Tunisian Arabic morphology

The grammar, the conjugation and the morphology of Tunisian Arabic is very similar to that of other Maghrebi Arabic varieties. It is based on Classical Arabic and influenced by Berber languages and Latin, with some morphological inventions. The Berber influence is more noticeable in Pre-Hilalian dialects.
Pronouns.
Personal pronouns.
Tunisian Arabic has 7 personal pronouns since gender differentiation of the 2nd person in the singular form is absent.
Example : آنا زادة « Āna zāda. » — "Me too."
Possessive pronouns.
The possessive pronouns are used as possessive articles when put as a suffix to a preposition or a noun. When it is used after a verb, their functions are rather direct object pronouns. The ones between parenthesis are the ones used after a structure finishing by a vowel.
Note, that with feminine words which are generally finished with an ة a, a ت "t" is added before the suffixes which become tī, tik, tū, thā, tnā, tkum and thum
Indirect object pronouns.
Indirect Object Pronouns are used as a suffix after the verb and before the ش- -š of the negation. When there is a combination of direct and indirect object pronouns, indirect object pronouns are always written in the end. Furthermore, the first short i for the indirect Object pronoun is always dropped when it is written after a vowel.
Indefinite pronouns.
Indefinite pronouns are used as a subject to explain general ideas or to report the facts which were done by an unknown person:
Interrogative pronouns.
The next interrogative pronouns are used when asking a question in Tunisian Arabic.
Articles.
Definite articles.
Translated in English as "The" Article, "il-" (ال) is used as an added prefix to denote nouns as definite. If the defined nouns begins with a Sun Consonant (n, ṇ, t, ṭ, d, dz, s, ṣ, š, z, ẓ, j, ŧ, đ, ḑ, l, r and ṛ), "il-" would be pronounced as i + the Sun Consonant with which the noun begins. For example:
Demonstrative articles.
Like in Standard Arabic, Demonstrative Articles can be used as demonstrative pronouns when they are put alone as subjects. When they are articles, they can be written before or after the considered noun which should be definite by "il-".
For example: "This book" could be written in Tunisian as هٰاذا الكتاب "hāđā il-ktāb" or even as الكتاب هٰاذا "il-ktāb hāđā".
When the demonstrative article is before the noun, it can be substituted by an abbreviated form which is ها "hā" for this and these, هاذْ "hāđ" for this and هٰاكْ "hāk" for that and those.
For example, "This book" could be written in Tunisian as ها الكتاب "hā il-ktāb".
Possessive articles.
Although they do exist, possessive articles in Tunisian Arabic are not used the same way as in English. They mainly show possession valorization in a sentence. Furthermore, they are only used after a definite noun.
For example: الكورة متاعك "il-kūra mtāɛik"- "Your ball"
Indeed, as in Arabic and other languages, possessive pronouns replaces them when there is not a valorization and a stress of the fact of possessing the item. These suffixes are the same as the ones used for conjugation of some verbs, and represent the ending sound of the possessive articles.
For example: كورتك "kūrtik"- "Your ball"
Modal verbs.
Differently from English which uses base form for the second verb (invariable for all pronouns), Tunisian Arabic uses present (or rather imperfect) form for it. However, the second verb could be in the past (or rather perfect) form for the three modal verbs راه rāh, حقّه Haqqū and ماذابيه māđābīh (لوكان lūkān should be written before the second verb) which do not have a past form. Moreover, قاعد qāɛid could be used before an active participle. Furthermore, all the modal verbs could be in negative form as in Standard English excepting راهه rāhū and ماذابيه māđābīh. For example, ماذابينا نمشيوا "māđābīnā nimšīū" becomes in negative form ماذابينا ما نمشيوش "māđābīnā mā nimšīūš" and راهه تكلّم "Rāhū tkallim" becomes in negative form راهه ما تكلّمش "Rāhū mā tkallimš".
Hāhū (To be, drawing attention to the presence of the referent).
Example: هاني هوني « Hānī hūnī. » "I'm here."
Ṛāhū (To be, with more intensity by emphasizing it).
Example : راني هوني « Ṛānī hūnī. » — "attention, I'm here."
Māhū (To be, as an evidence marker or in a questioning manner as in tag questions).
Example : ماني هوني « Mānī hūnī. » — "Am I not, here ?." or « Māchīn, māhū ?. » — "We are going, isn't it?."
Qāɛid (To be, at the immediate moment).
Example : قاعدين ناكلوا « Qāɛdīn nāklū. » — "we are eating."
Najjam (Could).
Example : نجموا ياكلوا « najjmū yāklū. » — "They could eat."
Ynajjam (Can, To be able to).
