chaariya شعرية
Tunisian Derja · noun
“chaariya” (شعرية) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning vermicelli, very thin pasta.
Meanings
- vermicelli, very thin pasta
Usage
Chaariya refers to vermicelli, these very thin pasta sold in small skeins or already broken. They are used mainly in soups, especially chorba, and sometimes in homemade pasta dishes. The word is a collective noun: one says "chwaya chaariya" (a bit of vermicelli) without putting it in the plural. Beware of the homograph: in standard Arabic, the same spelling is the adjective "poetic", very common in the press and cultural announcements ("amsiya chiariya", poetry evening). That sense has nothing to do with pasta.
Example
حطّيت شوية شعرية في الشربة.
7attit chwaya chaariya fel chorba.
“I put a bit of vermicelli in the soup.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “chaariya” but also “chaaria”, “cha3riya” and “cha3ria”. 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.
Type “chaariya” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “vermicelli, angel hair pasta”; “pasta in general”: ch3ria in Moroccan.