cha3b شعب
Tunisian Derja · noun
“cha3b” (شعب) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning people, population of a country.
Meanings
- people, population of a country
- the people, the public
Usage
Cha3b means the people, all the citizens, often in contrast to those in power, the police or politicians. It is very present in political discussions and on social media: ech-cha3b ytalla3 (the people are protesting), ech-cha3b tounsi. It is also used to talk about people in general, sometimes with a critical or ironic nuance about their collective behaviour. The word also belongs to Standard Arabic, but it is fully integrated into derja. The adjective cha3bi means "popular" (neighbourhood, music, dish).
Example
كي نشوف شصار بين شعب وال بوليس ,
ki nchouf chsar bin cha3b wil boulis ,
“When I see what happened between the people and the police…”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “cha3b” but also “cha3eb”, “chaab”, “sha3b” and “cha3bb”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.