min9ar منقار
Tunisian Derja · noun
“min9ar” (منقار) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning beak of a bird.
Meanings
- beak of a bird
- pointed tip
Usage
Min9ar refers to a bird's beak: chicken, pigeon, sparrow. It is heard in the countryside, at the market, or about birds people raise. The common plural is mnaqer. By extension, the word can refer to a point or protruding end, for example the tip of an object or a headland jutting out on the coast. It also appears in some place names. Do not confuse with mengar, which in some regions refers to a piercing tool. For a person's mouth, one says fomm. Using min9ar for someone is mocking.
Example
الجاجة نقرتني بمنقارها
ejjeja na9ratni b min9arha
“The hen pecked me with its beak.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “min9ar” but also “men9ar”, “minqar”, “mon9ar” and “min9er”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.
Type “min9ar” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “bird's beak”; “big nose (jokingly)”: mn9ar in Moroccan.