sebkha صبخة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“sebkha” (صبخة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning salt flat, salt lake.
Meanings
- salt flat, salt lake
- salty marshland
Usage
Sebkha refers to a salt depression, often dry for part of the year and covered with a crust of salt. In Tunisia the word is very common in place names, for example Sebkhet Sijoumi near Tunis. It is also commonly used to describe a landscape of the center and south. Tunisian French and geography have borrowed it as is: "sebkha". The spelling with sin is the most widespread; the spelling with sad reflects the emphatic pronunciation heard locally. The word is feminine and forms a construct state: sebkhet + place name.
Example
الصبخة يابسة في الصيف
essebkha yebsa fi essif
“The sebkha is dry in summer.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sebkha” but also “sabkha”, “sebkhet”, “sab5a” and “seb5a”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 5 is kha (خ), like the ch in Scottish loch.