WikiJournal Preprints/Tunisian Arabic: Normalized Orthography and Morphology

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Arabic script
The Arabic script used for Tunisian is largely the same as for Arabic. However, it includes additional letters to support /g/ (ڨ), /v/ (ڥ) and /p/ (پ).

The first known use of Arabic script for Tunisian was recorded in the 17th century, when Sheykh Karray wrote several poems in Tunisian Arabic for mystic purposes. However, transcription of Tunisian Arabic was not common until 1903, when the Gospel of John was transcribed in Tunisian Arabic using Arabic script. After the World War I, the use of Arabic script to Tunisian Arabic became very common with the works of Taht Essour. Nowadays, it has become the main script used for Tunisian Arabic, even in published books, but writing conventions for Tunisian Arabic are not standardized and can change from one book to another.

In 2014, Ines Zribi et al. proposed a Conventional Orthography for Tunisian Arabic based on the principles of CODA as proposed in 2012. The orthography is based on eliminating phonological simplifications by comparing the words and structures of Tunisian Arabic by their correspondent etymological equivalent in Modern Standard Arabic. Although the convention is quite important, the orthography does not differentiate between [q] and [g] and does not involve several important phonemes that are mainly used in loanwords.

Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft Umschrift
In 1845, the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft or DMG, a German scientific association dedicated to the studies and the languages of the orient, was formed in Leipzig. Soon, the organization developed a transcription system for Arabic in Latin script. Its system was a phonemic transcription of Arabic written with an extended Latin alphabet and macrons for long vowels. However, this Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft transcription was first tried on Tunisian only after the establishment of the French Protectorate of Tunisia in 1881.

The first linguistic study about Tunisian to be completed was of German linguist Hans Stumme, who, from 1893 to 1896, transcribed Tunisian Arabic with the DMG transcription. In addition, from 1897 to 1935, a series of linguistic works were conducted by several French members of the DMG, like William Marçais, Philippe Marçais, David Cohen and Alfred Nicolas. These works included corpuses, grammar books, dictionaries, or studies. By 1935, the DMG transcription included many unique letters and diacritics for Tunisian not used for Arabic, such as, à, è, ù and ì, for short and accentuated vowels. This is the reason why the XIXth international congress of orientalists held in Rome, from 23 to 29 September 1935, adopted a modified simplified version of the DMG transcription specifically for Arabic dialects. From 1935 to 1985, most of the linguists working on Tunisian Arabic such as Gilbert Boris, Hans Rudolf Singer, Lucienne Saada  and others,  adopted the modified DMG.

As of 2016, the modified DMG is still used by institutions such as SIL International or the University of Vienna for Tunisian Arabic written corpuses and linguistic books.

Additional scripts

 * Phonetic Transcription:

Even if the Deutsche Morgenländische Gesellschaft transcription was abundantly used in early linguistic researches about Tunisian, some trials were performed in order to create alternative Latin scripts and writing methods. The purpose of the trials was to have a simpler and more intuitive Latin Script Writing system than DMG or to try to solve the lack of interconvertibility between scripts as the transcription of Tunisian with the German DMG method was phonetic and not syntactic.

The first successful trial to create a specific Latin script and writing method for Tunisian was the Practical Orthography of Tunisian Arabic, created by Joseph Jourdan in 1913. Its principle was to use French consonant and vowel digraphs and phonology to transcribe non-Latin sounds. In this method, kh is used to transcribe /χ/, ch to transcribe /ʃ/, th to transcribe /θ/, gh to transcribe /ʁ/, dh to transcribe /ð/ or /ðˤ/ and ou to transcribe /u:/, a to transcribe /a:/ and /ɛː/, i to transcribe /i:/ and e to transcribe the short vowels. The layout was successful because it did not involve additional Latin letters and could be transcribed efficiently. It was used in the later linguistic works of Joseph Jourdan about Tunisian Arabic until 1956. Moreover, it is still presently used in French books to transcribe Tunisian Arabic. The method was used in 1995 by the Tunisian Arabizi, an Arabic chat alphabet, converting the consonant digraphs into digits. It uses 2 to transcribe a glottal stop, 3 to transcribe /ʕ/, 5 to transcribe /χ/, 6 to transcribe /tˤ/, 7 to transcribe /ħ/, 8 to transcribe /ʁ/ and 9 to transcribe /q/. The ch, dh, and th digraphs were kept in Tunisian Arabizi. Vowels are transcribed according to their quality and not to their length as a is used to transcribe short and long [ɐ] and [æ], e is used to transcribe short and long [ɛ] and [e], u is used to transcribe short and long [y], eu is used to transcribe short and long [œ], o is used to transcribe short and long [o], ou is used to transcribe short and long [u] and i is used to transcribe short and long [i] and [ɪ]. Sometimes, users differentiate between short and long vowels by dropping short ones. Like all other Arabic chat alphabets, its use spread considerably during the 1990s mainly with the Tunisian young people. Nowadays, it is used principally on social networks and mobile phones. Also, during the Tunisian Revolution of 2011, Tunisian Arabizi was the main script used for message transmission on internet. After 2011, more interest was given to Tunisian Arabizi and in 2013, a concise grammar book about Tunisian, written with Tunisian Arabizi, was issued. In 2016, Tunisian Arabizi has been recognized by Ethnologue as an official informal script for writing Tunisian. However, this chat alphabet is not standardized and is seen as informal as the Arabic sounds are transcribed as numbers and letters at the same time. The use of digits as numerals and letters at the same time made transcribing Tunisian difficult to users and did not linguistically solve the matters that were faced by the Practical Transcription.

