aghlab اغلب
Tunisian Derja · noun
“aghlab” (اغلب) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning most, the majority.
Meanings
- most, the majority
- most often, probably
Usage
Used before a plural noun, with no article on aghlab itself, to mean "most of": aghlab ennes, "most people". The noun that follows keeps its article. In the phrase fel aghlab or l-aghlab, the word becomes an adverb meaning "most often" or "in all likelihood": fel aghlab yji ghodwa, "he will probably come tomorrow". The word comes from literary Arabic but is fully current in spoken Tunisian, in a neutral register. You hear it in conversation as well as in the media.
Example
أغلب صحابي خدّامين في فرنسا.
aghlab s7abi khaddemin fi fransa.
“Most of my friends work in France.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “aghlab” but also “a8lab” and “aghleb”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “aghlab” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “most of, the majority of”; “most of the time (f l-aghlab)”: aghlab in Moroccan.