douar دوار
Tunisian Derja · noun
“douar” (دوار) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning hamlet, small rural village.
Meanings
- hamlet, small rural village
- outlying working-class neighbourhood
Usage
Douar refers to a hamlet or a cluster of dwellings in the countryside. Originally, it is a group of families settled around the same place. The word appears very often in place names, such as "Douar Hicher" or "Douar El Bey", and in local administration, where, for example, roads or electricity are requested for a given douar. French borrowed it as "douar". Do not confuse it with dawwar, "one who turns (something)", or with dawra, "a turn". The common plural is dwawer.
Example
ساكن في دوّار بعيد على البلاد.
saken fi douar b3id 3al blad.
“He lives in a douar far from the city.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “douar” but also “dwar”, “douwar” and “dowar”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “douar” on the Arabic keyboard
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “douar, rural village, hamlet”; “the countryside, the bled”: douar in Algerian.