About sa9si

sa9si is a free dictionary of Darija, the Arabic spoken across the Maghreb, explained in English, French and Modern Standard Arabic, with a keyboard that turns Arabizi into Arabic script.

What you will find here

The English side holds 2,876 Moroccan words, 1,921 Algerian words and 3,542 Tunisian words. Every word has its own page: its Arabic spelling, the common ways of writing it in Latin letters, its meanings, a usage note and an example. The “How to say” pages give the word each country uses for an everyday idea. The Arabic keyboard accepts Arabizi as people type it in a message, with 3, 7 or 9 for Arabic letters, and suggests the matching Arabic words.

Why this site exists

Darija is the everyday language of tens of millions of people, but it has no fixed spelling and few free dictionaries explain it. The name sa9si means “ask” in Darija. From 2010 to 2017 this domain ran a search engine for Arabizi; today’s keyboard descends from it.

How the entries are written

Entries are written by language models, without human review, and published only when two independent drafts agree; the English text is a checked translation of the French entry. No word is invented: each is attested in a named public source. The method page describes the checks, and the sources and licences page names every dataset and its authors.

Funding

The site is free and asks for no account. It is paid for by advertising shown on the dictionary pages; the privacy policy (in French) explains what that involves.

Reporting a mistake

If a meaning, a spelling or an example looks wrong, write to [email protected] with the page address. A correction from a speaker is worth more than any automatic check. See also the contact page.