Example : ينجّموا ياكلوا « Ynajjmū yāklū. » — "They can eat."
Ḥaqū (Should).
Example : حقه يتكلّم « Ḥaqū yitkallim. » — "He should speak."
Kaṛū (Would better, stronger intensity than should).
Example : كارني تتكلّم « kaṛnī tkāllimt. » — "I would better have spoken."
Yilzmū (Have to).
Example : يلزمنا نمشيوا « Yilzimnā nimšīū. » — "We have to go."
Lāzmū (Must).
Example : لازمنا نمشيوا « Lāzimnā nimšīū. » — "We must go."
Māđābīh (Had better).
Example : ماذابينا نمشيوا « Māđābīnā nimšīū. » — "We had better go."
Discourse markers.
Tunisian Arabic involve Discourse markers that are used to emphasize some facts in discussions. These facts could be even evidences and conclusions.
Evidence markers.
Evidence markers are mainly modal verbs. ṛāhū راهه is used to mark a fact as evident in the affirmative form. It is substituted by ṃāhū ماهه when asking about a supposed evident fact.
Conclusion markers.
Conclusion markers are mainly conjunctions. yāxī ياخي is used to mark a fact as a conclusion in the affirmative form. It is substituted by mālā مالا when asking to approve supposed conclusion.
Preverbal markers.
Preverbal markers or auxiliaries are verbs that are used to denote the status of a given action. They are conjugated as Subject + Preverbal marker (Any tense and form) + Action Verb (In present unless the preverbal marker is in imperative. The verb is in imperative in this situation). For example, qūm ixdim قوم اخدم meaning go to work.
Verb conjugation.
Perfective and imperfective tenses.
Regular verbs.
There are significant differences in morphology between Tunisian and Standard Arabic. Standard Arabic marks 13 person/number/gender distinctions in the verbal paradigm, whereas the dialect of Tunis marks only 7 (the gender distinction is found only in the third person singular). Nomadic Tunisian Arabic dialects also mark gender for the second person in singular, in common with most spoken varieties of Arabic elsewhere in the Arabic world.
In general, the regular verbs are conjugated according to the following pattern:
The second-person singular of the three Nomadic Tunisian Arabic dialects has distinct masculine and feminine forms, with the masculine forms being as above كتبت ktibt and تكتب tiktib, and the feminine forms being كتبتِ ktibtī (perfective) and تكتبي tiktbī (imperfective).
Weak verbs.
Verbs with a final semivowel ā, known as "weak" verbs, have a different pattern. This pattern is determined according to the third letter in the root of the verb. Moreover, the verbs having a glottal stop as a first letter of their root are also considered as weak verbs.
Nomadic dialects have a different third-person singular feminine perfective form as in مشيت , حبيت , بديت and خذيت and delete the stem vowel in the plural imperfective forms, giving forms such as نمشوا , نحبوا , نبدوا and نوخذوا . Furthermore, Sahil and Southeastern dialects tend to use in place of in the perfective conjugation. For example, تمشيوا timcīū is pronounced as [timʃe:u] in Sahil and southeastern dialects.
Future tense.
The future tense in Tunisian Arabic is also similar to Berber, more precisely Zenata Berber that was spoken by the majority of Tunisians ancestors:
Taw or Tawwa can be used as a time indicator with a verb in present to mean "being going to do something".
Imperative tense.
The imperative form is considered the stem for the present tense.
Conditional tenses.
Conditional present.
The conditional present is conjugated as Kaṛū or Ḥaqqū + Verb in Present tense. This tense is generally used to show regret.
Conditional past.
I should have done something.
For the past conditional, the same structures seen above are used, but instead of the present tense, the past tense is used.
I could have done something.
This structure is conjugated as kān ynajjam + Verb in the present tense.
I would have done something.
This structure is conjugated as ṛāhū + Verb in the present tense.
Verb derivation.
Verb derivation is done by adding prefixes or by doubling consonants to the simple verb having the root fɛal (Triconsonantal) or faɛlil (Quadriconsonantal). The verb's root determines the possible derivations. Generally, the patterns used in Verb Derivation are the same as in Standard Arabic.
Verb forms.
Exclamative form.
The exclamative form can be formed by the intonation and in this particular situation, the sentence ends with an exclamation mark to distinguish it from an affirmative sentence Furthermore, it can be formed using Qaddāš + Noun or Possessive Pronoun + Adjective or Imperfective verb + !.
Interrogative form.
The interrogative form can be formed by two methods: The intonation and the Suffix "-š". When an interrogative adverb or pronoun exists, the question is an āš question that is equivalent to the English wh question and if the question does not involve any interrogative adverb or pronoun, it is an īh/lā question that is equivalent to the English Yes/No Question.
