Abstract
Some aspects of the participation of the
r
-phones in the phonetic and phonological systems of Tunisian Arabic are discussed against the background of a brief acquaintance with the situation obtaining in Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic. In contemporary Tunisian Arabic six
r
-phones occur and the relations of free variation, complementary distribution and phonological opposition between them are examined. The assimilation of the [r] to [l] is touched upon. The situation of
r
-phones in other Arabic dialects is addressed.