taqlid تقليد
Algerian Darja · noun
“taqlid” (تقليد) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning imitation, copy.
Meanings
- imitation, copy
- counterfeit (non-original product)
- tradition (formal register)
Usage
In everyday language, teqlid mainly means imitation: something that copies an original model without having its value. It is applied to products ("hadi teqlid, machi original", this is a fake, not the original), but also to people or countries accused of copying others. The word often has a pejorative nuance. The meaning "tradition", inherited from standard Arabic, appears rather in careful or media speech; to talk about customs, people more readily say "3adat". Be careful not to translate it systematically as "tradition".
Example
هاد الصباط تقليد، ماشي أوريجينال.
had sabbat teqlid, machi original.
“These shoes are an imitation, not originals.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “taqlid” but also “teqlid”, “tagleed”, “taklid” and “te9lid”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.
Type “taqlid” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “imitation, knockoff”; “imitating someone”: t9lid in Moroccan.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “imitation”; “fake, counterfeit (product)”: ta9lid in Tunisian.