zanga زنقة
Tunisian Derja · noun
“zanga” (زنقة) is a noun in Tunisian Derja meaning street, lane.
Meanings
- street, lane
- dead end, narrow passage
- alley, narrow street
Usage
Zanga is the common word for a street, especially a narrow neighbourhood street or a medina alley. For a large avenue, people say chére3 instead or use the French word "avenue". It is used a lot to give directions: "dour fi zanga loula" (turn into the first street). The plural is znég. A dead end is called zanga mesdouda. The word is familiar without being vulgar. Figuratively, being "fi zanga" can suggest a blocked situation with no way out. In arabizi, q is often written g, hence the spelling zanga.
Example
الدار متاعو في الزنقة اللي ورا الجامع
eddar mte3ou fi ezzanga elli wra ejjeme3
“His house is on the street behind the mosque.”
How to write it in Latin letters
In Arabizi, Darija written in Latin letters, you will find “zanga” but also “zan9a”, “znga”, “zenga”, “zan9” and “zanka”. No spelling is official: people write the sounds as they hear them.
Its Arabic spelling is not fixed either: you will find زنقة and زنقه, all the same word.
Digits stand in for Arabic letters that have no Latin equivalent: 9 is qaf (ق), a k pronounced at the back of the throat.
Type “zanga” on the Arabic keyboard
In Moroccan Darija
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Moroccan Darija, where it means “street, alley”; “the street, outdoors”: zen9a in Moroccan.
In Algerian Darja
Spelt the same way in Arabic, the word also exists in Algerian Darja, where it means “alley, narrow street”; “street”: zenqa in Algerian.