djeja دجاجة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“djeja” (دجاجة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning hen, chicken.
Meanings
- hen, chicken
- fool, coward (colloquial)
Usage
Djeja refers to the live hen as well as the chicken one cooks: djeja rousti (roast chicken). The collective is djej, which is also used for the meat in general: nekel djej (I eat chicken). Djeja beldia refers to a free-range hen, more expensive and more prized than farmed chicken. In colloquial speech, ya djeja is used to call someone silly or timid. It is a mild tease, fairly common among close friends.
Example
أمي طيبت دجاجة في الكسكسي
ommi tayyabet djeja fel keskssi
“My mother cooked a hen in the couscous.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “djeja” but also “djaja”, “dejeja” and “djejja”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “djeja” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “hen”; “chicken (meat)”: djaja in Moroccan.