This study provides a comprehensive description of the phonology and morphology of the hitherto undescribed Arabic variety spoken in the Northwest Tunisian Nefza region, with a selection of transcribed and translated texts attached. The linguistic corpus of 0,000 words is based on data collected during three field research stays in the Nefza region within the scope of the TUNOCENT project, which examines the hitherto undescribed Northwest and Central Tunisian Bedouin type Arabic varieties. The data, consisting of both questionnaires and narrative texts, have been collected in the town of Nefza, as well as in the five surrounding villages Touila, Umm Labid, Zaga, Ouled Bou Ali and Hbeba. The description includes linguistic variation based on the speaker’s age, gender and origin. Moreover, comparative remarks on geographically adjacent and linguistically cognate Arabic varieties, such as the prestigious sedentary variety of Tunis and the South Tunisian Bedouin type variety of Douz are made.
Aleksandra Naddari, earned her PhD in Arabic Linguistics from the University of Vienna in 2023. Her field of interest includes Arabic linguistics and dialectology, especially Maghrebi and Mesopotamian Arabic varieties. She has been involved in several research projects on Arabic dialectology at the University of Vienna, such as “Vienna Corpus of Arabic Varieties (VICAV)», “Tunisia’s Linguistic terra incognita: An Investigation into the Arabic Varieties of Northwestern and Central Tunisia (TUNOCENT)” and «The Shawi-type Arabic dialects».