‘TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS an interesting language with an Arabic morphology and a very mixed vocabulary. Though complex, its structure is logical and rational, and once the student has mastered the basic rules he need not worry about the exceptions because irregular formations are rare. Joseph Aquilina has produced clear and comprehensive introduction to his native language. Expertly combining exercises and illustrations he has laid bare the framework of Maltese. Word-models are used extensively to act as signposts to a practical grasp of Maltese, and to this end a section on pronunciation begins the book. Cover design by David Cox St ‘TEACH YOURSELF 800KS/HODDER AND STOUGHTON bished in USA by David MeKay Company, ne Languages ISBN 0 340 05805 6 £2.95 ‘TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS MALTESE A complete course for beginners wetin: h waien mija a waa elf u wiehed u f’Malta, Is-sen: kma ta’ I-* a-Assedju I-Kk _-condazzjoni ta’ Unit jienja u disghin: Nar ja: il-forzi Fr~ Joseph AquilinaMALTESE Joseph Aquilina LL.D., Ph.D. (Lond) Professor of Maltese in the Royal University of Malta ‘TEACH YOURSELF BOOKS Hodder and StoughtonMALTESE “Maltese is an interesting language with an Arabic morphology ‘and a very mixed vocabulary. Though complex, its structure js logical and rational, and once the student has mastered the asic rules he need not worry about the exceptions because jrregular formations are rare. This course in the Maltese Tanguage is divided into four parts. Part I deals with the Maltese alphabet and pronunciation, Part If with word ‘structure and grammar, and Part II with the Maltese verb, While Part IV provides the key to the exercises given at the end of each lesson. TEACH YOURSELF BOOKSPREFACE Maltese is a very interesting language with ab ‘arabie morphology and a very mixed vocabulary. Tt is the language of a people who have been Christian sinte $0 AD. when Malta was a Roman colony. Before the Romans Malta was inhabited by the pre-Phoeniclans eth whom are associated the famous megalithic tem- St of the Island, such as the Hypogeum at Hal Safiient, vest of underground temple (about 2400 B.C.), Bord in Nadur (1350 B.C.) and i-Bahrija (about 900 BC) The Phoenicians colonised Malta in about 800 BO. After the Phoenieians eame the Carthaginians (about 700 B.C), thon the Romans (218 B.C.), the Arabs (670-1090), the Normans, Suabians, Angevins, Aragonese and Castilians Mh090-1580), the Order of St. John (1530-1798), the beengh (1798-1800) and last the British (1800-1964). This vnows that though the Maltese speak a morphologically ‘arable language (North African branch), 2 continuous polltieal connection with the Arabic world came to 3h End about 875 years ago, while linguistic influence 00% finned till 1224 when the Arabs were expelled from Malta by Mrederick II, the Suablan king of Stclly (1107-1250), One may assume that very probably a number of Arabs became Christians in order to acquire the right to Fer retin in the island and keep their property. With the Terival of the Normans, the Maltese language began to absord a large number of Romance loan-words expres” aime new ideas and requirements, This explains why Spoken Maltese, like modern English, which is basically ‘Anglo-Saxon where Maltese 1s jargely Semitic, has so many loan-words, But so strong is the Semitie morpholo- gy of the language that these have been adapted to Mal- tese morphological word-patterns. McKay & Co. Ine, NY 10017, USA 750 Third Avenue, v‘The present volume differs from Suteliffe’s 4 Gram- mar of the Maltese Language and May Butcher's Elements of Maltese in that it considers Maltese with- out any arbitrary exclusion of the Romance element of the language; this is, in fact, as absurd as writing a grammar of the English Language including only the lexical and morphological Anglo-Saxon element, leaving out all the linguistic Romance element. Every language has its own limits, within which the author of a Teach Yourself Book has to work. These frontiers and limits differ from one language to another in more than one aspect. The Maltese language, like Arable and the other Semitic languages, has a complex, but very logical and, I would say, rational structure. Having mastered the basle rules, one need not worry about the exceptions, because irregular’ formations are very few. The advice to the user of this grammar Is: “Make sure you understand the basle rules governing the formation of a word- Pattern, and you can form more words on this model yourself.” That is why, in this grammar I have made frequent use of word-models, which I called patterns, with the warning that these word-patterns are not meant to be memorised, but to be treated’ as sign-posts, models, showing the interaction governing the semantic relationship between a group of consonants, generally 3, sometimes 4 or 2, which never vary thelr order, and one or more vowels, 2 change in which brings about a change in meaning, ‘Though the Maltese language is spoken by a nume- tically small people, it is none the less a very interesting language both because it provides the key to direct access to the literature, social life and background of a Medi- tetranean Semitic-speaking Christian people, and, if you are a linguist, because 1t provides good material for com- parative linguistics in the field of Semitic and Romance languages, ‘What Kind of people are the Maltese? Like all small Peoples they need more publicity in the large and com- vi etitive world of today. Professor A.J. Arberry of Pembroke College, Cambridge, has written two books hich ive English readers @ “good idea of the growth of, Malvese Literature, ‘These two books are 4 Maltese, Aminotog | 1980) and Dun Karm — Poet of Malta (CUP. became an inde- , a British Colony since 1818, 2 pendent member of the Commonnesith on the 21st of September, 1964, Though this 1s Malta's first experiment Jn democratic freedom in a new world of fee nations, her anetent civ! her history bears witness to ation. AS C, the Greek histor far back as the Ist century B.C., Fook historian us Siculus described the Maltese 2s a color : Et by the Phoenlclans, “whose inabltants are Dest in their possessions, artisans skilled In every manner of craft.” St, Luke, in the Acts of the Apostles (xxvill. 1, nis account of St, Paul’s shipwrec! ta, tn 60 AD. jeseribed the Maltese as a courteous people, aor Seeent times, after the and World War, Er esident Prantlin D. Roosevelt, in the name of the people of the USA. saluted the people of the Island o' ay ho in the freedom and justice and decency he Gorid, nave rendered Yalorous service far above and be yond ‘the call of duty.” ¢ the George Cros ce other trite i the award 0 by King George VI, “to bear witness to a heroism and devotion that will long be famous in history.’ Iam, of course, aware that all this has no relevance tothe tle of Meese frammar, ut 1 hope Bs serves froduce the user of this ‘Oo x TRaguage snd" ine people ‘who speak it ‘The 580. €0 a J, AQUILINA. Floriana, Malta. 6th Mareh, 1965.CONTENTS Preface Lesson Part 1 SOUNDS AND LETTERS Alphabet. The Consonants and their classification, Partial and complete assimila- tion, Lengthened or doubled consonants, The Diphthongs, The Vowels, Rules governing the Length of Vowels. Digraph ie, The Liquids. The Stress, Rules governing Places of Stress. Rules of Spelling. The Part IL GRAMMAR (MORPHOLOGY) The Article and its Usege. Personal Pronouns (Fleson ee Word-Structure. Nouns and Adjectives. Derived Nouns... : Gender of Nouns and Adjectives. Fo eof Nang 28 Aesines, Formation of Nouns in Construction with other Nouns or with Adjectives Diminutive and Comparative Forms, Comparative Forms of Adjectives, Some Tiomatic Phrasal Comparisons ss Numbers, The Dual, Determinate and Indetermi ee Plurals, Number and Gender of Collective ‘The Formation of the Plural. The Plural Sufixes of Words of Foreign (Non-Arabic) Origin ‘The viii Pace ry PAGE 35 41 47 51 36 2 69 "4 Lesson 9% 10. ML 12. 1B. 1B. 16. MW. 18, 19, 20, a1. 2, 2B. 24, Broken Plurals of Nouns and Adjectives Formation of Mimated Nouns and their Plurals. Inregular Formations The Pronouns, The Personal Pronouns. Negation of Statements, Question, Statement and Emphasis, Reflexive or Emphatic Pronouns. Demonstrative Pronouns. Indefinite Pronouns. The Relative Pronouns. Interrogative Pro- nouns. Reciprocal Pronouns. — Possessive Pronouns. Pronominal Suflixes Particles. Adverbs. Conjunctions. Interjections. Prepositions with their Suffixes. Ghand + Pron. Suffix =To Have. Kell-+Pron. Suflix = Had. The Use of Ha/Biex . Prepositions + definite article or Rel Some Prepositional Usages. Ta’ ‘of’ + Noun. Particle “il or The Numerals, Cardinal and Ordinal Numbers. Time-Words. . : Part IT THE VERB The Verb, The Tense and Vowel-types of the ‘Strong Verb. The Paradigm of the Strong Verb. Kien/Ikun ‘(he, it) was/will be’. The Passive ‘The Imperfect and the Imperative. Interrogation and Negation. The Perfects and their Corres- ponding Imperfects . Participles of the Strong Verb Verbal Nouns of Strong Underived Verbs Derived Verbs. Patterns of the Imperfects. ‘More Derived Forms oo Stem-Verbs ending in a in open spllable. Paradigm of Verbs with Third Radical gh . Conjugation of Verbs having W as First Radical. Irregular Formations. aa Conjugation of the Hollow: Verb ‘The Paradigm of the Weak Verb ix PAGE 79 89 94 104 10 7 Bs 15 149 151 158 170 174 180Lésson >. P 2. The Fag of the Bod Va 185 27, ‘The Irregular Verbs. [eae PART I 28, The Conjugat 5 : os ° r Conjugation of Verbs of Foreign Origin . 201 | THE SOUNDS AND LETTERS . ‘The Verb with Pronominal, Suffixes . 208 29, Parada of Verb Kite ‘te wrote" () Direct | THE ALPHABET Gi) nditest Pronominal Sufixes (ii) The Two ‘The Maltese alphabet consists of the following 24 31. Syntactic. Fura Dts 212 | consenants and § vowels:— fmactic Functions. of the Tenses. . Senteice nar Bb; OG Dé Be; Pi &e Ga; Mh HB Regrets slitional Sentences. Wishesand fis) Ky bi; Mm; Nn; Gh eb; 0; P + Key to Exercises. : ae Rr Ss Te Uw Vu Ww Xx 2a Ze | THE CONSONANTS (Pronunciation and Phonetic Notation) ‘The whole list of Maltese sounds and letters is given | im the form of a table divided into five columns on pp. 12-15. To those to whom phonetic notation is unfamiltar, and perhaps a deterrent, columns 2 and 5 could be suffi- ent for a general knowledge of Maltese sounds and | GBters But columns 3 and 4, espectally the latter, as well as the supplementary description of consonants on A bp. 17-18, though not indispensable, are worth the time eke eould give to them because together they enable the der of this book to get as close an imitation of Maltese | SGunds as it is possible to do so without the guidance of & | native speaker of the language. For examples given in the fth column in phonetic notation, note that symbol (’) means that the stress, or tonle accent, fails on the syllable following it, and that repeated vowels (eX. a, ee, ete.) indicate a long vowel. ‘An alternative method of indicating vocalic length is by SMabol 1 (exx, furl or faut ‘beans’; bu:t or bunt ‘pocket!), the former being used by AS. Tritton in his Teach Your- Self Arabic (Classical Arabic), and the latter by TF Mitenell in his Teach Yourself Colloquial Arabie % | Geyptian). These two companion books are useful for | te student of Comparative Arabic dialectology. oyClass and Manner| Phonetic No. | Letter ‘ati fo. of Articulation | Notation Approximate Pronunciation Bb [Voiced bilabiall — b like Eng. ‘b’, Exx. blu (bluu) ‘blue’; but plosive. (bunt) ‘pocket’. 2| © @ |Unvoiced pala-| tf like Eng, ‘ch’ in ‘chureh’, xx, éatt to alveolar affri- (att) ‘flat’; Goff (tfo8) ‘bow’ (tie). cate. Dd Voiced dental] ¢ as in Eng. Bx. demm (demm), ‘blood’; plosive, Dott (dott) ‘Dr. F £ — |Unvolced tabio-| £ as in Eng. Exx. ful (fw) ‘beans’; fomam dental fricative. (fomm) ‘mouth’, 8 | G & |Volced palato-] ds —| like Eng. {j’ in John, Exx, gab (Gsaap) alveolar affri- ‘he brought’; genn (dsenn) ‘insanity’, cate. 6 | Gg |Votced velarplo-| g like Eng. ‘g’ in ‘gun’. Exx. goff (goff), sive. ‘rough’; garr (garr), ‘he grumbled’. 7. | mn [unvoiced pha-| like Eng. ‘h’ in ‘horse’, but comparative- ryngal fricative. ty stronger, occurring not only initially but also medially and finally. Exx. hab (happ) ‘he loved’; bahar (bahar) ‘se: yuh (uu) ‘soul’. 3. | Hh |Unvotced glottal] unpronounced like Eng. ‘h’ in ‘helt’, ex- frleative In Ara- cept when it occurs at the end of a word, ble. When silent in a medial position it mere- ly lengthens the preceding and/or the . following vowel. Exx. hemm (emm) . ‘there’; hena (ena) ‘happiness’; deher (eer) ‘he appeared’, dehra (‘deera) ‘a vision’. 9. | 3 4 |voiced palatall ike Eng. ‘y’ in ‘yes’ Exx. jaf (yaaf) ‘he semi-vowel. knows’; jum (yuum) ‘a day’, 10. | K k — |Unvoiced velar ike Eng, ‘k’ in ‘kite’ Exx, kif (Iiif) ‘how’; plosive. kieku Chisku) ‘If’ u.| 2 1 |votcea alveotar] —? approximately clear ‘Y of ‘life’ ‘ive’, ete. lateral. and never like dark ‘’ of seal. (See supplementary description, p. 18). v2. | Mm m voiced bilabial] = ™ as in Eng. Exx, mil (mill) ‘mile’; mhux nasal (muuf) ‘the is not.wo] terter [lass and Manner| Phonetic of Articulation | Nowton Approximate Pronunciation 13.| Nm [Voiced dental] - n as in Eng. Exx, naf (naaf) ‘I know’; nasal. nefah (nefah) ‘he blew’. 14. | GH gh |G) Voiced velar} y. unpronounced, like Eng. ‘gh’ in ‘thorough’ fricative g, or| (symbol | and ‘through’. Like h (No. 8), it serves to (4) Voiced phar-|used in | lengthen the preceding and/or following yngal fricative ¢]Maltese _ | vowel in any position. Exx. gherf (eerf) in Arabic.( N.B.| phonetic |‘wisdom’; boghed (‘boot) ‘distance’, the information |notation | Alternative phonetic notation not used is useful for ety-| only when | in this book, (‘yerf; 'boyot). mological pur-| necessary), poses only). 15.| Pp | Unvoleed bi-| > p as in Eng. but without any aspiration. labial plosive. Exx, papa ("paapa) ‘pope’; prezz (pretts) ‘price’. 16. | Q q |Unvoiced glottal] this is a glottal stop or catch.’ (See sup- plosive. plementary description, p. 18). 11} Ror |Voiced rolled al-} x like ‘rolled Scottish ‘r’, never unrolled as veolar. in Eng. (See supplementary description, p. 18). ‘as in Eng, ‘sea’, Exx. sab (saap) ‘he (it) ue Bat Dorel siines : found’; sann (sann) ‘he sharpened’ lar (sometimes dental) fricative. nv, (See unvotee like dental Italian of Frene! yo, | om ¢ [Unvoloed dental} § | Sepplementary description, p. 17) ‘yenven) ‘it in Eng. Exx, venven ('venve y |Votced labio-|v as sn ng. Ex venven * dental iricative. whirred’; iva, (iva) ‘y a, | wow [Voiced bilabial) = w semi-vowel. like Eng, ‘sh’ in ‘shoot’. Bxx. xita (sia), ala- s 7 | =P Neolar fies [rains ema (Sem), stm. tive ” 4 ’, bu aratively 2 like Eng. ‘2’ in ‘buzz’, but comp: a Be ae weonger, Bex, ale Gil) ‘pith’; #tTa imeaiye Caiffa) ‘breeze’. 7 ‘pits’. Exx. 2 (tsokk) au | x2 [Unvotced siveo-] ts [like Sng. “ts! tn "bits. Bae sok ( Kk’; zopp_(tsopp) ‘lame’ Jar affricate. |16 MALTESE (1) Orthographic Notes on kk (no. 8) MI h is silent when it occurs at the beginning of a word or inside it. It is pronounced like h (no. 7) when it occurs at the end of a word or inside a word when it occurs in the feminine pronoun suffix ka (her) or hom (their) preceded by h or gh. Exx. rah ‘soul’, ruhha Crubha) ‘her soul’, rubhom (‘rubhom) ‘their soul’, Ma’ ‘with’ (for magh) maghha (‘mahha), maghhom (Cmabhom) ‘with her/them’. The following is a list of the more important words containing ki (1) at the begin ning of @ word: Exx. huwa (‘uwwa) ‘he’; hija (‘iyya) ‘she’; hemm (‘emm) ‘there’; hawn (aun) “here’; huma Cauma) ‘they’; hemes (‘emes) ‘he fastened with pins’; hhewden (‘eudem) ‘he raved’; herra (‘erra) ‘rudeness’; hena (‘ena) ‘happiness’; hekk (ekk) ‘so’ (1i) in the middle of @ word: deheb (‘deep) ‘gold’; dehen (‘deen) ‘intelli- gence’; fekem (‘feem) ‘he understood’; dahar (‘daar) ‘back’ to be distinguished from dar (‘daar) ‘house’; nhar (naar) ‘day’ to be distinguished from nar (‘naar) ‘fire’; tahar (‘zaar) ‘blossoms’ to be distinguished from éghar Czaar) ‘small’ pl, and tar (saar) ‘he visited’ (iit) at the end of « word: bolo (‘botoh) ‘foolish’ pl, but blaha ‘folly’ Cbinwa, h silent) koroh (‘koroh) ‘ugly’ pl., kruha (‘kruwa) ‘ugliness’; xebh (Jeph) ‘resemblance’ but xbieha (‘Sbisa) ‘an image’; uéuh (u'tfuulh) ‘faces’ pl. of wiéée (wit$) ‘face’; sabuh (sa*buuh) ‘they found him’ for sabu (‘saabu) +-pron, suffix h (B) (2). Orthographic Notes on “gh” (no, 14) 1. When gh preceded by the vowel a is the third (radical) consonant of a verb, it is silent and is repre- sented by the symbol ’, Hox. sama’ (‘sama) for samagh ‘he heard’; tala’ (‘tala) for talagh ‘he went up’. But when morphological extensions are added, the third radical shown by the symbol ’ is written out in full as gh. xx. bala’ Chala) for balagh ‘he swallowed’ but belghu ('beleu) ‘they swallowed’; tefa’ (‘tefa’) ‘he threw’ but tefghu (‘tefeu) ‘they threw’. Alsc ‘below, 'tefou. | | £ THE SOUNDS AND LETTERS 7 Final gh is pronounced h in verbs forogh ‘it (the sea) epbed away’; and Zebagh ‘he painted’. 2, gh at the end of a word preceded by a vowel other than a is pronounced B. ama’ ‘he heard! migh (smioh) ‘hearing’ from sam Bei “coh) throwing’ from tefa’ ‘he Shrew ugh (lau) ‘sails’; biegh'(biob) ‘he sol’ and beish ‘sale’. ; 2 tof dma’ ‘with’ for Final a’ in ts? ‘of? for tab, an "for soagh, a La verbs ening in sh Dron. sult ha ‘Ret ha hom ‘then’ phonetically become double eonsonan & “ney are written with the original spelling: Miu ti op 4 ha of + Bom, though pyonounee “aba ‘aha ‘het, ‘tabhom respectively, are written taghha ’ ‘auhnom ‘their, thelrs’. Similarly tefa’ che threw’ (for tein) + ha’ ‘her, + bom ‘them’ are pronounce terehha, fe'fahbom but are written tefaghha, tefaghhom. 4, gh + Lor w are pronouneed like ong diphthongs, approximately as ng. ay in day and as Eng. 0 in hole. qebNursher explanation see Diphthongs on p. 25. 