fjel فجل
Tunisian Derja · noun
“fjel” (فجل) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning radish.
Meanings
- radish
Usage
fjel refers to the radish, pink or white, sold in bunches at the market. The word is collective: fjel means "radishes", and a single unit is called fjla, "a radish". It is eaten raw, chopped in a salad (slata mta3 fjel), with fresh onions and olive oil, or alongside a dish. The word is common in market and home-cooking vocabulary. For an English speaker, the main difficulty is the pronunciation: the f and the j follow each other without a vowel (fjel), which leads to varied Latin spellings.
Example
شريت فجل باش نعمل سلاطة
chrit fjel bech na3mel slata
“I bought radishes to make a salad.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “fjel” but also “fejl”, “fjal” and “fjla”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “fjel” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “radish”: fjel in Moroccan.