Afro-Asiatic · ISO 639-3 aeb
Tunisian Arabic Language Tounsi
Tunisian Arabic is an Afro-Asiatic language spoken by about 12 million people in 1 country. It is written in the Perso-Arabic and Latin scripts.
Where Tunisian Arabic is spoken
- Official language
- Regional official
- Spoken by 10%+
- 1–10%
- Smaller communities
Countries that speak Tunisian Arabic
Language family
- Afro-Asiatic
- Semitic
- West Semitic
- Central Semitic
- Arabian
- Arabic
- North African Arabic
- Western Middle Arabic
- Maghrebi
- Malta-Tunisian Arabic
- Tunisian Arabic
Writing system
Perso-Arabic and Latin scripts
Related languages
About the Tunisian Arabic language
Tunisian Arabic (Tounsi) is spoken by about 12 million people, which makes it the 105th most spoken language in the world — just behind Shona (12 million) and ahead of Low German (12 million). It belongs to the Afro-Asiatic language family and, more precisely, to the Malta-Tunisian Arabic group within the West Semitic branch.
Where is Tunisian Arabic spoken?
Tunisian Arabic is used in 1 country. The largest communities live in Tunisia (11 million). More than half of the population speaks it in Tunisia — the places where travellers will hear it everywhere.
Tunisian Arabic is not a national official language anywhere.
Writing system and status
Tunisian Arabic is written in the Perso-Arabic and Latin scripts. It is a safe, widely transmitted language: children still learn it at home as their first language.
Its closest relatives in the same branch of the family are Maltese, Algerian Arabic, Moroccan Arabic, Hassaniyya, Libyan Arabic, Standard Arabic and 2 more.
ISO codes: ISO 639-3 aeb.
Frequently asked questions about Tunisian Arabic
How many people speak Tunisian Arabic?
Where is Tunisian Arabic spoken?
What language family does Tunisian Arabic belong to?
What is Tunisian Arabic called in Tunisian Arabic?
Is Tunisian Arabic an endangered language?
Data: Languages of the World dataset (MIT) — ISO 639-3, Glottolog (CC BY 4.0), Unicode CLDR, Google LinguaMeta (CC BY 4.0) and Wikidata; country lists: samayo/country-json (MIT). Speaker numbers include first- and second-language speakers where sources report them.