7emla حملة

Moroccan Darija · noun

“7emla” (حملة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning flood, flash flood.

Meanings

1. flood, flash flood
2. campaign (electoral, awareness)

Usage

In everyday use, l-7emla refers to the sudden flooding of a wadi after heavy rain: "l-7emla hezzat l-9ent'ra" (the flood swept away the bridge). In the sense of campaign ("7amla intikhabiya", "7amla tabi3iya"), the word belongs to the register of the media and administration. Important pitfall: the same Arabic spelling is also used for 7amla, "pregnant", the feminine participle of the verb 7mel. You say "hiya 7amla b weld" (she is expecting a boy). Only context and pronunciation tell these words apart.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7emla” but also “7amla”, “7mla”, “hamla” and “hemla”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.

Type “7emla” on the Arabic keyboard

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “campaign, organized collective action”; “flood, surge of a wadi”: hamla in Algerian.