Judeo-Tunisian Arabic

Judeo-Tunisian Arabic
Native toBeit Shemesh, Jerusalem District, Israel[1]
Houmt Souk, Djerba, Tunisia[2]
Tunis, Tunisia[3]
Gabes, Tunisia[4]
Native speakers
11,000 (2011–2018)[5]
Arabic script[1]
Hebrew alphabet[1][6]
Language codes
ISO 639-3ajt (retired); subsumed in aeb (Tunisian Arabic)
Glottologjude1263
ELPJudeo-Tunisian Arabic

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]

  1. ^ a b c d Raymond G. Gordon Jr., ed. 2005. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. 15th edition. Dallas: Summer Institute of Linguistics.
  2. ^ (in Hebrew) Henschke, J. (1991). Hebrew elements in the Spoken Arabic of Djerba. Massorot, 5-6, 77-118.
  3. ^ a b c (in French) Cohen, D. (1975). Le parler arabe des Juifs de Tunis: Étude linguistique. La Haye: Mouton.
  4. ^ Sumikazu, Yoda. ""Sifflant" and "Chuintant" in the Arabic Dialect of the Jews of Gabes (south Tunisia)". Zeitschrift für Arabische Linguistik. 46: 21. Retrieved 1 May 2016.
  5. ^ Judeo-Tunisian Arabic at Ethnologue (23rd ed., 2020) Closed access icon
  6. ^ a b c (in French) Bar-Asher, M. (1996). La recherche sur les parlers judéo-arabes modernes du Maghreb: état de la question. Histoire épistémologie langage, 18(1), 167-177.
  7. ^ a b Bassiouney, R. (2009). Arabic sociolinguistics. Edinburgh University Press, pp. 104.