Example: تحبّ تمشي لتونس "tḥibb timšī l- tūnis?", Do you want to go to Tunisia?
Example: تعرفوشي؟ "taɛṛfūšī?", Do you know him?
Negative form.
To make the negative form, we put me in front of the verb and "š" at the end of the verb.
Example: ما فهمش الدرس "mā fhimš il-dars", He didn't understand the lesson. 
N.B.: With the past conditional (would have) this negative form is used with the main verb. Example: لوكان عرفت راني ما جيتش "lūkān ɛṛaft rānī mā jītš", If I knew I would not have come.
To negate the present participles and the verbs conjugated in the future, "mūš", or its conjugated form, is added in front of the verb. 
Example: موش باش نشوفه الجمعة هاذي "mūš bāš nšūfū ij-jumɛa hāđī", I won't see him this week.
موش "mūš" is conjugated as follows:
Relative clause.
The only relative pronoun used in Tunisian Arabic is illī meaning who or that and its short form is lī.
Nouns.
Gender.
Masculine gender.
Nouns ending either in a consonant, u, i, ū or ī are usually masculine.
For example: باب bāb “door”, كرسي kursī “chair”.
There are, however, some exceptions. Indeed, some consonant-final and some ī-final nouns are in the feminine gender (usually, names of countries and cities, and names of parts of the body, and nouns ending in –t are in the feminine).
For example: پاريز Pārīz “Paris”, بيت bīt “room”, بسكلات bisklāt “bicycle”.
Uninflected feminine gender.
Nouns ending with "a" or "ā" vowel are usually in the feminine.
For example: سنّة sinna “tooth”, خريطة xarīṭa “map”.
There are, however, a few exceptions: أعمى aɛmā “blind man”, ممشى mamšā “alley”, عشاء ɛšā “dinner”.
The dual.
Marking of the dual for nouns by adding -īn as a suffix to them is only used for quantity measures, for nouns having the CCVC form such as C is an ungeminated consonant and V is a short vowel and things often occurring in twos (e.g. eyes, hands, parents). In general, these nouns have broken plurals and not regular ones. Marking of the dual is also done by writing zūz before the regular or irregular plural noun. For example:
The plural.
The plural in Tunisian can be classified according to its structure. There are mainly two types of structure: suffixed structure and internal structure. However and as reported in many studies, the rate of broken plurals for Tunisian and by that the rate of the use of the Pluralization Internal Structure is more important than the one for Standard Arabic and several other Arabic dialects. This considerable use of the Internal Structure of Pluralization is considered by most of the linguists as an influence of the Berber substratum.
Using the Suffixed Structure, Singular nouns may form their plural by the suffixation of any of the following plural suffixes:
This kind of plural is considered as regular plurals. However, There is a suffixed structure which is considered as a broken plural which is the plural of name of the noun constituted of the name of a town or a group of people and the suffix ī. This structure is done to attribute the person to a group or a city and its plural is obtained by adding ā after the second letter of the root and adding a as a suffix in the end of the word.
Using the Internal Structure, the plural in Tunisian follows the following patterns such as C is an ungeminated consonant, V is a short vowel, C: is a geminated consonant:
 CaCC, CCaC and CāCiC could have multiple patterns as plural noun patterns. The criterion of the choice of the plural form for CaCC, CCaC and CāCiC is still not known.
Adjectives.
Gender.
Masculine.
Uninflected adjectives are masculine singular. There are two main types of adjectives:
E.g. متغشّش mtġaššaš “angry”.
E.g. طويل ṭwīl “tall”.
Feminine.
Like participles and some nouns, adjectives form their feminine by the suffixation of a.
For example, جيعان jīɛān > جيعانة jīɛāna “hungry”, سخون sxūn > سخونة sxūna “hot”.
In some cases, when the adjective ends with an i vowel, the i becomes a "y". E.g. باهي bāhi > باهية bāhya
Some uninflected adjectives are in the feminine. Their masculine counterparts are either suppletive or do not exist.
For example: حبلة ḥibla “pregnant”, عزوزة ɛzūza “old woman”.
The masculine counterpart of عزوزة ɛzūza is شايب šāyib, though, عزوز ɛzūz exists in some idiolects.
Some adjectives cannot be inflected either for gender or number. E.g. وردي wardi “pink”, حموم ḥmūm “disastreous”.
Number.
Unlike nouns, adjectives are not inflected for dual. The plural is used instead.
Like nouns, there are two main types of structure: suffixed structure and internal structure.
Adjective forms.
Comparative form.
The comparative of superiority: The comparative form is the same whether the adjective is feminine or masculine.