5, agha, eghe, ogho inside a word between two con- n i ke a long a, © 0 sonants are pronounced 1 28 . sx, daghad ("nat ‘he stood’; laghab (asp) ‘he layed's har (Jaar) ‘hair’ (to be distingulshe “ Tae caonthy) éaghak (tfaak) ‘pebbles’; xeehol Soa ‘work’; loghob (‘loop) ‘games’ 6, If gh occurs between ie - ¢, it is pronounced ie + long e. / : Fxg, wieghed (‘wiaeet) ‘he promised’: aieghed ("toeet) the put? bleghed ’biaeet) ‘he removed. SUPPLEMENTARY DESCRIPTION OF CONSONANTS ne tongue in con- 4 (d) are pronounced with tl - ® oor with fhe teeth and the ridge behind them, - ike Eng. ¢ and d, which are pronounced Ww:18 MALTESB tip of the tongue in contact with the ridge of the teeth only. Compare and contrast (i) M. te (tee), Eng. ‘tea’; M. tim (tim), Eng. ‘team’; M, fitt (fitt), ‘importunate’, Eng. ‘fit’: (il) M, dein (dein), ‘debt’, Eng. ‘Dane’; M. dum (duum) ‘tarry’, Gmperative) Eng. ‘doom’; M. medda (Cmedda) ‘extent’, Eng. ‘madder’. (2) Maltese 1, which 1s always clear like 1 in ‘love’ and never dark like I in ‘seal’, is formed by the tip of the tongue touching the ridge of the upper teeth with the front part of the tongue raised towards the hard palate. Exx, miljun (mil'juun) ‘million’; linja (‘linya) ‘dine’; ballu (‘ballu) ‘ball’, (3) @). This is a glottal stop produced by completely closing the vocal cords and then suddenly separat- ing them. In Cockney, this q- sound (glottal stop or cath) replaces medial t, sometimes p in words like ‘water’, ‘fortnight’, and ‘paper’. It also occurs in standard English between words beginning and end- ing with a vowel as in ‘Malta oranges’; ‘sea alr’ Exx. galb (alp) ‘heart’ or ‘amongst’; qanqal (anal) ‘he moved (something heavy)’; arogaa ('?r0?a) “brood- ing hen’. (4) (x) ts always rolled in Maltese, also in English loan- words with unrolled r (4), Initial r of rabbejt (rab'beit) ‘I have brought up (a child)’, ts quite dif- ferent from initial unrolled r of English ‘rabbit’ Cabit), ‘Exx, rs— razza (‘rattsa) ‘race’; flera (‘fiora) ‘fair’; renju Crenyu) ‘reign’, (8) (@) és pronounced as ds in English buds (badz) in the following words; gazzija (gad'dziyya) ‘acacia’; zona (‘dzoona) ‘zone’, mezza (‘meddza) ‘a measure’: mezzanin (meddza'niin) ‘mezzanin’; Nazzarenu THE SOUNDS AND LETTERS 19 Naddza'reenu) ‘Nazarene’; gauzettn (gad'dzetta) ‘newspaper’. HE CLASSIFICATION OF CONSONANTS sified in correlative ‘The consonants may be class! a groups into () Voiced and (i) Breathed or Unvotced as follows: (Voiced GD Breathed or Unvoiced @ b P @ v : @ @ Oz wo s (8) d3 4) so @ 9 F @ g¢ (eb) bh @ @ = @ @ 3 @ 5 @ Voiced Velar fricative sound no. 7 is still heard in some villages of Gozo, but it is dying out. When a consonant from group (i) is followed by & consonant from group (iD, It changes into its correspond ing sound In column Gi). Similarly, when s consonant from group (ii) is followed by a consonant from group (1), it changes into its corresponding sound in column (1), ‘Taking B for the Breathed, that is, unvoiced conso- nants and ¥ for Voiced consonants, we can formulate the principle of: | — PARTIAL ASSIMILATION v B ByVv vus ver, that the phonetic Tt must be borne in mind, however, that t] change heard in the spoken language is not recorded tn the spelling of the written language. For example, no20 MALTESE which becomes a voiceless consonant p in the word ‘ptioki, plural of bitha ‘courtyard’, is retained in the spel- Ung bliehi / bitha. Similarly s in sdieri (‘ndiorl) ‘waist- coats’ though pronounced g, is written s as in the singular sidrija (sid'riyya). Also in the spoken language only, volced consonants at the end of the word are unvoiced, unless in continuous speech they are immediately followed by a word begin- ning with & voiced consonant. Exx, bieb (biep) ‘door’; trid (trlit) ‘you (she) want(s) ragé (rat) ‘ray’; mitfugh (mit'fwah) ‘thrown’; liv (lif) ‘leave’; mizz (miss) ‘rancid’ but sab barra (saab~'barra) ‘he found outside’; trid dar (trild~‘daar) ‘you (she) want(s) a house’, 2— COMPLETE ASSIMILATION Complete assimilation takes place in the case of one or two or more consonants making the other consonant or consonants sound completely like them. This happens in the case of I-, which is the definite article, and t-, a verbal preformative, when these are followed by con- sonants with which they assimilate. In the case of monosyllabic words which become dis- syllabic as a result of the prefix definite article 1-, the accent falls on the second syllable. Exx. il-Kelb (il'kelp) “the dog’; id-dell (id'det) ‘the shadow’. ‘The following exemplified tabulation illustrates- this phonetic law:— Assimilation of 1 (+ 8 dm, 7s, tx, #2), (Note how | loses its own sound and takes instead the sound of the consonant which follows it + euphonic vowel i before it). @ 1+ 6 = 66. Exx, ié-della (it'tfella) for il-cella GL + 'tfella) ‘the cell’; ié-cirasa (ittfi'raasa) for il- éirasa (i + tfl'raasa) ‘the cherry’, THE SOUNDS AND LETTERS 21 () 14a = idd, Exx, id-dar (id'daar) for il-dar (id + ‘daar) ‘the house’; id-demm (id'demm) for il-demm (il + 'demm) ‘the blood’ 14 n= inn, Exx, in-nar (in'naar) for il-nar (i+ naar) ‘the fire’; in-nifs Gn'nifs) for il-nifs (4 nifs) ‘the breath’, (4) 14 iry, Exx, ic-ras (ir'taas) for il-ras (il + ras) ‘the head’; ir-ruh Girrauh) for il-ruh (il + ruuh) ‘the soul’. (5) 1-45 = iss, Exx. is-silg (is'sildg) for il-sité Gl + silds) ‘the ice’; is-suq (is'suu?) for il-sua (i + sua?) ‘the market’ (6) 1 + t = itt, Exx, it-trab (it'traap) for i-trab (il }'traab) ‘the dust’; it-tin (it'tiin) for i-tin (+ tim) ‘the figs’ (1) V4 x = tex, Exx, ix-xahar (ij'Jaar) for il-xahar Gl-+§aar) ‘the month’; ix-xaghar Gf'Saar) for il-xaghar (il + Saar) ‘the halr’. (8) if = iat, Bxx, té-dir (ix'ziir) for il-dir Gl + ziir) ‘the pitcher’; W-zarbun (izzar'buun) for il-carbun (ii + zar'buun) ‘the shoe’. (9) 14 2 = iz. EXx. iz-zokkor (it'tsokkor) for U-zokkor (il + tsokkor) ‘the sugar’; iz-zalzett (ittsal'tsett) for il-zalzett (il + tsal'tsett) ‘the sausage’. Assimilation of t (+6, d, & s, x % 8) (Note how t like | assimilates with the consonant that jollows it adding euphonic vowel i before the word). () t-+ @= ids. Bxx, ié¢anfar (itf'tfamfar) for ¢ + éam- far (t-+ ‘Janfar) ‘you (she) reprimand(s)’ or ‘he was reprimanded’, iécempel (itf'tfempel) for t+ éempel (t+ tfempel) ‘you (she) ring(s)’. (2) ta = id, Exx, iddawwar (d'dauuar) for {+ @awwar (t+ ‘dauuar) ‘he was late’; iddewwa22 MALTESE (id'deuua) for t + dewwa (¢ + deuua) ‘h medical treatment’. * Pe ee (3) t 4 8 = ide Exx. iggib (ds'asii él iB ial Islip) for t+ téib (¢ + ‘dgiip) ‘you (she) bring(s)’; iggennen (ids'dgen- nen) for t+ konnen (t+ dgennen) ‘he became mad’, (4) t + 5 = Iss, Exx, Isserva (is'serva) for ¢ + serva (t+ 'serva) ‘he was accommodated’; issellef Gs'sellef) for t + sellef (t+ 'sellef) ‘he borrowed’ (5) t+ x = tnx, Exx, bxxabba’ (is'fabba) for t + xabba’ (t+ ‘Sabba) ‘you (she, it) satlate(s)’ or ‘he (it) had enough ; ixxengel (ij'fengel) for t+ xengel + "Jengel) ‘he (she) swings’ or ‘ wae ings’ or ‘he (it) was (6) t + & = itd, Bxx, tédertag (ix'zerza?) for t + teriag (t-+zerza%) ‘he (it) slid’; i#éelleg Gr’zelleds) for € + delleg (t+ zelledg) ‘it was blurred’. (Dt 4 2 = ia, Exx, izzappap/(it'tsappap) for t + zap- pap (t + ‘tsappap) ‘you (she) limp(s)" or ‘he was lamed’; izzekzek (it'tsektsek) for t + zekzek (t - tsektsek) ‘you (she) hiss(es)’ Remark: t + = itt, Exx. ittaffa (it'taffa Ex. i it'taffa) for ua falta (t+ tattay at was mitigated’: ittertag it'terta”) for t-+tertaq (t+ terta®) 4 Gttertar) a ferta?) ‘he Git) was Other complete assimilations: s + final x and : A at x= §, Bxx, hass (ass) ‘he felt’, ma hassx (ma~"hafj) 4 did “not feel’; haz (hass) sar ina Baits (ma~‘ha§f) ‘he did not scribble’, Note also 1+ n within the word = nn. , also 14 = nn, Exx, kellna Ckenna) ‘we had’; graina Cdgeaatna) ‘it happened t0 us but ghamilna (a'milna or a'minna) ‘we have done. | itis fragrant? and faq (fa°% ‘above’ is sighoy. ipa thonglzed with a sound tending from u to narrow 0. RULES GOVERNING THE LENGTH OF VOWELS As a general rule « W en syllable, that ‘All vowels at the end of a word in op a (Une not closed by a consonant, are short and un28 MALTESE stressed, except in a few loan-words from Ital ending in a stressed vowel. mm alien Exx, darba (‘darba) ‘once’; marti (' r ; marti Cmaéti) ‘my wife’ darbu (darbu) ‘they struck’ or ‘he struck him but Navid harita) ‘charity's bide (htde) ‘bidet Gr. bidet) bi'de); Mari (Ma'ri) ‘Mary’; repd (re'po) 5 virtiy (vir'tu) ‘virtue’. aan (2) All vowels are long when followed by one consonant and carry the main stress. They are short when fol- lowed by more than one consonant. Vowels, originally long, remain so even when i : 5 pen possessive Br suffixes are added. Pronemin Exx, ras (raas) ‘head’; rasma (‘raasma) ‘our head’; rass (ass) he. preiedyghera Costa) naketnesy barra Cerra) ‘rudeness’; gid (a3tit) ‘wealth’; gidd (dgitt) ‘gene- Tato; Ror God) hots honta Chose he hr is self’; kut (kuul) ‘eat’ (sing. impv.); Kull (kull) ‘every’, (3) A long vowel becomes comparatively shorter when the word in which it occurs is followed by another word which begins with one or more consonants, and carries the main stress. Thus long a in dar ‘house’ becomes shorter in the phrase dar sabiha ‘beautl- ful house’, the main stress of which falls on the second syllable of the adjective. DIGRAPH — ie (ia) ‘The special digraph ie represents the mi S ic the mutation o! long (aa) known a5 "imasla in Arable, Some Mal- tese plural nouns end in long a (aa) or ie (ia) both stres- sed + & Exx, xewgat (Jeu'?aat) or xewalet (Jeu"%iot) 5 raat (eu'?aat) or x ‘7iot), plural of xewada (Jeu) ‘wish’; wergat (wer'aat) or wergiet, (wer’ eb plural of werga ('wer?a) ‘a leaf’, This special digraph which always car . ; ries the main stress is pronounced approximate main sire proximately as Eng, ea in THE SOUNDS AND LETTERS 29 Exx, bierek (biorek) ‘he blessed’ the first syllable of which sounds like Eng. beer (bia); but with roller r, and xterak (fierek) ‘he partnered’, the first syllable of which simi- jarly sounds like Eng. sheer (fio), but with rolled r. ‘Remark 1: When the stress on ie moves onward to the next syllable after the addition of a suffix, ie becomes unstressed i or e. xx, bniedem (‘bniodem) ‘man’; bnedmin (bned'miim) or pnidmin (bnid'miin) ‘people’ Remark 2: For the phonetic value of ie, cp. gieb (dsiop) ‘he brought’ and gib (d3iip) ‘bring’ Gimpv.); ied (aint) ‘he added’ and aid (aiit) ‘add’ Gimpv.); miel (miol) ‘ft leaned’ and mil (mii!) ‘a mile’; sien (snion) ‘teeth’ and snin (sniin) ‘years’. The differentiating sound of ie {ies approximately midway between long i (ii) and long e (ee). ‘Remark 3: i before b, h or q as in rib (riob) 4wind’; fih (fieh) ‘in it’; and trig (trie?) ‘street? is pro- nounced like ie, THE LIQUIDS When one of the so-called liquid consonants 1, m. m, r, and by analogy gh, occurs between two consonants, a Vowel 4s inserted before the liquid consonant to break up the three consonant group. Any other consonant can oceur in this position without having to insert a vowel as a syllable-breaker. nx, midneb (‘midnep) ‘sinner’ (m.) but midinba fmidinba) ‘a female sinner’ not _midmba, which would be unprondunceable, Similarly, jitolba (i'tolbu) “they pray’ not jittbu (yitibu); jogoghdu (yo'"eodu) ‘they stay’ not joaghdu (yo"du). ‘The rule does not apply to m if the consonant whieh follows it is another liquid. Exx. imma Cizmna) ‘times’ and not idimna (i'zimna) igmla (‘idsmla) ‘camels’ and not igimla (f'dsimla).30 LTESE THE STRESS 1. All long vowels are stressed bi ut not all stressed vowels BXx. issa (‘issa) now’; isa (' i are long. Exx. issa (‘issa) ‘now’; isa (‘ilsa) ‘hurry 2. In the same word there can bi e one main or pri- ‘ary stress, either on the penultimate or the last syllable e primary stress in the phonetic seript is shown by an accent before, and on top of the stressed syllable. Exx. kotha (kotba) ‘books’; kittieb (ki ‘writer’ Hlgledha (rids'teya) “her legs’. cute) este 3. In quick continuous speech, the Primary S becomes Secondary when the main aseent te eattled for, ward to the more prominent syllable of the word which follows it. In the phonetic script, the secondary stress 18 shown by an accent placed before the stressed syllable, but at the bottom of its frst consonant or vowel. Exx, bniedem (‘bniodem) ‘man’ but bniedem hail Goniodem ha'siin) “a wieked man's tdha Clda) ther hand’ but fdha mfekka (lida ‘mfekka) ‘her hand is sprained’ RULES GOVERNING PLACES OF STRESS (a) ‘The stress falls on the last syllable. (when it closes with one conson: tong we, ‘ant preceded by Exx, marid (ma' ‘sick’; bahrin (hab‘riin) ‘ i c iin) ‘sailors’; batut (ba'tuut) ‘hard up’; vapur (va'puur) ‘a ship’; in- ‘ior) ‘engineer’; gennien (dsen'nion) ‘gar- (4) when the last syllable, either 0} , pen or closed, ends in a diphthong. In the case of the phonetic diph- thongal rendering of ghu (eeu) or (‘oou) and ghi (‘eel) the syllables must be closed by a consonant. ‘ Exx. garrew (dgar'reu) ‘they moved house’: é garew : garrewk (dgar'reuk) ‘they carried you’; semmew (sem'meu) ‘they THE SOUNDS AND LETTERS 31 mentioned’; semmewni (sem'meuni) ‘they mentioned m‘ mirghux (mir'eeuf or mir'oouf) ‘affronted’; smibghut (mi'beut) or (mi'boout) ‘sent’; but ‘yib?ou not yib'7on for jibaghu ‘they remain’. Gii) when the final syllable ends in a or i, followed by a consonant group, or by a long, that is, a repeated consonant. Exx, sammart (sam'mart) ‘1 have nailed’; habbatt (hab'batt) ‘I (you, sing.) have knocked’; taarbint (War'bint) ‘I (you, sing.) have received Holy Communton’; * idderiagt (izzer'sat) ‘I (you, sing.) have slid down’. (iv) when the final syllable ends in a long a gene- rally closed by a liquid consonant and the first vowel in the sequence is u, © or i. Exx, sultan (sul'taan) ‘sulta ; burdnay (burd'naar) ‘an (hor'taan) ‘bromegrass’ ({itaan) ‘devil’; tilar (ti'laar) ‘wooden frame’. ‘As all the vowels occurring in a final open syllable are always unstressed, except in a few loan-words from Italian or Sicilian which retain thetr original stress, 1t is evident that the stress in all dissyllabie words falls on the first syllable. But the position of the stress is not so self-evident when the vowel in the final syllable is closed by one consonant, Length and stress in this case are determined by the grammatical function of the word (morphological criteria). Remember the following rule: if the word is a VERB, the stress falls on the first vowel, but if it is an ADJECTIVE or the name of the doer, it falls on the second vowel. Exx, qassam (‘?assam) ‘he divided’; gassam (?as'saam) ‘one who divides’; bahnan (‘bahman) ‘he stultified’; bahman (bah'naan) ‘stupid’; fartas (‘farfas) ‘he made bald’; fartas (far'taas) ‘bald’. () (4) The stress falls on the penultimate syllable in32 MALTESE words ending in any of the three vowels a, i or u in open syllable or in pronominal suffixes ha, (her) hom (them) xx. dara (‘dara) ‘he got used to’; darha (‘daara) ‘her house’; darhom (‘daarom) ‘their house’; travi (‘traavi) ‘beams’; brava (‘braavu) ‘courageous’, Gi) Words originally dissyllabic with the accent on the first syllable, when they become trisyllabie by the ad- dition of a suffix suffer a shift of stress by which from the first syllable it moves onward to the second syllable. In this manner, the trisyllabie word conforms to the general principle that as a rule a stressed syllable is not followed by more than one unstressed syllable, Thus in kamra ‘room’ the stress falls on the first syllable, but in kamrit- hom “(kamrit + pr, suffix hom ‘their"), less commonly kamarthom (kamart 4 pr. suffix hom), the accent moves onwards to the second syllable. If {t remained on the first syllable ag in the uninereased dissyllabie word, we would have two unstressed syllables after the stressed syllable. ‘The rule that the stressed syllable cannot be followed by more than one unstressed syllable has many exceptions in the case of loan-words generally used by educated people. Exx, statistika (sta'listika) ‘statistics’; fidika (‘fizika) ‘physics’; kimike (‘kimika) ‘chemistry’; botanika (oo'tanika) ‘botany’; mudika (‘muzika) ‘music’. Some of these loan-words have been adapted to the stress pattern of Maltese. Exx, pulitke (pu'liitke) ‘polities’; from Tt. politica: arit- metka (arit'meetka) ‘arithmetic’ from It, aritmetica and matematka (mate'maatka) ‘mathematics’ from It. matematica. RULES OF SPELLING 1, In every syllable there can be no more than one vowel. Vowel i and u become semi-vowel j and w when followed or preceded by another vowel with which they form a diphthong, Exx. bejn ‘amongst’ not bein; twil THE SOUNDS AND LETTERS 33 ‘tal? not tuil; dinja ‘world’ not dinia; helwa ‘sweet’ not helua. ‘An exception to this rule are a number of loan- words which retain theif original vocalic form. Bxx, poeta ‘poet’; poems ‘poem’; beatu ‘blessed’; poe~ dija ‘poem’; but village people say powela, powema, bijatu, powedija, 2, In words of more than one syllable semi-vowel jor wis inserted between the vowel which ends one syllable and the next vowel which begins the syllable following It within the same word. xx. zija ‘aunt’ not sia; Marija ‘Mary’ not Maria and patterija ‘battery’ not batteria as in Italian; bija ‘my brother’ not hia; hejia ‘he prepared’ not heila; sewwa ‘well’ not semua. 3, Unstressed vowels i and u begitining a word be- come j and w when the preceding word ends in a vowel, ‘as in continuous speech these vowels form a dipthons. For this reason we write kien irid (kion~i'riit) ‘he Was willing’ but kienu jridu (kienu~y'ri:du) ‘they were willing’; abna wkoll (ahna—'wkoll) ‘also we’. The rule does not apply if the main stress falls on the Initial vowel. xx, ralu idu not jdu (raslu ‘i:du) ‘he saw his hand’: gallu ibnu not jbnu (ally ‘ibnu) ‘his son told him’, ratu usa’, not Wsa’ (rartu ‘uusa) ‘she saw it wider’. 4, Words beginning with 1, m, m and r followed by another consonant or semi-consonant, or with a doubled consonant if the preceding word ends in a consonant require an additional vowel before them. This is gene- rally vowel i which, not being an integral part of the word, is omitted when the preceding word ends in a vowel. It is not dropped after a pause shown by a punctuation-mark. In words having gh as a first radical in the singular and a few others, this prosthetic vowel is € which, unlike i, is not dropped when the preceding word ends in vowel.34 MALTESE Exx, imsiebah ‘oil-lamps’, hafna msiebah ‘many oll- lamps’ but hafna erwieh (pl. of ruh) ‘many souls’ or eghrug (pl. of gherq) ‘roots’; marru d-dar (marru ‘dda:r) not marru id-dar ‘they went home’; iggieled ‘he fought’ but -huma giieldu ‘they fought’; it-tfal ingabra kmieni ‘the children went home early’; but it-tif_la ngab- ret kmieni ‘the girl went home early’. Other ilbies ‘clothes’; ilwien ‘colours’; illum ‘today ‘mattresses’; imwiet ‘deaths’; immur ‘I go’; inkeiia ‘spite’; injieb ‘eye-teeti’; innifsi ‘myself’; irtal ‘rotolos’; irjieh ‘winds’; irrid ‘I want’. 