koujina كوجينة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“koujina” (كوجينة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning kitchen (room).
Meanings
- kitchen (room)
- cuisine, cooking
Usage
Koujina is the usual word for the kitchen as a room of the house: "fel koujina", in the kitchen. It is an old, fully adapted loanword that everyone uses. By extension, it also means cuisine in the gastronomic sense: "koujina tounsiya", Tunisian cuisine. In this sense, mákla (food, dishes) is also heard. The word is feminine. For "to cook", no verb built on koujina is used; one says tayeb, "to cook".
Example
أمي في الكوجينة تطيّب.
ommi fel koujina ttayeb.
“My mother is in the kitchen cooking.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “koujina” but also “kojina”, “koujena” and “kujina”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.