Language attitudes in Northwestern Tunisia and their implication for speech patterns

Abstract Our paper investigates the relationship between language attitudes and practices in Tunisia, particularly in the two mainly rural governorates of Siliana and Jendouba situated in Northwestern Tunisia. The data that underlie our analysis were gathered in 43 qualitative interviews and through participant observation during fieldwork in spring and summer 2019, and by methodical inquiry into salient linguistic features. First, speakers’ attitudes towards and their evaluation of (1) their own local dialect and (2) the dialect of the capital Tunis reveal that the capital Tunis and coastal towns such as Sousse are perceived as urban and advanced – in education as well as in lifestyle – whereas the central and north-western regions of Tunisia are perceived as rural and culturally backward. We show how speakers apply social meanings to certain linguistic variables such as the use of the urban [q] that is considered as fīnu ‘genteel, refined’ in contrast to the rural [g]. Others, though also clearly urban features, are not equally charged with stereotypes, among them the adoption of the urban personal pronoun of the 1st person sg. ǟna. Second, the impact these evaluations have on speech patterns and consequently on intra-dialectal levelling processes and language change is analysed and its patterns described. We show that language ideologies and attitudes are determined by the intersection of age, gender and level of education, and that young, educated women with a rural background are among the first to adopt urban features. As women in Siliana and Jendouba are expected to act more fīnu than their male peers, they are more inclined to adopt the [q]. The situation of the personal pronoun of the 1st person sg., the plural of III-weak verbs and the loss of gender distinction in verbs, however, is less clear.