Although they are popular, both methods have problems such as the possibility of ambiguity between digraphs, the absolute certainty of getting a rate of graphs per phoneme that is significantly superior to 1 and of getting independent consonants having the same transliteration as the digraphs, and the lack of disambiguation between /ð/ and /ðˤ/.

A translation of Le Petit Nicolas by Dominique Caubet uses a phonetic transcription.

Separately, another Latin script transcription method was created by Patrick L. Inglefield and his team of linguists from Peace Corps Tunisia and Indiana University in 1970. Letters in this method can be written in lowercase letters only, and even T and S are not equivalent to t and s as T is used to transcribe /tˤ/ and S is used to transcribe /sˤ/. Moreover, three additional Latin letters are used in this writing method that are 3 (/ʕ/), ø (/ð/) and ħ (/ħ/). Four common English digraphs are used that are dh (/ðˤ/), gh (/ʁ/), th (/tˤ/) and sh (/ʃ/). In order to distinguish the digraphs from the independent letters written like the digraphs, the digraphs are underlined. As for the vowels, they are written as å (glottal stop or /ʔ/), ā (/æ/), ā: (/ɛ:/), a (Short an or /a/), a: (long an or /a:/), i (short i or /i/), i: (long i or /i:/), u (short u or /u/), u: (Long u or /u:/). This method was used in the Peace Corps books about Tunisian Arabic until 1993, when Peace Corps Tunisia became inactive.


 * Syntactic Transliteration:

After years of works on a phonetic transliteration of Tunisian, linguists decided that the transliteration should be mainly syntactic. Timothy Buckwalter created an orthography-based transcription of Arabic texts during his work for Xerox. Buckwalter transcription was created in order to avoid the effect of phoneme simplification of spoken Modern Standard Arabic on the morphological analysis of the language. In 2004, Tunisian linguist Mohamed Maamouri proposed to use the same transliteration for Arabic dialects and mainly Tunisian. This idea was later developed by Nizar Habash and Mona Diab in 2012 into CODA-based Buckwalter transliteration that eliminates phonological simplification in the Arabic dialects through doing comparisons between dialectal structures and their Modern Standard Arabic equivalents. In 2013, a complete work about the regulations of the use of the Buckwalter transliteration for Tunisian was issued by Ines Zribi and her team from the University of Sfax. In fact, a morphological analysis method and a conventional orthography for Tunisian Arabic using this method were posted by 2014. However, the method is currently used for computer operations only and it is not used by people, as it involves some ASCII non-alphanumeric graphs as letters, and S, D and T do not correspond respectively to the same phonemes as s, d and t. Furthermore, p does not correspond to /p/ but to ﺓ. Even the modified version of Buckwalter transliteration that was proposed by Nizar Habash et al. in 2007 and that substitute ASCII non-alphanumeric graphs by additional Latin letters did not solve the other problems of the original Buckwalter transliteration. That is why both versions of Buckwalter transliteration were not adopted for daily use in writing Tunisian Arabic and are adopted only for NLP purposes.

Third Heading, etc
The grammar, the conjugation and the morphology of Tunisian Arabic is very similar to that of other Maghrebi Arabic varieties. It is based on Classical Arabic and influenced by Berber languages and Latin, with some morphological inventions. The Berber influence is more noticeable in Pre-Hilalian dialects.

Personal pronouns
Tunisian Arabic has 7 personal pronouns since gender differentiation of the 2nd person in the singular form is absent.

Example : آنا زادة « Āna zāda. » — "Me too."

Possessive pronouns
The possessive pronouns are used as possessive articles when put as a suffix to a preposition or a noun. When it is used after a verb, their functions are rather direct object pronouns. The ones between parenthesis are the ones used after a structure finishing by a vowel.

