Linguata
Learning Maltese
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 Spelling and pronunciation
Maltese is written in the Roman alphabet, which had to be extended to allow adequate representation of the sounds of what is basically a Semitic language. The extra letters are as follows:
ċ - like the ‘ch’ in ‘church’: listen to iċ-ċentru tal-belt – the town centre (Places and buildings. 2)
ġ – like ‘j’ and ‘dg’ in ‘judge’: bonġu – Good morning (A first few words)
għ – lengthens vowels and makes them ‘throaty’: listen to the different ‘a’s’ in Għandek daqs akbar? – Do you have a larger size? (Buying things. General phrases. 2) and the o in logħba rugby (Conversation. Small talk)
ħ – something like a rather guttural –ch in Scottish ‘loch’. Listen to ħrug – exit – and miftuħ - open (Useful words to recognize)
There are several familiar consonants which are pronounced differently from their English equivalents:
-b -d -g and -v soften to -p -t -k and -f at the end of a word, i.e. they become 'unvoiced'.
h – not usually pronounced, except at the end of a word, where it has the ħ-sound
j – sounds like ‘y’ in ‘yacht’
q – this is a strong ‘glottal stop’. Try saying ‘mutter’ without sounding the t’s. Listen to magħluq - closed - (Useful words to recognize) and - is-suq - market (Places and buildings. 1)
x – like ‘sh’: dur fuq ix-xellug – turn left (Directions. 1). Note that sh does not sound as ‘sh’ but as the separate ‘s’ and ‘h’ in ‘this has’.
z – a ‘ts’ sound; zz - a ‘ds’ sound: ; l-arja kondizzjonata – air-conditioning (Somewhere to stay. 2)
Vowels in general are 'tighter' and more precise than in English. At the end of words they are short and unstressed and sometimes dropped. They are short when followed by two consonants, long when carrying the stress and followed by a single consonant. Listen to:
Nista nimxi s’hemm? Can I walk there? Tista’ turini fuq il-mappa? Can you show me on the map? (Directions. 1)
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
nkanta
tkanta
jkanta
tkanta
nkantaw
tkantaw
kantaw
kantajt
kantajt
kanta
kantat
kantajna
kantajtu
kantaw
Perfect
I sang
You (fam.) sang
He sang
She sung
We sung
You sung
They sung
