3asima عاصمة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“3asima” (عاصمة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning capital city.
Meanings
- capital city
Usage
The word 3asima comes from standard Arabic, but it has entered everyday usage in Morocco. It is almost always used with the article: "l3asima". It refers to a country's capital: "rbat hiya l3asima". It is specified with a complement: "l3asima dyal sbanya". By extension, the word also appears in expressions like "l3asima l'i9tisadiya" for Casablanca, the economic capital. This figurative sense comes mainly from the media. It is used only for a city, never for financial capital, which is "ras lmal".
Example
الرباط هي العاصمة ديال المغرب
rbat hiya l3asima dyal lmeghrib
“Rabat is the capital of Morocco.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “3asima” but also “3aasima” and “asima”. 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 “3asima” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “capital city”; “Tunis and its region”: 3asma in Tunisian.