gharb غرب
Tunisian Derja · noun
“gharb” (غرب) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning west.
Meanings
- west
- the Western countries
Usage
gharb, almost always used with the article (el gharb), refers to the cardinal point and, by extension, the western regions of the country. El gharb el tounsi means the Northwest and the Center-West. The word also refers to the West in the political and cultural sense. Do not confuse it with ghorba, "exile, life far from home", very common among the diaspora, nor with ghrab, "crow". The Latin spellings often overlap, and only context distinguishes them. The derived adjective is gharbi, "western".
Example
الكاف في الغرب متاع تونس
el kef fel gharb mta3 tounes
“El Kef is in the west of Tunisia.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “gharb” but also “ghareb”, “8arb”, “ghorb” and “ghrab”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 8 is light ha (ه) or ghayn (غ), depending on the writer.
Type “gharb” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “west, the Occident”; “the Gharb (region of Morocco)”: gharb in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “west (cardinal direction)”; “western Algeria”: gharb in Algerian.