taman التمن
Moroccan Darija · noun
“taman” (التمن) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning price, cost of something.
Meanings
- price, cost of something
- eighth (pronounced ttumun)
- one eighth
Usage
Ttaman is the usual word for the price of an item, a service or a rent. You ask bch7al ttaman?, "how much is it?", and you haggle to bring the price down: nqess f ttaman or ykhfed ttaman. Ttaman ghali means "the price is high", ttaman mzyan "the price is fair". With a different vocalization, ttumun, the same spelling means the eighth, a fraction rarely used in everyday speech. Context is enough to tell the two meanings apart. The register is neutral and the word suits all situations.
Example
ڭولي ليا بشهال التمن
gouli liya bchehal taman
“Tell me what the price is.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “taman” but also “ttaman”, “tman”, “tamane”, “ttomon” and “ttomoun”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find التمن and تمن and ثمن, all the same word.
Type “taman” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
The same word also exists in Algerian Darja, written ثمن, where it means “price, cost”; “price to pay (figurative)”: taman in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
The same word also exists in Tunisian Derja, written ثمن, where it means “price, cost paid”; “consequence suffered, price paid”: thmen in Tunisian.