l3alem لعالم
Tunisian Derja · noun
“l3alem” (لعالم) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning the world.
Meanings
- the world
- people, everyone
Usage
Form of the word 3alem with the article, pronounced l3alem or el3alem. It refers to the world in the sense of the planet or a universe: fi l3alem lkol, in the whole world. It also appears in expressions such as l3alem lakhor, the afterlife. In speech, l3alem can mean "people" in a collective sense, close to "everyone". Do not confuse it with 3alem meaning "scholar", which is pronounced the same way but is used differently.
Example
نحب ندور العالم الكل.
n7eb ndour l3alem lkol.
“I want to travel around the whole world.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “l3alem” but also “el3alem”, “la3lem” and “l3alam”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 3 is ayn (ع), a voiced sound from deep in the throat with no English equivalent.
Type “l3alem” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “world, the whole earth”; “people, everyone”: l3alam in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “the world, the whole Earth”; “people, everyone”: l3alem in Algerian.