tomatich طوماطيش
Algerian Darja · noun
“tomatich” (طوماطيش) is a noun in Algerian Darja meaning tomatoes.
Meanings
- tomatoes
- a tomato (singular: tomaticha)
Usage
Tomatich is the common word for tomatoes in much of Algeria. It is a collective noun: tomatich means "tomatoes" in general, and tomaticha means a single tomato. It is everywhere at the market, in cooking and in recipes: chakchouka, salad, red sauce. In some regions of the East, tmatem is heard instead. For an English speaker, the pitfall is making it agree as a plural: in darja the collective is grammatically singular, and one says, for example, "tomatich ghalya" for "the tomatoes are expensive".
Example
الطوماطيش غلات بزاف هاد السيمانة.
tomatich ghlat bezzaf had simana.
“Tomatoes have gone up a lot this week.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tomatich” but also “ttomattich”, “toumatich”, “tmatich” and “tomatiche”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “tomatich” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “tomatoes (collective)”: tomatich in Moroccan.