5. Because gh and medial h are unpronounced, they present some difficulty as to their correct position in the written language. The best method is to compare their position with that of the corresponding con- sonants in words of similar structure (See Lesson 2). Should we write mghamul or maghmui ‘done’ or ‘made’ both of which are pronounced ma'muul? A similar for- mation is maalub ‘overthrown’ in which the first radical consonant follows ma,.Following the same pattern we write maghmul, Similarly we write weggha ‘pain’ and fehma ‘opinion’ as we write wera, The rule is that silent gh and h fall into the same position and order of corresponding word-patterns as if they were fully pro- nounced consonants. The morphological rule of radicals in word-structure is explained in Lesson 2, PART IL MORPHOLOGY Lesson 1 THE ARTICLE (NB, From now on, words are given in the standard spelling. Phonetic notation is given only where neces- sary). Maltese has only the definite article 1- or il- (vowel i + article) preceding a noun or an adjective used as a noun for the two genders (m. and {.), and the two num- bers (sing. and pl) The mere absence of this definite article makes the @) noun or Gi) any descriptive word used as a noun indefinite. Exx. (1) mara ‘a woman’; il-mara ‘the woman’; Kelb ‘a dog il-keth (+ a, £) ‘the dog (bitch)"; bar ‘a bar’; il bar ‘the bar’; (i) marid ‘sick’ (adj); il-marid (+ 2, 1) the sick man (woman)’; twil (+ 3, £) ‘tall’ (adj); ite twil (4 a, £) ‘the tall man (woman)’; hafif (+ 3. 1) ( ii-hafif (+ a, £) ‘the easy one’; magtul ‘led’ (adj.); il-magtul (+ a, £) ‘the killed person’; Die#el (m.) bie#la (f.) ‘hard-working’; il-bietel (m.) il-blegla (f) ‘the hard-working man, woman’; xih Gea, f) ‘old’; ‘an old man (woman)’, tx-xih (+ a, £ ‘the old man (woman); mignun (+2, £.) ‘mad’; a mad man (woman). Indefiniteness, in the sense of a certain person, ts indicated also by wiehed meaning ‘one’ before a sin- gular masculine noun, and wahda, before a singular feminine noun, Exx, Wiehed ragel (tifel, aassis. etc.) ‘a certain man (boy, priest, ete.)'; wahda mara (sinjura, soru, ete.) ‘a certain woman (ady, nun, ete.)’, ‘The article is il- if the word following it begins with 3536 MALTESE a consonant or semiconsonant; I- if it begins with a vowel. It is [- or l- if tt begins with gh or h both of which are silent, Bxx, ll-bejt ‘the roof’; il-ward ‘the roses’; il-jim ‘the day’; Laria ‘the alr’; i-ghong or il-ghong ‘the neck’; I-gherf or l-gherf ‘the wisdom’; I-hema or {l-hena ‘the happiness’; I-hemm or il-hemm ‘the grief’, A euphonle i is added before nouns, or adjectives used as nouns, which begin with two consonants, the first of which is m, ms or x, Exx, mhadda, ‘a pillow’; I-imhadda ‘the pillow’; msara ‘Christians’, I-insara ‘the Christians’; skola ‘a schoo!’ Liskela ‘the school; xkora ‘a sack’, I-ixkora ‘the sack’. ‘There are some nouns beginning with two consonants which either take Ml- before the first consonant or add euphonic vowel i to the first of these two consonants and use the 1- form of the article, Exx, Il-bdlewa or I-ibdiewa, ‘the peasants; il-biar or Libjae, ‘the wells’; Ir-rjieh or L-irjieh, ‘the winds’; il- Dliet or I-iblies, ‘the cities’ ‘he i of the definite article and the i added to a word beginning with two consonants are both euphonie, and therefore both drop out when they are not required for ease of pronunciation, as happens when the definite article is preceded by 2 Word ending in a vowel Exx. ktieb, ‘a book’; il-ktieb, ‘the book’; agra’ I-ktieb, ‘read the book’ not agra il-ktieb, where the i in il- 1s Groppeé. ‘The definite article 1- in pronunciation and, unlike Arabic, also in writing, 1s. assimilated to the consonants known as Xemxin (Sun-Letters) which are é, d, mr, 5, t, x, & 2; but it does not assimilate with s followed by a consonant in all loan-words. In this case euphonic vowel iis inserted before s, Exx. is-shab (native word) ‘the clouds’, but [-isptar ‘the hospital’ and I-isports ‘the sports’, both loan-words. THE ARTICLE 37 ‘The article does not assimilate with the rest of the consonants known as Qamrin (Moon-Letters). ‘The classification of the consonants into Sun-Letters (Xemxin), and Moon-Letters (Qamrin), is only a mne- monie device based on the fact that I assimilates with x in xemx ‘sun’, but does not assimilate with q in amar ‘moon’ NON-USE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE Because the definite article by its very nature de- fines what would otherwise remain undefined, it is not used with words already defined in another manner. It is therefore not used with: ‘the word Alla as the one true God, but is used with the plural I-allat ‘the gods’. 2 personal nouns and surnames, Exx, Ganni ‘John’; Ebejer (surname). 3. nouns defined by pronominal suffixes attached to them, Exx, dar ‘house’; id-dar ‘the house’; but dari for dar + i (my) not id-dari ‘my house’ 4, the particles, (Lesson 12). 5. the noun in the Construct State. (Lesson 5). 6. nouns and adjectives after vocative ja. Ex. ja nies ta’ Malta ‘Ye people of Malta’. EXERCISE 1 (a) Memorise the following words and place the definite article before them:— ‘Arja ‘the ait’; shab ‘clouds’; diam ‘darkness’; ksieh ‘cold’ (noun); art ‘earth’ or ‘land’; g#ira ‘island’; Ivant ‘eas xemx ‘sun’; qamar ‘moon’; épar ‘mist’; glata ‘frost’; shana ‘heat’; silg ‘snow’; daw! ‘ight’; sema ‘sky’; berag Aightning’; natura ‘nature’; tramuntana ‘north’; xita ‘rain’; qawsalla ‘rainbow’; dell ‘shadow’38 MALTESE An interesting example of word-economy in spoken Maltese are a few weather-words given in the exercise above which, when preceded by the definite article, are equivalent to an impersonal sentence in English with the verb in the present tense. These are il (or its assimilated forms) + ksieh (m.) or kesha (f.), shab (m.), dlam (m. xemx (f.), gamar (m.), épar (m.), shana (f.), berag (m. (also raghad (m.) and xita (f.) meaning ‘it is cold, cloudy, dark, sunny, moonlight, misty, hot, lightning (thundering) and raining’. The past tense is indicated by kien ‘it was’ before masc. nouns and kienet before fem. nouns, (Exx. kien il-bard ‘it was cold’; kienet is-shana ‘it was hot’) and the future by ikun ‘it (he) will be’ before masc. nouns and tkun ‘it (she) will be’ before fem. nouns, Exx. Tkun il- bard ‘it will be cold’; tkun is-shana ‘It will be hot’. USAGE OF THE DEFINITE ARTICLE While the general rule in Maltese, as in English, is that the defined noun fs accompanied by the defining article, there are usages which do not agree in the two languages. Unlike English, in Maltese the definite article is used with names of:— () Minerals: ‘(the) steel’ Exx, il-hadid ‘(the) tron’; I-amzar (i) Names of elements in daily use: Exx. in-nar u Lilma ‘(the) fire and (the) water’ (ii) Names of other substances: Ex, xkora mim- biz-zokkor, bit-tiben ‘a sack full of (the) sugar, straw’ Gv) Collective nouns: Exx. I-ilsna barranin ‘(the) foreign languages’; il-barranin ‘(the) foreigners’. (v) Abstract notins: Exx, is it-tama ‘(the) hope’ sabar ‘(the) patience’, I-ghagal ‘(the) good sense’. (vi) Colours: Exx, I-ahmar (I-abjad, I-iswed, il- THE ARTICLE 39 vjola, etc.) lewn sabih, ‘(the) red (white, black, violet, etc.) is a beautiful colour’. (vi) Names of languages: Exx: I-Franéié ‘(the) French (tongue); I-Ispanjot ‘(the) Spanish (tongue)'; \-Inglig (the) English (tonguey’ Note that these examples could also mean the Frenchman, the Spaniard and the Englishman, which become plural by the addition of suffix i, Exx. il-Fran- éidi, -Ispanjoli, u I-Inglisi; ‘the French, the Spanish and the English’. (vil) Names of countries, of which some (a) take the definite article, and some (b) most of which are names of islands, do not Exx. (a) L-Italja ‘Italy’; I-ingilterra ‘England’; ir-Russja_‘Russja’;_il-Kanada ‘Canada’; etc.; (b) Malta ‘Malta’; Ghawdex ‘Gozo’; Kem- muna ‘Comino’; Franza ‘France’; Spanja ‘Spain’ (ix) Names of villages: Bxx, Hi-dejtun (for il- Zejtun); il-Mamrun; 1-Ghasti; I-Gharb, the first two being village-names in Malta, and the last two being village-names in Gozo. (3) Names of week days and seasons (See Lesson No. 14 p. 124), (x) Nouns preceded by the demonstrative pro- noun, Ex. dan il-ktieb ‘this (the) book’. (See Lesson No. 11). ‘The definite article which accompanies the defined noun generally accompanies also the adjective which qualifies the same noun, But in many cases it does not do 50. Exx, il-mara t-twila, or more often il-mara twila ‘the tall woman’; il-ktieb i-édid or il-ktieb gdid ‘the new book’. But the second example is grammatically ambiguous, because it can mean both ‘the tall woman’ or ‘the woman is tall’; ‘the new book’ or ‘the book is new’. The reason is that Maltese has no verb for English to be,40 MALTESE and that the word-combination, definite article + noun + adjective is equivalent to a sentence In English. The intended meaning is made clear in the spoken language by the intonation, and in the written language, by the context, PERSONAL PRONOUNS Ib is important to learn the personal pronouns right now because they have a verbal function which makes up for the absence of the verb ‘to be’ in Maltese and makes possible the formation of simple sentences. These perso- nal pronouns can be negatived by ma (m’ before a vowel or silent h) preceding the pronoun and the suffix x which attracts the main stress, These are:— Sing: jien (also + 2) ‘T’ or ‘I am’, ma jiniex or miiniex (mi'niof) ‘I am not’; imé (or inti) ‘you’ or ‘you are’; m’intix ‘you are not’; bu (or huwa) ‘he’ or ‘he is’, mhux (for m'hux) ‘he is not’; hai (or hija) ‘she’ or ‘she is’, mhix (for m’hix) ‘she 1s not’ Plural: ana ‘we’ or ‘we are’, m’ahniex ‘we are not’ intom ‘you’ or ‘you are’, m’intomx ‘you are not’; huma ‘they’ or ‘they are’, m’humiex ‘they are not’. ‘The student of Arabic should note that in Maltese the gender-distinetion has been maintained only in he/she (rd, pers. sing.). Exx. hu marid (lit. he sick) ‘he Is sick’; hi Maltija ‘she is Maltese’; intom, huma Nsara ‘you, they (both genders) are Christians’ Because personal pronouns have also a verbal func- tion, they can be added after the subject to which they refer. This is often done either redundantly or for em- phasis, They are left out when no emphasis is intended. Exx, [-Italja hi art sabiha ‘Italy (lit. + she) Is a beautiful land’; I-Italja art sabia ‘Italy is a beautiful land’, ‘The personal pronouns and pronominal suffixes are treated more fully in Lesson 11. AN INTRODUCTION TO WORD STRUCTURE 41 SOME USEFUL WORDS Memorise the following words useful as links in the formation of phrases and sentences: ‘and’; hemm ‘there is’ or ‘there are’; hawn ‘here is’ or ‘here are’; mbux ‘he (it) is not’; ghax ‘because’; gha- Hex ‘because, why?’; ta’ ‘of’; ma’ ‘with’. EXERCISE 1b & c Transiate: (a) L-italja qrib (near) Malta, It-Taljan hafif; t-In- giz ingas (less) hafif, L-Ispanjoli jistadjaw (study) [ingliz u 1-Franéid, 11-Maltin jistudjaw haina (very much) L-Inglig. Is-silg abjad. L-Ingilterra hemm (there is) hafna sita, Ksich u épar, L-art u s-sema fid-dlam, Malta gdira Xemxija. L-Inglii jhobbu Clove) il-bahar, M-Malti (Maltese) Isien semitiu (semitic). c. He went (mar) to church (def. art, + kmisja) and (w) to market (def. art. + sua), He is in prison (def, art. “ habs). Man (def, art, + biedem) is not etemal (etern). Only (biss after God) God is eternal, Vesuvius (def, att, -+ Vessuvju) is a voleano (vulkan) in Naples. They are not Christians (Nsara). Qrendi is a village (rahal) in (f?) Malta and Gharb is a village in Gozo. She jg not Maltese and he is not French. Russia is a large country (art kbira). Malta and Gozo are (huma = they) islands (gzedjer). Lesson 2 AN INTRODUCTION TO WORD STRUCTURE Before we proceed further with grammar, ib 1s impor~ tant to understand the structural mechanism of Maltese Morphology. Most words consist of three, less frequently of two or four and rarely of five consonants forming @42 MALTESE base called the Root which can be shown b; Yeeach consonant of whieh fs known 35 @vadlcel Various forms are obtained by the correlation of these roots to a number of variable vowels or vocalic sequences. ‘The following example illustrates this principle of Semi- tie word-mechanism. The three unvowelled consonants N-2-L do not convey a specific meaning, but they are connected with, and therefore suggest, the general idea of ‘descending’ which ceases to be vague and general as soon as the three consonants are related to the right vocalic sequence, or the appropriate vowel, as the case may be. One can therefore say that meaning is the joint product of the Consonantal Roots + Vocalic Sequence or + one particular vowel, as the case may be. affixes define the word-meaning with reference to the complete identity of the object, animate or inanimate noun, its quality (adjective), action (verb) time and per- son connected with an action or state of being or the manner in which such action is carried out (adverb) and other grammatical modalities, which form the subject- matter of the third section of this book, Here are some VN-2-L Exx, NiZeL ‘he descended’ (the or! = brought down’; NZuL ‘descent’; or ‘the act of descending’ NizZLa ‘a descent’; NieZLa (f) NieZeL (m.) ‘descending’ mINZeL ‘descending place’. The same radicals can asso- ciate with a larger variety of vocalic sequences unknown in Maltese, but known to Arabic or another Semitic lan~ languages) follow one or other pattern, we how such patterns by /K-T-B and /K-T-B-L for quadriliterals each of which, like x in Algebra representing an unknown quantity, stands for any in its own position. One or more of the radicals may be sem{-vowel J or W in one or other AN INTRODUCTION TO WORD STRUCTURE B of the three or four positions. An alternative method would be to use C for Consonant and V for Vowel. Thus KeTeB, the pattern of collective noun NeMel ‘ants GeBeL ‘stone’ could be indicated by CvCve or CeCeC. ‘What has been said so far is a general description of the chief characteristic feature of word-structure in Mal- tese. The patterns which as such can be meaningless will be given to illustrate the construction of the various parts of speech and are not meant to be memorised. But the student should memorise as many of the words given as possible to increase his vocabulary. ‘An important point to bear in mind is that a word- pattern may have multiple functions; 1.e. it can be the pattern of a noun, of an adjective and also of a verb or some other part of speech. I have chosen /K-T-B as the three consonants for the patterns, because they are three consonants which form part of the English alphabet and are therefore easy to pronounce and memorise by an English-speaking person. The patterns will be accom- panied with phonetic notations only where this is neces- sary, generally to indicate vocalic length and the promi- nent, Le, the stress-bearing, syllable. NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES Nouns and adjectives may be either simple or derived. ‘They are simple if they are original forms, that is, not obtained from another word-form by the addition of a suffix or a prefix, Naturally, derived nouns are those so obtained. Examples from English would be words like man (simple)-+hood, ly, liness (derived forms); un (pre~ fix) .-man-+liness (suffix); clean (slmple)-+ly, liness, able, er, (derived forms); un (prefix) +clean-Hliness (suffix) ‘Phe following are the main word-patterns of simple words common to (1) Nouns and Gi) Adjectives, which you should memorise as part of your growing vocabulary, remembering that adjectives as attributes, unlike English, are placed after the nouns they qualify. All44 MALTESE examples are masculine except those indicated otherwise. ‘The addition of vowel a to a noun or adjective gives the feminine form or the noun which indicates one object. ‘The addition of the fem. suffix to dissyllabie words with the accent on the first syllable causes the omission of the second unstressed vowel. In the following word-lists note how the different vowels and vocalic sequences in bold create the different word-patterns, Patterns Vocabulary 1. KaTIB —(@) Nouns: xadin (+a, f.) ‘monkey’; ica’ thib) haxix (+a f) ‘grass’; Balib sadid ‘rust; tabib (+a, f.) ‘doctor’. GD Adjectives: agin (+a, £) ‘bad’ gadim (+2, f) ‘old’; sablh (+a, 2) ‘lovely’; marid (ba, £.) ‘sick’. 2 KTIB () Nouns: ittim (+2,f) ‘orphan’; inbi ‘aktiib) vine’; #bib (+a, £); ‘raisin’. (NB. iin the first two nouns is euphonic} GD Adjectives: fair (+a, £) ‘poor’; kbir (+, £) ‘great’, ‘large’; tail (+a, f.) “neavy" or ‘difficult’. ‘This is pattern No. 1 with the first unstressed vowel omitted. 3, KaTeB (m) (i) Nouns: ragel ‘man’; ghaieb ‘bachelor’; KaTBa (f) — ghagel ‘linen’, (1) Adjectives: gharef (+a, f) ‘wise’y Ckaateb/ “kaatba) gshageb (+a, f.) ‘fussy’; gares Cea, f) ‘sour’, In the fem. form un- stressed e of the singular is omitted. 4, KaTBa (i) Nouns: bagra ‘a cow; basla ‘an onion’; hawha ‘a peach’, AN INTRODUCTION TO WORD STRUCTURE 45 hamra bajda (U) Adjectives: badra ‘green’. (2 ‘ted’ (£); safra ‘yellow’ (f. ‘white’ (1). sengha ‘art’, ‘craft’; weraa xewga ‘a wish’, (iD Adjectives sewda ‘black’ fem, of iswed; helwa ‘sweet? fem. of helu. Fem, descriptives with semi-vowel J as second radical: sejra ‘going away dejda ‘superfluous’; mejta ‘dead’. 5. KeTBa 6 KoTBa (1) Nouns: horga ‘knapsack’; forka ‘gal- lows’; borka ‘a wild duck’ (4) Adjectives: gholja ‘bigh’ (sing. f. & pl); ghomja ‘blind’ (pL) torja ‘ten- der’ (pl). (NB. The vowel o in the adjectives is longer than In the nouns). @ Nouns: kobor ‘greatness’; gobon ‘cheese’; hogor ‘lap’; xoghol ‘work’. 1. KoToB (ii) Adjectives: homor ‘red’ (pl. m. & £5 boloh ‘foolish’ (pl. m. & 1); sofor ‘yel- low’; (pl. m. & 1). 