sta7 سطح
Moroccan Darija · noun
“sta7” (سطح) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning roof terrace of a house.
Meanings
- roof terrace of a house
- surface (formal register)
Usage
Sta7 refers to the flat roof of Moroccan houses, used as a terrace: laundry is hung out there, people sit out to cool off, and sometimes a room is built on it. You say "tl3 l s-sta7" (go up to the terrace) and "f s-sta7" (on the terrace). It is an important part of home life, especially for women in traditional houses. The sense of "surface," as in "sat7 l-ard" (the surface of the earth), belongs to Standard Arabic and is mostly heard in news broadcasts or translations. Pitfall: do not automatically translate it as "roof" in the sense of a pitched roof.
Example
طلعات تنشر الحوايج فالسطح
tl3at tnchr l7wayj f sta7
“She went up to hang the laundry on the roof terrace.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sta7” but also “stah”, “st7”, “sat7” and “sta7a”. 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 “sta7” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “rooftop terrace”; “roof”: stah in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “flat roof, roof terrace”; “surface”: sta7 in Tunisian.