Books by Cristina La Rosa
C. La Rosa, F. Grande (eds), The Arabic Linguistic Tradition in Sicily and al-Andalus, IPOCAN, Rome (Islamic Sicily: texts, literary and linguistic research, 3), 2022
«Par les geus d'Amors savoreus». Parole di Eros dal Medioevo al Moderno. A cura di A. Gurrieri, C. La Rosa, I. Licitra, N. Primo, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli , 2022
La Rivista di Arablit December 2020 edited by Cristina La Rosa and Alba Rosa Suriano, 2020
Series Islamic Sicily: texts, literary and linguistic research, IPOCAN, Rome, 2019
Papers by Cristina La Rosa
Romano-Arabica, 2024
Kawasaki is a novel published in 2014 by Tunisian writer Taoufik Ben Brik, already renowned for h... more Kawasaki is a novel published in 2014 by Tunisian writer Taoufik Ben Brik, already renowned for his book entitled Kalb ben Kalb. Although Kawasaki addresses issues relevant to literature of resistance, Ben Brik prefers to define it a marwiyya, almost as if to create a new genre. The novel is set in a dry, barren Tunisia, where everything is arid and stony, a metaphor of the state of mind of the men and women who feel trapped in contemporary Tunisian society. The novel bears the name of the protagonist’s motorcycle on which he undertakes a physical journey towards Tataouine, but also a complex metaphorical journey characterised by the nonsensical thoughts that assail him on the way. He is a schoolteacher, a father, and a husband. Keen on art and reading, he does not view the world like everyone else. All of this is reflected in the language used by Ben Brik, which produces an illogical and delirious prose, also on account of the blending and alternation of Tunisian and Standard Arabic. In this paper, I will analyse the main formal features of the novel and its principal narrative strategies.
Quaderni di Studi Arabi, 2023
This paper aims to analyse the use of natural images in Ibn Sahl al-Išbīlī’s (d. 1251-1261) love ... more This paper aims to analyse the use of natural images in Ibn Sahl al-Išbīlī’s (d. 1251-1261) love and praise poems. Ibn Sahl’s Dīwān, a work that has mainly been addressed by scholars focusing on the poet’s allegedly ambiguous relationship with Islam, and a muwaššaḥ, which is not attributable to Ibn Sahl, but that was composed in imitation of his famous Hal darā, will be examined. The latter is part of the same manuscript as a maǧmūʿa, written both in fuṣḥā and in Maghribi Arabic, that is conserved at the National Library of Tunis. In the poetry addressed by this paper, nature is represented in several forms – plants, animals and atmospheric elements – often as allegorical figures that reflect the poet’s feelings towards the beloved. A special focus will interest images related to the stars and planets and their role in the poet’s love and amorous life. The objective is to show how Ibn Sahl created “classical” images, peculiar to Andalusi and, more generally, to Arabic love poetry. These images allude to nature and reveal its importance when the poet is in love. Nature seems to be a neutral element, described in an objective manner, but it does not appear to represent or evoke philosophical or moral reflections, as per the codes of Andalusi poetry. Ibn Sahl uses natural metaphors and similes to express his love, but he remains somewhat aloof. In fact, only some planets seem to have a “certain influence” on the poet’s life and love destiny.
The Maǧmūʿa min šiʿr al-Mutanabbī wa-ġawāmiḍihi, the 'Collection of some verses of al-Mutanab... more The Maǧmūʿa min šiʿr al-Mutanabbī wa-ġawāmiḍihi, the 'Collection of some verses of al-Mutanabbī and its unclear points', composed by the renowned Sicilian grammarian ʿAlī b. Ǧaʿfar Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ (d. 515/1121 A. D.) was edited for the first time by Umberto Rizzitano in 1955 and then by Muḥsin Ġayyāḍ in 1977, but it has never been studied from a morphological and lexical point of view. This paper sets out to assess the contribution of Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ to grammatical and philological studies in the Siculo-Andalusi context. In particular, this study focuses on some morphological issues presented by the Sicilian Grammarian, such as ilḥāq (BAALBAKI 2002, 2008), taḫfīf (BAALBAKI 2008), the structures of the demonstrative pronouns and the ismu l-fāʿil. Moreover, some verses of which Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ gives a lexical/semantic commentary will be analyzed. To highlight Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ's contribution to grammatical theory, the excerpts proposed will be compared to Ibn Ǧinnī and al-Iflīlī'...
