jzira جزيرة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“jzira” (جزيرة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning island.
Meanings
- island
Usage
Jzira means an island, as in Standard Arabic, and is used commonly in darija, with the initial vowel often reduced (jzira rather than jazira). The plural is jzayer. It is used when talking about travel, geography or islands near the Moroccan coast. The word is feminine: jzira zwina, "a beautiful island." Note that the plural jzayer can also bring to mind the name of Algeria (ljazayer): context makes the distinction. For a peninsula, one sometimes hears chbeh jzira, but this is more formal.
Example
بغيت نسافر لشي جزيرة فالصيف
bghit nsafer l chi jzira f sif
“I want to travel to some island in the summer.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “jzira” but also “jazira”, “jezira”, “jzeera” and “jazeera”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “jzira” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “island”; “peninsula (in "chbeh jezira")”: jzira in Tunisian.