Note, that with feminine words which are generally finished with an ة a, a ت t is added before the suffixes which become tī, tik, tū, thā, tnā, tkum and thum

Indirect object pronouns
Indirect Object Pronouns are used as a suffix after the verb and before the ش- -š of the negation. When there is a combination of direct and indirect object pronouns, indirect object pronouns are always written in the end. Furthermore, the first short i for the indirect Object pronoun is always dropped when it is written after a vowel.

Indefinite pronouns
Indefinite pronouns are used as a subject to explain general ideas or to report the facts which were done by an unknown person:
 * واحد wāḥid (m.), واحدة waḥda (f.), وحود wḥūd (pl.) “Someone”
 * الواحد il-wāḥid “The individual”
 * فلان flān, Fem. فلانة flāna “such”
 * أيّ eyy “Any”
 * إلّي يجي illī yjī, Fem. إلّي تجي illī tjī “Anyone”
 * كل واحد kull wāḥid “Everyone”
 * حاجة ḥāja “Something”
 * حتّى واحد ḥattā wāḥid “No one”
 * آخر āxir (m.), أخرة uxra (f.), أخرين uxrīn (pl.) “Other”
 * الكل il-kull “Everybody”

Interrogative pronouns
The next interrogative pronouns are used when asking a question in Tunisian Arabic.

Definite articles
Translated in English as "The" Article, "il-" (ال) is used as an added prefix to denote nouns as definite. If the defined nouns begins with a Sun Consonant (n, ṇ, t, ṭ, d, dz, s, ṣ, š, z, ẓ, j, ŧ, đ, ḑ, l, r	and ṛ), "il-" would be pronounced as i + the Sun Consonant with which the noun begins. For example:


 * الجريدة il-jarīda [ɪʒ:æri:dæ] meaning the Newspaper
 * الكرسي il-kursī [ɪlkʊrsi] meaning the chair

Demonstrative articles
Like in Standard Arabic, Demonstrative Articles can be used as demonstrative pronouns when they are put alone as subjects. When they are articles, they can be written before or after the considered noun which should be definite by "il-". For example: "This book" could be written in Tunisian as هٰاذا الكتاب hāđā il-ktāb or even as الكتاب هٰاذا il-ktāb hāđā.

When the demonstrative article is before the noun, it can be substituted by an abbreviated form which is ها hā for this and these, هاذْ hāđ for this and هٰاكْ hāk for that and those.

For example, "This book" could be written in Tunisian as ها الكتاب hā il-ktāb.

Possessive articles
Although they do exist, possessive articles in Tunisian Arabic are not used the same way as in English. They mainly show possession valorization in a sentence. Furthermore, they are only used after a definite noun.

For example: الكورة متاعك "il-kūra mtāɛik"- "Your ball"

Indeed, as in Arabic and other languages, possessive pronouns replaces them when there is not a valorization and a stress of the fact of possessing the item. These suffixes are the same as the ones used for conjugation of some verbs, and represent the ending sound of the possessive articles.

For example: كورتك "kūrtik"- "Your ball"

Modal verbs
Differently from English which uses base form for the second verb (invariable for all pronouns), Tunisian Arabic uses present (or rather imperfect) form for it. However, the second verb could be in the past (or rather perfect) form for the three modal verbs راه rāh, حقّه Haqqū and ماذابيه māđābīh (لوكان lūkān should be written before the second verb) which do not have a past form. Moreover, قاعد qāɛid could be used before an active participle. Furthermore, all the modal verbs could be in negative form as in Standard English excepting راهه rāhū and ماذابيه māđābīh. For example, ماذابينا نمشيوا māđābīnā nimšīū becomes in negative form ماذابينا ما نمشيوش māđābīnā mā nimšīūš and راهه تكلّم Rāhū tkallim becomes in negative form راهه ما تكلّمش Rāhū mā tkallimš.

Hāhū (To be, drawing attention to the presence of the referent)
Example: هاني هوني « Hānī hūnī. » "I'm here."

Ṛāhū (To be, with more intensity by emphasizing it)
Example : راني هوني « Ṛānī hūnī. » — "attention, I'm here."

Māhū (To be, as an evidence marker or in a questioning manner as in tag questions)
Example : ماني هوني « Mānī hūnī. » — "Am I not, here ?." or « Māchīn, māhū ?. » — "We are going, isn't it?."

Qāɛid (To be, at the immediate moment)
Example : قاعدين ناكلوا « Qāɛdīn nāklū. » — "we are eating."

Najjam (Could)
Example : نجموا ياكلوا « najjmū yāklū. » — "They could eat."

Ynajjam (Can, To be able to)
Example : ينجّموا ياكلوا « Ynajjmū yāklū. » — "They can eat."

Ḥaqū (Should)
Example : حقه يتكلّم « Ḥaqū yitkallim. » — "He should speak."

Kaṛū (Would better, stronger intensity than should)
Example : كارني تتكلّم « kaṛnī tkāllimt. » — "I would better have spoken."

