ojja عجة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“ojja” (عجة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning eggs in spicy tomato sauce.
Meanings
- eggs in spicy tomato sauce
- mess, confused jumble
Usage
Ojja is a very common Tunisian dish: eggs cooked in a sauce of tomato, pepper and harissa, eaten with bread. The filling is often specified: ojja merguez, ojja kefta (with meatballs), ojja crevettes. Note that it is not an omelette, even though the Arabic word means omelette elsewhere. Figuratively, in informal speech, an ojja is a messy mix, a confused situation: "wallet ojja" ("it has become a mess"). In arabizi it is mostly written ojja, as on restaurant menus.
Example
طيبتلنا أمي عجة بالمرقاز.
tayebtelna ommi ojja bel merguez.
“My mother made us ojja with merguez.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “ojja” but also “3ojja”, “oja”, “3ijja” and “ejja”. 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.