Annali di Ca' Foscari. Serie orientale, 58, 2022
The existing studies on language uses and practices in Arab digital media mainly focus on few Mas... more The existing studies on language uses and practices in Arab digital media mainly focus on few Mashreq countries and, as far as the Maghreb is concerned, mostly on Morocco and Algeria, while very limited attention has been devoted to other countries of the Arab West such as Tunisia. This paper will analyse some passages of news broadcasting taken from four Tunisian social media radio broadcasters, uploaded as videos on the Facebook pages of the selected radio stations, based in the Tunisian Sahel, i.e. Mahdia, Msaken, and Sousse. The data presented and analysed are taken from different information programmes. The aim is to try to describe and analyse the linguistic choices of the speakers, influenced by personal and contextual elements, such as the editorial line of a radio, in order to verify whether there is a general tendency among the radio stations or if some peculiarities can be identified. In particular, the role of Tunisian Arabic and Modern Standard Arabic will be highlighted, as well as that of any possible mixed varieties occurring in the examples offered.
Parole d'amore nella poesia dialettale maghrebina: alcune osservazioni, in «Par les geus d’Amors savoreus». Parole di Eros dal Medioevo al Moderno, a cura di A. Gurrieri, C. La Rosa, I. Licitra, N. Primo, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli 2022, pp. 135-156., 2022
Studies on Arabic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics. Proceedings of the 13th International Conference (June 10-13, 2019) "ASSOCIATION INTERNATIONALE DE DIALECTOLOGIE ARABE (AIDA)", ed. by G. Chikovani, Z. Tskhvediani, Akaki Tsereteli State University, Georgia, 2022
Tūnis fī ʿinayya by Nizār al-Šaʿarī is a novel written in Tunisian Arabic for the ‘ǧīl al-qādim’ ... more Tūnis fī ʿinayya by Nizār al-Šaʿarī is a novel written in Tunisian Arabic for the ‘ǧīl al-qādim’ (al-Šaʿarī 2017). Al-Šaʿarī defines it as a manifesto for active citizenship, dedicated to youngsters. In the book, the dāriǧa intermingles and dialogues with audiovisual codes as well as with other linguistic varieties like French and Fuṣḥà. This dialogue starts inside the novel and develops also outside it. Nizār al-Šaʿarī, infact, inserts links, relating to other online written and audiovisual texts, in every chapter and frequently uses code-mixing dāriǧa/French (Janoussi 1986; Belazi 1992; Baccouche 1994; Lawson, Itesh 2000; Sayahi 2014; Dallaji 2017)
during the narration. The author’s linguistic choices, aiming at emphasizing the multilingualism and pluriglossia that characterise Tunisian Arabic, fit well with the usage of hypertextuality (Yaktine 2004, 2008) and generate a novel which aspires both to reflect the current situation of Tunisians’ language and culture and to convey a new idea of modern reading.
The aim of this paper is to analyze Nizār al-Šaʿarī’s linguistic choices and particularly the functions he provides to dāriǧa as a means of resistance both to the stereotyped image of the young Tunisians, portrayed as indolent and lazy, and to the injustice that characterises Tunisian
society. Moreover, attention will be devoted to some spelling issues, concerning the author’s usage of different scripts (Arabic and Latin), which reveal the difficulties of transliterating an oral variety like Tunisian Arabic.
Medioevo e Moderno. Fenomenologia delle rappresentazioni dell'alterità fra Oriente e Occidente: esplorazioni, visioni, tempi, spazi. A cura di L. Bottini, M. Cassarino, A. Chraibi, E. Creazzo, M. Marchetti, Rubbettino, Soveria Mannelli., 2021
Al-Karmil. Studies in Arabic Language and Literature, 42, 2021
This paper aims to present some preliminary results of the linguistic analysis of the dialect of ... more This paper aims to present some preliminary results of the linguistic analysis of the dialect of the Wilāya of Mahdia on which few studies exist, focused mainly on phonology. My analysis, here extended to the morpho-syntactic level, is based on a corpus of interviews taken from some social media pages. The sample will be composed of respondents of different geographical origin (from Mahdia and some nearby towns), gender, age and social background. A deeper knowledge of the Arabic of Mahdia region, which is a bundle of urban, Bedouin and “villageois” varieties, would contribute to throw new light on the features of the Saḥlī dialects and would add a small piece to the complex mosaic of Tunisian and Maghrebi dialects, whose traditional categories of classification should be reconsidered.