Yilzmū (Have to)
Example : يلزمنا نمشيوا « Yilzimnā nimšīū. » — "We have to go."

Lāzmū (Must)
Example : لازمنا نمشيوا « Lāzimnā nimšīū. » — "We must go."

Māđābīh (Had better)
Example : ماذابينا نمشيوا « Māđābīnā nimšīū. » — "We had better go."

Discourse markers
Tunisian Arabic involve Discourse markers that are used to emphasize some facts in discussions. These facts could be even evidences and conclusions.

Evidence markers
Evidence markers are mainly modal verbs. ṛāhū راهه is used to mark a fact as evident in the affirmative form. It is substituted by ṃāhū ماهه when asking about a supposed evident fact.

Conclusion markers
Conclusion markers are mainly conjunctions. yāxī ياخي is used to mark a fact as a conclusion in the affirmative form. It is substituted by mālā مالا when asking to approve supposed conclusion.

Preverbal markers
Preverbal markers or auxiliaries are verbs that are used to denote the status of a given action. They are conjugated as Subject + Preverbal marker (Any tense and form) + Action Verb (In present unless the preverbal marker is in imperative. The verb is in imperative in this situation). For example, qūm ixdim قوم اخدم meaning go to work.

Regular verbs
There are significant differences in morphology between Tunisian and Standard Arabic. Standard Arabic marks 13 person/number/gender distinctions in the verbal paradigm, whereas the dialect of Tunis marks only 7 (the gender distinction is found only in the third person singular). Nomadic Tunisian Arabic dialects also mark gender for the second person in singular, in common with most spoken varieties of Arabic elsewhere in the Arabic world.

In general, the regular verbs are conjugated according to the following pattern:

The second-person singular of the three Nomadic Tunisian Arabic dialects has distinct masculine and feminine forms, with the masculine forms being as above كتبت ktibt and تكتب tiktib, and the feminine forms being كتبتِ ktibtī (perfective) and تكتبي tiktbī (imperfective).

Weak verbs
Verbs with a final semivowel ā, known as "weak" verbs, have a different pattern. This pattern is determined according to the third letter in the root of the verb. Moreover, the verbs having a glottal stop as a first letter of their root are also considered as weak verbs.

Nomadic dialects have a different third-person singular feminine perfective form as in مشيت, حبيت , بديت and خذيت   and delete the stem vowel in the plural imperfective forms, giving forms such as نمشوا  , نحبوا , نبدوا  and نوخذوا. Furthermore, Sahil and Southeastern dialects tend to use in place of  in the perfective conjugation. For example, تمشيوا timcīū is pronounced as [timʃe:u] in Sahil and southeastern dialects.

Future tense
The future tense in Tunisian Arabic is also similar to Berber, more precisely Zenata Berber that was spoken by the majority of Tunisians ancestors:
 * باش bāš + verb → "will" + verb (ex: باش تتكسّر  → it will break)
 * ماش māš or باش bāš + verb → "will" + verb (ex: ماش نكسّرها  → I will break it)

Taw or Tawwa can be used as a time indicator with a verb in present to mean "being going to do something".

Imperative tense
The imperative form is considered the stem for the present tense.

Conditional present
The conditional present is conjugated as Kaṛū or Ḥaqqū + Verb in Present tense. This tense is generally used to show regret.

I should have done something
For the past conditional, the same structures seen above are used, but instead of the present tense, the past tense is used.

I could have done something
This structure is conjugated as kān ynajjam + Verb in the present tense.

I would have done something
This structure is conjugated as ṛāhū + Verb in the present tense.

Verb derivation
Verb derivation is done by adding prefixes or by doubling consonants to the simple verb having the root fɛal (Triconsonantal) or faɛlil (Quadriconsonantal). The verb's root determines the possible derivations. Generally, the patterns used in Verb Derivation are the same as in Standard Arabic.

Triconsonantal verbs

 * Causative: is obtained by doubling consonants :
 * خرج "to go out" → خرّج  "to take out"
 * دخل "to enter" → دخّل  "to bring in, to introduce"


 * Adding ā between the first two radical consonants, e.g. xālaṭ “to frequent”
 * Inchoative: Adding ā between the last two radical consonants, e.g. ḥmār “turn red”
 * Passive: This derivation is influenced by Berber and is different from the one of Classical Arabic (the passive voice in classical Arabic uses vowel changes and not verb derivation), it is obtained by prefixing the verb with (First letter in the root as Moon Consonant),  (First letter in the root as Sun Consonant),  (can efficiently substitute tt- when the verb is conjugated in Present Tense) or  (can efficiently substitute t- when the verb is conjugated in Present Tense):
 * قتل "to kill" → تقتل  "to be killed"
 * شرب "to drink" → تّشرب  "to be drunk".


