7ouma حومة

Algerian Darja · noun

“7ouma” (حومة) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning neighborhood, district.

Meanings

1. neighborhood, district
2. people of the neighborhood

Usage

7ouma is the everyday word for the neighborhood where one lives. It carries a strong emotional and social dimension. Wlad l7ouma are the young people of the neighborhood, with whom one grew up and to whom one owes solidarity. With a possessive, one says 7oumti (my neighborhood) or 7oumtek (your neighborhood). By extension, the word refers to the residents themselves: l7ouma kamel kharjet (the whole neighborhood came out). It is more loaded than a simple administrative division, and the English "neighborhood" conveys its sense of identity poorly.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7ouma” but also “houma”, “7oma” and “el7ouma”. 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 “7ouma” on the Arabic keyboard

In Moroccan Darija

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “neighborhood (where one lives)”: 7ouma in Moroccan.

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “neighborhood”; “people of the neighborhood”: 7ouma in Tunisian.

How to say “neighborhood” in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian