Abstract
The paper describes the language situation in Tunisia taking into account its historical evolution and the political, educational, economic, social and cultural factors contributing to its current development. The language situation has evolved into a diglossic/multilingual one characterized by a mitigated maintenance of Arabic, the national/official language, an ongoing ideological, sociocultural rivalry between Arabic and French, an intensified functional competition between French and English, and an overall sense of deteriorating competence in all these languages among the younger generations, coupled with an unsettled cultural orientation. Such developments are interpreted in terms of a set of layered language policy and planning dichotomies resulting mainly from competing agendas for the pursuit and maintenance of power, ideological tension over languages and related sociocultural models, and the absence of a consensual national strategy for multilingual language promotion and maintenance.
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