Abstract

The language is the key instrument by which we assimilate the culture of our country. As culture is influenced by various factors related to history, traditions, etc. language is also affected by these phenomena. Their influence may differ from one region to another; this can produce specific regional language known as dialects. The dialect encloses lexical, syntactic or phonetic particularities of the language, used by a part of the population or some regions of the nation. The Tunisian dialect is becoming increasingly important: it is used more and more by Tunisian chains of TV, newspapers, etc. However, several expressions have become unusual for some people, some regions or some generations. This phenomenon is due to the influence of the language by several social and cultural factors. These dialects deserve to be studied in order to preserve them and to keep them in memory. This paper consists of two, disparate parts. In the first part, we present the experiences of many years of fieldwork made by the staff of linguistic Atlas in Tunisia. As a result of the fieldwork, the project now has access to recordings from approximately 3000 speakers, describing the Tunisian dialect, in more than 250 Tunisian regions. We are currently pointing research on various aspects of the sound patterns of these dialects: the phonetic system. The second part of the paper is meant to give an overview of an automated system describing the phonetic system of the Tunisian dialect. This system can be very useful in understanding the variation of dialects in different geographical regions of Tunisia through an intelligent map representing variations of sounds as we move from one place to another.

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