bakia باكية

Moroccan Darija · noun

“bakia” (باكية) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning packet, package.

Meanings

1. packet, package
2. pack of cigarettes

Usage

Bakiya, borrowed from Spanish, refers to a packaged product: sugar, salt, laundry detergent, biscuits. The usual plural is bakiyat. It is used above all for a pack of cigarettes: "bakiya d garro". At the market or the grocer's, it is contrasted with buying individually: "b lbakiya" (by the packet) versus "b dditay" (by the unit). For a postal parcel, kolia is used instead. Beware of the arabizi spelling "bakya": depending on the context, it can also write baky a, "crying" (feminine). The context settles it easily.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bakia” but also “bakiya”, “bakya”, “bakiyat” and “baquia”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “bakia” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “package, packaging”; “pack of cigarettes”: bakya in Tunisian.