khlifa خليفة

Algerian Darja · noun

“khlifa” (خليفة) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning successor, replacement.

Meanings

1. successor, replacement
2. caliph

Usage

In Algeria, khlifa is used mainly to designate someone who succeeds another person or takes their place: an artist, a scholar or a player presented as the worthy heir of an elder. It is used with a complement: "khlifa ntaâ…" or directly "khlifa flen". The sense of "caliph" is found in religious and historical contexts and stays close to Standard Arabic. Note: Khalifa is also a common male first name, and the word appears in surnames and company names. Context makes it possible to tell the common noun from the proper name.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “khlifa” but also “khalifa”, “5lifa” and “khelifa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.

Type “khlifa” on the Arabic keyboard

In Moroccan Darija

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “caliph”; “caid's deputy, local authority agent”: khalifa in Moroccan.