ma9al مقال
Moroccan Darija · noun
“ma9al” (مقال) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning news or blog article.
Meanings
- news or blog article
- essay, written piece
Usage
Ma9al refers to a text published in a newspaper, on a website or on a blog, or to a written composition. It comes from Standard Arabic but is commonly used in darija, especially when talking about the press and social media. The usual verbs are "kteb ma9al" (to write an article) and "9ra ma9al" (to read an article). The construction "ma9al 3la" means "an article about" someone or something. The plural is ma9alat. Note: this word never means a grammatical article, nor an article in the sense of an item for sale. For a product, say sel3a instead.
Example
كتب عليّا مقال
kteb 3liyya ma9al
“He wrote an article about me.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ma9al” but also “ma9aal”, “maqal” and “m9al”. 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.