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Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic
Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic
Libyan Judeo-Arabic; Tripolitanian Judeo-Arabic; Jewish Tripolitanian-Libyan Arabic; Tripolita'it; Yudi
Native to	Israel, Italy
Native speakers	(43,000 cited 1994–1994)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Pre-Hilalian Arabic Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic; ; ; ; ; ;
Writing system	Hebrew alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	yud
Glottolog	jude1264
ELP	Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic

Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic (also known as Tripolitanian Judeo-Arabic, Jewish Tripolitanian–Libyan Arabic, Tripolita'it, Yudi) is a variety of Arabic spoken by Jews formerly living in Libya.

Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic differs from standard Libyan Arabic in that it closely resembles the original dialect of the sedentary population, whereas much of Libya's population now speaks Bedouin-influenced varieties of Arabic.^[2] A reference grammar is available.^[3]

The vast majority of Libyan Jews have relocated to Israel and have switched to using Hebrew in as their first language. Those in Italy typically use Italian as their first language.

Features

Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic contains 31 consonant phonemes which are as follows:^[4]


Labials	Dental Plosives	Dental Affricative	Fricatives	Liquids	Plosives	Uvular Trills	Semi-Vowels
b, ḅ, m, ṃ	t, d, ṭ, ḍ	Č	s, z, x, ṣ, ẓ, Š, ž, ġ, ḥ, ᶜ	l, n, Ḷ, ṅ	q, k, g	r, ṛ	w, y

It also has 4 Vowels which are as follows:^[5]


Long Vowel	Short Vowel
a, i, u	ə

Demographics

In ca. 1994 there were 35,000 speakers of Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic, mostly in Israel (30,000) and Italy (5,000).^[6] As of 2014, those in Israel are mostly over the age of 60 and are bilingual in Hebrew.^[7]

History

There were 20,000 Jews living in Tripoli, Libya in 1948. About 14,000 migrated to Israel and Italy in 1948–1952, following two riots. After riots during the Six-Day War in 1967, most of the remaining 6,000 Jews emigrated; there were only a few dozen Jews living in Tripoli in 1970.^[3]

References

^ Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic at Ethnologue (25th ed., 2022)
^ (in Russian) Judæo-Arabic languages. Jewish Electronic Encyclopædia.
^ ^a ^b Yoda, Sumikazu (2005). The Arabic dialect of the Jews in Tripoli (Libya): Grammar, Text and Glossary. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
^ Yoda, Sumikazu (2005). The Arabic Dialect of the Jews in Tripoli (Libya): Grammar, Text and Glossary. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 9. ISBN 978-3-447-05133-0.
^ Yoda, Sumikazu (2005). The Arabic Dialect of the Jews in Tripoli (Libya): Grammar, Text and Glossary. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 31. ISBN 978-3-447-05133-0.
^ Spolsky, Bernard (27 March 2014). The languages of the Jews: A Sociolinguistic History. Cambridge University Press. p. 270.
^ Estimate of mostly over the age of 40 cited from 1994.Judeo-Tripolitanian Arabic^{[dead link‍]} at Ethnologue (14th ed., 2000).