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Coronal and Non-coronal Consonants

2 min read · 325 words

Tunisian definite article is "el" in its construct form. Although it is not gendered or numbered, it becomes mutated depending on the following word. If the initial letter of the word is:

  1. A vowel, it then becomes: l'

  2. A non-coronal consonant: el

  3. A coronal consonant, say C: eC

Coronal consonants are those which involve the tip of your tongue to articulate.

Knowledge about lunar and solar letters in Arabic is useful because they're almost the same:

Lunar <-> Non-coronal

Solar <-> Coronal

  • There is an exception for "j" as it's lunar in Arabic but coronal in Tunisian. The reason is etymological because Arabic /dʒ~ʒ/ used to be /g/ which is clearly non-coronal yet it's evolved in Tunisian as /ʒ/ that is coronal.

  • Arabic classifies initial glottal stops as lunar. Tunisian lost them, so l' is used instead.

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The coronality of the letter "c" depends on whether it takes on /s/ (followed by e, i, y if vowel) or /k/ (otherwise):

  • Es cinema ("the movies")

  • El cnastro ("the laundry basket")

Tunisian doesn't mark indefinite nouns with anything.

  1. Fransaaui ("a Frenchman")

  2. Fransaauíe ("a Frenchwoman")

  3. Franciis ("Frenchm people")

  4. El Fran{saaui, saauíe, ciis} ("The French{man, woman, ∅}")

Other two examples for fun:

  1. Engliizi ("an Englishman")

  2. Engliizíe ("an Englishwoman")

  3. Engliiz ("English people")

  4. L'Engliiz{i, íe, ∅} ("The English{man, woman, ∅}")

  1. Rousi ("a Russian man")

  2. Rousíe ("a Russian woman")

  3. Rous ("Russian people")

  4. Er Rous{i, íe, ∅} ("The Russian{ man, woman,s}")

A remark on definite articles: Some regions and countries come mandatorily after them. Like how in English; US, UK and Gambia all come following "The". Some examples:

  1. El Mağreb ("Morocco")

  2. Es Sueed ("Sweden")

  3. En Norveej ("Norway")

  4. El Ĝiraaq ("Iraq")

  5. El Kowäit ("Kuwait")

  6. Ed Danmaark ("Denmark")

  7. Es Soĝodíe ("Saudi")

  8. El Yemen ("Yemen")

  9. L'Imaraat ("The UAE")

  10. L'Orden ("Jordan")

  11. El Baħrein ("Bahrain")

  12. Es Sɣiin ("China")

  13. El Hend ("India")

  14. L'Afriic ("Africa") (though commonly it's said Friiqie)

  15. L'Euroop ("Europe") (also commonly Europpe)