sa9 ساق
Moroccan Darija · noun
“sa9” (ساق) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning leg, part between knee and ankle.
Meanings
- leg, part between knee and ankle
- stem (of a plant)
Usage
Sa9 refers to the part of the leg between the knee and the ankle. For the whole leg, the most common word remains rjel. Sa9 is used mainly in specific contexts: pain, football injuries or description of the body. The plural is s9an or si9an. There is a verbal homograph, sa9 "he drove" (from the verb yssu9), which is very frequent. Context tells them apart: "sa9 tomobil" means "he drove the car". The word belongs to the standard everyday register.
Example
ضربوه فالساق فالماتش
drbouh f sa9 f lmatch
“They hit him on the shin during the match.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sa9” but also “saq”, “sag” and “saa9”. 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.