The comparative of inferiority: It's formed by the following structure: أقلّ aqall + noun + من min. For example, هي أقلّ طول من خوها hīya aqall ṭūl min xūha “she’s less tall than her brother”
The comparative of equality: It is formed by using the following structure: noun (subject) + فرد fard + (comparative) noun + personal pronoun + و w + noun (compared). For example, فاطمة فرد طول هي و خوها Fāṭma fard ṭūl hīya w xūha “Fatma is as tall as her brother”. This structure can be simplified as follows: noun + و w + noun + فرد fard + noun. For example, فاطمة و خوها فرد طول Fāṭma w xūha fard ṭūl “Fatma is as tall as her brother”
Superlative form.
It is formed by adding واحد wāḥid (m.), واحدة waḥda (f.) or وحود wḥūd (pl.) after the comparative of superiority.
Proportion in Tunisian Arabic.
In order to denote the proportion of the participants in the given action from a greater community, the adjectives and adverbs of proportion shown here are used.
Numerals.
Months of the year.
Note, that in this case, the modern months are a tunisification of the name of the months from French, inherited from the protectorate times.
The native names of the months were that of their original Latin names, following the berber calendar:
Ordinals.
The ordinals in Tunisian are from one to twelve only, in case of higher numbers, the cardinals are used.
Fractions.
There are special forms for fractions from two to ten only, elsewhere percentage is used. The Fractions can be used for various purposes like the expression of proportion and the expression of time... For example, the expression of 11:20 in Tunisian Arabic is il-ḥdāc w ŧluŧ and the expression of 11:40 in Tunisian Arabic is nuṣṣ il-nhār ġīr ŧluŧ. Similarly, midnight is nuṣṣ il-līl and noon is nuṣṣ il-nhār.
Time measurement during the day.
As said above, time measurement method and vocabulary below 1 hour is very peculiar in Tunisian and is not found in neither the other dialects of Maghrebi Arabic or standard Arabic. Indeed, Tunisian, uses fractions of 1 hour and a special unit of 5 minutes called دراج "drāj", to express time. Also, as in English as "it's 3 am/pm" or just "it's 3" and contrary to other languages such as standard Arabic, Tunisian do not precise the word "sāɛa (hour)" when expressing the time of the day as the subject is considered implied. Below is the list of the vocabulary used for time indication:
Basic measures.
The Basic units for Tunisian Arabic are used in the same way as in English.
The measure units are accorded when in dual or in plural, for example:
Prepositions.
There are two types of prepositions: single (commonly used) and compound prepositions (rarely used).
Compound prepositions.
Compound prepositions are the prepositions that are obtained through the succession of two single prepositions. وسط Wusṭ, جيهة jīhit, شيرة šīrit and متاع mtāɛ can be used as second prepositions with any single preposition before it excepting وسط Wusṭ, جيهة jīhit, شيرة šīrit and متاع mtāɛ. The other prepositions are: من بين min bīn, من بعد min baɛd, من عند min ɛand, من تحت min taḥt, من قبل min qbal, من فوق min fūq, من ورا min wrā, كيف بعد kīf baɛd, كيف عند kīf ɛand, كيف تحت kīf taḥt, كيف قبل kīf qbal, كيف فوق kīf fūq, كيف ورا kīf wrā, كيف معا kīf mɛā, قبل فوق qbal fūq, على فوق ɛlā fūq, بتحت b- taḥt, في تحت fī taḥt, ببلاش b- blāš, من قدّام min quddām and حتّى قدّام ḥattā quddām.
Conjunctions.
Coordinate conjunctions.
Coordinate conjunctions link verbs, adverbs, nouns, pronouns, clauses, phrases and sentences of the same structure.
Subordinate conjunctions.
Subordinate conjunctions introduce dependent clauses only. There two types of conjunctions: single and compound. The compound conjunctions mainly consist of prepositions that are compound with illī. The main Subordinate conjunctions for Tunisian are Waqt illī وقت اللي “When”, m- illī ماللي “Since”, qbal mā قبل ما “Before”, īđā إذا “If”, lūkān لوكان “If”, mā ما "what", bāš باش “In order to”, (ɛlā) xāṭir على) خاطر) “because”, (ɛlā) ḥasb mā على) حسب ما) “According to”.
Adverbs.
Adverbs can be subdivided into three subgroups: single, compound and interrogative.
Nouns derived from verbs.
The nouns derived from verbs are the Active Participle, the Passive Participle and the Verbal Noun.
Verbal noun.
The verbal noun is the noun that indicates the done action itself.
Its form is known through the pattern and root of the verb from which it is derived or rather the pattern of its singular imperative conjugation.