Tunisian Language(S) :)

Mak · #1 (**permalink**) 08-03-06

Hi there,

I do believe that the tunisian people is well cultivated ... the mother tangue in Tunisia is Arabic ( in fact it's more like a dialect for tunisian people ... amix of Arabic with a lot of other languages especially : French, Italian, English, Turkich, German ....) besides Arabic alsmot everybody speaks French as it's the second language in Tunisia ... as a thrid language ... it depends on the person ... some they speak english .. other italian and other german ... but i do believe that a "stranger" in tunisia won't have any communications issues ... there has to be always a language that they can use to communicate good

The Arabic language in Tunisia ( i would rather called the Tunisian Language ) is a combination of a lot of languages with Arabic as basement ... between in the Arabic you may hear a lot of french words, english words, italian, and german ... i think all this is due to the History of Tunisia ... As Tunisia was and still always an open contry and a land of meeting and civilisations ... a quick recap to the History of tunisia to see how many civilisations were in Tunisia :

*Prehistory : We generaly talk about BERBERE as autochthon, however there was 2 famous civilisations in Tunisia in the Prehistory : 1- Civilisation Iberomaurusian 2- Civilisation Captian ( it was in Capsa = now it's Gafsa).

*Old Period :
-The Pheniciens came to Tunisia from Tyr ( Sour) in Lebanon first they founded Utica (arround the 11Centry B.J.C) and then they founded Carthage ( arround 814 B.J.C).
=> The Empire of carthage Started.

- The Roman took Carthage after the 3rd Punic war arround 146 B.J.C => the Roman period started in Tunisia.

* The Medieval Period:
-The Wandal came after the destruction of Rome arround 467 A.J.C) => the Vandalsperiod started.

-The Byzantin : arround the 6th Centry A.J.C they came from Constantinople (now Istanbul in Turkey) and they took Tunisia as a province.=> Byzantin period started then too

-The Islam came from the Arabic peninsula and they convert the population to the Islam and they kicked the Byzantain out of the country => The Islamic period started and the arabisation of north Africa in general.

-The Ottoman took Constantinople from now on it's Istanbul ( from the Latin : Islam Police = City of Islam)
and they could get also Tunisia as a province after the expedition of :Sinen Bacha.

*The Moderne Period:
- Tunisia was under the Ottoman Empire.

- Tunisia for a period was under the Italian "imperialism" there was a lot of italian people runing business in Tunisia and even they owned lands etccc

* Contemporary Period:

- End of the 19 Centry ( 19881 ) Tunisia was colonized by France under the name of Protection.

- In 1956 Tunisia got its independance ... and started building the moderen tunisia

- In 7 November 1987 a huge changes happened in Tunisia with the new president Ben Ali who gave a new start for the country in its way to the modernity.

So Basically we had in Tunisia something like 10 Civilisations in our History ... from each one we still have till now something ... there's a lot of names forexempletill now in Tunisia they are originally from Turkey forexemple like "BouChenq" the famous singer ( it's a name from Bosnia and Herzegovina) it came to Tunisia via they Ottoman etc etc ...

We even still use words they came from the period of Carthage for exemple : we have in Tunisia 2 kind of trees:
*Trees they live from water that man gives it to them. ( we call them "Sakoui" in Arabic )
*Trees they can survive from the rain we call the "Balli"...
the word BALLI it comes from the name of theGod of Rain, Fecund and Fertile in Carthage : Baal Hammon.
=> most of the tunisian people they call those trees BALLI but they don't know that in the Past in the period of Carthage they thought that BAAL HAMMON is taking care of those trees by the rain he gave .... that's why we gave them his name .....

There's few studies done b

Simon Diamond · #2 (**permalink**) 12-04-06

if i wanted to learn to speak (tunisian arabic) how would i go about it, do i just learn arabic or can i learn actual (tunisian arabic) . thanks

Kris · #3 (**permalink**) 12-04-06

I feel it is always best to learn standard arabic that was people all over middle east will understand you.

I will review some books in the future as i am learning Arabic myself at the moment.

I am always getting told off that i speak tunisian (in my few words) when I see people from other arabic countries.

Simon Diamond · #4 (**permalink**) 19-04-06

yes, I think i'll try and learn basic arabic and then I guess it's just learning the different Tunisian parts and how it works with normal arabic. But i think the easiest way for me to learn will be to try and talk as much of it when I am there.

Does anyone use Skype, I think i may start practicing my arabic by using it.

Mak · #5 (**permalink**) 05-06-06

it's good to learn new languages, but i always think that the best way to learn a language is to live in the place where that language is in use ... for example in less that 9 months i learned the Dutch Language in Holland, i can speak it, write it , read it, and understand it good

But then i was in Holland for 9 months, i have to shop, and to deal with dutch people everyday and to watch dutch TV etccc

Cheers
Makrem

Bigbrother · #6 (**permalink**) 15-06-06

Modern Standard Arabic(MSA) is the "formal" form of Arabic used in books, magazines, and newspapers and in news broadcasts and formal speech. Colloquial Arabic is the "informal" form of Arabic used in daily conversation
Colloquial Arabic is the spoken Arabic used by Arabs in their every day lives. Unlike modern standard Arabic that is uniform in all Arab countries, colloquial Arabic is subject to regional variation, not only between different countries, but also within regions in the same country.

TUNISIAN ARABIC

[link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Arabic]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tunisian_Arabic[/link]

[link=http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb_Arabic]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maghreb_Arabic[/link]

GATEWAY TO ARABIC

[link=http://www.greatwaytoarabic.com/index.htm]http://www.greatwaytoarabic.com/index.htm[/link]

Gateway to Arabic is a well-structured, progressive course that has been carefully designed to teach Arabic in a non-Arabic-speaking environment to learners from a broad age range. The series has become well established in Britain and America and is used by a great many Muslim schools and madrasahs, as well as being stocked by the majority of Islamic bookshops in Britain. It is also well suited to individuals wishing to engage in self-study of the language.

This is a new curriculum series and has had remarkable success in its first year of usage. A well-structured progressive course designed to teach Arabic to students in a non-Arabic speaking environment. It contains a wealth of exercises to reinforce vocabulary and the understanding and application of grammar. Extensive research and piloting ensures that materials are easy to learn from and to teach. Books are designed to cater to the Muslim child learning Arabic in English speaking countries.

The series is intended to take the student from having no knowledge of Arabic, all the way up to GCSE level (the U.K General Certificate in Secondary Education) and beyond.

There is a book shop in London that sell Arabic Books/Tapes:

[link=http://www.grantandcutler.com/ourshop.html]http://www.grantandcutler.com/ourshop.html[/link]

Kris · #7 (**permalink**) 10-07-06

Excellent resouce

Ayishuk

TASHA · #8 (**permalink**) 27-03-08

I bought am learn to speak arabic cd off ebay and yes it is the traditional arabic (more egyptian than tunisian lol) I found it very easy to learn and then as I spoke it to him he changed the words I said into the tunisian version and a lot of the time they are very similar or just adapted slightly so I recommend learning arabic as they understood me speaking old old arabic (as they call it in tunisia) and thought it was hilarious me saying I live in Cairo and I am egyptian!! lol Look on e bay, loads of good resourses on there