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‘We don’t speak the same language:’ language choice and identity on a Tunisian internet forum

  • Karen McNeil ORCID logo EMAIL logo
Published/Copyright: November 8, 2022
International Journal of the Sociology of Language
From the journal International Journal of the Sociology of Language Volume 2022 Issue 278

Abstract

The linguistic situation in the Arab world is in an important state of transition, with the “spoken” vernaculars increasingly functioning as written languages as well. While this fact is widely acknowledged and the subject of a growing body of qualitative literature, there is little quantitative research detailing the process in action. The current project examines this development as it is occurring in Tunisia: I present the findings from a corpus study comparing the frequency of Tunisian Arabic–Standard Arabic equivalent pairs in online forum posts from 2010 with those from 2021. The findings show that the proportion of Tunisian lexical items, compared to their Standard Arabic equivalents, increased from a minority (19.7%) to a majority (69.9%) over this period. At the same time, metalinguistic comments on the forum reveal that, although its status is still contentious, Tunisian has become unmarked as a written language. These changes can be attributed to major developments in Tunisian society over the period of study – including internet access and the 2011 revolution. These findings suggest destabilization of the diglossic language situation in Tunisia and a privileging of national identity vis-à-vis the rest of the Arab world.

Keywords: colloquial; dialects; diglossia; identity; Tunisian Arabic
Corresponding author: Karen McNeil, Arabic and Islamic Studies, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, USA, E-mail:

Funding source: American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS)

  1. Research funding: This work was funded by American Institute for Maghrib Studies (AIMS).

Appendix A: Equivalent terms in four varieties

Word Tunisian Arabic Romanized Tunisian Standard Arabic French
IPA Orthography (Arabizi)a IPA Orthography
a little ʃwayya شوية، شويا، شويه chwaya, chweya qaliːl(an) قليل، فليلا un peu
also zada زادا، زادة، زاده zeda, zada, zede aydan ايضا aussi
always diːma ديما dima, dayma, deyma daːʔiman دائما toujours
be able to ynejjim تنجم، اتنجم، ينجم، ننجم، نجم tnajem, tnajim, tnejem, nejem, najim, najem, ynajem … yastatˤiːʕu تستطيع، يستطيع، استطيع peux, peut
brother xu خو، خويا، خوك 5ouya, 5ouk, khouya, khouk, khou, 5ou ʕax اخ، اخي، اخك frère
come yji تجي، يجي، نجي yji, tji, nji taʔtiː تاتي، تجيء، ياتي، يجيء، اتي، اجيء viens, vient
good bahi باهي، باهية behi, bahi, bahia, bahya jayyid جيد، جيدة bien
he has ʕandu عندو 3andou, andou, 3ando ʕandahu عنده il a
himself ruːħu روحو ro7o, ro7ou, roho, rou7o, rou7ou, rouhou nafsahu نفسه la même
how much qaddɛːʃ قداش kaddech, kadech, qaddech, 9adech … kam كم combien
like kiːma كيما kima miθla مثل comme
like that hakka هكا، هكة haka, hakeka, heka haːkaða هكذا comme ça
man raːjil راجل، الراجل rajel, rajil rajul رجل، الرجل homme
not/is not muːʃ مش، موش، مانيش، ماهوش، ماهاش، ماناش، ماكش moch, mosh, mouch, mouche, moush, much, mahich … laysa ليست، ليس، لست، لسنا، ليسوا pas
now tawwa تو، توا، توه، توى، توة tawa, taw, twa alaːn الان maintenant
see yʃuːf تشوف، نشوف، يشوف tchouf, nchouf, ychouf yara ترى، يرى، ارى vois, voit
should laːzim لازم، يلزمني، يلزمو، يلزمه، يلزمها، يلزمنا lazem, lazemna, lazmou, lezem, lezemha, yelzemha … yajib يجب devrait
talk yɛħkiː تحكي، نحكي، يحكي tahki, tehki, ta7ki, te7ki, nahki, nehki, na7ki … yatakallam تتكلم، يتكلم، اتكلم parles, parle
that (dem pron) haːka/haðaːka هاك، هذاكا hadhaka, hathaka, hatheka, hedhaka, hedheka ðalika/ðaːk ذلك، ذاك cette, cet
them huːma هوما houma, homa humma هم ils
there ɣaːdiː غادي ghadi, 8adi, gadi hunaːk هناك là bas
this haːðiː هاذي، هذي hedhi, hethi, hathi, hadi, hedhe, hadhi, hédhi haːðihi هذه ça
very, a lot barʃa/yaːssir برشا، برشة، برشه، برشى، بارشا، ياسر barcha, barsha, yasar, yaser, yasser, yeser, yesr, yesser jiddan/kaθiːran جدا، كثيرا beaucoup
we naħna نحنا، احنا a7na, ahna naħnu نحن nous
what (interrog) aʃ/ʃnuwwa شنوا، شنوة، شنو، شنوه، اشنوه، اشنوا، شنية، شنيا، اشنية، اش ech, éch, ach, esh, chnawa, chnewa, chneya, chnoua … maːða ماذا quoi
what (rel pron) illi الي، اللي eli, elli, ili, illi allaːðiː الذي، التي، الذين qui
where wayn وين win, wen ayna اين où
why ʕalɛːʃ علاه، علاش 3lech, 3leh, a3lih, alech, 3lach limaːða لماذا pourquoi
will bɛːʃ, mɛːʃ باش، بش، ماش bech, bch, mech, mch, mche, bach, besh … sawfa سوف je vais
with mʕaː- معاه، معاك، معاها، معاي m3ah, m3ak, m3aha, m3aya, m3eya maʕ- معه، معها، معك، معي avec

  1. aThe Arabizi had many variable spellings; variable spellings more than three lines here are truncated, indicated by ‘…’.