 * Prefixing ist– to the verb, e.g. istaxbar “to get informed”
 * Prefixing i- to the verb and Infixing t after the first radical consonant, e.g. اجتمع ijtmaɛ “to assemble”

Quadriconsonantal verbs

 * Prefixing it– to the verb, e.g. اتفركس itfarkis “to be searched”

Exclamative form
The exclamative form can be formed by the intonation and in this particular situation, the sentence ends with an exclamation mark to distinguish it from an affirmative sentence   Furthermore, it can be formed using Qaddāš + Noun or Possessive Pronoun + Adjective or Imperfective verb + !.

Interrogative form
The interrogative form can be formed by two methods: The intonation and the Suffix -š. When an interrogative adverb or pronoun exists, the question is an āš question that is equivalent to the English wh question and if the question does not involve any interrogative adverb or pronoun, it is an īh/lā question that is equivalent to the English Yes/No Question. Example: تحبّ تمشي لتونس tḥibb timšī l- tūnis?, Do you want to go to Tunisia? Example: تعرفوشي؟ taɛṛfūšī?, Do you know him?
 * The Intonation: Which is a variation of the spoken pitch to distinguish a question from an affirmative sentence. In writing, a question mark is used after an affirmative sentence to transform it into an interrogative sentence.
 * The Suffix -š: -š or -šī can be suffixed to the verb to indicate an interrogative sentence.

Negative form
To make the negative form, we put me in front of the verb and š at the end of the verb.
 * With verbs conjugated in the present, past and conditional tenses:

Example: ما فهمش الدرس mā fhimš il-dars, He didn't understand the lesson.

N.B.: With the past conditional (would have) this negative form is used with the main verb. Example: لوكان عرفت راني ما جيتش lūkān ɛṛaft rānī mā jītš, If I knew I would not have come. To negate the present participles and the verbs conjugated in the future, mūš, or its conjugated form, is added in front of the verb.
 * With The Future And Present Participle:

Example: موش باش نشوفه الجمعة هاذي mūš bāš nšūfū ij-jumɛa hāđī, I won't see him this week.

موش mūš is conjugated as follows:

Relative clause
The only relative pronoun used in Tunisian Arabic is illī meaning who or that and its short form is lī.

Masculine gender
Nouns ending either in a consonant, u, i, ū or ī are usually masculine. For example: باب bāb “door”, كرسي kursī “chair”. There are, however, some exceptions. Indeed, some consonant-final and some ī-final nouns are in the feminine gender (usually, names of countries and cities, and names of parts of the body, and nouns ending in –t are in the feminine). For example: پاريز Pārīz “Paris”, بيت bīt “room”, بسكلات bisklāt “bicycle”.

Uninflected feminine gender
Nouns ending with a or ā vowel are usually in the feminine.

For example: سنّة sinna “tooth”, خريطة xarīṭa “map”.

There are, however, a few exceptions: أعمى aɛmā “blind man”, ممشى mamšā “alley”, عشاء ɛšā “dinner”.

Inflected feminine gender

 * Feminization: Generally, male nouns form their feminine by the suffixation of a vowel. For example, كلب kalb > كلبة kalba, جدّ jadd > جدّة jadda, بطل bṭal > بطلة baṭla. Some male nouns, however, do not form their feminine by the suffixation of a, but have suppletive female counterparts.  For example, راجل rājel > مرا mra, ولد wlad > طفلة ṭufla, بو bū > أمّ umm.
 * Individual singular of collective plural and mass nouns: Similarly, collective plural and mass nouns form their feminine by the suffixation of a. For example, زيتون zītūn “olive” > زيتونة zītūna “an olive”, تمر tmar “dates” > تمرة tamra “a date”.
 * Individual singular of verbal nouns: Generally, verbal nouns form their individual singulars by the suffixation of a. For example, بني bany > بنية banya, تفركيس tfarkīs > تفركيسة tfarkīsa.

The dual
Marking of the dual for nouns by adding -īn as a suffix to them is only used for quantity measures, for nouns having the CCVC form such as C is an ungeminated consonant and V is a short vowel and things often occurring in twos (e.g. eyes, hands, parents). In general, these nouns have broken plurals and not regular ones. Marking of the dual is also done by writing zūz before the regular or irregular plural noun. For example:
 * سبوع sbūɛ (finger) becomes سبوعين sūbɛīn
 * ليل līl (night) becomes زوز ليالي zūz lyālī

The plural
The plural in Tunisian can be classified according to its structure. There are mainly two types of structure: suffixed structure and internal structure. However and as reported in many studies, the rate of broken plurals for Tunisian and by that the rate of the use of the Pluralization Internal Structure is more important than the one for Standard Arabic and several other Arabic dialects. This considerable use of the Internal Structure of Pluralization is considered by most of the linguists as an influence of the Berber substratum.

