5liya خلية
Tunisian Derja · noun
“5liya” (خلية) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning cell (organized group).
Meanings
- cell (organized group)
- cell (biology)
Usage
In Tunisia, 5liya is used mostly for a small, organized group. People speak of 5liyet azma ("crisis cell"), 5liyet ettawassol ("communication cell") or, in the news, 5liya irhebiya ("terrorist cell"). The biological sense is found at school and in medicine. The plural is 5lèya. The register is rather media and administrative, but the word is fully at home in speech. For a prison cell, people tend to say "cellule" in French or sinjen.
Example
عملوا خلية أزمة في الولاية
3amlou 5liyet azma fil wileya
“They set up a crisis cell at the governorate.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “5liya” but also “khaliya”, “5aliya”, “5lia” and “khlia”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.
Type “5liya” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “cell (biology, organised group)”; “beehive, honeycomb cell”: khliya in Moroccan.