zen9a زنقة
Moroccan Darija · noun
“zen9a” (زنقة) is a noun in Moroccan Darija meaning street, alley.
Meanings
- street, alley
- the street, outdoors
Usage
zenqa refers to the street, in particular a neighbourhood street or a medina alley. It is also found on official street signs, where "Zenqa" translates "street". The plural is znaqi. With the article, zenqa also takes the general sense of "the street", as opposed to the home: wlad zenqa, "street children", ill-mannered or left to fend for themselves. For a large avenue, one says chari3 or "boulevard" instead. To talk about one's immediate neighbourhood, one says f zenqatna, "in our street".
Example
كايناعسو ف زنقة
kayna3sou f zan9a
“They sleep in the street.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “zen9a” but also “zn9a”, “zan9a”, “zenqa” and “znqa”. 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.
Type “zen9a” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “alley, narrow street”; “street”: zenqa in Algerian.
In Tunisian Derja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Tunisian Derja, where it means “street, lane”; “dead end, narrow passage”: zanga in Tunisian.