char9 شرق
Moroccan Darija · noun
“char9” (شرق) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning east, the Orient.
Meanings
- east, the Orient
- Middle East
Usage
Char9 means the cardinal point east, and by extension the Middle East: "l7arb f char9" (the war in the Middle East). It is the opposite of lgharb (the west). The expression "ana f char9 w nta f lgharb" describes two people who do not understand each other or are talking about different things. One pitfall: the verb chre9, written with the same letters, means "to choke, to swallow the wrong way" ("chre9t b lma", I choked on the water). Only context tells them apart.
Example
ونايدة الحرب ف شرق
wnayda lharb f char9
“There is war in the Middle East.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “char9” but also “cher9”, “chr9”, “shar9” and “charq”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.