7jar حجر
Tunisian Derja · noun
“7jar” (حجر) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning stones, pebbles (collective).
Meanings
- stones, pebbles (collective)
- stone (material)
- quarantine, lockdown
Usage
In the sense of “stone”, the word is pronounced 7jar. It is a collective: it refers to stones in general. For a single stone, use 7ajra, and to count several, 7ajrat. It appears in expressions like dhreb b-el-7jar (“throwing stones”) or dar mabniya b-el-7jar (“stone house”). The pronunciation 7ajr, with no vowel between the last two consonants, corresponds to another word: lockdown. This sense has become very common with el-7ajr e-sa77i, the health lockdown. Context and pronunciation make it possible to tell the two apart.
Example
الصغار يلعبوا بالحجر في الزنقة
e-sghar yel3bou bel 7jar fi zan9a
“The kids play with pebbles in the alley.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “7jar” but also “hjar”, “7ajr”, “7jer” and “hajr”. 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.
Type “7jar” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “stones, pebbles (collective)”; “stone (material)”: 7jer in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “stone(s), pebbles”; “quarantine, lockdown”: 7jar in Algerian.