blaka بلاكة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“blaka” (بلاكة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning plate, sign.
Meanings
- plate, sign
- license plate
- bus stop
Usage
Blaka means a plate or a sign: a road sign, a metal plate, a shop sign. It is very often used for a vehicle's license plate (blaka dyal tomobil). By extension, blaka dyal tobis refers to the sign marking the bus stop, and then to the stop itself. The word is used by everyone, in an everyday register. The usual plural is blakat.
Example
فين جات بلاكة ت طوبيس؟
fin jat blaka t Tobis?
“Where is the bus stop?”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “blaka” but also “plaka”, “blakka” and “blaqa”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “blaka” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “license plate”; “sign, signboard”: blaka in Tunisian.