bled بلاد
Tunisian Derja · noun
“bled” (بلاد) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning country, homeland.
Meanings
- country, homeland
- hometown or home region
- town, locality
Usage
Bled first means the country. It is often used with a possessive: bledi, bledek, bledhom. The word also means the town or region you come from. This is the dominant sense among Tunisians abroad: nerja3 lel bled, "I'm going back home." Wled bledi means "my fellow countrymen" or "the people from back home," depending on context. The plural is bouldén. In French, "bled" has entered slang with a pejorative nuance of "middle of nowhere." This is not the case in Tunisian: the word is neutral, even affectionate.
Example
تشوف شباب في بلاده حاسس روحه غريب ,
tchouf chebeb fi bledou 7asis rou7ou 8rib ,
“You see young people who feel like strangers in their own country.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “bled” but also “blad”, “beled”, “blèd”, “bleed” and “bléd”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find بلاد and بلد, all the same word.
Type “bled” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “country”; “homeland, hometown or home region”: blad in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “country”; “home region or town”: blad in Algerian.