Using the Suffixed Structure, Singular nouns may form their plural by the suffixation of any of the following plural suffixes: This kind of plural is considered as regular plurals. However, There is a suffixed structure which is considered as a broken plural which is the plural of name of the noun constituted of the name of a town or a group of people and the suffix ī. This structure is done to attribute the person to a group or a city and its plural is obtained by adding ā after the second letter of the root and adding a as a suffix in the end of the word.

Using the Internal Structure, the plural in Tunisian follows the following patterns such as C is an ungeminated consonant, V is a short vowel, C: is a geminated consonant:

CaCC, CCaC and CāCiC could have multiple patterns as plural noun patterns. The criterion of the choice of the plural form for CaCC, CCaC and CāCiC is still not known.

Masculine
Uninflected adjectives are masculine singular. There are two main types of adjectives: E.g. متغشّش mtġaššaš “angry”. E.g. طويل ṭwīl “tall”.
 * Participial adjectives: Participles, whether real or historical, may function both as adjectives and nouns.
 * Other adjectives: These include any non-participial adjectives.

Feminine
Like participles and some nouns, adjectives form their feminine by the suffixation of a. For example, جيعان jīɛān > جيعانة jīɛāna “hungry”, سخون sxūn > سخونة sxūna “hot”.

In some cases, when the adjective ends with an i vowel, the i becomes a y. E.g. باهي bāhi > باهية bāhya Some uninflected adjectives are in the feminine. Their masculine counterparts are either suppletive or do not exist.

For example: حبلة ḥibla “pregnant”, عزوزة ɛzūza “old woman”.

The masculine counterpart of عزوزة ɛzūza is شايب šāyib, though, عزوز ɛzūz exists in some idiolects.

Some adjectives cannot be inflected either for gender or number. E.g. وردي wardi “pink”, حموم ḥmūm “disastreous”.

Number
Unlike nouns, adjectives are not inflected for dual. The plural is used instead. Like nouns, there are two main types of structure: suffixed structure and internal structure.
 * Suffixed Structure: There are two types of plural suffixes which can be suffixed to a singular adjective: –īn (when the adjective finishes with an i+Consonant) and –a (for all other situations excepting the ones having an internal form).
 * Internal Structure: Generally, adjective's plural follows the following structures: CCāC (for CCīC, CCūC, CVCCūn and CVC: as singular patterns), CuCCā (for CCīC and CCiy as singular patterns), CCāCiC (for CVCâC, CVC:ūC, CCV:CV, CVCCV:C as singular patterns), CCuC (for CCīC, aCCā and aCCaC as singular patterns), CCaC (for CaCCī as a singular pattern), CCāCa (for CCīC and CVCCV as singular patterns and for adjectives finishing by an ān), CCī (for aCCaC and aCCā as singular patterns), CuCCān (for CuCāC as a singular pattern), CCaC:Ca (for CaCCūC as a singular pattern), CVC:āC (for CāCiC as a singular pattern), CūCa (for CīC as a singular pattern) and CCāCCa (for CVCCV:C as a singular pattern and for adjectives finishing by an ī).

Comparative form
The comparative of superiority: The comparative form is the same whether the adjective is feminine or masculine.
 * Adjectives composed of 3 consonants with a full vowel on the second The comparative form is formed by adding a before the adjective and by replacing the full vowel with a breve vowel, plus min after the adjective. E.g. كبير kbīr > أكبر من akbir min “bigger than”
 * Adjectives ending with a vowel The comparative is formed by adding a as a prefix, and replacing the final vowel with ā. When the first syllable of the adjective has a long vowel, this vowel is removed. E.g. عالي ɛālī > أعلى aɛlā min “higher than”.

The comparative of inferiority: It's formed by the following structure: أقلّ aqall + noun + من min. For example, هي أقلّ طول من خوها hīya aqall ṭūl min xūha “she’s less tall than her brother”

The comparative of equality: It is formed by using the following structure: noun (subject) + فرد fard + (comparative) noun + personal pronoun + و w + noun (compared). For example, فاطمة فرد طول هي و خوها Fāṭma fard ṭūl hīya w xūha “Fatma is as tall as her brother”. This structure can be simplified as follows: noun + و w + noun + فرد fard + noun. For example, فاطمة و خوها فرد طول Fāṭma w xūha fard ṭūl “Fatma is as tall as her brother”

Superlative form
It is formed by adding واحد wāḥid (m.), واحدة waḥda (f.) or وحود wḥūd (pl.) after the comparative of superiority.