Journal of Arabic and Islamic Studies, Jul 5, 2018
The Maǧmūʿa min šiʿr al-Mutanabbī wa-ġawāmiḍihi, the 'Collection of some verses of al-Mutanabbī a... more The Maǧmūʿa min šiʿr al-Mutanabbī wa-ġawāmiḍihi, the 'Collection of some verses of al-Mutanabbī and its unclear points', composed by the renowned Sicilian grammarian ʿAlī b. Ǧaʿfar Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ (d. 515/1121 A. D.) was edited for the first time by Umberto Rizzitano in 1955 and then by Muḥsin Ġayyāḍ in 1977, but it has never been studied from a morphological and lexical point of view. This paper sets out to assess the contribution of Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ to grammatical and philological studies in the Siculo-Andalusi context. In particular, this study focuses on some morphological issues presented by the Sicilian Grammarian, such as ilḥāq (BAALBAKI 2002, 2008), taḫfīf (BAALBAKI 2008), the structures of the demonstrative pronouns and the ismu l-fāʿil. Moreover, some verses of which Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ gives a lexical/semantic commentary will be analyzed. To highlight Ibn al-Qaṭṭāʿ's contribution to grammatical theory, the excerpts proposed will be compared to Ibn Ǧinnī and al-Iflīlī's commentaries on al-Mutanabbī's poems.
Special Issue "The Classification of Arabic Dialects: Traditional Approaches, New Proposals, and Methodological Problems", 2021
This paper aims to present some preliminary results of the linguistic analysis of the dialect of ... more This paper aims to present some preliminary results of the linguistic analysis of the dialect of the Wilāya of Mahdia on which few studies exist, focused mainly on phonology. My analysis, here extended to the morpho-syntactic level, is based on a corpus of interviews taken from some social media pages. The sample will be composed of respondents of different geographical origin (from Mahdia and some nearby towns), gender, age and social background. A deeper knowledge of the Arabic of Mahdia region, which is a bundle of urban, Bedouin and “villageois” varieties, would contribute to throw new light on the features of the Saḥlī dialects and would add a small piece to the complex mosaic of Tunisian and Maghrebi dialects, whose traditional categories of classification should be reconsidered.
Animali e ʿaǧaʾib nelle opere di odeporica medievale arabo-sicula e andalusa, in «Quaderni di Studi Arabi» 14 (2019)., 2019
Alcune strategie retoriche nel discorso politico tunisino: uso dei deittici e ripetizione lessicale, in «La Rivista di Arablit» 15 (2018), pp. 67-92., 2018
Le discours politique en Tunisie entre fuṣḥā et ʿāmmiyya’, in C. Miller, A. Barontini, M. A. Germanos, J. Guerrero, C. Pereira (eds), Studies on Arabic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics. Aix-en-Provence, IREMAM Aix-Marseille Université/CNRS, 2019 , 2019
C. La Rosa, Resisting Through Languages: Dāriǧah and Caricature in Contemporary Tunisia, 2020
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Books by Cristina La Rosa
Papers by Cristina La Rosa
during the narration. The author’s linguistic choices, aiming at emphasizing the multilingualism and pluriglossia that characterise Tunisian Arabic, fit well with the usage of hypertextuality (Yaktine 2004, 2008) and generate a novel which aspires both to reflect the current situation of Tunisians’ language and culture and to convey a new idea of modern reading.
The aim of this paper is to analyze Nizār al-Šaʿarī’s linguistic choices and particularly the functions he provides to dāriǧa as a means of resistance both to the stereotyped image of the young Tunisians, portrayed as indolent and lazy, and to the injustice that characterises Tunisian
society. Moreover, attention will be devoted to some spelling issues, concerning the author’s usage of different scripts (Arabic and Latin), which reveal the difficulties of transliterating an oral variety like Tunisian Arabic.
during the narration. The author’s linguistic choices, aiming at emphasizing the multilingualism and pluriglossia that characterise Tunisian Arabic, fit well with the usage of hypertextuality (Yaktine 2004, 2008) and generate a novel which aspires both to reflect the current situation of Tunisians’ language and culture and to convey a new idea of modern reading.
The aim of this paper is to analyze Nizār al-Šaʿarī’s linguistic choices and particularly the functions he provides to dāriǧa as a means of resistance both to the stereotyped image of the young Tunisians, portrayed as indolent and lazy, and to the injustice that characterises Tunisian
society. Moreover, attention will be devoted to some spelling issues, concerning the author’s usage of different scripts (Arabic and Latin), which reveal the difficulties of transliterating an oral variety like Tunisian Arabic.
dialectal features, still attested in Neo-Arabic Occidental varieties (Grand’Henry 2007), though having
maintained their own linguistic peculiarities (Lentin 2007, Ferrando 2003). In this paper, some Maghribi
Phonological features, found in some Siculo-Arabic works of the Islamic and Norman periods, such as the
Cambridge Chronicle, the Opus Geographicum, the Kitāb al-ǧāmiʿ li-ṣifāt aštāt al-nabāt wa-ḍurūb anwāʿ almufradāt
and the Uns al-muhaǧ of al-Idrīsī, will be analyzed in comparison with the Andalusi ones attested in
some coeval works (Corriente 1977, 2011, 2013 ; Ferrando 1998, 2002, 2004). The attestation of Maghribi
linguistic features, such as vowel harmony, imāla, loss of short vowels in open syllables, ressaut and
fluctuation between the interdental and dental consonants, in Sicilian and Andalusi works is relevant for the
studies of Historical Arabic linguistics as it permits to observe the evolution of these phenomena in a
diachronic perspective.