8. KaTT @) Nouns: hall ‘vinegar’; garr ‘carriage’ hhass (+a, f.) ‘lettuce’. (4) Adjectives: samm (+ a, f.) ‘very hard’ (stone); arr (+a, f) ‘acrid’; éass (+a, £) ‘fixed’ (stare). KeTT (i) Nouns: hobb ‘bosom’; hoss ‘sound’; mobh ‘brain’ or ‘mind’, Gi) Adjectives: more (+a, f.) ‘bitter’y gorr (Cha, £) ‘rude’.46 MALTESE 10. KaTTwB (1) Nouns: qattus (+a,f.) ‘cat’; sallur (kat'tuub) (+a, £) ‘eel’; ballut (+a, £) ‘oak tree’; maggur ‘major’, (i) Adjectives: ghajjur (-2,-f.) ‘jealous’. Remark 1: Gh and h, occurring in a medial position as, 2nd radicals of triradical words, having lost their conso- nantal sound, fall under patterns with a middle long vowel between the 2nd and 3rd radicals. Both letters are retained in the written language to keep unimpaired the regularity of word-structure, Thus words like xozhol, boghod, etc. classified under pattern no. 7 phonetically should be classified under pattern KoB (keob) because they are pronounced ‘foot and ‘boot; similarly, words like baghal. Cbaal) ‘mule’; laghag (‘Iaa%) ‘he licked’; sahar (sar) ‘he worked overtime’; xahar (‘faar) ‘month’; xa- ghar (‘faar) ‘hair’, which would fall under pattern KaTaB if the medial radicals were pronounced, phoneti- cally fall under pattern KaaB. EXERCISE 2 Translate: (a) Ragel gharef n mara (woman) gharfa, Hemm inbid tajjeb (good) Malia. Basla hadra mhix tajba (good). I-bandiera (flag) ta’ (of) Malta bajda u hamra, Sallura kbira u baqra sabiha. H-aattus annimal (animal) ghajjur. Ganni (John) ghazeb. Il-kafé (coffee) morr. Kafé morr. Ragel gorr u mara ghagba, It-tabib u I-marid it-tnejn (both lit. the two) ghomja, (>) The monkey (fem, and mase,) 1s jealous, The learned doctor cured (fejjaq) the sick man and the sick woman. A white cow amidst (fost) the green grass of Holland (I-Olanda). The flag (bandiers) of (ta’) Malta is an old flag. The vinegar is sour, Gozitan (Ghawdsxi) cheese is good (tajjeb). The major is poor and old, Sour wine becomes (isir) vinegar. The Itallan language Is not difficult, I heard (smajt) a big sound, DERIVED NOUNS 47 Lesson 3 DERIVED NOUNS Before we deal with derived nouns we must under- stand that there are other word-patterns common to (i) Simple nouns or (ii) Adjectives only. Remember that the addition of suffix a indicating the feminine gender or ‘oneness’ to dissyllabic nouns or adjectives causes the omission of the second unstressed vowel of the singular. ‘The more common nominal ones ar Noun Patterns Vocabulary 1, KaTB° Bxx. galb (+ a, ‘kernel’) ‘heart’; sajd (+ 3,) ‘fishing’; hawt ‘trough’ 2 KeTB _ Exx, kelb (+ a, f.) ‘dog’ (biteh); hett xemx ‘sun’. Exx, gild (+ a, ‘skin’) ‘leather’ ‘chalk’; bint ‘daughter’. 3. KITB gibs (+) 4. KeTB Exx, gorq (+ 2) ‘sandals’; elm ‘dreams’; borg ‘heap’. a) 5. KaTaB Exx. Iaham (+ a) ‘meat’; bagar (+ a) ‘cows’; xaham (+ a) ‘lard’; Babag (+ a) ‘pasil’; ghadam (a) ‘bones’; agar (+ a) ‘stones’ N.B._ A number of nouns conforming to this pattern are collectives, 6. KeTeB Exx, nemel (+ 2) ‘ants’; gemel ‘camel’; gebel (+ a) ‘stone’. ‘The following are the more common patterns of derived nouns: 1, KTaBija (= pattern KTaB + ijia). This is the pat- (ktu'biyya) tern of abstract nouns derived from (i) Nouns and (ii) from Adjectives.DERIVED NOUNS 49 48 MALTESE Rt ‘These word-forms have also an adjectival ( From Simple Nouns function, The addition of suffix a may tfalija ‘boyhood’ from tifel (+ a, £) ‘a indicate the feminine gender and the boy’ (siz), plural, and, In some cases only, one or the xbubiia ‘maiden- xebba ‘a maid’. other according to usage. hood’ ‘This word-pattern of nouns and adjectives aehoiija ‘youth’ » taghiugh (+-a,f) is obtained by the repetition of the middle | ‘a. young man radical of the tlliteral verb between one woman)’. of the following vocalie sequences with the : main stress on the syllable containing te Gb From Adjectives ee sbubija ‘beauty’ =, sabi (+ a, 1) () a—long a; GD) aie, (i) e—ie; dv) lovely’. i‘. kruhlja ‘ugliness’, ikrah (kerha f, subtle “uplines fea (kerna f) (@) haiiat (+ a, f. & pl) ‘tailor’ from hat ‘he siobifa ‘old age’ an vt sewed’; bajlad (+ a, pl) ‘whitewasher’ uh ‘O16 age’ BO from ‘bajjad ‘he whitewashed’; tallab Coast’ (ea, £& pl) ‘beggar’ from talab ‘he asked’. 2, KTuBa (This is a variant of the above pattern). Gi qattiel (4 a, £ & pl) ‘murderer’ from aatel | ('ktauba) @ 1 "he killed’; halliel (+a, f) ‘thief’ trom | » Sblah (m,) delba ne ene consia 2 cts nndale bluka ‘silliness’ hallel ‘he considered one a thief’; haddiem (® ‘silly. Se ae kage * | riuba ‘softness’ 4, artab (m.) ratba Ghatyh & PLO ‘worker’ from Radem “he | (2) ‘sot. * bjuda ‘whiteness’, abjad (m.) baida (Qu) kennies (+ a, pl) ‘Scavenger’ from kines (a) ‘white. ‘he swept’; gennien (+ a, pl) ‘gardener’ i fmura ‘redness’ =, amar Cm.) from gnien ‘garden’; gellied (4+ a, f, & pl) hhamra (f) ‘Ted’, ‘quartelsome’ from flied ‘fighting’. N.B. Some colour words can also take the ww ia. f. & pL) ‘weaver’ from niseg | ‘he wove’; giddieb (+ a, f. & pi.) ‘liar’ from ' pattern KTuBija, Thus we say bjuda or gideb ‘he lied’; kittie’ (+ a, f, & pl.) ‘writer’ bjudija ‘whiteness’; hmara or muri set kateb ‘he wrote’. ‘redness’; sfura or sfurlja ‘yellowness " | smura or smurlja ‘brownness’, but swidija | 4, KeTTeJ This pattern is derived from verbs the third ‘plackness’ not swudija or swuda, (ket'tei) radical of which in the Root-Verb 1s semi- | ‘vowel J, quiescent in the third person sin- | 3, KaTTaB ‘This is the pattern of nouns which indicate 1 the walked, j (kat'taab) names of tradesmen or the doer of the gular, masculine, such aa mexa “he walked, | action indicated by the triradical verb. the.thres roots of which are MAK"),50. MALTESE Ea ened C+ ff & pl) ‘a bullder’ trom bena (i) ‘he built’ gerrej (+ Ja, £.& pL) ‘a ‘jockey’, ‘runner’ from gera (j) ‘he ran’; but gaddej not geddej ‘servant’ from eda (3) the served’; aarrej not qerrej ‘reader’ from ara (D ‘he read’, because the first radial IS q, whieh is generally followed by a, and only less frequently by e. , Verbs ending in a, with third radieal 3 quiescent, form the subject- gulescent, ibject-matter of MORE DERIVED FORMS Derived forms are also (nouns obtained from other nouns by sown as mimated nouns, deat with in Lesson 10. EXx, mixtla ‘nursery bed’ ‘plant’; , Bax. mistla mursery bed! from xitia ‘plant; mhabba ‘Tove! Gi) diminuti eset g Hminutive nouns and adjectives (explained in Exx, dwejra ‘small house’ : from dar * ‘pretty’ from sabiha ‘lovely’. ae house (4D , verbal nouns (Lesson 18), Exx, rgad ‘sleep’ from ra ¥ aaad from heles ‘he freed’. he siep sbejha helsien ‘ireedom’ EXERCISE 3 Translate: (a) _M-bluka tax- (of) xjuhija w bi xjuhia u Lirtuba ta’ I-ghati (sot). Kardinal Newman kl share. H-batiad ih ; ugh, Ix-xjuhija kerha w marida, #agh- fush 1 aaghiugha halen. -kenniesIblah elied nda (ub I-fennien heddiem talieb (good), It-tallab slddieb el, H-garrej gars ktieb gdid (new), T-bjuda tas- GENDER OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES Sh shab filghodu (in the morning) u I-hmura tas-shab fil- shaxija (in the evening) huma dehra (vision) sabiha, (p) The beggar is a sick man and the thief is wicked (hatin) and quarrelsome. The dog of the (tal-) tailor 1s big and flerce. A week of (ta’) hard (lebes) and dificult work, The greenness of grass and the beauty of (ind-) youth. ‘The whiteness of blossoms (tas-zehar) and the aethusiasm (hegga) of boyhood are the poetry (peedtia) St dreams (tal-holm), The ugliness of (tax-) old age frightens (thaéia’) the young woman and saddens (iddei- jag) the old woman, The beauty of the holy (aaddis =, Gaddisa {,) city (belt 1.) of (ta’) Jerusalem (Gerusalemm) he murderer killed the worker. A large (adj. after noun) plant in the (£il-) nursery bed. Lesson 4 GENDER OF NOUNS AND ADJ! TIVES Nouns and adjectives are elther masculine or femi~ nine, according as they indicate males or females, ot, in. the case of inanimate objects, according to their gender- Glassification, In the case of inanimate objects, the main rules are: (1) MASCULINE (all nouns (including verbal nouns) and adjectives ending in a consonant. ‘Bxx. karkur ‘slippers’; ghaié ‘beloved’; Kiefer ‘cruel’ taabil ‘versifying’; tahwid ‘confusion’; twerwir ‘panic’; aera ‘treachery’. The exceptions are (a) some parts of the human pody:— id ‘hand’; ghajm ‘eye; aalb ‘heart’; cas ‘head’; sieq ‘foot’; gagq ‘belly’. But masculine are mobh ‘brain’ of ‘mind’; gharqub ‘heel’; riget ‘lea’; aadd swaist’; gbin ‘forehead’; sider ‘breast; dakar ‘back’ (b) ‘A few other nouns: abbar ‘news’; art ‘earth’; belt ‘city’;52 MALTESE dar ‘house’; amis ‘shirt’; xemx ‘su: ‘death’; rub ‘sou! trig ‘road’; mewé (i) Nouns (ineluding verbal nouns) whieh end in Vowels i or u in open syllable preceded by a short vowel in the previous syllable, with the exception of the names of cities which end in i, such as Brindisi (i) ‘Brindisi’: Martagni (1) ‘Carthage’ ete., but not local village names ending in i, such as ll-Qrendi (m) and Hal Safi (m) in Malta and 1-Ghasri (m) in Gozo, Exx. (i) sabi ‘young man’; qari ‘reading’; giri ‘running’; filt ‘inspection’: gera “a pup’; felu ‘colt’; delu ‘bucket’; tosicw ‘poison’, (i) Verbal nouns ending in a in open syllable similarly preceded by a short vowel in the first syllable. Exx, H-hala ‘waste’; il-kera ‘rent’; il-hefa ‘barefooted_ ness’; il-ghana or I-ghana ‘singing’; il-ghdma ot [-ghama ‘blindness’; il-ghera or I-ghera ‘nakedness’, Gv) All loan-words ending in u in open syllable generally preceded by a long vowel. Ex. delu ‘zeal’; velu ‘veil; Ikvedu ‘creed’; mertu ‘merit’; éertu ‘a certain (person); sektu ‘a century’. (W)_ Adjectives which end in i in open syllable, pre~ ceded by (a) a short or (b) long vowel in the previous syllable. Exx, (a) tafli ‘clayey’; (b) gholi ‘high’, Remark 1; Words falling under group (b) ate gram- matically present participles of verbs having J as their ard. radical, (vi) But of common gender are adjectives of Sici- lan or Italian origin ending in i in open syllable, Remark 2: Such adjectives are easily recognisable be- cause most of them are also English loan-words. Exx. mobbil ‘noble’; abbli ‘able’; fabbli ‘affable’; fraéli (‘fraadsil) ‘frail’; gravi ‘serious’; rari ‘rare’. (@) FEMININE () All adjectives and nouns ending in a other than those which indicate males such as papa ‘Pope’; eremita GENDER OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 53 ermit’; seminarista ‘seminarian’; trappista ‘trappist’; artista ‘artist’. As a Word-termlnation 2 indicates (a) the feminine counterpart of the masculine, a single object or (b) unity of.action (an action done once — fem. gender). Exx. (a) kelba ‘Diteh’, feminine of kelb ‘dog’ (masc.) dundjana ‘she-turkey’, feminine of dundjan; hobia ‘a loaf’; from collective noun hob ‘bread’; gobna ‘a cheese’; from collective noun gobon ‘cheese’; Zarbuna ‘one of a pair of shoes’ from garbun ‘a shoe’ (b) dahka ‘a laugh’, single action from verbal noun dabk ‘laughter’; takwida ‘a mess’ from verbal noun tahwid ‘confusion’, Exceptions (masculine nouns ending in a)i— Alla ‘God’; sema ‘sky’; ama ‘silt’; hena ‘happiness’; difa fine cloudless sky generally in winter’; ilma ‘water’; mera ‘mirror’, sometimes also feminine. (i) All nouns generally of Sicilian or Itallan origin ending in { preceded by a long vowel in the previous sylla~ ble: Ex. vuéi ‘voice’; kridi ‘crisis’; fra#i ‘phrase’; raguni ‘reason’; funzjoni ‘function’; kwistjont also kustjoni ‘question’ Gi) AL nouns ending in ti which, like those in the foregoing section, are also of Sicilian or Italian origin, Exx, arti ‘art’; parti ‘part; xorti ‘uck’; (NB. Final ti can also be the pl. of feminine loan-words ending in ta, Exx. Karta ‘paper’, pl. karti, santa ‘holy picture’, pl. santi). FORMATION OF FEMININE GENDER ‘The feminine of adjectives and nouns is formed by adding vowel 2 to the last consonant of the masculine formn, In accordance with the law of Maltese stress (p. 30) in dissyllable words, when the stress falls on the frst syllable, the addition of the termination a requires the dropping of the unstressed vowel of the original form.54 MALTESE ‘Thus the feminine of armel ‘widower’ is not armela (armel +a), but armla Carm[a]1+ a), Exx, (1) Nouns: kelb (m.) ‘dog’; kelba (f.) ‘bitch’; tifel (m.) ‘boy'; tifla (f.) not tifela ‘girl’; seftus (m.) ‘man servant’; seftura (f.) ‘maid servant’; sieheb (m.) ‘male companion’; siehba (f.) not sieheba ‘female companion’ (GN) Adjectives: xih (m.) ‘old man’; xifia (£.) ‘old woman’; rieged (m.) ‘asleep’, rieqda (f.) not rieqeda; maqtul (m.) ‘killed’, maatala (1. In the case of masculine adjectives ending in the vowel i in open syllable, or nouns so formed which were originally adjectives, the feminine is formed by the addi- tion of ia, with the stress moved one. syllable. onwards: Exx. xemxi (‘Jemfi) (m.) ‘sunny’, xemxija (Sem'Siyya) (£); misthi ‘timid’, misthija (f.); Ghawdxi (m.) ‘Gozitar’, Ghawdsxija (1); barrani (m,) ‘stranger’, barranija (1) safrani (m.) ‘palish’ or ‘yellowish’, safranija (f.); temtumi (m,) ‘stammering’, temtumija (f.). Exceptions: éelliedi (m.) ‘quarrelsome’, gellieda (not gellidija (1); habrieki (m,) ‘diligent’, habrieka (f.); rebbiebi (m.) ‘victorious’, rebbieha (f.). In adjectives formed from verbs the third radical of which is j (9), constructed on the pattern KaTi(J) (kaati(y) or KieTi(J) (‘kisti(y), the termination ja (va) 1s added to the final consonant of the masculine adj. after dropping final i, that is, the fem. pattern is KaT or KieT + ja, Exx. hali (m,) ‘spendthrift’; halja (f,) not Ralija; ghani Di afi (m.) ‘pure’, safja (£.); miexi , miexja ({.); gieri (m.) ‘running’ (water), gierja (f.); but tari (m.) ‘tender’ has fem, tarja or tarija, ‘The feminine of the following nouns and adjectives endifg in u in open syllable Is formed by changing u to wa; Exx. feu (m.) ‘colt’, felwa (f) ‘filly’; geru (m,) ‘male pup’, gerwa (f.) ‘female pup’; helu (m.) helwa (f.) ‘sweet’, GENDER OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 55 ‘The following mase. and fem. nouns are formed from. dlaerent 20088: ‘call’, 4 * (also ghogla); tx ghogol (m.) ‘cal, erha (2) ‘heifer’ oil; Beat unysmen’, nisa_({) women"; vagel in.) ‘man’, ‘mara (f.) ‘woman’; bodbod (m.) ‘he-goat’, moghia (E) ‘she-goat’; missier (m.) ‘father’, omm (fh), ‘mother #iemel (m.) ‘horse’, debba (f.) ‘mare’; serdug (m.) ‘col tigiega (f.) ‘hen’, gendus (m.) ‘ox’, bagra (f.) ‘cow’; naghéa (f.) ‘sheep’; muntun (m.) ‘ram’, ‘The following form their feminine by adding # to the masculine form, this t being grammatically known as t-marbuta, (See page 58) in ‘son’/bint ‘daughter’; sid ‘master’; ‘owner’/sidt ness hw ‘brother’ / oht ‘sister’; xbim’‘god-father’/ xbint ‘god-mother’; haten ‘brother or father or son-in- law’ / htint ‘sister or daughter or mother-in-law ‘As in English, in the case of animals when there are no specific gender-designations, gender can be expressed by the words ragel (‘raadgal) ‘male’ or mara (‘mara) ‘female’ placed after the name of the animal. Ex. kana- fin ragel (m.) ‘a male canary’, kanarin mara ‘a female canary’. i ds des- The feminine of colour-words and some words ¢ cribing physical quality beginning with a vowel, follows patterns KaTBa or KeTBa, the masculine pattern being variably aKTaB, IKTaB or iKTeB, Exx, ahmar (m,) /hamra (f) ‘red’; abjad (m,) /baida (L) ‘white’; ahdar (m,) / badra (f.) ‘green’; isfar (m.) safta (£.) ‘yellow; ikhal (m,) / kabla (.) ‘blue’; iswed (m)/sewda (f) ‘black’; blah (m.)/betha (£) ‘silly’; but ohxon (m.)/hoxna (f,) ‘stout’; or ‘base (voice) Remark 1: In abjad/bajda; iswed/sewda, medial j and w count as radicals corresponding to the second consonant of the pattern.56 MALTESE But some loan-words can be bi masculine and feminine:—. etn singular and mura Exx. kannella ‘brown’; vjela ‘violet’; roza ‘pink’; lela. aes but gri¢ (m), griza 1.) gridi (pl. both genders) EXERCISE 4 ‘anslate: (a) Dim (this) ahbar tajba, L-: ! toria jew (or) ir-Rabat il-belt t’Ghawdex. Il-ghana Malti a Ghawdxi_ mbox bhall- (like) ghana barrani, Xiha tem- tumija u gellieda. N-haddiem habrieki sid (the owner of) din id-dar, Amorin (budgerigar) ragel u kanarin (of) baxx (bass). Mrizi kbira tax-xeghol u kwistjoni mhawda (complicated) ta’ finanzi (finance). (b) The man is eruel and quarrelsome, but (iéds the woman (his wite) is bashful and diligent, "The blue sky of (ta!) Malta te pure and sunny, This (dim f. and ian m.) is good. The old man and the old woman are quarrelsome. The daughter is spendthrift but the father {missien is rich, Grey eyes, rosy checks (haddeja) and rown (adj. after the noun) hair (xaghar). A dear son and a cruel daughter. The artist has (ghandu) a sweet voles. The woman is the mother and the etl ts the daughter. ‘Phe father is the master of the (tad-) old Lesson § NOUNS IN CONSTRUCTION WITH OTHER NOUNS THE CONTRUCT STATE ‘Two nouns are sald to be in the C . 8 ‘onstruct State when they follow one another with the first noun govern- ing the second in a genitival relation Le. expressing NOUNS IN CONSTRUCTION WITH OTHER NOUNS 57 possession or elose association, The nearest English exam- 18 ple is the use of the possessive case as in John’s book, but 2 1 in an inverted order in Maltese ktleb Gani, Similarly ‘ 2 tne advebate’s wife, in Maltese mart L-avukat or mart ayakat ‘an advocate’s wife’, Other examples: gmlen sultan ‘a king’s garden’, gnien is-sultan ‘the king's garde Khen professur ‘a professor's voice’, Iehen il-professur Ihe professor's voice; sid il-ghalaa u I-gnien ‘the owner atthe field and the garden’; missier u omm il-mara ‘the father and mother of the wife’. ‘The adjective qualifying the first noun follows the second noun, Ex, omm Alla hanina ‘the mother of God 1s merciful’ or omm Alla I-hanina ‘the mereiful Mother of God. . " When more than one noun follows the first one, only the last noun can take the definite article. Exx, ghelug snin it-tifla ‘the completion of the gitl’s yeats’ (ie. the gitl’s birthday); bieb dar is-sultan ‘the Yoor of the Sultan’s house’; ghelug snin bint ir-re ‘the birthday of the king's daughter’, But when the last noun is undefined or has a prono- minal suffix attached to it, it does not take the definite article. Thus ‘a girl’s birthday’ and ‘his wife's birthday’ are translated ghelug snin tifla; gheluq snin marta, ‘Also in the the Construct State is a noun + its pos- sessive pron, suffix (Lesson 11), xx. gar ‘neighbour’, garek ‘your neighbour’; omm ‘mother, ommba ‘her mother’; xewaa ‘wish’, xewati ‘my wish’. ‘The Construct State is, however, giving way to the analytical usage of the preposition ta’ (of). Exx. il- sara ta’ Lavukat; il-lehen tal-professur: id-dar tieghi. But it survives in several place-names like Gebel Cantar ‘cantar (surname) hill; Ghaja Tata ‘the fountain of the38 MALTESE mulberry tree’; Ghajn Tufficha ‘the fountain of the apple tree’, ete. Iben ‘son’ in the construct form becomes bis Bin Alla ‘the Son of God’; bin is-sultan ‘the king's son’; binhom ‘their son’. Note from the examples given that, while the first noun is never defined by the article, the second or third noun (the possessor) may or may not defiined by the article. All or most feminine nouns which now end in a in open syllable, in classical Arabie ended in at(un), which has been dropped in the dialects, including Maltese, This is the t which reappears in the Construct State. Exx, naghga ‘sheep’ / cl, Ar. 'nadgat(un); mara ‘woman’ ?imrat(un). It will be noticed that in cl. Ar. the ¢ of the suffix known as t marbuta is bound up with the whole word. This ¢ which is dropped in the singular reappears in the ‘same feminine noun when this (i) either occurs in construction with another noun immediately following it, or (i) has the pronominal suffixes attached to it. That is. when it is used in the construct state with another noun. Except in mara ‘woman’, final a becomes et in the Cons- truct State. Exx. G) mara ‘woman’ becomes mart (short form of ‘marat), when followed by another noun, as in mart tabib ‘a doctor's wife’ or mart it-tabib ‘the doctor's wife’; kelma becomes kelmet as in kelmet is-sultan ‘the king’s word’; reqga becomes reqaet as in reaget il-wiéé ‘bashfulness’; (ii) marti ‘my wife’; martek ‘your wife’; kelmti ‘my word’; kelmtek ‘your word’ (for mar (a) or kelm(a) + ++ pron, suffix i, ek, ete), ‘There are other combinations of a noun following another in apposition to it not to express possession as in the Contstruct State, but some sort of connection or asso- ciation. The following are the main examples:— 1. Noun + Noun:— This construction covers a num- ber of semantic functions indicating: @ fuliness NOUNS IN CONSTRUCTION WITH OTHER NOUNS’ 59 xx. tazza irra (lit, glass beer) ‘a glass of beer’; aoffa, laring (lit, basket oranges) ‘a basketful of oranges’ a) part of a whole. . Exk, felli laringa (lit. sllee orange) ‘a slice of orange’; piééa hobé (lit, piece bread) ‘a piece of bread’. (i) large or small quantity. Ex. hafna, flit us ‘much, little money’. (iv) measure of space, value or time, Exx. modd raba’ ‘a modd (measure) of cultlvated Jand’s lira Kotba ‘a pound’s worth of books; xelin basix, shilling’s worth of vegetables’; kwarta mixi ‘a quarte an hour walking’. 2. When, the two nouns are the same noun repeated, the combination serves to indicate a sequence or distrl- bution of the objects indicated by such nouns. Exx, dar dar ‘house to house’ or ‘one house after anouner hamsa hamsa ‘five at a time’ or ‘in sequences of five’. ‘The second noun in the above construction Noun “+ Noun can have the function of a descriptive, like any adjective. ; ; el tabib ‘a medical man’; ragel hanéir ‘a glut- Bros rakel eed man’, itereliy man doctor's "mae Die NOUNS IN CONSTRUCTION WITH ADJECTIVES ‘While nouns can stand alone within the context ve usages obtained by the Joint constr eninal to an and wate Ck cies Ot os Sac agree in gender and nui 1, Nouns and adjectives agree in gendel ua ber, the plutal being common to both genders. The adjec60 MALTESE tive follows the noun, except the superlative which pre- cedes the noun it qualifies. Exx, suldat qalbieni ‘a courageous soldier’; suldati qalbe- nin ‘brave soldiers’; ragel (mara) gharef (gharfa) ‘a learned man (woman)’; nisa ghorrief ‘learned women’; I-oghla sur ‘the highest bastion’; I-isbak mara, ragel, nisa, irgiel ‘the most beautiful woman, man, women, mei 2. The adjective, when it qualifies a verb, has also the function of an adverb, A similar usage in English is that of ‘quick’ and ‘loud’, which can be used both as an adjective and as an adverb. EXx, jikteb (he writes) sabih (beautiful) ‘he writes beauti- fully’; jimxi (he walks) mghaggel (hurried) ‘he walks hurriedly’. 3. The repetition of the same adjective qualifying a noun indicates (i) a characteristic quality of the noun Exx, ragel mutu mutu (iit, ‘a man dumb dumb’) ‘a man who hardly ever says a word’; raget twil twil ‘a very tall man’ (ii) the manner of action when it qualifies a verb Exx. tah I-ahbar hagina helu helu ‘he gave him (broke) the bad news very gently’; jimxi hafif hafif (lit. ‘he walks brisk brisk’) ‘he walks very briskly’; tikteb pulit pulit (lit. ‘she writes neat, neat’) ‘she writes very neatly’; dahal baxx baxx ‘he entered stealthily or unobtrusively’ 4, When the noun is defined by the article, the adjective may or may not be defined also by the definite article. Exx, il-karrozza l-gdida or il-karrozza gdida ‘the new car’. But the meaning of the latter is ambiguous'on account of the reason given in the following rule, 5. When the noun accompanied by the definite article is followed by an adjective undefined by the arti- cle, the combination is equivalent to a sentence in English. The reason is that already pointed out, namely, that Maltese has no verb ‘to be’. Hence, il-karrozza ‘gdida, NOUNS IN CONSTRUCTION WITH OTHER NOUNS 61 given in the-above example could also mean ‘the car 1s new! if they take 6, All deseriptives ean be used as nouns the definite article and follow the general rules govern- ing the adjectives. . eres iija ta’ sitt iffal ‘the murde Exx, i-magtal alla familja ta’ site a man left a family of six children’; il-marid ghadda ghall. aghar ‘the sick man has grown worse’. t other 1, Collective nouns ending in a consonant than those which are broken plurals (see Lesson 9) take the masculine adjective. or ‘pe icur 4 or Exx, il-bajtar misjur ‘prickly pears are ripe’ o prickly pears’; il-qamh niexef ‘the corn is dry’ or ‘the dry corn’. EXERCISE 5 Translate: Xorob tazza halib (milk) abjar minn tazza ilma, Mart ie-saltan marida hafna (very). Tal-halib, fal-nasts wu tal-laham geghdin (ere) is-sug (market). Martek str) atal (= 28025) majjal (pork) u nofs artal (for nofs Farah) éanga, (beef). Fredu (Alfred) ragel ta’ salhhs (sireng’ Kira, HI-Milied bu jum ta! ferh ghad-dinia Nisraniie (Christian world). Ghajn Tuta isem (name) post (piace) PGhawdex u Ghajn Tuffieha isem post Malta, Ghall- (for the) Insara, Gesii Kristu huwa Bin Alla. Bieb id- maghlug (shut). Illum (today) ghelug sain ommha, Give me (aghtini) a glass of wine. The soldier’s wate is ii, T bought (strait) @ pound’s worth (ire) ot meat (laham). It is a quarter-of-an-hour's walk from Valletta to Floriana, A woman of character (karattra). ‘The milkman, the greengrocer and the butcher are friends (hbieb). He talks (fitkellem) hurriedly but (ida) writes Gjiketeb) beautifully. I saw the new ear. A house to house visit (ajara, begins the phrase), Little money for mu work.62 MALTESE Lesson 5 THE DIMINUTIVE AND COMPARATIVE FORMS Maltese, like Arabic, has also the diminutive form of the noun and the adjective, a form which indicates () physical smallness or (il) gracefulnes, English examples formed by suffixes being words like ‘rivulet, ambit icitten’, ‘duekling’ ete. Tts usage in Maltese has become restricted to a few nouns and adjectives. _ Masculine diminutives are formed by means of -ajia-, -aije-, -eija-, or ~eije- infixed between the second and third radicals of the word with the stress on the first syllable, The feminine is formed by adding -a to the mes- culine diminutive with the omission of the short unaccent- ed penultimate ~je or ja according. to the general rule of Maltese stress which does not permit two unstressed syllables after the stressed syllable. Many of the nominal and adjectival diminutive forms given in grammar books are not used in the spoken language. They form thelr plural by the addition of stressed suffix in Gin). Memorise the following living survivals:— PATTERN 1 KYajjaB (‘ktayyab) more frequently Ktajel Cktayyeh)/ETaiBa CL) Cktayba). () Nouns: eaiies? hmajra ‘a little donkey’, dim. of hmar/hmara ‘donkey/ she-ass'; tfajjel/tfajla ‘a young man/woman’; dim. of tifel/tifla ‘boy/girl’. (Note that the connotation of this dim. form is affection and not physical smallness); xtajta ‘shore’, dim. form of xatt (connotation of grace). Gi Adjectives: faaijar (m.)/faaira (f.) ‘rather poor’ dim. of fair/faira (connotation of sympathy); smajiar/smaira ‘brownish’, dim, of ismar/samra; dghajjef/dghajfa ‘rather thin, weak’, dim. of dghif/dghifa (unused). THE DIMINUTIVE AND COMPARATIVE FORMS — 63 PATTERN 2 Ckteyyab)/KTejBa (1) (kteyba). Nouns: gnejna ‘a little garden’, dim. form of gnie dweira ‘cottage’, dim. of dar ‘house’, (ii) Adjective sbejjah (m.)/sbeiha (f.) ‘rather fine’, dim. form of sabibi/ Sabiha (connotation of grace); xwejiah/xwejha ‘old’, dim, of xih/xiha ‘old man/woman’ (connotation of affection). ‘A few words form their diminutive by suffix -a: Exx, but ‘pocket’, buta ‘a small pocket’; fies ‘pickaxe’, fiesa ‘a small pickaxe’; zappun ‘a mattock’; zappume ‘a small mattock’; forn ‘oven’, forna ‘a, small oven’. KTejjaB (m. THE COMPARISON OF ADJECTIVES ‘The main function of an adjective is that of qua~ lifying the noun by merely describing it in itself or in its relation to another noun. Hence, the addition of three comparative degrees of the adjectives, namely, that of (i) equality or likeness (ii) Felative superiority or in~ feriority to another term of comparison (iii) the abso- lute comparative degree of a noun described in itself by means of adverbs or adjectival phrases without any specific reference to other terms of comparison. Exx. fhelu wisq or hafna, ‘very sweet’; ragel mill-abjar ‘a very good man’; palazz sill-isbah ‘one of the loveliest palaces’ or ‘a most lovely palace’. ‘The comparative degree of adjectives with or with- out reference to another term of comparison is formed by prefixing a, e, ior o to the first two radicals the second of which is separated from the third radical by i or ¢ with the stress invariably on the first syllable. ‘The Maltese conjunction for English ‘than’ which In~ troduces the second member of the comparison is minn ‘from’ the second doubled consonant of which (nm) assimilates with the definite article. The superlative which precedes the noun it qualifies is formed by prefixing the definite article I- to the comparative degree.a MALTESE Exx, it-tifel itwal mit-tifla ‘the boy is taller than the giz!’ (mit = minn + it); J-itwal tife! fil-klassi ‘the tallest boy in the class’. If the comparative adjective {s followed by a clause, the conjunction used {s milli (= minn ‘from’ + li ‘which’, ‘that’), Ex, aktar jitkellem milli jahdem ‘he speaks more than he works'; ahjar milli tabseb ‘better than you think’, COMPARATIVE FORMS Remark 1: Note that the following comparatives are invariable being applicable to both genders and numbers, and that the first vowel is stressed and therefore i is not changed into j when preceded by another vowel. Ex. keiema itwal ‘they were taller’ not kienm jtwal, Patterns Vocabulary aKTaB (i) Exx, akbar ‘greater’, ‘older’/kbir (m.) or (4a, £) angas ‘less’/nieges (m.) niea- KT (3) sa (i) aktar ‘more’; no positive de- gree; aqws. ‘stronger’/qawwi (m.) + fa, 1). iKTaB ‘tarther'/bghid (m.) idjaq ‘narrower’ /dejjag (m.) ifgar ‘poorer'/fair (m.) sar ‘shorter'/aasir (m.) aghar ‘smaller’ /ighir (m. (4a, £) ishas (or orhos) ‘cheaper'/ iris (m.) (+a, £); irgaq ‘thinner’ irgig (m.) Gh ay £). Exx, ehrex ‘fiercer’/ahrax (m.) harza ehden ‘worse’ /hazin (m.) (+ #, £); ehxen ‘stouter'/ohxon (m.) hoxna eqdem ‘older'/qadim (m.) (+a, f. egreb ‘nearer'/garib (m.) (+a, f. ebfef ‘lighter'/hafit (m.) (+, eghref ‘wiser /gharef (m.) gharfa eghéei ‘dearer'/ghaiiz (m.) (+a, £.) ekTeB c ‘THE DIMINUTIVE AND COMPARATIVE FORMS 65 ixTeB (iv) Exx, iéken ‘smaller’ /ekeiken (m.) ékej- kna ( smen ‘faiter'/smin (m.) (ha, £); itjeb ‘better'/tajjeb Gm.) tajba (1). ) Exx, obla ‘sweeter’/helu (m.) helwa (1); oghla ‘higher'/ghali (m.) ghalja (£); oghna ‘richer /ghani (m.) ghanja @. UNUSUAL FORMATIONS ‘The comparative of wiesa’ (m.) wiesgha (f.) ‘wide’ is usa’, Abjar ‘better’ (stress on the second syllable) and aghar ‘worse’ (stress on the first syllable), have no posi- tive degree from the same radicals. Note the spelling of aghar ‘worse’, pronounced like, but to be distinguished from, ghar meaning ‘eave’, and also ‘disgrace’ in the phrase gharukaza ‘scandal’, ‘great shame’, for ghar ‘shame’ + u (and) + kaza ‘scandal’. Ex, Huk akbar minnek ‘your brother is older than you’; ahjar ghasfur f'idek milli mija fl-ajru ‘better a bird in your hand than a hundred in the jaar aghar mill- mew ‘slavery 1s worse than death’; {tit ahjar minn xein “q little is better than nothing’. The pattern of the com- parative aKTaB and other vocalic sequences + minn = English comparative adjective + than. ‘The pattern of the Superlative is the definite article I-+aKTaB with the other vocalic sequences + fost ‘amongst’, when followed by a noun indicating any object other than a place, animal ete., or + fi‘In’ when the object indicated by the noun is @ place. Exx. Dun Karm hu l-akbar fost il-pocti kollha Maltin, ‘Dun Karm is the greatest of (lit, amongst) all Maltese poets’; Sant Anton hu I-ishah gnien tal-Kavalieri Malta, ‘San Anton is the loveliest grove of the Knights (of St. John) in Malta’. Adjectives which (1) begin with a vowel, such as the66 MALTESE colour words ahmar ‘red’, isfar ‘yellow’ ete., (ii) verbal deseriptives other than adjectives proper; and (iil) ad- Jectives of foreign origin as a rule form their comparative degree by taking aktar or izjed ‘more’, anaas ‘less’ + the definite article for the superlative to indicate the higher oF the highest, the less or the least degree of eompari- sion. Exx. iijed (also aktar) or inaas iebes, edukat, pulit, magh- raf etc, ‘more, less hard, well-educated, polite, known, ete’; and for the superlative degree I-izjed (or I-aktar) tangas iebes, ete, ‘the most, the least hard, ete. OTHER COMPARATIVE FUNCTIONS ‘The comparison of (i) likeness 1s indicated by bhal (itke’ also ‘as’) and (il) of equality by dags (as much as’), both of which can either be followed by the other term of comparison or are used independently with the pro- nominal suffixes attached to them. Exx, (1) Dan hal dak ‘this is like that’; jitkellem bhal wiehed gharef ‘he talks like a wise man’; hi mhix bhalu u langas bhalhom ‘she is neither like him nor like them’; (ii) twil dags.huh ‘as tall as his brother’; xih dagsha ‘as old as she’. ‘An archaic comparative formed by the particle ma (ay before a vowel) + the comparative degree of the adjective survives in a few expressions, Exx. ragel m'oghla sur’ ‘a man as tall as a bastion’ (hyper- bolic) for ‘a very tall man’; m’isbah (many say 1-isbah) I-indafa (cleanliness) ‘good riddance’; m’ohxon saba’ ‘as thick as a finger’. SOME IDIOMATIC PHRASAL COMPARISONS (a) Colour: Iswed borma (pot) ‘as black as coal’; abjad silg or qotma (cotton) ‘as white as snow’; ahdar busbies (fennel) or haxix ‘as green as grass’; ahmar nar ‘THE DIMINUTIVE AND COMPARATIVE FORMS 67 (fre) ‘as red as blood’; isfar Jellux (garden chrysanthe- mum) ‘as yellow as a guinea’; ihkal nir (indigo) ‘sky blue’. (>) Palate: Helu manna (manna) or zokkor ‘as sweet as/sugar’; morz tosku (poison) ‘as bitter as g: ares hall ‘as sour as vinegar’. (c) Measure: Wiesa’ bahar (or horé) ‘as wide as an ocean (or knapsack)’ (used in connection with bagey trousers etc.); dejjag katusa (pipe) ‘as narrow as a drain pipe’ Other Comparisons: ebes ghuda (wood) ‘as hard as stone’; artab haxu (soft cheese) ‘as soft as butter’: in xarrab ghasra (soaking), fellus (chicken) ‘as wet as a drowned rat’; niexef goxqox (parched) ‘as dry as dust ibleh karnival (Carnival) (lit. as foolish as Carnival) ‘stupid as a clown’; xih ghakka (decrepit) ‘as old as the hills’; afif rix ‘as light as a feather’; éqil comb ‘as heavy as lead’; nadif tazsa (lit. as clean as a glass) ‘as clean as a new pin’; tari bagta (curdled cream) ‘as soft as butter’, (i) Additional Usages of Nouns 1, Unlike English, the object possessed by more than one noun Is put in the singular. Exx. L-irgiel siefru a hal- lew fi-mara (woman = Wife) Malta ‘the men emigrated and left thelr wives in Malta’; mali fethu halghom (thelr mouth) sikkithom ‘as soon as they opened their mouths (Le. tried to speak) he silenced them’, 2, Nouns of (1) place and (ii) time are often used without a preposition. EXx. (i) Hu baga’ Malte ‘he re- mained in Malta’; wasal i-Ingilterra: gimgha ware ‘he arrived in England a week after’; mort Londra s-sena Lora ‘I went to London last year’; inhobb noaghed a dar ‘I like staying at home’; (i!) nigi I-Mamis it ge) ‘T ‘will come next Thursday’; ghamel sentejn jistudja I-lin- gwi ‘he spent two years studying languages.68 MALTESE (di) Additional Usages of Adjectives 1. The rule that the adjective follows the noun ap- plies to all other words with a descriptive function. Exx, Tifel makbub ‘a loved boy’; it-tifel il-mahbub ‘the loved boy’, 2. ‘The adjective before the noun oceurs in a few formal or stereotyped phrases not accepted in good litera- ture, Exx. Eghéieg uliedi ‘my dear children’ (rhetorical); il-mahub ibni ‘my beloved son’, 3. In the case of an absolute superlative degree formed by I-aktar, l-igjed or 1-ingas, the order is l-aktar etc. + the noun + the adjective of which is expressed the highest or least quality. Exx, |iktar (I-léjed or l-ingas) (superlative) tifel (tifla, tal) intelligenti ‘the most (least) intelligent boy (girl, children)’; also less effectively 1¢-tifel l-aktar intelligenti, EXERCISE 6 Translate: (a) Xwejjah m xwejha fi dwejra hdejn (near) i- babar. I-gnejna ta’ Pietra (Peter) akbar minn dik (that) ta’ Ganni (John). Dante I-aqwa poeta (poet) tad-dinja (world). L-irhis ghali (is dear), L-eghted habib (friend) Weghi siefer (emigrated) ifbierah (yesterday), Ié-ékej- ken hels imma I-iéken obla. L-angas xeghol iebes (hard work) Inu wkoll (also) I-ehfef. Tifel helu wisg u ragel mill-ahjar. Toni (Anthony) iblah karnival, Marija (Mary) mara nadifa tazza, L-iktar peeta Malti maghruf (known) hu Dun Karm Psaila, (b) Xlendi is a lovely bay (bajja) in Gozo. A little garden and a cottage in Marsalforn, a sunny bay in Gozo. ‘This street (road) is wider than the old street of (tar-) my (tieghi after noun) village (rahal). John is older than Anthony. Maltese is like Arabic, but it 1s not as difficult as Arabic. He was born (fwieled) in Malta, but lived (ghex) NUMBERS 6 in Gozo. A rather poor and weak woman as old as the rocks. The tiger (tigra) is flercer than. the (mill-) lion (jun) Peter is as old as Michael (Mikiel). “Good rid- dance” said (gal) Joseph (Gude). Lesson 7 NUMBERS Maltese has three numbers: (i) the singular which indicates one person or thing, (ii) the dual which indi cates things in pairs, and (iii) the plural number indi- eating more than two things. THE DUAL ‘The dual is formed by adding (1) suffix -ejn to the last consonant of the singular; (ii) -ajn, if this last con- sonant Is gh, h or q; (iii) -teim, if the singular noun is feminine and ends in the vowel a which 1s dropped. As these dual terminations attract the stress on to them~ selves, the original stress of the word is lost to conform to the stress pattern, according to which one word cannot have more than one main accent or stressed syHable. Bx, (i) elf/elfejn ‘a thousand/two thousand’; (i) siegh (sish)/sighain (si'ain) ‘a kind of Maltese measure tor area or capacity/two such measures’; gewnah/éwinkajn “wing/two wings’; sieq/sagajn ‘foot/two feet’; (ll) darba/darbtejn ‘once/twice’. When the dual suffix -tejn is attached to feminine nouns, the 