Genitive case and Possessives

Although it lost every aspect of Arabic grammatical cases, Tunisian developped a genitive case.

The majority of nouns ending in "e" or "a" were inherited from Arabic feminine nouns, specifically "e" and "a" correspond to "ة" that is pronounced as /t/. Tunisian dropped that sound and it has since replaced it with /ə/ and /a/, respectively represented by "e" and "a" when the words stand alone in the sentence in every position.. except when the word is the possessee. Just then, the /t/ sound resurfaces and "e" and "a" are immediately replaced with "(e)t" and "(a)t"

• Saaħbek şree el korraase heeđi, donc híe korraaset saaħbek. ("Your friend bought this notebook, so it's your friend's notebook")

• Enti mşiit jebtelne el ftour, sħiiħ, ama el carhbe carhebti. ("You brought us food, correct, but the car [that you drove] was my car")

• Şouf el waqt ĝle teliphounek, heeđi mongeelti. ("Look time on your phone, this is my watch")

• Şofthe el mra heeki? Heeki mart eş şeef ("See that woman? That's the boss's wife")

Metathesis occurs and it depends on the environment of the word (View Consonant-stacking principle). A quick reminder:

Carhbe would take -et because otherwise it's going to be Carhbt that's not permitted because "a" is a short vowel preceding three-consonant cluster. To break it, we insert "e" before the final consonant hence: Carhbet

Now when you wish to say "my car" you're supposed to add just -i but that's Carhbeti. You've changed /ɪ/ to /ɛ/. So to restore the /ɪ/ you recruit the "e" a step back, that's Carhebti

The chart above presents.. whatever it's self explanatory

Just put in mind, you use -h if the noun ends in the vowels "i", "o" or "u" and -o if a consonant, "e" or "a" which both become later "(e)t" and "(a)t". With analogy, so do -k and -ek respectively.

Examples:

The last one is an exception because it's etymological. It comes from Arabic معنى, it ends in ى not ة

Tunisian allows two types of possessives: indef-dep and def-indep

1. Indef-dep = indefinitie noun + dependent possessive

2. def-indep = definite noun + independent possessive

Example for "my car":

1. Carhbe + -i = Carhebti

2. El carhbe + mteeĝi = El carhbe mteeĝi

The default is indef-dep while the more emphasis-fueled loanword-oriented is def-indep

For further emphasis, you place the personal pronoun itself right after the noun.

• Daari eene ("my own house")

• Ed daar mteeĝi eene ("MY OWN house")

Besides, the possessive property can be expanded beyond, by not only applying it to personal pronouns but other nouns:

• Feeşket zhar ("flask-of orange blossom")

• Feeşke mteeĝ zhar ("flask of orange blossom")

Both meaning "an orange blossom flask"

• Feeşket ez zhar ("flask-of the orange blossom")

• El feeşke mteeĝ ez zhar ("The flask of the orange blossom")

Both meaning "The orange blossom flask"

Notice how to define the construction as whole, you only define the second part, the possessor. Meanwhile when you add mteeĝ you define both components equally.

Note:

• mteeĝ by itself means "property" that's evolved to mean "of". So when you say dabbouze mteeĝ mee you're technically saying "a bottle [that is the] property of water". Try to wrap your mind around it.