dimo9ratiya ديمقراطية
Moroccan Darija · noun
“dimo9ratiya” (ديمقراطية) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning democracy.
Meanings
- democracy
Usage
Dimoqratiya is the Standard Arabic word, taken over as is in darija to talk about politics, rights or freedom of speech. It is feminine and used with the article: d-dimoqratiya. It is heard in conversations about current events, often with an ironic tone ("fin hiya d-dimoqratiya?", "where is the democracy?"). In Latin-letter writing, the q is often written 9 and the ending -iya or -ia. In Morocco, people also sometimes say "la démocratie" in French in mixed-language discussions.
Example
الديمقراطية خاصها تبدا من الدار
ddimo9ratiya khassha tbda mn ddar
“Democracy must start at home.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “dimo9ratiya” but also “dimo9ratia”, “dimoqratiya” and “dimokratiya”. 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.
Type “dimo9ratiya” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “democracy”; “democratic (attributive)”: dimo9ratiya in Tunisian.