3rd consonant of which is I, m,n, ¢ or sk (oy analogy), the resultant triconsonantal group Is broken up by the insertion of a-vowel before the 3rd radi- cal. This vowel can be G) 2, generally when the 3rd radical is gh, Exx, fergha/feraghtejn “branch/two branches’; gimgha/gimaghtejn ‘week/two weeks’; (i) yowel | when the first vowel after the first consonant is70 MALTESE Exx, witna/widintejn ‘5 rotolos/10 rotolos’; widna/ widintejn ‘ear/two ears’. (lil) vowel 0 when the first vowel after the first consonant is 0, Exx. hofra/hofortejn ‘hole/ two holes’; goxra/qoxortejn ‘husk/two husks’, ‘The use of the dual is limited to:— () 4 few time-words: Exx, sena (‘sena)/sentejn (sen'tein) ‘one year/two years’; jum/jumejn ‘one day/ two days’; -xahar/xahrejn ‘one month/two month! siegha/saghtejn ‘one hour/two hours’; gimgha/gimagh- tejn ‘one week/two weeks’. (i) Some quantity and measure-words: Exx. mija Cimiyya)/mitejn Gni'tele) ‘one hundred/two hundred’; elf/elfejn ‘one thousand/two thousand’; habba/hab- btejn ‘one grain/two grains’; gantar/qantarejn ‘hun- dred/two hundred rotolos’; xiber/xibrejn ‘one span/two spans’. Gi) Some nouns indicating food: xx. bajda Cbaida) /badtejn (bat'tein) ‘one egg/two eggs’; hobia/ hbigtein ‘one loat/two loaves’; gobna/gbintejn ‘one cheese/two cheeses’. (iv) 4 few odd words: xx. darba (‘darba)/darb- tein (darb'tein) ‘once/twice’; daqaa/daaatejn ‘one stroke/two strokes’ (W) Some parts of the human body which exist in pairs: Tt must be noted, however, that though these are grammatically dual formations, in actual usage they are used as ordinary plurals for any number. Exx, id (iit) /idejn (i'dein) ‘one hand/hands’ (lit, a pair of hands); difer/ditrejn ‘a finger nail/finger nails’ (lit. a pair of finger nails); saba’/subghajn ‘a finger/fingers’ (itt. a pair of fingers); hadd/haddejn ‘one cheek/cheeks’ (it. a pair of cheeks); driegh/dirghain ‘one arm/arms” (it. a pair of arms); sieq/saqain ‘one foot/feet’ (lit. a pair of feet); gewnab/gwinhajn ‘one wing/wings' (lit. a pair of wings); Koxxa (irom Italian coscia) koxxtejn ‘thigh/ thighs’ (lit. a pair of thighs). NUMBERS 7 N. E : inkbejn, ‘elbows’ are (NB, maifsejn ‘nostrils’ and mint are gual-formations of minfes ‘a nostril’ (unused) and mts- Keb ‘an elbow’, Hugbejn ‘eye-brows’ is the dual of obst lete hageb). ; (vi) 4 few words ending in a which form their duit by termination -ein not -tein added to the last consonant. + i lejn (spal'lein) one xx, spaila (‘spaila) from Italian/spall in) one shoulder/shoulders’ (lit, a pai of shoulders); jomna/ tomnein ‘two tumoli’ (one fomna, a field measure © 0.278 acres); widna / widnein ‘one ear / ears’ (iit, a pair of ears), DETERMINATE AND INDETERMINATE PLURALS Determinate, and ‘The general plural can be either therefore must be preceded by the number of things, objects or persons counted or Indeterminate, that is un- counted, generally collective nouns, conect i Qi) Collectiv ( Singular (il) Determinate | ect baida (f) ‘an zewg, tliet bajdiet bajd (m.) ‘eas: (one) egg” (£) ‘two, three eges’ gobna (1) ‘2 era’, hames gobniet gobon (m.) ‘cheese (one) cheese’ (f.) ‘four, five cheeses’ huta (f) ‘a sitt, seba’ hutlet Bat (m, (one) fish’ —¢f.) ‘six, seven fish(es)’ : kelma (f.) ‘a tmien, disa’ kelmiet kliem (m.) ‘words’ (one) word’ (f,) ‘eight, nine words’ frotta (f) ‘a ghaxar frottiel (one) fruit’ (f.) ‘ten fruits’ ‘fish’. frott (m.) ‘fruit, NUMBER AND GENDER OF COLLECTIVE NOUNS . iz consonant, though 1. Collective nouns ending in a consonan' not without some exceptions, are regarded as (i) singular72 MALTESE and masculine if the the object they indicate is inanimate and as (il) plural if the object indicated is animate, generally animals other than those of small size and insects. Exx, (i) hobs gohon, laring, gheneb, frott, etc.) tajjeb “good bread (cheese, oranges, grapes, fruit, gar sbleh (pl. for both genders) ‘beautiful trees’; (i) baqar (moghos, nghag, ete.) sbiek (pl) ‘beautiful cows (goats, sheep, etc.) but hut sabi (sing, m.) not sbien (pl.) ‘beautiful fish’, nahal biegel (sing. m.) not bedlin (pL) ‘busy bees’; memel itir (sing, ‘flying ants’. 2, In both cases such collective nouns can be turned into the expression of their units Le, slngular nouns, by the addition of suffix a after the omission of the second unstressed vowel in dissyllabie words which have the stress on the first syllable. xx, hobi/hobéa ‘a loaf’; gobon/gobma ‘a cheese-cake’; laring/laringa ‘an orange’; gheneb/ghenbs ‘one berry of 2 grape’; froti/frotta ‘a fruit’; bagar/bagra ‘a cow’: nghag/naghéa ‘a sheep’. Other Collective Nouns: These are mostly loan-words ending in i some of which are regarded as (1) singu- Jar of (i) masculine or (ii) feminine gender or (2) as plurals. Exx, G) gawwi (abjad)/gawwija (bajda) ‘white Is/seagull’; git abjad/éita bajda ‘white stocks/ Jumi dares/iumija qarsa ‘bitter lemons/lemon’; Kabli (from Maltese roots) frisk/kablija friska ‘fresh blacktails/blacktail’ (name of a Mediterranean fish); (il) welt (feawll, maspli, pitavi, pitelli, kaboééi) friska/ éawsia (crawls, maspl Ia, kaboééa) friska ‘fresh white mulberries (strawberries, medlars, beetroots, peas, cabbages)/mulberry (strawberry, medlar, beetroot, pea, cabbage)’; (2) papoééi (buaarl, gladjoli) bojod/papos- éa bajda (ugar abjad, giadjola bajda) ‘white snap- dragons (African lilies, gladioli)/snapdragon (African illy gladiolus)’. 3 Z é 2 NUMBERS 2B .9 collectives are some names of fruits and plants ending in a either () with the definite erticle or (i) without it but ‘followed by an adjective or adjectival yhrase or preceded by a quantity word, Exx. (1) il-patata, anana, ié-tirasa, Which can mean either ‘the potato’ the banana’, ‘the cherry’ or ‘potatoes’, ‘bananas’, ‘cherries’ in a collective sense fem, and sing, (i) hafna pafata (banana, éirasa) ‘a great quantity of potatoes (bananas, cherries)’; patata, (banana, ¢irasa) tajba (or ta’ barra) ‘good (imported) potatoes (bananas, cherries)’. EXERCISE 7 slate: jn u xahrejn ta’ (of) xoghol wel “oe had) ode, jien Kelli ewe bajdiet, imma hi kellha erba’ bajdiet. Ghandu (he has) dirghajn shah ta’ ggant (giant) u ghajnejn ta’ seger (hawk). Gimaghtejn bia (without) xoghol aghar mill-mewt ghal ragel fair. Feraghtejn magtugha (cut) minn (from) sigra (tree) | qadima. Qantarejn patata (potatoes) u elfein. tigiega then). Tkellem (he spoke) darbtejn; darba ghal xej. Ghaxar laringiet (oranges) a seba’ hawhlet (peaches). Gwinhajn l-ghasfur miksura (broken). Badteja, gbintein, hobéa w flixkun (bottle) inbid shall-haddiem. rajt) the house twice. I want Grrid) two inavse, ono eggs and two cheeses. Six Tred (soalia) eggs and nine grilled (mixwija) fishes. One word is better than two words, Words are dangerous (perikeluz). Strong arms and feet for hard work and running, A fine figure (figura), broad shoulders, clear (safja £) eyes and rosy cheeks. A basketful (qoffa) of fruit for the orphans (iltiema). One bad fruit spoils (thassar) a hundred. Fruit is scarce (skars) in winter (fix-xitwa), Her brothers (hutha) bought her (xtrawiha) a big fish. i / | | |74 MALTESE Lesson 8 THE FORMATION OF THE PLURAL Maltese, like Arabic, has two ty} . pes of plural forma- tions for both nouns and adjectives, namely, (i) the plural obtained by the addition of suffixes called Sound or Ex- femal Plurals: and (ii) plurals obtained by breaking up mal structure of the ie intemal str e singular form (Broken or PLURAL BY SUFFIXES Remark 1: Plural suffixes bear the main stre word, Ae rest ofthis the orga! ates of the Sash lar word is moved one syllable onward which is the last syllable formed by the plural sufx. ‘The plural suffixes are:— () -m (2) in (im); (3) -at Cant) or ~i ) 4 or -iet Cot); “litet"dy'sieb); (@) -am aan) orien (loa) and finally (6) unstressed -2, (2) Termination n is used for the 5 plural ending in i in open syllable:— Of aciecies Exx. babri / bahrin ‘sallor/s’; Malti Maltese (neople)’; : Gozitans’. (2) Stress-bearing -in Is-suffixed () To some nouns and ad! ; Jectives conformin pattern Kae and its variations Exx, sing. halliel/pl. hallilin ‘thi m lef/thieves'; qatti aieb / gidaibin ‘ar/s’, ” (iD To adjectives conformin r g to pattern Kat Ckaateb) ox KieTeB (kioteb) after the elision of the 2nd unstressed vowel. Exx, sing. tajjeb (m.) tajba (f.) tajbin i ) 5 (Dl) ‘good’; bi (am) blerda (£9 herd (pl) ‘cool; mieéel Cm) meta (2) Maltin ‘a Maltese / Ghawdxi/Gbawdxin ‘a Gozitan / THE FORMATION OF THE PLURAL 15 neilin (pl.) ‘descending’. Note that ie which always beats the main stress in the sing, on losing the main stress which is attracted by the suffix, becomes unstressed i or ¢, according to the general rule. Gil) To the third radical of the Passive participles conforming to pattern maKTuB, (mak'¢unb) with variable vocalic seauences:— ‘xx, sing, maqtul (m,) matula ({.) magtulin (pl.) ‘killed’ mahbub (m,.) mahbuba (f.) mahbubia (pl) ‘loved’; meh- ius (n.) meblusa (£.) meblusin (pl.) ‘freed’; mikeue (m.) miksura (f)"miksurin (pl.) ‘broke (iv) To singular adjectives ending in an or ie (alternative for ani or feni):— Exx, bahnan (m,) bahnana (f,) babnanin (pl. ‘silly’; bel- hieni (m,) belhiena (f.) belhenin (pl) ‘foolish’; shatxan (m,) ghaixana (£) ghatxanin (pl.) ‘thirsty’; xewaan (m.) xewgana (f) xewqanin (pl.) ‘desirous’. (y) To the third radical of adjectives of the diminu- tivé pattern KTajjeB (m.) KTajBa (£) KTejjeB (im) KTejBa (f) (Lesson 6). xx, sing. twajjeb (m,) twajba (1) twagbin (pl) ‘go0d’s sbejiah (m,) sbejha (f.) sbejhin (pl.) ‘pretty’; faaiiar (m.) fgaira (£) faajrin (pl.) ‘poor’. Note elision of 2nd unstressed vowel of the masc. adj. as in (ii) (vi) To mase, adjectival forms ending in i (pattern m, KieTi/f, KleTia) from verbs the third radi- cal of which is quiescent j (Lesson 24) changing final i into § which precedes the stress-bearing plural suffix or to final j of the fem, form, xx, hieni (m,) hienja (f.) henjin (pl.) ‘happy’ (from radi- cals H-N-[J]). Similarly hati (m,) hatja (1) Batjin (pl) ‘guilty’; safi (m,) safjz (£.) safiin (pl) 4 teri (m.) fierja (£) geriim (pl.) ‘running’ (water); mibni (m.) mib- Jia (£.) mibnijin (pl) ‘built’; mimi (m.) mimiNja (i) mimiijin (pl) ‘full’; minsi (m.) minstja (f) ain76 MALTESE sijin (pl.) ‘forgotten’; mghobbi mghobbijin (pl.) ‘loaded’. (m) mghobbija (f) (3) The suffix -at or jet is added to the 3rd consonant of the singular feminine nouns ending in a:— Exx. sing. xewqa/xewgat (pl.) also xewaiet ‘wish/wishes’; werda/wergat also wergiet ‘leaf/leaves’; felwa/felwiet ‘filly/fillies'; xebba/xebbiet ‘young lady/young ladies’; mhadda /mhaddiet ‘pillow/s’;_ mghaiga / mghaiqlet ‘spade/s'; plural of mimated nouns. (Lesson 10). An ex- ceptional formation is dnubiet, pl, of daub ‘sin’, which, in spite of its singular meaning, is the broken plural of an obsolete singular. (4) -ijlet (iy'yist) is suffixed to the last consonant of a few native words of both genders. Exx, ahbat/ahbarijiet ‘news’; art/artijiet land/s’; hsieb/ hasibijiet ‘thought/s'; isem/ismijiet name/s’; missier/ sivijiet ‘father/s’; omm/ommijiet ‘mother/s’; xoghol/ xoghlijiet ‘work/s'; imien/tminijiet ‘time/s’. (iO Most loan-words which have not been adapted to the semitic word-pattern of Maltese:— Exx, radju/radiijiet ‘radio/s'; sru/sorijiet ‘nun/s’; patrl/ patrijict ‘monk/s’; but papa/papiet ‘pope/s’ not papijiet, (5) Suffix am or iem is attached to (i) a few words which show only the first and third radicals with elther long a or ie, less frequently long { or the diphthong aj, between them or (ii) to a few words ending in i or u in open syllable after the second radical with the third radical J quiescent. The following examples are given under thelr respective patterns. KITBien == @) Ex. siny far pl. ficien ‘rat/s’; gar (sit'bien) +a, i) gixien ‘neighbour/s'; nar/nirien ‘fre/s; ghar/gherien ‘cave/s’; _ qles/ aisten ‘measure/s'; bles/bisien ‘hawk/s’; Bieb/bibien ‘door/s'; wied/widien ‘val- ley/valleys’; sid/sidien ‘landlord/s’, THE FORMATION OF THE PLURAL a7 KiTBan ()_-Exx. siegh/sighan ‘a kind of measure’ (kit'baan) (a siegh = 224.1 sq. yds.); hajt/hitan ‘wall/s'; alegh/gighan “bottom/s’. KoTBien. (li) Exx. hasi/hosjien ‘capon/s'; sabi/subien (kot'bien) (for subjien) ‘lad/s’; ghatu/ghotjien id/s’ Remark 2: Additional j in hosjien and ghotjien is the third radical corresponding to B, the third radical of the pattern. (6) The suffiix a is taken by descriptives in No. 2 (1) and Gi) as an alternative plural formation. EXx, nies giddibin or giddieba ‘lying people’; tfal midlin or niedla ‘children coming down’; irgiel tajbin or tajba ‘good men’. THE PLURAL SUFFIXES OF WORDS OF FOREIGN (NON-ARABIC) ORIGIN 1. A large number of nouns and adjectives of Sici- lian or Ttallan origin ending in G) w (m.) or a (f) of (i) a consonant (m.) form their plural by adding sumix iin open syllable to the last consonant without affecting the original stress of the word. Exx, (1) bravu (m.) brava (£) bravi (pl.) ‘clever’; trava (m) travi (pl) ‘beam/s’; vara (f.) vari (pl) ‘holy statue/s'; (ii) suldas (m.) suldati (pl.) ‘soldier/s’; vot (m,) voti (pl) ‘vote/s’; altar (m.) altari (pl.) ‘altar/ Dugar (m,) bugari ‘Jjug/s'; jue (m.) fiuei (pl) ‘ower/ xugaman (m,) xugamani (pl. ‘towel/s’. 2. Words ending in u preceded by a long (doubled) consonant form their plural by dropping u and adding sumix ifiet, Exx, siggu/sigéiiiet kallu/kallijiet ‘corn/s’, 3. Words which end in ku (from It, co correspond- ing to English words ending in ie) change ku (sing.) to ‘chair/s’; ballu/ballijiet ‘ball/:78 MALTESE ci (pl.), as in Italian but some purists and vill just change final u into i, wilage people keritiku / kritigi i fanatiku / fana- tigi ‘fanatic’. But grammatika / grammatiki ‘grammar/: or grammatiéi (adj) ‘grammatical’ or ‘grammarians’. 4. Names of oceupation take a as the plural sui thus agreeing with examples given in No. 6. * | Exx. argentier/argentiera ‘silversmith/s’; parrukkier/ | | parrukkiera ‘barber/s'; infermier/infermiera ‘hospi attendant/s’; xufler/xufiera ‘chauffeur/s’, a 5. Monosyllabic words ending in a doubled con- sonant form their plural by adding suffix (1) i or (ii) ijiet, Words of more than one syllable form thelr plural by sugx i. (): platt/plattt ‘Dlate/s'; branz/brazzi ‘branch/es a candiestic é ‘ray/s"; mi ‘1 ; a. candies jazz /mazzi ‘bunch/es tell/kastelli ‘castle/s'’ arlogéi ‘clock/s’; papoéé/papocéi Exx. (il): laze/lazsijiet ‘shoclace/s'; fatt/fattiiet story/ stories’ (also + i, ‘fact/s'); gass/zassijiet ‘gas/es'; tapp/ tappijiet xall/xallijiet ‘shawl/s’; sett/set- ‘coat/s); elen/elesiilet ‘te/ /skollifiet ‘rock/s in the sea’; xott/xottijiet ‘shi xokk/xokkijlet ‘shock/s’. " ev EXERCISE 8 (a) Form the plural of the following nouns and ad- Jectives Sqalli (Sicilian); dhuli (easy to make friends with); 3 Di habsi (goalbird); barri (a bull); ghajjien (lazy); ghar- BROKEN PLURALS OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 79. ien (naked); sajjem (fasting); diehel (entering); wiegat (standing); mahrub (fled); ferhan (happy); setsham (mighty); smajjar (brownish); gwejJed (quiet); nied (wet); ghali (expensive); hati (guilty); palju (a reed fan, used by men); tamk (tank); bank (bench or bank) pallu (ball: dancing); sptar (hospital); tarag (stai ghid (festival); furnar (baker); Raddied (blacksmith) Translate: (b) The Sicilian soldier is happy. Flowers on (fwa) the altar. The silversmith bought (xtara) an old chair. ‘The hospital attendants are tired. The soldiers and the sailors are very (hafna after adj.) clever. The jug is full of wine, Jugs full.of wine. The mothers are very heppy because (ghax) the news is good. Men and women coming (going) down (niegel, sing.) the hill (sholja). Lesson 9 BROKEN PLURALS OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES Broken plurals are those formed by breaking up the internal structure of a word, The nearest English exam- ple would be words like foot/feet; goose/geese. They ate often regarded as collective nouns of fem. gender, though the qualifying adjective can be variably fem. sing. or pl. as in tfal imgarba, or imgarbin ‘naughty children’, There is no short cut to rules governing the formation of broken plurals. Again, these are listed under a number of pat- terns which are not intended to be memorised, but the student is advised to memorlse as many plural formations as he can, especially such words as he can expect to be more frequently used. ‘The following lists include more patterns of simple or underived singular nouns and adjectives not included in Lesson 3.80 MALTESE (a) Monosyllabic plurals starting with the first two radicals and ending with the third radical pre- ceded by a long vowel or its mutated form ie. Patterns Vocabulary KTaB () Nouns: pl. biar/sing, bir ‘well (tab) borg ‘heap’; djar/dar ‘house’: dawl ‘light’; hwat/hawt ‘trough’; grar/atara ‘confession’; atar/qatra, ‘drop’; rtal/ratal ‘rotolo = 28 ounces’; swat/sawt ‘lash’; tal/tifel ‘boy’ tifla ‘gir?; xbar/xiber ‘span’; drar/érara ‘a very small stone’ (i) Adjectives: pl. fqar/sing. fair (+ a. 0 ‘poor’; kbar/kbir (+ a. f.) ‘great, large’; qsar/dasir (+a, £) ‘short’; twal/twil (4a, £) ‘tall, long’; ghar/ghir (Fa, 1) ‘small brag/ dwal/ 2. KTieB i) Nouns: pl, bniet/sing. bint ‘daughter’ (tio) bwiet/but ‘pocket’; dnieb/denb ‘tall’; awieb/debba ‘mare’; fniek/fenek (m,) fenka (f) ‘rabbit’; frieh/ferh ‘the young of an animal’; éfien/gifen ‘gal- ley (ship)"; hbieb/habib (+ a, f.) ‘friend’; hniek/hanek ‘gum’; hrief/ harut (+2, £) ‘lamb’; htien/haten ‘brother - in-law’; kmiem / komma ‘sleeve; mwies/mus ‘folding-knif njieb/mejba ‘wisdom tooth’ newl ‘loom’; afief/aoffa ‘basket’; ariea/ gorg ‘sandal’; rjieh/rin ‘a cold, wind’; rgiel/ragel ‘man’; snien/sinna ‘tooth’ awieg /tewé ‘pair’. Remark 1; Initial e of erwieh, pl. of rah ‘soul’ unlike initial euphonic i in words like irjieh, imwies, is not drop- ped when it occurs after a word ending in a vowel. Exx. hafna erwieh ‘many souls’, but hafna rjieh ‘many colds’. BROKEN PLURALS OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 81 (i) Adjectives: pl. bfiet/sing. agit (+a) aliel/aalil. (+a, £) ‘sever sbieh/sabih (+a, 1) ‘beautif smien/smin (+ a, f) ‘fat’. 3. KTIB cictiib) : pl hmir/sing. bmar (+a. £) suin/sena ‘year’ (The only two examples). pl, bjut/sing. beit ‘root’; dius/ dejn ‘debt’; dmugh/demgha ‘tear flus/fils (@ coin: unused); glud/gild gmub/genb ‘side’; hjut/hajt Lhud/Lbudi (+ ja, f.) Jew" alub/ arun/ sjut/ ‘tjur/tair xhur/xahar 4, KTuB (ktuub) “threa (ess); mhuh/mohh ‘brain’; galb (-a,) ‘heart’; (kernel) axur/qoxra ‘hus! sejf ‘swore traf/tart ‘end’; “tow snonth’; xmux/xemx ‘sun’; xtut/xatt ‘shore’. (i) Adjectives: pl. xjub/sing, xih (+ a. 1) ‘old’. Remark 2: Xhud ‘a witness’ has singular meaning, but is is grammatically a plural form of sing, xiehed, rarely used. Qlugh ‘sail’ is used both as a singular and as the plural of gala’ ‘sail’. in the case of nouns, the first consonant of which is gh, the pl. form ktuub is either ek'tuub or Ke'tuub, that 1s, vowel e is prefixed to the first radical or inserted after it, As this does not make any phonetic difference, hoth forms of spelling are admissible in the written lan~ guage. Exx. ghejun or eghjun/sing. ghajn ‘fountain’; ghe- mug or eghnuq/ghong ‘neck’; gheruq or eghrua/sherq ‘root’; ehexur or eghxur ‘tithes’; ghaxra ‘ten’. By analogy the plural of elf ‘a thousand’ is eluf. [Note that initial e in this and other similar plural formations, though euphonie, as in the case of initial e in erwieh, is retained also when preceded by a word ending in a vowel],82 MALTESE (b) Dissyllabic plurals ending in vowels a or i in an 01 9 0 5. KTaBa (This is pattern No. 1 + vo : wel a). Cktaaba) Nouns: Nsara/Nisrani ‘Christian’; araba/aarib ‘relative’, . 6. KTleBa (This is pattern No. 5 wi : ith ie Ciktisba) Instead of a (aa) between the second and third radical), Nouns: pl. bdiewa/sing, bidwi ‘pea- sant’; Isiera/Isir (4a, f.) ‘slave’; Itiema/Itim (+ a, £.) ‘orphan’; xhied: xhud “witness” 1. KTaBi Nouns: drabi/darba ‘one stroke’, ‘once’; Chtaabl) —stali/satal ‘pail’; trabi/tarbija ‘baby’. 8 KTIeBI Nouns: pl. btiehi/sin; 4 1 mms: pl. g. bitha ‘yard’: C'xtisbl) ——bwieal/bieaia_‘bow!';dwieli/dielia ‘vine’; fiieli/felli ‘slice (of an orange, melon etc.)’; frieghi/fergha ‘branch’; griehi/gerha ‘wound’; ériewi/gera ‘a pup’; éwiebi/giebja ‘cistern’; hrieai/ haraa ‘swaddling cloth’; kliewi/ikilwa ‘kidney'; qtieghi/aatgha ‘a shock’; sdieri/sidrija ‘waistcoat’; swieni/sien- ja ‘water-wheel’; swieai/siegia ‘acaue- duet’, triehi/terha ‘a sash’; xtiewi/ xitwa ‘winter’; xwieni/xini ‘galley’. Remark 3: As in the case of pattern 4, the plural KTieBi becomes eK'TieBi (ek'tiabi) or KeTieBi (ke'tiobi) if the first radical is gh. Exx. eghtiebi, ghetiebi/ghatha ‘threshold’; eghlieai, ghelieai/ghalda ‘field’; eghwiedi, ghewledi/weghda ‘vow’. " 9. KTuBa (Ciktuaba) Nouns: pl. bghula/sing. baghal (m.) baghia (f.) ‘mule’; hbula/habel ‘rope’; nghula/naghal ‘horse-shoe’;_gmura/ gamar ‘moon’; rhula/rahal ‘village’. BROKEN PLURALS OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 83 Note ghednla or egbiula instead of ghiula pl. of ghagel ‘fishing net’. (Pat- tern eK'TuuBa or Ke'tuuBa on o¢- count of initial gh). (c) Dissyllabic plurals with the 2nd and 3rd radicals which may be identical or different between vocalie sequence 0 and a in open syllable. d) Nouns: pl. gonna/sing, gnien ‘garden’ kotba/ktieb ‘book’; tobba/tablb ‘doc- tor’; xolfa/xlief ‘fishing line’ (a) Adjectives: pl. godda/édid (+ 2. 1) ‘new’; morda/marid (+ a, £) ‘slek’; ghomja/aghma (m,) ghamje (tL) ‘plind’; ghonja/sbani (m.) ghanja (L) ‘rich’; | terja/tari (m.) tarija (£) ‘tender’. (@) Dissyltabic plurals beginning with a variable vowel i or © and ending in 2 in onen syllable. 10, KoTBa Ckotba) Nouns: pl. tbhra/bahar ‘sea’; igina/ ul iKTBa Cikktba) gifen ‘ship’; igmla/gemel ‘camel’; igsma/éisera ‘body’; —_illhma/lehem ‘voice’; lsna/ilsien ‘tongue’; or ‘lan- guage’; isafa/sagaf ‘ceiling’; Ishma/ sehem ‘share’; isara/seqer ‘hawk’. 12, oKTBa Nouns: pl. ohtra/sing. hatar ‘staf?’ Coktba) (a stick); cabra/qabar ‘tomb’; oafsa/ qafas ‘reed-cage’; ousma/aasam ‘farm’. (@) Dissyllabie plurals beginning with the first radi cal and ending with the third, the second radical between two vowels with the second and third radicals different or identical. @ Nouns; (Words conforming to this pattern are generally collective nouns). pl, bagar/sing. bagra ‘a cow’; basal/ basla ‘an onion’; daghe/daghwa ‘a 13, KaTaB Ckatab)84 MALTESE swear-word'; garar/garra ‘a Jar; Jabar/labra ‘a pin’; nahal/nabla ‘a bee’; gasab/qasba ‘a reed’; sarar/sorra ‘3 bundle’; tamal/tamla ‘a date’ (fruit); terag/targa ‘a step’; xaghar/ xaghra ‘a hair’; xagaq/xoqaa ‘a cloth’; aahar/zabra ‘a blossom’. (i) Adjectives: Gharab/Gharbi (+ ja, 1) ‘arabic’ also ‘an Arab’. 14, KaTeB ‘The second and third radical conson- kateb) ants of these patterns are the same. Nouns: pl. halel/sing. balla ‘billow’ ghases/ghassa ‘guard’; qatet/qatta ‘truss’; raded/radda ‘furrow’, 15, KiTeB (Also as in No. 14 with the second and Cited) third radical the same). @) Nouns: fided/tidda ‘silverware’; sikek/ sikica ‘ploughshare’; tikek/tilka ‘dot’. (ii) Adjectives: suwed (with Ist vowel u instead of 1)/iswed (m.), sewda (1) ‘black’. 16. KoToB (1) Nouns: pl, gomos/sing. amis ‘shirt’; (kotob) ——_sodod/sodda ‘bed’; togob/togba ‘hole’; toroa/tria ‘street’. . (ii) Adjectives: pl. bojed/sing. abjad (m.) bajda (f.) ‘white’; boloh/iblah (m.) bela (f.) ‘foolish’; homor/ahmar (m.) hamza (f,) ‘ted’; horox/ahrax (m.) fharxa (f.) (haarfa) ‘harsh’; romol/ armel (m.) ‘widower!, armla (f) ‘widow’; sofor/istar (m,) safra (f.) ‘pale’, ‘yellow’; torox/trux (m.) traxa (£) Mdeat’ (e) Dissyllabie plurals with ajia, ejie, or ejja infixed between the first two radicals and the third. BROKEN PLURALS OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 85 Nouns: gbajjar/gbara ‘poultice’; alaj- ja’/aalgha ‘gossip’; atajja’/aatgha ‘shock’; raafja’/roggha ‘patch’; snaj- ja'/sengha ‘trade’; xmajjar/xmara ‘“civer’; éjaijar/diara ‘visit’. Remark 4: When the first consonant of the sing. is eh. pattern KTajiaB becomes KaTajiaB. Exx. ghadajjar/ ghadira ‘pond’; shamajjar/ghamara ‘furniture’ Remark 5: dghajjes/dghajsa ‘boat’; blajjet/blata ‘vock’ and gharajjes (which conforms to patt. KaTajjeB om account of initial gh)/gharus (+ a, f.) ‘bridegroom!’ ‘ride’ differ from the pattern in that they have vowel ¢ instead of a In the second syllable. 17. KTajjaB ( Kktayyab) Nouns: pl, bhejiem/sing, bhima ‘beast’; giejjer/siira ‘an island’; hdejied/ hadid ‘iron’; hgejjeg/hugéiega ‘bon- hrejief/hrafa hsejjes/hoss ‘sound’; hwejieg/haga bxejiex/haxix ‘herb’ ‘grass’; knejjes/knisja ‘church’; nbej- jed/nbid ‘wine’; rkejjen/rokna ‘cor- ner’. Remark 6: Pattern KTejJeB becomes KeTeiieB or eKTejjeB if the first radical is gh, Exx. pl. ghemejjel or eghmejjel sing. ghamil ‘deed’; ghelejjel or eghieijel/ehal- la ‘product’; ghebeijer or eghbejjer/shabura ‘a year old sheep’; ghereijex or eghrejjex/sharix ‘nut’. 18, KTejieB Ckteyyeb) 19, KTeijaB Nouns: pl. dwejjaq/sing. diga ‘an- Ckteyyab) guish’; fwejjah/fwieha ‘fragrance’ blejjaq/hlieaa ‘creature’; arefjaa/ aroaga ‘brooding hen’. if) Dissyllabic plurals with four consonants from triliteral verbs. Note that in the exmaples the 2nd and 3rd radicals are identical, the third 20, KTaBaB Cktaabab)86 MALTESE being a’ repetition of the 2nd radical of the singular. Nouns: pl. dbabar/sing, dabra ‘ulce hwawar/no sing. ‘spices’; sfafar/suf- fara ‘whistle’; snanar/sunnara ‘fish hook’; xfafar/xafra ‘blade’. Remark 7: In swaba’, pl. of saba’ ‘finger’, we have the insertion of an additional radical after the first. 21.) KTaBeB Nouns: ‘pl. (1) dhahen/sing. dubhan (ktaabeb) ‘smoke’; atates/aattus (+a. 1.) ‘cat’; GD KW[JlaTeB slateb /salib ‘cross’; tlaleb / tallab CkwCilaateb) (+ 2, £.) ‘beggar’; (ii) xjaten/xitan ‘devil’; xwabel/xabla ‘sword’; twavel/ tavla ‘plank’; twapet/tapit ‘carpet twagen/tagen frying pan’ — vowel a in the last four sing, loan-words 1s long. 22, () KTieBeB Nouns: (i) pl. dbieben/sing. dubbiena Cktiobeb) ‘fly’; flieles/fellus (+ a, f.) ‘chicken’ | rdieden/raddiena ‘wheel’. (i) KWieTeB (ii) dwiefer/difer ‘nail (finger); awie- Ckwioteb) bel/aabla. ‘midwife’; qwieleb/qaleb ‘cheese-form’; twiebet/tebut ‘coffi iniemel /iiemel ‘horse’. 23, KoTTieB Nouns: pl. ghorrief/sing. gharef (m.) (kot'tiob) harfa (f.) ‘wise’; ghoidieb/ghaieb bachelor’ (g) Dissyllabic Quadrititeral plurals from words with four different consonants. 24. KTaBaL (i Nouns: pl. qnatar/sing. qantar ‘hund- (Cktaabal) red rotolos’; qratas/aartas ‘paper bag’; aratal/qartalla ‘a large reed basket’ (ii) Adjectives: pl. fratas/tartas (+ a. £.) ‘bald’; gghagagh/taghiugh (+a. f.) ‘young’. BROKEN PLURALS OF NOUNS AND ADJECTIVES 87 ‘The pattern KTaBaL (‘Ktaabai) be- comes ak’taabal if the first radical is sh, The only example: ghasafar or aghasafar/ghasfur ‘bird 25, KTaBel, - (1) Nouns: pl. krafes/sing. karfusa ‘celery’ (ktaabel) —slaten/sultan (++ a, f.) ‘king’, (‘queen’) Adjectives: pl. fratas/fartas (+, £.) ‘bald’; skaren/sikran (+a; £) ‘drunk’, 26. KTieBaL © Nouns: pl. béle#aq/sing. buétieqa Cktiobal) —‘bubbii ftietaq/tettuqa ‘trifle’; gwienah/gewnah ‘wing’; _ bnienag/ hanniega ‘collar’; srledaq/serduq ‘cock’; trietaq/tertuga ‘shred’ or ‘cellulold’. 27. KTieBel: Nouns: fkieren/fekruna ‘turtle’ or Cktigbel) ‘tortoise’; grietem/geriuma ‘throat kwiekeb/kewba written kewkba ‘star’; qniefed/qanfud ‘hedgehog’. Remark 8: The pattern becomes eKTieBeL, (ek'tiobel) or KeTieBel (ke'tiabel) when the first radical is gh, Exx, eghnieged or ghenieged/ghanqud ‘bunch of grapes’; egh. riegeb or gheriegeb/eharqub ‘heel’; eghsieleg or ghesicleg/ ghasing ‘stick’, ADDITIONAL REMARKS 1, Some singular nouns and adjectives can have more than one broken plural. Exx, foara, faar/fair (+ a f.) ‘poor’ ‘stallion’; ogbra, gobra/gabar ‘grav qmura/qamar ‘moon’; olol, qtajia’/qatgha ‘shock’; riieh, ifhla, thula/fahal ; ogmra, gomra, qliel/gotla ‘jar’; atieshi, iihat/rih ‘cold’ (n,), 2. Some nouns can have both a broken and a strong plural. Exx, banek ‘banks’, bankijlet ‘benches'/bank ‘bank’ or88 MALTESE drabi, ‘darbiet (determinate pl.)/darba ‘once’; frieghi, ferghat (determinate pl.)/fergha ‘branch’; gmie- ghi, gimghat (determinate pl.)/gimgha ‘week’; izmna ‘seasons’, amenijiet ‘times'/imien ‘time’, 3. ‘The two forms of the broken and sound or ex- ternal plurals can have different meanings. xx. faar (adj.) ‘poor’, foara (noun) ‘poor people’/fair; qtajja’ ‘large quantities’ or ‘shocks’, atiéghi ‘shocks’, gatghat (determinate pl.) ‘cuts’ or ‘slices'/aatgha. 4, The following are plural formations from dif- ferent roots: mara/nisa ‘woman/women’; tifla/bniet ‘girl/s’; tifel/subien ‘boy/s'; iben ‘son’, bint ‘daughter’/ ulied ‘sons and daughters’. The plural of bu ‘brother’, always used with pronominal suffixes, is ahwa, 5, One-might describe as also irregular, broken plurals to which are attached plural suffixes. Exx, traf ‘edges’, trufijiet (truf + pl. suffix ijiet) ‘loose ends’/sing tar? ‘end’; eluf ‘thousands’, elufijiet (eluf + pl. sufix ijiet) ‘many’ thousands’/sing elf ‘a thousand’; ghegubijiet ‘marvels’ (ghegub + pl. suffix ijiet)/sing, ghageb ‘marvel’; drabi ‘times'/drabijiet ‘some occasions’ (drab + pl. suffix ijiet)sing. darba ‘once’. Dehbijiet ‘ob- jects of gold’, is formed of the singular (collective) deheb + pl. suffix ‘The following plurals are considered as singular in the spoken and written language: mnieher ‘nose’ eram- matically plural of unused mimated noun minhar. (The ungrammatical plural of mmieher in popular use is ‘mnehrijiet ‘noses’); rdum ‘cliff’ plural of radam (debris); rwieh ‘gentle breeze’ no sing. but Arable has rawh ‘preeze’; xhud ‘witness’ plural of xlehed (unused); dnub ‘sin’ (pl. dnubiet); in a plural sense it means “tails”, sin- gular denb. EXERCISE 9 (a) Form the broken plural of these non-Arabic nouns and adjectives which are easily recognisable as MIMATED NOUNS: FORMATION AND PLURALS — 89 such by those familiar with English and one or more of the Romance languages. The number of the required plural pattern is indicated in brackets. Check with the key and memorise the correct forms: fish/es’, brama (1) ‘jelly serp (2) ‘snake/s’; vers (4) ‘line/s’; éens (4) ‘qorti (7) ‘law-court/s’; sala (7) ‘drawing- (14) ‘musical band/s’; and (7) ‘neigh- pourhood’; kitla (8) ‘Kettle/s'; Ianéa (14) ‘launch/es’; faxxa (14) ‘bandage/s’; piazza (14) ‘square/s’; niééa (15) ‘niche/s’;birra (15) ‘beer/s’; pinna (15) ‘pen/s’; borda (16) ‘handbag/s’; bolla (16) ‘postage-stamp/s’; koxxa (16) ‘dhigh/s’; froga (18) ‘omelette/s'; spiza (18) ‘expense/s'; skuna (18) ‘schooner/s’; pasta (24) ‘vulgar’; qalfat (24) ‘eaulker/s’; kama (20) ‘room/s'; aartas (24) ‘packet/s'; fanbur (24) ‘drum/s’; suttana (21) ‘cassock/s’; tavla (21) Gi) ‘plank/s’; virdun (27) ‘gréenfinch/es’; dublett (27) ‘skirt/s’; munzell (27) ‘stack/s of hay’, , Translate: (>) ‘The houses of Malta are large and beautiful. ‘Phe children are sick. New books and old pens. The rich are harsh and the poor are foolish. The foolish girl (fifla) 1s sick. Horses are beasts of burden (tat-taghbija) in Malta, The bachelors are wise. Malta has old and new churches. The church of Mosta is the largest church in the island (géira), Great is the anguish of the poor Stars like (bhal) pins or dots in the sky. The widow married (itzewget) a widower. The fragrance of the gar- dens of Malta. The Maltese and the Gozitans are Christ- ians. The Arabs are Moslems (Misilmin), Lesson 10 MIMATED NOUNS: FORMATION AND PLURALS With the derived nouns given in Lesson 3 must be included also the Mimated Nouns, so called because the90 MALTESE letter m is used as a preformative. These mimated nouns which are evolved from triradical verbs may indi- cate: @) place-names: Ex, mahien ‘magazine, storing place’ (haien ‘he stored’) (iD time: Ex. Milied ‘Christmas’ (wifed ‘to bring forth’), the only example; (4D tools: Ex. maqbad ‘handle’ (qabad ‘he selzed’); (iv) abstract nouns; Ex. mibeghda ‘hatred’ (baghad ‘he hated’); (v) collectives: Ex. merhla ‘flock’ (rabhal ‘shep- herd’). There are twenty-one patterns of singular mimated nouns. Of these, the following are patterns of words in, common use, with the verbs from which they are evolved in brackets. Note the different vocalie movements in their relation to the consonants of the Root-Word in brackets, Patterns Vocabulary 1. maKTaB Ex. masgar ‘copse’ (sigar ‘trees’) magmar ‘brazier’ (amar ‘live coal’). 2. maKTeB —‘EXx, marden ‘spindle’ (root unused) maghlef ‘fodder’ (ghalef ‘he fed’); maghiel ‘distaff’ (ghaéel ‘he spun’). 3. miKTaB Exx. mitrah ‘mattress’ (terah ‘he stretched’); minfah ‘bellows’ (nefah ‘he blew’); misrah ‘open air square’ (serah obsolete in Maltese), 4. miKTeB Exx, mingel ‘scythe’ (toot unused); minkeb ‘elbow’ (nikeb, ‘he turned’); mizwed ‘pod’ (no root). 5. muKTaB Exx, musmar ‘nail’ (sammar ‘he (muk'taab) nailed’); munaar ‘beak’ (nagar ‘it MIMATED NOUNS: FORMATION AND PLURALS 91 pecked’); munxar ‘a saw’, (maxar ‘he cut off with a saw’). . “ y (sebah ‘it 6, muKTieB — Exx, musbiel ‘oil-lamp’ ( . (muk'tisd) dawned’); muftich ‘key’ (fetah ‘he opened’). 7, moKTieB Ex. mohriet ‘plough’ (harat ‘he ploughed’); mogdief ‘oar’ (aadef ‘he rowed’). 8, miKTBa Exx, mithna ‘mill’ (tahan “he ground’); mixtla ‘a bed of plants’ (xitla ‘plant’). 9, mKaTT Exx, maass ‘scissors’ (qass ‘he cut’ : mdagq ‘straw of thrashed barley (dang ‘he beat cotton’). 10, mKeTT Exx, mxedd ‘girth’ (xedd ‘he wore a dress’); mleff ‘a child's cloak’, obso- ete, (lef ‘he wrapped up’). ll, mKaTTa Ex. mhakka ‘cheese-grater’ (hakit ‘he grated’); mhadda ‘pillow’ (hadd ‘cheek’) 12, mKeTTa —_Exx, mkebba ‘reel’ (kebbfeb]) ‘he wound threads’); msella ‘packing needle’ (sellfel], obsolete). 13. mi(W)TieB (from roots having w for first radical) Exx, mien ‘scales’ instead of miW2ieN from wiien ‘he weighe migieb ‘gutter’ instead of miWzieB from /W2B. Note in the two exam- ples the elision of the ist radical seml- vowel W. Remark 1: Roots not found in Maltese are generally still traceable in Arabic.92 MALTESE Remark 2: When the medial radical is 1, m,n, r, or gh by analogy, a vowel is inserted before the second radical, Exx, miirgha ‘a sown field’ (Zara’); mibeghda ‘hatred’ (baghad); mahanga ‘goat’s collar’ (hanaq); mixeghla “llumination’ (xeghel); mteraa ‘stone cutter’s hatchet’ for mitrqa [No. 8] (teraq); mselha ‘broom’ for mistha [No. 81 (selah) IRREGULAR FORMATIONS ‘The following is a list of mimated nouns, generally abstract, which can be classified as irregular formations evolved from the verbal roots shown in brackets, moghdrija ‘compassion’ (ghader); mibeghda ‘hatred’ (baghad); moghdija ‘passage’ (ghadda); mohqrija ‘op- pression’ (hagar); maghmudija ‘baptism’ (ghammed); misthija "bashfulness’ (staha); mistohbija ‘concealment’ (stahba); mistogsija ‘question’ (stagsa); mera ‘mirror’ (za ‘he saw’); mohba ‘hiding-place’ (heba); —mghax ‘prof’ (ghax); mrewha ‘fan’ (rewwah); mreddgha ‘wet- nurse’ (redda"); mghallem ‘master’ (ghallem); midneb ‘sinner’ (dineb); migja ‘coming’ (gie); mgiba ‘behaviour’ (gieb); mahfra ‘forgiveness’ (hafer); mikien ‘a place’ (kien) used in this sense in the written language only. In the spoken language it means ‘nowhere’. Also in use are the following adjectives with prefix m, muxghar ‘hairy’ (xaghar ‘hair’); muswaf ‘woolly’ (suf *woo!’) THE PLURALS OF MIMATED NOUNS The following continues the lst of broken plurals each with its singular form. Patterns Vocabulary 1, mKaTaB Exx. pl. mghagag/sing. mghaiqa Cmkaatab) ‘spade’; mgabad/magbad ‘handle’, MIMATED. NOUNS; FORMATION AND PLURALS 93 2. mKaTeB Exx, pl mhaien/mahien ‘storage (mkaateb) place’; maadef/moqdief ‘oar’; mgha~ tef/mgharfa ‘spoon’; mbaret/mobriet ‘plough’. Remark 3:Mghaiaa (patt, 1) and mgharfa (pat. 2) | are written with gh before vowel a and not vice-versa according to the rules of mimated patterns because when preeded by the def. article these two words take euphonic vowel i which is characteristic of words beginning with two consonants, We say l-imghadqa, I-imgharfa and not il-maghiaa, il-maghrfa. 3, mKieTaB Exx, pl. msierah/sing. misrah ‘open " Cmiiotab) air square’; mtierah/mitrah ‘mat- . tress’; msiebah/musbieh ‘oll-lamp’. 4, mKieTeB Exx, pl, mniegel/sing. mingel ‘sickle’; (Cmkioteb) miiewed/mizwed ‘bean pod’; msie~ mer/musmar ‘nail’; mxietel/mixtla i} ‘seed bed’. 5, mKaTeT Note that the second and the third Cimkatet) radicals are the same. Exx, pl. mgases/sing. mass ‘scissors’ (plural more commonly used is maas- sijiet); mhakek/mhakka — ‘cheese- grater’; mhaded/mhadda ‘pillow’: 6. mKeTeT Ex. pl, amselel/sing. msella ‘packing Cmketet) needle’; mkebeb/mkebba ‘winding- reel’; mserek/mserka ‘a quill to wind thread upon’. 