kozina كوزينة
Algerian Darja · noun
“kozina” (كوزينة) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning kitchen (room of the house).
Meanings
- kitchen (room of the house)
- cooking, art of cooking
Usage
Kozina is the usual word for the kitchen, the room where meals are prepared. It is a well-integrated loanword in everyday speech, with no particular colloquial connotation. It is feminine: you say "el kozina mwessekha" (the kitchen is dirty). It is mostly found with the preposition f-: "f el kozina" (in the kitchen). By extension, it can refer to the activity of cooking or to a person's dishes. The word "matbakh" also exists, but it belongs to a more formal or written register.
Example
ماما راهي في الكوزينة تطيب العشا
mama rahi fel kozina tteyyeb el 3cha
“Mom is in the kitchen, making dinner.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “kozina” but also “kouzina”, “cozina”, “kuzina” and “kozena”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “kozina” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “kitchen (the room)”; “cooking, cuisine”: kouzina in Moroccan.