di9a ضيقة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“di9a” (ضيقة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning hardship, difficulty (especially financial).
Meanings
- hardship, difficulty (especially financial)
- distress, unease
- narrow (feminine of dyye9)
Usage
Di9a refers to a difficult situation, most often a lack of money: "ana f di9a had liyamat" (I'm in financial difficulty these days). It can also refer to a moral unease, a feeling of oppression. It appears in well-wishing formulas such as "lah yfarrej 3lik had di9a" (may God relieve you of this trial). Note: the same spelling also writes dyy9a, the feminine of the adjective dyye9 (narrow). Context resolves the ambiguity: the noun often follows the preposition f, whereas the adjective accompanies a feminine noun.
Example
داز بضيقة كبيرة وما قال لحد
daz b di9a kbira w ma 9al l7ed
“He went through great hardship and told no one.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “di9a” but also “diqa”, “dy9a” and “dee9a”. 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.