sa7afa صحافة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“sa7afa” (صحافة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning press, print media.
Meanings
- press, print media
- journalism (profession)
Usage
Sa7afa is a formal-register word taken from Standard Arabic. It is commonly used in Moroccan Arabic to talk about the press in general or the profession of journalist. Typical constructions are qra sa7afa ("to study journalism") and khdem f sa7afa ("to work in the press"). In everyday conversation, people also often say jarida ("newspaper") or lpresse, borrowed from French. It should not be confused with sa7afi, "journalist", which refers to the person and not the field.
Example
ختي كتقرا الصحافة فالرباط
khti katqra sa7afa f rbat
“My sister is studying journalism in Rabat.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sa7afa” but also “sahafa”, “s7afa” and “sahaafa”. 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 “sa7afa” on the Arabic keyboard
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “press, journalism”; “journalists, the media”: sa7afa in Tunisian.