tjemma3 تجمع
Algerian Darja · verb
“tjemma3” (تجمع) is a verb in Algerian Darja meaning to gather, to get together.
Meanings
- to gather, to get together
- to accumulate, to pile up
- gathering (noun, formal register)
Usage
Tjemma3 is used mainly as a verb in darja: people getting together, friends meeting up. Ki tjemm3ou means "when you are together". It can also apply to things that build up, such as water or debts. The noun tajammo3 (gathering, grouping), which reads identically in Arabic script, belongs rather to the media or political register. In writing, the verb and the noun are often confused; context lets you tell them apart. The corresponding transitive verb is jemma3 (to gather, to collect).
Example
كل عشية نتجمعو في الحومة.
koll 3chiya ntjemm3ou fel 7ouma.
“Every evening, we get together in the neighbourhood.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tjemma3” but also “tjma3”, “tjema3” and “tajamo3”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “tjemma3” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “gathering, crowd”; “grouping, assembly”: tajammo3 in Moroccan.