athari اثاري
Tunisian Derja · adverb
“athari” (اثاري) is an adverb in Tunisian Derja meaning it turns out that.
Meanings
- it turns out that
- and here I thought
Usage
Athari marks the discovery of an unexpected fact, often contrary to what one believed: "in fact", "it turns out". It goes at the start of the sentence and easily takes a suffixed pronoun: atharik (so it was you, in fact...), atharou (so it was him...). The word is very common in speech and in messages, with a nuance of surprise, reproach or irony. Don't confuse it with the adjective "athari" (archaeological) from standard Arabic: in derja, it is a discourse connector.
Example
أثاري هو اللي خذاها!
athari howa elli 5dheha!
“It turns out he's the one who took it!”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “athari” but also “ithari”, “2athari” and “atheri”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 2 is hamza (ء), a glottal stop.