sinjab سنجاب
Moroccan Darija · noun
“sinjab” (سنجاب) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning squirrel.
Meanings
- squirrel
Usage
Sinjab means squirrel. The word comes from standard Arabic. People know it mostly from school, cartoons and documentaries, since the animal is not part of everyday life for most city dwellers. It is used with the article like an ordinary noun: s-sinjab, dak sinjab ("that squirrel"). The learned plural sanajib exists, but one more often hears phrases like bzzaf dyal s-sinjab. The word is masculine. For a female or a young one, the masculine is normally kept.
Example
إمكن لينا نمشيو نشوفو أش كايدير داك سنجاب تمّا
imken lina nmchiw nchoufou ach kaydir dak sinjab tmma
“We could go see what that squirrel is doing over there.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sinjab” but also “sanjab”, “snjab” and “sinjeb”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.