A dialect type of Eastern first-layer Maghrebi Arabic

Abstract

The present paper, building on the availability of new data concerning so-far undescribed varieties of Eastern Maghrebi Arabic, hypothesizes the existence of a dialectal sub-grouping of first-layer dialects stretching from Libya to Tunisia. New data from Libyan and Tunisian Judeo-Arabic varieties, in fact, present shared isoglosses that breach the traditional boundaries between Libyan and Tunisian Arabic. Most of such isoglosses, moreover, are also shared with Mahdia Muslim Arabic, a variety that so far represented an oddity in the panorama of Tunisian first-layer dialects. The hypothesized dialectal group would represent an older layer of sedentary Maghrebi Arabic, lacking some of the innovations that characterize urban dialects of Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco.