Maltese Pronunciation and Spelling
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)
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