The Cultural and Linguistic Diversity of Modern Maghrebi Judeo-Arabic Dialect

Wed 12th July 23
2:30-4:30 P.M
Clio 035

Abstract:

Arabic was spoken by North African Jews from the advent of Islam in the region up until the 20th century when almost all Jewish communities migrated to the newly established state of Israel or Europe. Virtually all varieties of Judeo-Arabic belong to the so-called non-Hilālī, sedentary dialects, and therefore form the oldest layer of Arabic spoken in the region. The proposed panel aims at exploring the cultural and linguistic heritage of North African Jewry, with a particular focus on modern dialects. All four papers are based on extensive fieldwork, during which the speakers panelists recorded the last native speakers of Libyan, Tunisian, and Algerian Jewish Arabic. Wiktor Gebski’s paper is focusing on the oral culture of the Jews of Gabes (Southern Tunisia). It offers invaluable insight into the narrative techniques and word order strategies utilized within the discourse. Ofra Tirosh-Becker, on the other hand, analyses the written genres of Algerian Judeo-Arabic from diachronic and synchronic perspectives, comparing their linguistic features to medieval, as well as dialectological sources. With this unique and novel approach, Ofra’s paper casts light not only on the linguistic aspects of Algerian Judeo-Arabic but also on various aspects of the literary culture produced in it. Luca D’Anna in his paper reassesses the development of Libyan Judeo-Arabic through the lens of socio-cultural interactions between various Jewish communities. To this end, he analyses linguistic findings against historical events, attempting to elucidate some peculiarities of Jewish. 

Finally, Eduardo Balbo’s paper focuses on the Judeo-Arabic of Tunis spoken in the diaspora (Israel). In his sociolinguistic research, he investigates the social status of the Tunisian community in Israel and the linguistic phenomena in Tunisian Judeo-Arabic triggered by language contact with Israeli Hebrew.

Convenor:
Wiktor Gebski, University of Cambridge