Tunisian Arabic linguistic data

Word order, tone, gender count, case marking, adposition direction, syllable structure (cluster density), consonant inventory traits, vowel system, morphological alignment, script, register stratification, speaker count, and geographic area. Each row is one feature with Tunisian Arabic's value visible; you can add other languages to read the same feature side by side.

Typological features are merged from URIEL+ (Mortensen et al.) and a curated set authored against descriptive grammars. Speaker counts come from Ethnologue and Glottolog. Geographic area is computed from the Asher 2007 world language atlas. Similarity scores combine genetic distance, typological overlap, and lexical-borrowing data.

Both are Maghrebi dialects sharing dense consonant clusters and Berber substrate, but Tunisian has more Italian and Spanish loanwords from historical Mediterranean contact (Tunisia was on the Phoenician/Carthaginian-Roman-Italian trade axis). Tunisian also tends to be slightly more vowel-stable than Algerian, and verb conjugation differs in places. Mutual intelligibility is high.

Berber substrate (millennia of contact with Tamazight speakers in Tunisia). French (colonial-era, 1881-1956). Italian (Mediterranean trade, especially around Tunis and the coast). Spanish (some Andalusi-era inheritance). Turkish (Ottoman administration, 16th-19th centuries). All have left visible vocabulary layers.

All three are Maghrebi Arabic dialects, sharing the consonant-cluster phonology, Berber substrate, French colonial-era lexical layer, and similar verb conjugations. The Maghrebi sub-cluster is internally cohesive. The factor breakdown chip on the row tells you which dimensions contributed most.