yallah يالله
Tunisian Derja · interjection
“yallah” (يالله) is an interjection in Tunisian Derja meaning come on, go ahead, let's go.
Meanings
- come on, go ahead, let's go
- hurry up
- O God (invocation)
Usage
Yallah is a very common interjection used to urge someone to act or to get going: "yallah nemchiw" (come on, let's go). Repeated or said in a hurried tone, it means "hurry up". At the end of a prayer or a wish, it keeps its sense of invocation, "O God", as in "amin ya rabb yallah". The register is informal and it is used with anyone. The listener must recognise the meaning from intonation and context: encouragement, impatience or a religious invocation. The short form yala is mostly an online spelling.
Example
يالله نمشيو، راهو فات الوقت.
yallah nemchiw, rahou fet el wa9t.
“Come on, let's go, it's already late.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “yallah” but also “yalla”, “yala” and “yaleh”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Type “yallah” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “come on, let's go”; “just now, only just”: yallah in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “come on, let's go, hurry”; “oh God (invocation)”: yallah in Algerian.