Saturday, June 2, 2007

Mashi Mushkil

The other evening I used the darija expression "mashi mushkil" in an online conversation and my correspondent decided to google the term. All it means is "no problem," but it's often transliterated (if darija, an unwritten language, can be transliterated) as mash mushkil instead. This fortunately-chosen alternate spelling led me to the blog shwiya b shwiya, or "little by little," another expression in darija. It's written by a Peace Corps volunteer living somewhere way south, learning berber and teaching health issues. And better yet, her name is Katy (with a y!) The world is a small place, but the Internet sure makes it smaller sometimes...

3 comments:

xoussef said...

try "machi mouchkil", that's how most Moroccans would write it :)

kep said...

yeah, but that one doesn't work when your native language is English - ch and sh don't sound the same and that French transliteration would mislead the friends I'm writing for. this is the fun of foreign languages, I suppose...

xoussef said...

Matshi Mutshkil ^^