Notes from a Book Presentation: Language Politics in Tunisia

As we gradually make our way towards the last week of the month-long LocalLing meeting in Volos, I would like to pause and say a few words about one event that stood out for me: the day I presented a new, I believe important, book, Language Politics in Tunisia, by Fethi Helal and Joe Lo Bianco. If you have an interest in how language, power, and history intersect, and how these intersections are lived rather than merely legislated, you may find it worth reading on.

Language Politics in Tunisia: A Study of Language Ideological Debates

Like many countries in North Africa, Tunisia constitutes a rich linguistic ecology, where Arabic, French, English and Amazigh varieties intersect. Arabic itself spans Classical, Modern Standard, and a range of vernacular varieties, and connects Tunisia both to regional networks and to Islamic traditions. French, shaped by colonial history, continues to carry significant symbolic and institutional capital, particularly among elites. More recently, neoliberal pressures have introduced a growing Anglophone orientation. Alongside these, Amazigh varieties, especially in regions such as Djerba and Matmata, add further layers to this already complex repertoire.

The question that Language Politics in Tunisia poses is, exactly how do Tunisians navigate all this complexity, and in what ways has their identity emerged in the years following the Arab Spring? To answer this question, they painstakingly analysed an impressive corpus of data spanning 10 years of debates. Using a Discourse Historical Approach, a method of analysis informed by the writints of Ruth Wodak, Helal and Lo Bianco juxtapose four different language ideological positions (Arabisation, Francophonie, anglophone pragmatism, and a nationalist trend associated with the Tunisian vernacular. They conclude with a proposal for what they term the Tunisian Language Compact, a negotiation-based solution that seeks to synthesise the contradictory discourses outlined above.

What makes the book stand out

But why should a Greece-based linguist, and an international audience of readers, be interested in the linguistic ecology of Tunisia? While modestly framed as a discussion of a single country, Helal and Lo Bianco’s book is about identity, language and power, and about the ways in which these interconnect. The Greek linguistic ecology is very different, and yet, as I was reading, I found striking parallels in how languages acquire value, circulate, and index social positioning. I also found the way that the book balances between empirical description and theoretical discussion, effortlessly invoking philosophical concepts such as Wittgenstein’s language games, very impressive. This was a book that was a genuine pleasure to read.

The book presentation

The idea for the book presentation came from Fethi Helal, one of our LocalLing guests, shortly before the meeting started. At the time, I was struggling with logistical preparations, and I would probably have delegated it to someone. But Fethi had also included a copy of the book in his invitation, and it proved much more interesting than writing conference-related emails… By the time I read the first three chapters, where Helal and Lo Bianco describe their theoretical background, I had made up my mind to do the presentation myself.

Making miracles happen
in the last minute

The presentation took place in Charta, arguably the nicest bookstore in Volos. This was entirely unplanned: I was walking with our guests from the Faculty of Humanities to the University Library, when we passed outside the store, and I had an epiphany. I turned to Dimitra, our PR manager, and asked if relocating the presentation there rather than in the Humanities¹ building would be insurmountable logistically. Her answer was the widest smile she gave in the entire meeting – so, on the next day, I was at the bookstore with our operations officer, Evangelia, asking them what it would cost to use the space. They were happy to give it to us for free, for which we are most grateful.

Of course, relocating an event at the last moment was not quite straightforward. Posters had to be re-printed, projectors had to be moved, laptops and conference microphones had to be transported, and we needed to find a way to beam Joe Lo Bianco via Zoom, into a room that was not designed for online meetings. Evangelia is a miracle worker when it comes to things like this, and I knew that I could trust her with everything, so that I could focus on just three tasks: prepare my presentation, bring the participants to the bookshop in time, and bring along a cable adaptor.

Presenting the book

On the actual day of the presentation, when the LocalLing group met at the Faculty of Humanities, several of my students approached me. I thought they wanted to ask me if we’d have a lesson that day, and I was mentally preparing to remind them to read their email; but to my surprise, they wanted to know if they could attend the presentation, since they had no class. Students… they never cease to delight you.²

So, off we went to the bookstore. Leading academics to any place is very much like herding cats, and car drivers in Volos are not pedestrian-aware, so I felt some relief when I arrived in Charta with all my guests accounted for.³ And of course I had forgotten the adaptor…

Still, we did manage to set our equipment up and start on time, and I sighed another sigh of relief when the audio worked and we managed to hear Joe Lo Bianco’s voice. I had read his work on language policy in the past, but I had never met him; he’s a brilliant speaker, and I think he captivated the audience. I also really enjoyed Fethi’s presentation: What struck me, listening to him, was not just the clarity with which he laid out the Tunisian case, but the way he resisted simplifying it. It would have been easy to frame Tunisia in terms of familiar binaries (e.g., Arabic vs. French, policy vs. practice, identity vs. utility…) but what emerged instead was a far more layered account of how linguistic resources are mobilised, valued, and contested in everyday life.

And was it worth it, doctor?

As I sat in the room, my own modest remarks completed, I caught myself looking at the audience and thinking that in many ways, this small event captured something central to the LocalLing project. We often speak about linguistic ecologies in abstract terms, but here we were, inhabiting one: multiple languages, multiple trajectories, and multiple ways of understanding what language does in society, all brought into temporary alignment through a shared act of attention. And that is how you know that something worthwhile has happened.

Footnotes

1. Arguably the darkest, dirtiest and ugliest building in the University of Thessaly. ↩︎
2. Don’t get me wrong; they are infuriating in equal measure. But it’s moments like these that make it all worth the while ↩︎
3. Including the one who stopped to buy a pataounga. *angry emoji* ↩︎

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