Keywords: Siculo Arabic, Andalusi Arabic, Maghribi dialects, Middle Arabic, phonology, ʿāmmiyya.Sicilian Arabic and Andalusi Arabic are two Maghribi non-Hilālian varieties which share some
dialectal features, still attested in Neo-Arabic Occidental varieties (Grand’Henry 2007), though having
maintained their own linguistic peculiarities (Lentin 2007, Ferrando 2003). In this paper, some Maghribi
Phonological features, found in some Siculo-Arabic works of the Islamic and Norman periods, such as the
Cambridge Chronicle, the Opus Geographicum, the Kitāb al-ǧāmiʿ li-ṣifāt aštāt al-nabāt wa-ḍurūb anwāʿ almufradāt
and the Uns al-muhaǧ of al-Idrīsī, will be analyzed in comparison with the Andalusi ones attested in
some coeval works (Corriente 1977, 2011, 2013 ; Ferrando 1998, 2002, 2004). The attestation of Maghribi
linguistic features, such as vowel harmony, imāla, loss of short vowels in open syllables, ressaut and
fluctuation between the interdental and dental consonants, in Sicilian and Andalusi works is relevant for the
studies of Historical Arabic linguistics as it permits to observe the evolution of these phenomena in a
diachronic perspective.
Keywords: Siculo Arabic, Andalusi Arabic, Maghribi dialects, Middle Arabic, phonology, ʿāmmiyya.
On analysera dans cette étude les caractéristiques linguistiques de quelques extraits de discours politiques tunisiens on se concentrant sur le mélange linguistique ʿāmmiyya/fuṣḥā et sur l’alternance des éléments dialectaux et standards. Emblématique est, à ce propos, le célèbre discours de Zayn al-ʿĀbidīn b. ʿAlī à la Nation, tenu lorsque éclata la révolution tunisienne de 2011, lequel, prononcé dans une variété dialectale influencée par l’arabe standard, permet de mettre en évidence quelques traits fondamentaux de l’arabe tunisien (voir, entre autres, Gibson 2011 et Baccouche 2011), à tous les niveaux d’analyse : phonologique (voir, par exemple, Durand 2012 ; Mion 2008 ; Ph. Marçais 1977), morphologique (Mion 2004, 2013), syntaxique (W. Marçais 1950, Mejri 2003 ) et lexical (Lajmi 2006).
Panel Organizers:
Francesco Binaghi (Université Sorbonne Nouvelle - Paris 3/Laboratoire HTL)
Cristina La Rosa (Università degli Studi di Catania)
Submissions
Proposals must include a title, an abstract and five keywords. Abstracts should be between 300 and 400 words. Accepted languages are English and French (WOCMES working languages).
Proposals must be sent in both Word and PDF formats to Francesco Binaghi ([email protected]) and Cristina La Rosa ([email protected]).
Further information about WOCMES-5 is available at
http://wocmes2018seville.org/web/index.php/en/call-for-open-panels
We remind you that WOCMES Scientific Committee will decide the acceptance of the panel proposal.
More recently, especially since the Arab Spring, Neo-Arabic vernaculars have begun to represent the new symbol of resistance, power and identity (Bassiouney 2012, Mazraani 2009, Suleiman 2003) and the expression of various forms of resistance (Bayat 2010): independent press, cinema, theatre, information websites, cartoons, street art, music and novels are adopting lahǧa as a universal language, the carrier of a nation’s cultural heritage (Boucherit 1997) and nationalist feelings and the emblem of social struggle (Mazraani 2008). In this respect, we can also analyse different artistic and literary languages used by intellectuals to express the feelings of al-muqāwama and to represent a different vision of the social and political reality.
Papers analysing linguistic issues, linked to the trajectories of resistance and the usage of ancient and contemporary Arab vernaculars as a means of resistance, as well as papers, analysing the use of different literary and artistic languages of resistance, are welcome.
Member of Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe (AIDA) since 2015.
Member of Società per gli Studi sul Medio Oriente (SeSaMO) since 2016. Secretary since 2017.
Member of Union Européenne des Arabisants et Islamisants (UEAI) since 2016.
Member of Centro per gli Studi sul Mondo Islamico Contemporaneo e l’Africa - (CoSMICA) since 2016.
Member of Association Derja La langue tunisienne since 2017