When the leak becomes a flood: Vernacular literature in Tunisia
Abstract
Social and technological changes over the past several decades have led to widespread writing of "spoken" Arabic dialects. In Tunisia, there has been a noticeable growth of vernacular prose literature, part of a larger development of Tunisian Arabic as a written language. Tunisia does not have a history of colloquial literature: previously even the use of "derja" in literary dialogue was rare. From this nearly non-existent base, a small "leak" of vernacular writing appeared in the latter part of the 20th century, followed by a flood – first online, and increasingly in print – in the first two decades of the 21st. This has culminated in over a dozen vernacular novels and literary translations.
... This written expansion is part of an overall growth of Tunisian Arabic in formal spheres over the past couple decades, including radio and television broadcasts (Achour Kallel 2011; Daoud 2011a), classrooms (Bach Baoueb and Toumi 2012), and mosques (Sayahi 2014). Since the 2011 revolution and democratic transition, a limited number of government communications have also been produced in Tunisian Arabic (Achour Kallel 2015;McNeil 2023;Mejri 2017;Sayahi 2019). ...
... The fact that Tunisian vernacular has become the unmarked language of choice on the forum indicates a radical departure from the Arabic language situation described by , in which writing was almost entirely the domain of Standard Arabic. Though the use of Tunisian Arabic in writing saw a slow but steady increase in the last two decades of the 20th century (McNeil 2023;Sayahi 2014;Walters 2003), the current study shows the extent to which online writing has accelerated this change. The slow change can be considered largely the effect of increased societal literacy, but the rapid change in the second decade of this century can be attributed to the spread of the internet and the increased sense of Tunisian exceptionalism following the 2011 revolution. ...
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.
In recent years the amount of written vernacular Arabic has increased dramatically. But encoding an unstandardized language in writing is not straightforward and mechanical; rather, it is a complex process that balances practical considerations with ideological stances such as autonomy from the standard language. This study examines how writers of Tunisian Arabic (or derja) are navigating this elaboration process. Using a quantitative analysis of a 279,000-word corpus of print literary works written in Tunisian Arabic (2014–2021) and a 5.8-million-word corpus of internet forum posts (2010–2021), this paper explores how Tunisians writing in derja make orthographic choices to collectively position themselves in relation to the larger Arab world. The study finds that forum writers who have advocated for an improved status for Tunisian Arabic use more phonemic spelling forms—more closely representing Tunisian pronunciation—while those who have advocated for Standard Arabic are more conservative in their spelling choices. The authors of Tunisian Arabic novels and translations—pulled between issues of elaboration and readability—are a bit more conservative than the pro- derja group. These results show how writers in unstandardized or not-yet-standardized languages like Tunisian Arabic use orthography to express national identity stances in relation to supranational languages and identities.
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.
Globalization has had an impact on the education system in the UAE, where the increased use of bilingual curriculum (Arabic-English) is held in high regard. Nevertheless, literacy in Arabic among Emirati children and teenagers remains low. This study uses a 15-item, open-ended questionnaire completed by Emirati parents and an eight-item, open-ended questionnaire completed by Emirati primary school children from 8 to 11 years of age to compare the translations of The Little Prince into Modern Standard Arabic (MSA) and into the Emirati dialect. The results suggest that not only the Emirati dialect, but any Arabic dialect (in its respective Arab country) could be used in primary schools to motivate children to read in Arabic and bridge the gap between their spoken language (dialect) and formal written Arabic. Not only must an Arab child learn how to read, but also, they have to understand a very formal language system that they are not used to speaking at home, i.e., Modern Standard Arabic (MSA). Having books in their own dialects may make children more interested in reading, as they can understand them more easily.
Yasir Suleiman's 2004 book considers national identity in relation to language, the way in which language can be manipulated to signal political, cultural or even historical difference. As a language with a long-recorded heritage and one spoken by the majority of those in the Middle East in a variety of dialects, Arabic is a particularly appropriate vehicle for such an investigation. It is also a penetrating device for exploring the conflicts of the Middle East, the diversity of its peoples and the diversity of their viewpoints. Suleiman's book offers a wealth of empirical material, and intriguing, often poignant illustrations of antagonisms articulated through pun or double entendre.
L’image de « La Rolls et de la Volkswagen », métaphore empruntée à Edward Saïd, rend compte, dans une certaine mesure, d’une partie de la réalité sociale linguistique partagée par les pays arabophones dont les langues natales, des « Volkswagen », n’ont pas le poids de l’arabe standard, la « Rolls ». Or, si ces langues ont été politiquement construites en ces termes, les usages scripturaires, eux, ne se sont pas toujours pliés à cette conception. A partir d’un travail de terrain basé sur l’observation des pratiques d’écriture de pages et de groupes sur Facebook et accompagné d’entretiens menés auprès des administrateurs, je montre dans ce texte comment ce réseau social rend visible la langue tunisienne qui endosse différents statuts (celui de langue étrangère, de Rolls et de langue-pont). Je montre, enfin, comment il est utile de considérer Facebook comme un array au sens de Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht.Key Words: Anthropologie du langage ; Ecriture ; Facebook ; langue natale ; Tunisie.
