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Review: A Dialect of TunisAuthor(s): Joshua FinkelReviewed work(s): Textes Arabes de Takrouna. Transcription, traduction annote, glossarie byW. Marais ; Abderrahman GuigaSource:

The Jewish Quarterly Review,

New Series, Vol. 23, No. 3, (Jan., 1933), pp. 278-279Published by: University of Pennsylvania PressStable URL:

http://www.jstor.org/stable/1451601

Accessed: 10/04/2008 21:50

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THEJEWISHQUARTERLYREVIEWADIALECT OFTUNISThevillageofTakrunais situatedon a Tunisian mountainbearingthesamename. Theetymologicalderivation of Takruna isobscure.Manyexplanationshavebeenoffered,butnone isfully satisfactory.TheoriginismostprobablyBerber. Thevillageis nothistorical.Itsname doesnotoccur inanyof theMohammedanchroniclesof theMiddleAges.Even the modern writer Ibn AbiDiyaf,inaworkde-scribingtheevents of the lastcentury,makes of itonlythe barestmention.Accordingtotheauthors,theethnographicgroupingof the nativesof NorthAfrica isarbitraryand without scientific foundation.OnecannotthereforespeakofthelocalpopulationasconsistingofArabsandBerbers,but ofArabic-speakingandBerber-speakingelements.The Takruniansare an Arabicspeaking community,andwithin thememoryoflivingmen neverspoketheBerberspeech.Thewritershavecarefullyinterrogatedon thispointtheoldestinhabitantsof thevillage,whowereunanimous indeclaringthattheirparentsandgrand-parentsneverspokeanyothertonguebut Arabic.ThedialectofTakruna8 resembles on thewhole those oftheagricul-tural centerswhichlie scatteredinthecoastalregionof central Tunis.The Takruniansconjugatethedefectiveverbs andfreelyform diminu-tivesofsubstantives. The classicaldiphthongsayandaw,when accentedandnotabsolutelyfinal aregenerallyreduced to eando,respectively;when accented and inpenult position theybecomeiandu,respectively;whenabsolutelyfinalorprecedingasemi-vowelwithaTashdidtheyretaintheirancientdiphthongalvalue. As forsyntacticalconstructions,every phenomenoncanbesatisfactorily explainedbytheinternalandspecificdevelopmentofArabicusage.Thevocabulary,however,containsfainttracesofBerber elements.ThebooksuppliestwelvechaptersintheTakrunadialect,consistingofnarratives,descriptions,conversations,etc.The texts werecomposedby Guiga,who wasborn andbroughtupinTakruna and for whomthepatoisisconsequentlyamother-tongue.Allthespecimensare trans-lated,andtransliteratedphonetically.Thecopiousnotes attachedtoeach translationevidencepainstakinglabor andawideacquaintance8Textes Arabes deTakrouna.Transcription,traductionannotee,glossarie.Par W.

MARAAIS

etABDERRAHMANUIGA.I, textes,trans-scriptionset traductionannotee. Paris:

IMPRIMERIE

NATIONALE,925.Pp.XLV.II+426,

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