Proportion in Tunisian Arabic
In order to denote the proportion of the participants in the given action from a greater community, the adjectives and adverbs of proportion shown here are used.
 * کل kull (adj.) “Every”
 * جمیع or معا بعضنا jmīɛ (adj.) or mɛā bɛaḑnā (adv.) “Together”
 * بعض or شويّة baɛḑ or šwayya (adj.) “Some”
 * فرد fard (adj.) “Same”
 * وحد waḥd with possessive pronoun (adv.) “Alone”

Cardinals

 * Cardinal numbers: The transcription of cardinal numbers is the same as in English and some other European languages. The number is read from left to right.  This table provides several examples of names of cardinals in Tunisian Arabic and can give a better overview about this fact.
 * Nouns following a cardinal number:
 * Number one is generally not used with the single object counted unless we want to emphasize that there is only a single thing. E.g. طاولة ṭāwla “a table”, طاولة واحدة ṭāwla waḥda “one table”.
 * For the number two, we use the dual of the noun or we use زوز zūz plus the plural of the noun.
 * From 3 to 10, we use the number plus the plural of the noun. E.g. خمسة كتب xamsa ktub “five books”.
 * From 11 to 19, we use the number to which we add the consonant n plus the noun in singular. E.g. سبعطاش كتاب sbaɛţācn ktāb “17 books”.
 * From 20 to 99, we use the number plus the singular. E.g. ثمانين دينار ŧmānīn dinār “80 Dinars”
 * For numbers ending with a like مية mya, an –at is suffixed to it when used with a noun. E.g. مية دولار myāt dolār “100 dollars”.
 * For the other numbers, we use the number plus the singular. E.g. الف ميترو alf mītrū “1000 meters”.
 * Number zero is generally expressed as حتّى ḥatta + noun. E.g. حتّى كرهبة ḥatta karhba “zero cars”.

Months of the year
Note, that in this case, the modern months are a tunisification of the name of the months from French, inherited from the protectorate times. The native names of the months were that of their original Latin names, following the berber calendar:

Ordinals
The ordinals in Tunisian are from one to twelve only, in case of higher numbers, the cardinals are used.

Fractions
There are special forms for fractions from two to ten only, elsewhere percentage is used. The Fractions can be used for various purposes like the expression of proportion and the expression of time... For example, the expression of 11:20 in Tunisian Arabic is il-ḥdāc w ŧluŧ and the expression of 11:40 in Tunisian Arabic is nuṣṣ il-nhār ġīr ŧluŧ. Similarly, midnight is nuṣṣ il-līl and noon is nuṣṣ il-nhār.

Time measurement during the day
As said above, time measurement method and vocabulary below 1 hour is very peculiar in Tunisian and is not found in neither the other dialects of Maghrebi Arabic or standard Arabic. Indeed, Tunisian, uses fractions of 1 hour and a special unit of 5 minutes called دراج "drāj", to express time. Also, as in English as "it's 3 am/pm" or just "it's 3" and contrary to other languages such as standard Arabic, Tunisian do not precise the word "sāɛa (hour)" when expressing the time of the day as the subject is considered implied. Below is the list of the vocabulary used for time indication:

Basic measures
The Basic units for Tunisian Arabic are used in the same way as in English.

The measure units are accorded when in dual or in plural, for example:
 * dqīqa becomes دقيقتين dqīqtīn (2 minutes) in dual
 * sāɛa becomes سوايع swāyaɛ (hours) in plural

Prepositions
There are two types of prepositions: single (commonly used) and compound prepositions (rarely used).

Compound prepositions
Compound prepositions are the prepositions that are obtained through the succession of two single prepositions. وسط Wusṭ, جيهة jīhit, شيرة šīrit and متاع mtāɛ can be used as second prepositions with any single preposition before it excepting وسط Wusṭ, جيهة jīhit, شيرة šīrit and متاع mtāɛ. The other prepositions are: من بين min bīn, من بعد min baɛd, من عند min ɛand, من تحت min taḥt, من قبل min qbal, من فوق min fūq, من ورا min wrā, كيف بعد kīf baɛd, كيف عند kīf ɛand, كيف تحت kīf taḥt, كيف قبل kīf qbal, كيف فوق kīf fūq, كيف ورا kīf wrā, كيف معا kīf mɛā, قبل فوق qbal fūq, على فوق ɛlā fūq, بتحت b- taḥt, في تحت fī taḥt, ببلاش b- blāš, من قدّام min quddām and حتّى قدّام ḥattā quddām.

Coordinate conjunctions
Coordinate conjunctions link verbs, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, clauses, phrases and sentences of the same structure.

Subordinate conjunctions
Subordinate conjunctions introduce dependent clauses only. There two types of conjunctions: single and compound. The compound conjunctions mainly consist of prepositions that are compound with illī. The main Subordinate conjunctions for Tunisian are Waqt illī وقت اللي “When”, m- illī ماللي “Since”, qbal mā قبل ما “Before”, īđā إذا “If”, lūkān لوكان “If”, mā ما "what", bāš باش “In order to”, (ɛlā) xāṭir على) خاطر) “because”, (ɛlā) ḥasb mā على) حسب ما) “According to”.

