3ayla عايلة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“3ayla” (عايلة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning family.
Meanings
- family
- extended family, lineage
Usage
3ayla means family, in both the narrow and the broad sense: parents, siblings, uncles and cousins. It appears in 3ayla kbira (big family), 3aylet flen (so-and-so's family) and, in death notices, 3aylet el mar7oum (the family of the deceased). The plural is 3aylet. The digit 3 in arabizi marks the initial guttural sound. In everyday speech, one also often says "my household" with dar (ahl ed-dar) or "relatives" with ahl. To say "my parents", waldiya is used instead.
Example
العيد نتلمّو الكل مع العايلة
el 3id netlammou el kol m3a el 3ayla
“For Eid, we all get together with the family.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “3ayla” but also “3aila”, “3yla”, “aayla”, “3ayela” and “3ila”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find عايلة and عيلة, all the same word.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “3ayla” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
The same word also exists in Moroccan Darija, written عائلة, where it means “family”; “good family, respectable lineage”: 3a2ila in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “family, relatives”; “household, home”: 3ayla in Algerian.