l7am لحم
Tunisian Derja · noun
“l7am” (لحم) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning meat.
Meanings
- meat
- flesh (of the body)
Usage
L7am is the common word for meat, of any kind. The animal is specified with a complement: l7am 3allouch (lamb), l7am bagri (beef). Poultry is rather djej, and fish is 7out, which do not count as l7am in ordinary usage. In meals, meat is often a sign of celebration or a carefully prepared dish, such as couscous or the Sunday marqa. It is also used for the flesh of the human body, in colloquial expressions. Pronunciation: l7am or la7em depending on the region, with an aspirated 7 (ḥ).
Example
شريت كيلو لحم علوش للكسكسي.
chrit kilo l7am 3allouch lel kosksi.
“I bought a kilo of lamb for the couscous.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “l7am” but also “la7em”, “lham”, “la7m” and “lahm”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 7 is ha (ح), a breathy h from the throat.
Type “l7am” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “meat”; “flesh (of the body)”: l7em in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “meat”; “flesh (human, animal)”: l7am in Algerian.