ka7 كح
Moroccan Darija · verb
“ka7” (كح) is a verb in Moroccan Darija meaning to cough.
Meanings
- to cough
Usage
Kḥḥ is the usual verb for "to cough". It is used for a cold, a lingering cough or an irritated throat. It is conjugated like verbs with a doubled consonant: kḥḥit (I coughed), kaykḥḥ (he coughs), ma-tbqaš tkḥḥ (stop coughing). It is intransitive, as in English. To speak of the cough itself, l-kḥḥa is used instead: fiya l-kḥḥa (I have a cough). The ḥ is guttural: in arabizi it is often written 7, hence k7 or ka7. It must not be pronounced like an English h.
Example
ولدي كيكح بزاف هاد ليامات
wldi kayk7 bzzaf had liyamat
“My son has been coughing a lot these days.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ka7” but also “k7”, “kah”, “k77” and “kahh”. 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 “ka7” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “to cough”; “to cough up”: ko7 in Tunisian.