Appendix B: Quantitative results

Occurrences per million words in the TunisiaSat corpus, ordered by descending frequency.

Word Tunisian Arabic freq Standard Arabic freq Arabizi freq French freq Tunisian proportion
2010 2021 2010 2021 2010 2021 2010 2021 2010 2021
what (rel pron) 1,074 5,680 5,154 3,389 196 3 1,426 92 13.7% 62.0%
will 554 4,037 237 157 199 15 56 5 53.0% 95.8%
(is) not 435 2,721 1,065 947 134 9 2,066 161 11.8% 70.9%
this 135 763 2,170 1,536 30 1 287 40 5.2% 32.6%
very, a lot 259 1,319 770 607 79 2 172 12 20.2% 68.0%
now 212 1,376 563 549 93 3 113 9 21.6% 71.0%
brother 339 576 1,692 917 125 3 56 3 15.3% 38.4%
that (dem pron) 39 357 1,489 1,078 6 0 626 38 1.8% 24.2%
what (interrog) 256 1,276 196 153 77 2 153 19 37.5% 88.0%
like 96 609 560 495 41 2 439 35 8.4% 53.4%
should 114 637 474 477 28 1 43 2 17.2% 57.1%
be able to 185 851 241 147 24 1 731 46 15.7% 81.5%
why 117 746 184 139 21 0 78 11 29.3% 83.2%
with 110 512 400 281 40 1 1,310 96 5.9% 57.6%
also 58 353 511 445 26 1 348 18 6.1% 43.2%
he has 102 599 66 135 39 1 107 10 32.5% 80.3%
there 12 121 600 609 4 0 2 0 1.9% 16.5%
talk 93 582 55 92 25 0 50 5 41.6% 85.7%
good 71 430 205 189 20 0 598 44 7.9% 64.7%
them 39 319 230 294 20 0 207 21 7.9% 50.3%
we 99 340 311 229 25 0 458 22 11.1% 57.4%
where 69 398 219 168 35 10 109 6 16.0% 68.3%
come 61 376 155 122 8 0 75 5 20.4% 74.8%
see 52 357 253 136 10 0 43 3 14.6% 72.0%
a little 86 386 69 82 16 0 75 4 34.9% 81.7%
always 93 303 217 129 44 1 164 13 17.9% 68.1%
man 58 233 347 195 7 0 20 3 13.5% 54.0%
like that 72 313 90 85 24 1 20 2 34.9% 78.1%
himself 32 194 238 180 11 0 41 3 9.9% 51.4%
how much 44 225 129 101 12 1 45 4 19.2% 68.0%

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Received: 2021-12-13
Accepted: 2022-05-03
Published Online: 2022-11-08
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

© 2022 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Contextualizing the rise of vernacular Arabic in globalized North Africa
  3. La diglossie traversée: La littérature en tunisien et le tunisien dans la littérature
  4. ‘We don’t speak the same language:’ language choice and identity on a Tunisian internet forum
  5. Le ḥassāniyya et la variation diglossique à travers WhatsApp: la Mauritanie à l’heure du Covid-19
  6. “In the Middle East, it’s cool to ‘Sing Moroccan’”: ideologies of slang and contested meanings of Arabic popular music on social media
  7. From stigmatization to predilection: folk metalinguistic discourse on social media on the northwestern Moroccan Arabic variety
  8. Sociolinguistic representations of variation in Moroccan spoken Arabic: discourses, practices and internet memes
  9. The Jebli speech between the media and the city: exploring linguistic stereotypes on a rural accent in Northern Morocco
  10. Moroccan Arabic in TV fiction: promoting de-localised individuals to model speakers
  11. Multiple attitudes and shifting language ideologies: a case of language shift among Libyan Tuaregs
  12. Language attitudes in Northwestern Tunisia and their implication for speech patterns
https://doi.org/10.1515/ijsl-2021-0126
Keywords for this article
colloquial; dialects; diglossia; identity; Tunisian Arabic

Articles in the same Issue

  1. Frontmatter
  2. Contextualizing the rise of vernacular Arabic in globalized North Africa
  3. La diglossie traversée: La littérature en tunisien et le tunisien dans la littérature
  4. ‘We don’t speak the same language:’ language choice and identity on a Tunisian internet forum
  5. Le ḥassāniyya et la variation diglossique à travers WhatsApp: la Mauritanie à l’heure du Covid-19
  6. “In the Middle East, it’s cool to ‘Sing Moroccan’”: ideologies of slang and contested meanings of Arabic popular music on social media
  7. From stigmatization to predilection: folk metalinguistic discourse on social media on the northwestern Moroccan Arabic variety
  8. Sociolinguistic representations of variation in Moroccan spoken Arabic: discourses, practices and internet memes
  9. The Jebli speech between the media and the city: exploring linguistic stereotypes on a rural accent in Northern Morocco
  10. Moroccan Arabic in TV fiction: promoting de-localised individuals to model speakers
  11. Multiple attitudes and shifting language ideologies: a case of language shift among Libyan Tuaregs
  12. Language attitudes in Northwestern Tunisia and their implication for speech patterns
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