7jar حجر
Algerian Darja · noun
“7jar” (حجر) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning stone(s), pebbles.
Meanings
- stone(s), pebbles
- quarantine, lockdown
Usage
In the sense of "stone", darja says 7jar (collective or plural: "stones, stone") and 7ajra for a single stone. The word is used for building (bni bel 7jar, "to build in stone") and for pebbles. Another reading, 7ajr, comes from Standard Arabic and refers to lockdown: el 7ajr es-si77i, very widespread since the Covid period. Context makes it possible to tell the two senses apart. As an exclamation, 7ajra can also describe someone insensitive or hard.
Example
الطريق كامل حجر.
triq kamel 7jar.
“The road is full of stones.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7jar” but also “hjar”, “7jer”, “7ajar” and “hjer”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “7jar” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “stones, pebbles (collective)”; “stone (material)”: 7jer in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “stones, pebbles (collective)”; “stone (material)”: 7jar in Tunisian.