7alla حلة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“7alla” (حلة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning cooking pot, large saucepan.
Meanings
- cooking pot, large saucepan
- contents of a pot, potful
Usage
7alla refers to a cooking pot or large saucepan, often metal, used to prepare sauce, chorba or couscous. By extension the word also means what it contains: "7alla mta3 marga" is understood as a pot of sauce. Depending on region and family, other words for cookware are also used, such as tanjra or 9adra. Pitfall for an English speaker: the Arabic spelling is the same as that of the standard expression "fi 7olla jdida", meaning "in a new guise". In written or media contexts, rely on context to tell the two meanings apart.
Example
حطّ الحلّة على النار باش نطيّب الكسكسي.
7ott el 7alla 3al nar bech ntayeb el kousksi.
“Put the pot on the fire so I can make the couscous.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7alla” but also “hala”, “7ala” and “halla”. 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.