portable بورطابل

Algerian Darja · noun

“portable” (بورطابل) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning mobile phone.

Meanings

1. mobile phone

Usage

Portable (pronounced roughly "bortabl") is the most common French loanword for the mobile phone. It is fully integrated into darja and used with the Arabic article: "el portable", "portable ntaâi" (my mobile). People commonly say "3iyetli fel portable" (call me on my mobile). The word is masculine. For the device, it is much more usual in conversation than the Standard Arabic "hatif naqqal". The French "téléphone" is also heard, but "portable" remains the basic term. The pitfall is spelling: online, it is most often written as in French.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “portable” but also “portabl”, “bortabl” and “bourtabl”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “portable” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “mobile phone, cell phone”; “mobile number”: portable in Tunisian.

How to say “mobile phone” in Moroccan, Algerian and Tunisian