dyye9 ضيق

Moroccan Darija · adjective

“dyye9” (ضيق) is an adjective in Moroccan Darija meaning narrow, tight.

Meanings

1. narrow, tight
2. cramped, small (place)
3. distress, anxiety (noun di9)

Usage

Without vowels, this spelling covers two words. The more common one is the adjective dyye9: narrow, tight, said of a street, a garment or a house ("had sserwal dyye9 3liya", these trousers are too tight for me). The feminine is dyy9a and the plural dyy9in. The same spelling also writes the noun di9, which means oppression or anxiety: "3endi di9 f sder" (I have a tightness in my chest, I feel oppressed). To be short of money, people usually say di9a.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “dyye9” but also “dayy9”, “di9”, “dya9” and “diyye9”. 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 “dyye9” on the Arabic keyboard

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “oppression, anguish, tightness”; “narrow, tight”: dhi9 in Algerian.

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “distress, hardship, difficult time”; “narrowness, lack of space”: dhi9 in Tunisian.