baladiya بلدية

Tunisian Derja · noun

“baladiya” (بلدية) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning municipality, town hall.

Meanings

1. municipality, town hall
2. traditional, local (feminine of beldi)

Usage

The noun baladiya refers both to the commune as an administrative area and to the town hall as a building or service: "mché lel baladiya bech ykharrej wra9" (he went to the town hall to get some papers). It is used before a town name: "baladiyet el marsa". The same spelling can be read beldiya, the feminine of the adjective beldi. This describes what is traditional, "of the country", or old-style urban, as in "3ayla beldiya" (traditional urban family). Only pronunciation and context distinguish the two.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “baladiya” but also “beladiya”, “baladia”, “beldiya” and “baladeya”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Type “baladiya” on the Arabic keyboard