tallaq طلق

Tunisian Derja · verb

“tallaq” (طلق) is a verb in Tunisian Derja meaning to divorce, repudiate (one's wife).

Meanings

1. to divorce, repudiate (one's wife)
2. to let go, release

Usage

In the form tallaq, this verb refers above all to divorce. The object is the person being divorced: tallaq martou, "he divorced his wife". The passive or reflexive is tetallqet, "she got divorced, she was repudiated", and the corresponding noun is tlaq, "divorce". In an informal register, tallaq can also mean "to drop, let go of" something or someone, sometimes with a nuance of exasperation. Arabic script does not mark the doubling of the consonant: you have to rely on context to know which sense is meant.

Example

How to write it in Latin letters

In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “tallaq” but also “talla9”, “tal9”, “tla9” and “talla2”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.

Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 2 is hamza (ء), a glottal stop; 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.

Type “tallaq” on the Arabic keyboard

In Moroccan Darija

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “to let go, to release”; “to divorce, to repudiate”: tle9 in Moroccan.

In Algerian Darja

Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “to let go, release, free”; “to release, drop (video, song)”: tleq in Algerian.