Comparative Notes on the Jewish Arabic Dialects of Gabes and Djerba (Tunisia)

The article examines the Jewish Arabic dialects of Gabes and Djerba, two geographically proximate yet linguistically distinct varieties spoken in southern Tunisia. The study highlights significant phonological differences, such as the vowel inventory and the realisation of sibilants, with Jewish Gabes featuring three phonemic vowels and retroflex sibilants, while Jewish Djerba exhibits a reduced vowel system and fronted palatal sibilants. Syntactically, the dialects differ in their future tense markers; Jewish Gabes employs both the particle bāš and the grammaticalised participle ḥabb, while Jewish Djerba uses ḥa, possibly derived from ḥabb. Both dialects also display topicalisation strategies, including left dislocation and non-resumptive topicalisation akin to the ‘Chinese-style topic construction’. The study combines linguistic analysis with field recordings and offers insights into the diachronic and sociolinguistic aspects of these dialects, reflecting the cultural and historical dynamics of Jewish communities in North Africa.