fella7 فلّاح

Moroccan Darija · noun

“fella7” (فلّاح) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning peasant, farmer.

Meanings

1. peasant, farmer
2. country bumpkin (sometimes pejorative)

Usage

Fellah refers to someone who works the land, whether a smallholder or a farm operator. The feminine is fellaha and the plural is fellaha or fellahin. The word is neutral when it describes an occupation. In town, it can take a mocking tone when describing someone as a "country bumpkin" or unpolished, and context tells the two uses apart. In darija the word is in everyday use, not just literary or historical.

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “fella7” but also “flla7”, “falla7”, “fellah” and “fllah”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.

Type “fella7” on the Arabic keyboard

In Tunisian Derja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “farmer, cultivator”; “peasant, countryman”: fellah in Tunisian.