sya7 سياح
Tunisian Derja · noun
“sya7” (سياح) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning tourists.
Meanings
- tourists
Usage
Sya7 is a plural of saye7, "tourist". It is heard and read mostly in the news, or when talking about the tourism sector and foreign visitors in a city. In everyday speech, swe7 is also common, as is the French word touristes. Sya7 sounds a bit closer to standard Arabic. It usually refers to foreigners visiting, rarely to Tunisians vacationing in their own country. The collective "es-sya7a" refers to tourism as an economic sector.
Example
الصيف هذا جاو برشا سياح لجربة
essif hedha jew barcha sya7 l jerba
“This summer a lot of tourists came to Djerba.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “sya7” but also “siya7”, “syah” and “sye7”. 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.