nghma نغمة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“nghma” (نغمة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning melody, tune.
Meanings
- melody, tune
- phone ringtone
- tone of voice
Usage
Nghma means a tune or melody, for example a song or a musical phrase that stays in your head. In everyday speech, the word is very often used for a phone ringtone: nghma dyal tilifoun. It is also used for tone of voice, in a somewhat more formal register, as in "he spoke in a strange tone." The plural is nghamat. The word is in a neutral register and understood everywhere. To talk simply about a song, Moroccans rather say ghniya. Nghma stresses the tune itself, not the lyrics.
Example
عجباتني النغمة ديال التيليفون ديالك
3jbatni nghma dyal tilifoun dyalek
“I like your phone's ringtone.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “nghma” but also “naghma”, “neghma” and “n8ma”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “nghma” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “melody, tune”; “phone ringtone”: naghma in Tunisian.