Adverbs
Adverbs can be subdivided into three subgroups: single, compound and interrogative.

Single adverbs

 * Adverbs of time:
 * tawwa توة Now
 * taww تو A moment ago
 * dīmā ديما Always
 * bikrī بكري Early
 * fīsaɛ فيسع Fast, quickly
 * māzāl مازال Still
 * Adverbs of place:
 * hnā هنا Here
 * ġādī غادي There
 * Adverbs of manner:
 * hakka هكة Like this
 * hakkāka, hakkīka هكاكة، هكيكة Like that
 * Adverbs of measure:
 * barša برشة Much, very
 * šwayya شوية Little
 * yāsir ياسر Very, much
 * taqrīb تقريب About
 * bark برك Only

Compound adverbs

 * Adverbs of time:
 * taww taww تو تو Here and now / Immediately
 * min baɛd من تو Afterwards
 * min bikrī من بكري A moment ago
 * min tawwa من توة From now on
 * Adverbs of place:
 * l- fūq لفوق On (Up)
 * l- il-ūṭa لأوطى Bellow
 * l- dāxil لداخل In
 * l- barra لبرة Out
 * l- quddām لقدام Upwards
 * l- tālī لتالي Backwards
 * min hūnī من هوني From here
 * min ġādī من غادي From there
 * Adverbs of manner:
 * b- il-sīf بالسيف Forcibly
 * b- il-syāsa بالسياسة gently
 * b- il-ɛānī بالعاني Purposely
 * b- il-šwaya بالشوية Slowly
 * b- il-zarba بالزربة Rapidly
 * Adverbs of measure:
 * ɛa- il-aqall عالاقل At least

Interrogative adverbs

 * Adverbs of the time:
 * waqtāš وقتاش When
 * nhārāš نهاراش Which day
 * ɛāmāš عاماش Which year
 * Adverbs of place:
 * wīn, fīn وين، فين Where
 * l- wīn لوين Where to
 * min wīn, mnīn من وين، منين Where from
 * Adverbs of manner:
 * kīfāš كيفاش How
 * Adverbs of measure:
 * qaddāš قداش How much

Nouns derived from verbs
The nouns derived from verbs are the Active Participle, the Passive Participle and the Verbal Noun.

Participles

 * Active Participle: The Active Participle is the noun used to call the person or the object who/that did the action. It can be used as a subject and an adjective.
 * They are obtained for the simple verb having the root fɛal or faɛlil by adding ā between the first and the second letters of the root and changing the vowel between the last but one and the last letters of the root into i.   For example, ɛāzif عازف is instrument player in Tunisian and is obtained from the verb ɛzaf عزف.
 * They are obtained for the derived verbs by adding m as a prefix and changing the vowel between the last but one and the last letters of the root into i.   For example, mšērik مشارك is a participant in Tunisian and is obtained from the verb šērik شارك.
 * Passive Participle: The Passive Participle is the noun used to call the person or the object who/that received the action. It can be used as a subject and an adjective.
 * They are obtained for the simple verb having the root fɛal or faɛlil by adding ma as a prefix and changing the vowel between the last but one and the last letters of the root into ū.   For example, maɛzūfa معزوفة is a musical composition in Tunisian and is obtained from the verb ɛzaf عزف.
 * They are obtained for the derived verbs by adding m as a prefix and changing the vowel between the last but one and the last letters of the root into a.   For example, mhaddad مهدد is threatened person in Tunisian and is derived from the verb haddad هدد.

Verbal noun
The verbal noun is the noun that indicates the done action itself. Its form is known through the pattern and root of the verb from which it is derived or rather the pattern of its singular imperative conjugation.
 * Simple Verb:
 * CiCC or Triconsonantal Verb: According to the root
 * Regular: 	CiCC or CiCCa
 * ʔ-C-C: 	māCCa
 * C-C-ʔ: 	CCāya
 * C-C-j: 	CiCy, CiCyān or CiCya
 * C-w-C: 	CawCān
 * C-C1-C1: 	CaC1C1ān
 * CaCCiC or Quadriconsonantal Verb: CaCCCa
 * Derived Verb: According to the pattern
 * Regular: Verbal nouns for all regular derived verbs is obtained through the addition of ā between the last and the last but one letter of the root.
 * Irregular:
 * Doubling the second letter of the root: taCCīC
 * Adding t as a prefix and doubling the second letter of the root: tCaC1C1uC2
 * Adding t as a prefix and ā between the first and the second letter of the root: tCāCuC
 * Adding i as a prefix and t between the first and second letter of the root: iCtCāC

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