AL-MAQĀMA AL-KĀFIYYA OF ʿALĪ AL-MŪRĀLĪ (C. 1950): AN ARCHIVE OF TUNISIAN CURSING
AL-MAQĀMA AL-KĀFIYYA OF ʿALĪ AL-MŪRĀLĪ (C. 1950): AN ARCHIVE OF TUNISIAN CURSING

Summary/Abstract: The article examines a collection of literary maqāmāt performed in the 1950s by the renowned Tunisian dramatist Muḥammad ʿAbd al-ʿAzīz al-ʿAqrabī (1902-1968), and attributed to his cousin ʿAlī al- Mūrālī. Composed in what we term “Mock Jewish” – a stylized variety of the Arabic dialect(s) of Jewish Tunisians – the four maqāmāt constitute a rare archive of profanities, curses, and euphemisms in the (Muslim and Jewish) Tunisian Arabic(s) of the early twentieth century, in addition to Hebrew argot expressions. We present a transcription, translation, and lexical analysis of a relevant portion of the first text in the collection, entitled al-Maqāma al-Kāfiyya (The Maqama of el Kef), with a view to publish a fuller sociolinguistic analysis of this and the remaining maqāmāt in subsequent articles.

• Details
• Contents