She brought).
* (She did not bring).

Assimilation

Assimilation is a phonological process in Tunisian Arabic. The possible assimilations are:

* Only if C is a voiced consonant.
* Only if C is a voiceless consonant.

Phonemes

Consonants

Tunisian Arabic ''qāf'' has and as reflexes in respectively sedentary and nomadic varieties: ''he said'' is instead of ). However, some words have the same form whatever the dialect: ''cow'' is always Baccouche, T. (1972). Le phonème 'g' dans les parlers arabes citadins de Tunisie. Revue tunisienne de sciences sociales, 9(30-31), 103-137. (the /g/ deriving from an originally Arabic , and a specific species of ''date'' is always Abdellatif, K. (2010). Dictionnaire «le Karmous» du Tunisien (the /g/ deriving from an originally Semitic - e.g. Aramaic: /diqla/: date tree).

Interdental fricatives are also maintained for several situations, except in the Sahil dialect. DURAND, O. (2007). L'arabo di Tunisi: note di dialettologia comparata. ''Dirāsāt Aryūliyya. Studi in onore di Angelo Arioli'', 241-272.

Furthermore, Tunisian Arabic merged with .

Phonetic notes:
* /p/ and /v/ are found in borrowed words and are usually replaced by /b/, like in ''ḅāḅūr'' and ''ḅāla''. However, they are preserved in some words, like ''pīsīn'' and ''talvza''.
* /t͡ʃ/ and /d͡z/ are rarely used, for example ''tšīša'', ''dzīṛa'' and ''dzāyir''.
* Like in Standard Arabic, ''shadda'' "gemination" is very likely to occur in Tunisian. For example, ''haddad'' هدد meaning to threaten.

Vowels

* Unlike other Maghrebi dialects, short u and i are reduced to and when written between two consonants unless when they are in stressed syllables.

Syllables and pronunciation simplification

As well as those characteristics, Tunisian Arabic is also known for differently pronouncing words according to their orthography and position within a text. This phenomenon is known as pronunciation simplification and has four rules:
* ːand � at the end of a word, are pronounced and ː Also, is pronounced and ː �ː and �are pronounced � For example, yībdā is practically pronounced as Ritt-Benmimoun, V. (2005). Phonologie und Morphologie des arabi-sehen Dialekts der Marazig (Südtunesien) (Doctoral dissertation, Dissertation, Wien). Angoujard, J. P. (1978). Le cycle en phonologie? L'accentuation en Arabe Tunisien. Analyses, Théorie, 3, 1-39.
* 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).Heath, J. (1997). Moroccan Arabic phonology. Phonologies of Asia and Africa (including the Caucasus), 1, 205-217.
* If a word begins with two successive consonants, an epenthetic �is added at the beginning.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Tunisian Arabic Phonology
Phonology
Arabic phonology