Learning Maltese

                        
                          The Maltese Language
                        
                          Vocabulary

                          The English speaker will immediately recognize many words imported during two centuries of British involvement. Maltese has tended to assimilate loan words rather than generate vernacular equivalents, so this element continues to grow with the influx of new terms such as email, en-suite, supermarket, and laundry (launderette). Different spelling conventions sometimes conceal words of English origin, though they have a similar pronunciation, e.g. mowbajl (mobile), friġġ (fridge), panċer (puncture), tajprajter (typewriter) and bliċ (bleach). 

                          Many more words, old and new, derive from a Romance source, usually Italian or Sicilian, e.g. insalata (salad), ġelat (ice-cream) and biljetti (tickets). Italian source words often have a Sicilian flavour, with u instead of o, as in centru (centre), tempju (temple) and puliżija (police). A direct French influence persists in phrases such as bonswa (good evening).

                          An extra dimension of interest is introduced by the underlying Semitic platform which has a strong influence on grammatical structure as well as providing many of the vernacular words in common use. 
                        
                          Maltese Grammar

                          Maltese grammar is underpinned by Semitic patterns but has freely adopted Romance (especially Italian and Sicilian) and English forms. It is unusual among Semitic languages in using a Roman alphabet and also unusual in the flexible way in which it is able to incorporate and adapt its imported vocabulary.
                        
                          This can be illustrated by the different ways in which plurals are formed.

                          Plurals 

                          In the Semitic pattern plurals are either regular ('sound') or complex ('broken'). 

                          In Maltese the ‘sound’ plural is formed by adding either –iet/-ijet or –in: dritt→drittjet (rights); mistoqsija→mistoqsijiet (questions), ċelebrazzjonijet (celebrations).

                          'Broken' plurals, which are commoner, change vowels and/or consonants within the word. Compare:
                        
                          Arabic tuffaaha tuffaah     Maltese tuffieha tuffieh    (apples)

                          Arabic kitaab kutub          Maltese ktieb kotba         (books)

                          Arabic tifl atfaal               Maltese tifel tfal              (children)

                          Arabic rajul rijaal              Maltese  ragel irgiel           (men)

                          This process can also be applied to imported words e.g. form→forom (forms), serp→sriep (snake).

                          In the Romance pattern plurals often take a recognizably Italian form, e.g. biljett→biljetti (tickets), karta→karti (cards), batterija→batteriji (batteries), prodott→prodotti (products). 

                          English imports will often form their plural simply by adding an –s, or, in the case of nouns already in the plural, the –s is retained e.g. gogils (goggles).

                          Verbs 

                          Maltese verbs show clear evidence of Semitic morphology. This can be seen in the way in which vowels change to indicate tense and number while the core consonants are retained. The same consonants - usually three in number - can also form the core of other words with related meanings e.g.:

                          kiteb - to write; niktbu - we write; ktibna - we wrote

                          kittieb - writer; kitba - document; ktieb - book

                          Words originating in a Romance language such as Italian are readily absorbed by being given Semitic person and tense affixes but usually without the consonants being displaced. So kanta - to sing (Italian cantare) declines as follows:

                          The hospitality of Maltese to Romance verbs is shown by the ease with polysyllabic Italian verbs have made themselves at home in the language e.g. isuġerixxa – to suggest (Italian suggerire); jippopolarizza – to popularize (Italian popolare ‘popular’); issostitwixxa – to substitute (It. Sostituire).

                          The Definite Article

                          Maltese only has a definite article. ‘The’ is l or il attached to its noun by a hyphen, as in il-ktieb – the book and l-iskola – the school. The i drops before a vowel as in the preceding example, and also after a vowel, as in kanta l-kan
                            ż
                          
                          unetta – he sang the song.

                          Nouns starting with certain letters ‘absorb’ and replace the l. These letters are ċ d n r t x z ż. Some examples: it-tifel – the boy; iż żiju – the uncle; ir-ras – the head. As a group these consonants can be remembered by the fact that they all involve the tip of the tongue.

                          Note also that an i is added to the beginning of words starting with two consonants, when the leading consonant is m n r s or x: mhadda (pillow) → l-imhadda; skola (school) → l-iskola.
                        
                          The definite article remains the same for masculine and feminine nouns: it-tifel - the boy; it-tifla – the girl.

                          Negation

                          A word can be negated by putting ma in front and adding –x to it, as in Ma niekolx laħam  - I don't eat meat (Eating. Phrases. 2); Ma nifħimx – I don’t understand; Ma togħġobnix – I don't like it  (Buying things. General phrases. 2)

                        
                          Present

                          I sing                

                          You (fam.) sing   

                          He sings             

                          She sings          

                          We sing             

                          You sing             

                          They sing

                        
                          Perfect   

                          I sang            

                          You (fam.) sang

                          He sang  

                          She sung

                          We sung           

                          You sung             

                          They sung

Words and Phrases

Dictionary of Languages

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