1. mKieTi Exx, pl. mdieri/sing. midra ‘winnow- (mbkisti) ing fork’. EXERCISE.10 (a) Form () the singular mimated nouns accord- ing to the pattern: shown by numbers in brackets and (id their plurals also shown by numbers of the patterns.94 MALTESE Check with the key and memorise the correct forms. ghalaq ‘he shut’ (1): (1) ‘enclosure’; (ii) pl pattern (1); qaghad ‘he sat’; (1): () ‘seat’; (ii) no plural; sigar (1) ‘trees’ (1) ‘copse’; (ii) pl. pattern 1; habes ‘he baked’ (2): G) ‘oven’; (ii) pl. pattern 2; ghagen ‘he kneaded’ (2): G) ‘meading basin’; (ii) pl. pattern 2; debah ‘he slaughtered’ (a sacrificial animal) (3): (4) ‘sacrificlal altar’; (ii) pl. pattern 3; teraq ‘he shattered’ (3): @) ‘stone cutter's ‘hatchet’; (i) pl. pattern 3; gibed ‘he pulled’ (4): (1) ‘a beam which sets a mill in motion’; (ii) pl. pattern 4; rikeb ‘he rode" (4): G) ‘ship’; (ii) pl. pat= tern 4; tahan ‘he ground wheat’ (8); (i) ‘mill’; (ii) pl. pattern 4; xitla ‘plant’ (8): (1) ‘a bed of plants’; (ii) pl pattern 4; dibel ‘manure’ (8): (i) ‘dunghill’; (ii) pl. pat- tern 4. Translate: (>) In the museum (muzew) there are many old oll-lamps. One Maltese mill and many Dutch (O!andi#i) mills, One soft (artab) mattress and one hard (ebes) pillow. Soft mattresses and hard pillows. The old Gozitan woman has (ghandha) a reel and a distaff. I have new reels and distaffs. Compassion and love are the soul (ruh) of (tar-) religion (religjén). The peasant (bidwi) has an old plough but (ida) old ploughs are not good for (ghax-) work in the fields (fl-eghliegi). There Is a great illumination in Mdina, the old city of Malta. Lesson 11 THE PRONOUNS THE PERSONAL PRONOUNS 1. ‘There are two classes of personal pronouns: (1) independent pronouns given in Lesson 1 and (1!) prono- minal suffixes which will be explained in this lesson. The Independent Pronouns can ve used (i) as the | THE PRONOUNS 95 subject of a verb. EX. Jien kilt ‘I have eaten’; (ii) with @ verbal function when followed by another word which may be an adverb, a preposition, a nominal or a descrip- tive phrase. EXx. Hu fug u hi isfel ‘he is upstairs and she is downstairs’; hi fil-gnien u missierek fua ix-xoghol fghe is in the garden and your father at work’; hu pro- fessur 1-Universita ‘he is a professor at the University’; ahna lesti ‘we are ready’; (iil) elliptically (alone). Exx Min aal hekk? Jien ‘Who said so? I (said so)’, As sub- ject of a verb they may be used or omitted. Ex. ARna nhobbu or just inhobbu ‘we like’ 2. Personal Pronouns when repeated within the same sentence, have the value of the verb to be. Exx. Yntom, kemm intom mghagélin? (iit. you, how much (are) you in-a hurry?) for ‘What's all this hurry for’ hu min hu ‘whoever he is’;inti x'inti ‘whatever you are’. 3, The singular and plural third person pronouns hu, hi and huma take the prefix im when they occur after kif ‘how’ or xi ‘what’ Gr before a vowel, hi or eB). Exx, Kif inhu (not hu) ¢-tifel? ‘how is the boy?’; ma nafx kif inhi (not hi) sewwa I-istorja ‘I don’t know the story well’; xinhuma (not huma) jghidu? ‘what are they saying?” . 4, ‘These independent personal pronouns can also be repeated immediately after the subject of a sentence to which they refer, with a meaning corresponding to the verb fo be in English. Note that in such sentences, sub- ject and pronouns are identical. Exx, It-tfat huma mghagélin ghax iridu jilhqu (reach in time) I-iskola ‘the children (+ they) are in a hurry because they want to reach school in time’; it-tifet hu mill-ahjar fil-klassi ‘the boy (+ he) Is one of the best in class’; Marija hi mara tajba ‘Mary (+ she) is 2 good woman’. But when no emphasis is intended, the additional independent per- sonal pronouns are left out. 5. The third person singular (hw, hi) and plural (huma) can also be used in the sense of he, she, who is96 MALTESE or they, who are, Exx, Jien hu Alla. Sidek ‘I am. thy God, thy Master’ (lit. I am he who is God, thy Master); ahna huma dawk li ggieldu ghall-helsien ‘we are those (lit. they) who fought for freedom’. Note that unlike in No, 4, here the pronouns are identical not with the subject but with its complement. NEGATION OF STATEMENTS While the idea of negation is conveyed in English by the verb to be + not, In Maltese (as already explained in Lesson 1), it is conveyed by ma (m’ before a vowel, silent h or gh) + Pronoun or Verb + stress-attracting suffix x. Cp. similar use of French ne....pas. Exx. Jiena ma jiniex (jiena +x becomes jiniex) seftur tieghek ‘I am not your servant’; int, mrintix ragel ‘you are not a gentle- ; hi nvhix (or mbix, m’hijiex) marida ‘she ts not hhu mbhux gharef ‘he is not learned’; ahna Maltin, mYabniex Taljani ‘we are Maltese, not Italian’; intom m’intomx {gar ‘you are not poor’; huma m'humiex minn Malta ‘they are not from Malta’; irrid ‘I want’; ma rridx ‘T don't want’, QUESTION, STATEMENT, AND EMPHASIS In Maltese one does not invert the order of subject and verb as in Eng, [ have/have I? to produce a question. The wording remains the same, but the intonation changes. Questions are made on a rising intonation. Exx, Kelli flus bidéeijed I had enough money’; ma kellix iézejjed ‘I did not have enough money’; kelli flus bidiejjed? Ma kellix fus bitéejjed? As in English, emphasis on one particular word in a phrase or sentence calls attention to the particular word one wishes to emphasize or single out. REFLEXIVE OR EMPHATIC PRONOUNS These are expressed by (i) the personal pronouns + innifs + pronominal suffix or stess (invariable) and GD after a verb, by ruh + pronominal suffixes. THE PRONOUNS 97 Plurat ex (Singular Jien innifsi I myself ahnanfusna we ourselves : gourselt intom YOU a infuskom yourselves stu he himself huma they ee nfushom themselves Hi nfisha she hersel ien, i 4) Jien innifsi Variants: Jien, int, bu, etc. stess. Exx. () Jien inn} (or jien stess) rajtu Ruma ‘I myself saw him in Rome’. ‘il a ed himself’; Exx: Gi) qatel (he Killed) ruhu ‘he kille Ir fatlet rubha ‘she killed herself’ ete. often adding bid {pronominal suffix, Ex. Js-suldati qatla rahhom Didejhom ‘the soldiers killed themselves by thels own hands’ ie. committed suicide. DEMONSTRATIVE PRONOUNS These are:— Singular Plural Mase, dan, dana (this) Both genders: dawn, dawna Fem, din, dina (this) (these) daka (that) Both genders: dawk, dawka Mase. dak, daka date Fem, dik, dika (that) | G) Optional forms: dal- for dan il- or dawn il- and dil- for din il- are obtained as a result of the assimilation of n+ the definite article with other variants as a result of the assimilation of 1 with the sun-letters. Exx. dal- Ktieb or dan il-ktieb ‘this book’; dil-mara or din il-mara {his woman’; daw! (colloqulally dal-) kwiekeb ‘these stars’; dat- (for dawt-) tfal ‘these children’, (i) Archaic forms: ‘These take preformative he. Exx. hedan(a), hedin(a), etc. ‘Remark 1; Unlike English, the noun preceded by the @emonstrative pronoun can be accompanied by the de- finite article, Exx: dan (dak) ir-ragel ‘this (that) man’. Tf the definite article is omitted, the word-combinalion can have the value of a sentence. EXxx, dan ragel ‘this fs a man’ or ‘2 male’; dawn-sbieh ‘these are beautiful’.98 MALTESE INDEFINITE PRONOUNS ‘These are: xi ‘some’; xi hadd ‘si ; . x 3 xi ome one’; x’uhud ‘some’ (pl.); Kull ‘every’; kulhadd ‘every one’; kull wiehed (m.) wahda (£) ‘each one’; wiehed (wahda) . .. il ichor (onra) ‘one, , another’; kollox ‘everything’; ikol ‘all (ot ersons)"; haddiehor ‘someone else’; Kall min * " kulma ‘whatever’ mene Remark 2: Kall ‘every’ with u chan; i ged to @ can also take the verbal pron. suffixes: kollni, kollok, kollu, koltha qakelins, koltkom, Kolthom, Exx. rage! oll (mara ‘oltha) hegga ‘a man (woman) full of, enthusiasm’ . THE RELATIVE PRONOUNS 1. This is li or the fuller form ili m illi meaning who, whom, that, which. Tt introduces an adjectival clause and is used for both numbers, and genders, Ex, ragel, irgiel, mara, nisa li, ‘a , ingiel, isa Wi, ‘a man, men, a w women who! cee 2.. 14 oF ii ean be followed by a pre nominal suffix. 7 8 repens ee Bex, Li bib ‘with which’s schabet 4 bih tehaliag, more commonly Ii tghallaa bih ‘the rope with which he hanged himself; it-tifel I ghalilk ghamel (also 1, 3, 2) kulma seta’ ‘the boy for whom he did all he eoula’; st-tabib tt mieghu tkellimt fuq il-marid (also 1, 3, 2) ‘the doctor with whom you spoke about the patient’; il-kexxun 1 2 8 tih qeghidt il-maktur (also 1, 3 4 obj., 2) ‘the drawer in which I placed the handkerchief’. 3. Li + noun + tieghu (his) taghha (hi er) ete, ex- presses a relation of possession or property with li cor- responding to English whose, | THE PRONOUNS 99 xx, I-kaptan li s-suldati tieghu telquh aatel ruhu dej ‘the captain whose soldiers deserted him com- mitted suielde’ (lt. killed himself by his own hands). 4, Lit gej (m.) geija (2) = English ‘next’ (event) xx. Ix-xahar ii gej ‘next month’ (it, the month which is coming); is-sena Ii gejia (also il-gejja for short) ‘next year’. INTERROGATIVE PRONOUNS ‘The Interrogative Pronouns are:— min? ‘who?'; xi (or x before words beginning with a vowel or semi-vowel, silent h or gh or single consonant) ‘what xx, Xi trid? ‘what do you want?"; x'jaf? ‘what does he know?; min hu dan? ‘who is this’. Min can also mean the, she, they who’ in an impersonal sense. Ex. Min jitkellem hafna jizbalja ‘he who speaks too much errs’ These pronouns can also be used in affirmative state- ments, Bx. Jien naf int xi trid ‘I know what you want’; jien naf min ba dak ‘I know who took that’ Liema? ‘which?’ Ex. liema ktieb? ‘which book?" but liema can also be used in affirmative statements. Ex. Jien naf, liema ktieb trid ‘I know which book you want’. Liema bhal + possessive pronominal suffixes indi- cates the best of the kind. Exx. ragei liema bhalu, (lit. who like him?) ‘a man without his equal’; mara liema phatha ghall-pittura ‘2 woman unexcelled (Iit. who like her?) for painting’. RECIPROCAL PRONOUNS Kulxin used as the object of @ verb preceded by lit (See Lesson 31, p. 222 para. 1) means ‘one another’ fx, Hobbu lil xulxin or wiebed (m.) wahda (f) (ohra f) ‘love one another’, POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS ‘These are the different forms of ta’ ‘of’ +- pronominal suffixes, For all Its forms see Lesson 12, p. 108.100 MALTESE Other Possessive Usages: Ta? min ex : min ha? also Ta’ min hu dal-ktieb? Ma nafx ta’ mn bi ta’ mim int? “which is your family?” Le. To ‘whom do you long? Ta’ min + verb (3rd person masculine singular of the Imperfect) +. pronominal suffixes = English “worthy of" “Ex, Klieb ta? min fixtrin ‘a, book worth ying’; tifla ta’ min ihobbha ‘a lovable git!’; irgiel ta’ min joboghdhom ‘hateful men’; ta’ min imur jara t-tig rija 4t is worth going to see the race’ = “Min preceded by a word in the construct state ex- presses also the idea of property or belonging, Exx. Bin tin bu Karla a bint min hi Marija? “Whose son is yharles and whose daughi in? Charles and whose daughter is Mary?" art min hi dint PRONOMINAL SUFFIXES smash fowomtonl ses are ataed a W nouns to cleate possession and (i) to verbs and indicate the object thereof. Prepositions to ‘The pronominal suffixes attached to nouns are: ‘Singular Plural “i (suffixed to ja (added to © m: my -na nouns ending fous and “kom — Your in a conso- prepositions -hom thelr nant). ending in a vowel). -ek ~0k, -k thy =, bh his hers The Verbal Pronominal Suffix : the seme as those used for nouns with the ception al e exception of suffix of the first singular which is ni, OF the. yeteal Exx. Dar ‘house’: dari ‘my house’, darek ‘your house’, THE PRONOUNS 10) @ara ‘his house’, darha ‘her ‘house’, darna ‘our house’. darkom ‘your house’, darhom ‘thelr house’ Serag ‘he robbed’:- seraqni ‘he robbed me’, serqek “he scoped you’, serqu ‘he robbed him’, seragha ‘he robbed her, seragna ‘he robbed us’, seragkom ‘he robbed you’, seraghom ‘he robbed them’. Hu ‘brother’ (never used alone):— bija ‘my brother’, hulk ‘your brother, huh ‘his brother’, huha ‘her brother puna ‘our brother’, hukom ‘your brother’, huhom ‘their brother’. ont ‘sister':— ohti ‘my sister’, ohtok ‘your sister’, obtu whis sister’, ohtha ‘her sister’, ohtna ‘our sister’, ohtkom ‘your sister’, ohthom ‘their sister’. Remark 3: The plural of both hu and ob is obtain- ed by hut + pron. suffixes (huti, hutek, hutu, hutha ete, Sny, your, his, her brothers or sisters’). The plural: of both without @ pronominal su®x is ahwa, Thus we speak ce ahwa bniet u subien ‘sisters and brothers’ and ulied I-ahwa ‘female’ or ‘male cousins’. Lil “to':— lili ‘to me’, lilek ‘to you’, litu ‘to him’, lilha ‘to her’, lilna ‘to us’, lilkom ‘to you’, lilhom ‘to them’. These ten'be used as (1) indirect objects. Ex. éib il-kotba Ii ‘pring the books to'me’ or as (i) objective pronouns of a transitive verb for emphasis. EX, ihobbha (ihobb ‘he loves + pron, suffix ha ‘her’) or ihobb lila ‘he loves her" (i.e, not someone else) ‘The three suffixes -ia, -k, -h are used after a vowel or a diphthong. In the case of dual nouns ending in ein Coe, riélejn, dein, ghajnejn etc.) the n is dropped. ux hija (= bi + ja) ‘my brother’; ghajneija (= shainei ja) omy eyes’; huk (=hu+k) ‘your brother’; ghajnei (imnajne}-+k) ‘your eyes’; huh (=hu+h) ‘his brother’: ghajnejh (= ghajnej+b) ‘his eyes’ ‘When the pronominal suffix is added to the last consonant or semi-vowel of a feminine noun ending in git is invariably preceded by t called the ¢ Marbuta102 MALTESE THE PRONOUNS 103 which originally formed part of the feminine word. (See Lesson 5, p. 58). A stressed vowel i 1s sometimes inserted before the t in the third person singular feminine and the three plural forms, but several such words have equally acceptable alternatives without this vocalic inser- tion. Examples: OTHER PRONOMINAL USAGES 1. The separate objective pronouns which can be used as alternative forms of Verb + direct pronominal suffixes when the verb is followed by one pronominal object as in ghajjar Ili or lili ghajjar for ghajjarni ‘he | insulted me’, are the only forms that can be used when Xewaa ‘wish’ + pron, suffixes; mara ‘woman’ + pron | (jy the same verb occurs, of is understood, in two or oe more coordinate clauses or (ii) different verbs are used xewati my wish marti my wife in different coordinate clauses xewarek your wish martek "your wife Exx. (i) Hhobb inom u (jhobb verb understood) sitms (not xewatu his wish martu his wite ihobbhom u jaobbna) ‘He loves them and us’; (il) thobb xewgitha her wish - o- lilhom u jobghod lilna ‘he loves them and hates us cue ‘These dbjective pronouns are used also with verbs having owaitna || uf Wish marina our wife as thelr object reflexive nifs + pronominal suffixes, ‘or xewatna) i aa x xewaitkom. your wish martkom —_your wife Ex, Ihobb jilu mnifsa mbux lina ‘He loves himself, not us’. eae 2, ‘The (i) separate objective pronouns and (i!) the xewdithom thelr wish marthom thelr wife direct suffixes are often used redundantly for mere effect. (or xewtahom) Exx, lilhom inhobbhom ghax nies tajba ‘I love them (lt, Similarly for zija ‘aunt’/2ijiet ‘aunts and uncles’ — ziti them I love) because they are good people’; (ii) min kitbe: ‘my aunt’ /zijieti ‘my aunts and uncles’; aitek/zijietek; (kitte}b ‘he writes’ + u ‘it?) dal-ktieb? ‘who wrote this xitu/zijietu; ete, Ziju ‘uncle’ + pron. suffix gives zijuwi, book?'; min giebha dil-hamiema? ‘who brought (her) this 2ijuk, zijuh, alijuha, aijuna, zijukom, zijuhom, ‘my, your _pigeon?’. (Note redundant use of if and her) is ety our Your, Masts mnele ss 3. A peculiar usage is the employment of the third A euphonte vowel is similarly inserted when the pron, _person feminine pronominal suffix ~ha in an impersonal suffixes are attached to wiehed ‘one’ changing fe toa ore- sense corresponding to a similar use of Italian tain in the 3rd person feminine and in the plural forms. vattersela ‘to run away’; or Eng. ‘it’ in ‘to live tt up’. Sing. Plural Exx, Taha (ta ‘he gave’ + ha ‘her, iv) ghax-xorb ‘he took to drink’; ghamitha (ghamel ‘he made or did’ + ha ‘her, it’) expresses some unusual daring, good or bad action, . ‘The pronominal suM™x -ha stands for a euphemistic wahdi ‘I alone’ wehidna or uhidna ‘we alone’ wahdek ‘you alone’ wehidkom or whidkom ‘you alone’ wahdu ‘he alone’ _ wehidhom or whidhom ‘they alone’ wehidha or uhidha (N.B. Also with a instead of ¢ omission of the action done. Wahda (f.) ‘one’ is simi- she alone’ atter‘w.) larly used euphemistically as in gihed wahda ‘he swore! Exx. Mara wahidha hdejn il-bahar ‘a woman alone near with wahda used for daghwa ‘a swear-word’; x'wahda x’wahda gratli! ‘what ill-luek the sea’; it-tfal kienu wehidhom ‘the children were din! ‘what a misfortune alone’. has befailen me!’104 MALTESE EXERCISE 11 Translate (a) Jien kilt laringa ta’ Malta tajba hafna. Kilta hob Malti (question and answer). Jien stess (or innifsi) uw wahdi ghamilt (did) dan./Dawn it-tfal Maltin; Lobrajn (the others) jew (either) Taljani jew (or) Franéifi, Dawn huma I-flus (pl.) ll bihom hallast (paid) il-haddiem. (worker). H-mara li t-tifel taghha marid bafna (much) hi {gira u wahedha, Ta’ min huma dai- Hemel abjad u dal-hmar “xih? Marti mara Maltija minn Tas-Sliema (Sliema, a town name). Hija u ohtok ihobbu lil xulxin, Taha ghall-qari (reading) ta’ kotha bl-Engliz u bil-Franéiz, (>) The palace (palazz) is old, Is the palace old? Which book is on the table (mejda)? My wife is Mal- tese; his wife is English (Ingliza), Which woman is your wife? I myself saw this man walking with that Wonian. These are the soldiers whose captain killed himself, Those are the men and women who abandoned (lelqu) thelr children. ‘This is the pen (pinna) with which he wrote (kiteb) these books. Good Christians love one another; bad Christians do not love one another. ‘Whose house is this and whose sister is this? She is alone with (m’) God. Lesson 12 PARTICLES ‘These are the indeclinable words which can be (i) adverbs (ii) prepositions (iii) conjunctions or (iv) inter- jections. ‘The following is a functional list of the most common particles. (a) THE ADVERBS () Adverbs of time: meta ‘when’ in questions and statements; la in statements only; qabel ‘before’; issa PARTICLES 105 ‘now’; mbaghad ‘then’; illum ‘today’; datshodu ‘this morning’; illejla ‘tonight’; dil-gimigha ‘this week’; dax- xahar ‘this month’; dis-sena ‘this year’; att ‘never’; ilbirah ‘yesterday’; ilbierabtlula ‘the day before yester~ day’; ilu ‘ago’; ghada ‘tomorrow’; pitghada ‘the day after tomorrow’; pitpitghada (colloquial) ‘two days after to- morrow’; xhin ‘at what time’ or ‘when’ in question and statement; xi drabi ‘sometimes’; fil-waat ‘in time’; shad ‘still, ‘yet’. (ii) Adverbs of place: fejn ‘where’; madwar ‘around’ mnejn ‘whence’; bejn ‘between’; hawn (also--ekk) ‘here’; hemm (also -+ ekk), hinn (also + ekk) ‘there’; faq “up- wards’; hdejn ‘near’; taht ‘under’; ura ‘backwards’ wara ‘after’; boghod ‘far’; kullimkien ‘everywhere’ gewwa ‘inside’; barra ‘outside’; kull fejn ‘wherever’; biswit ‘opposite’. "These, except hawn, hin, boghod, kullimkien, gewwa, barra, lura and kull fein, can also be used as prepositions with pron. suffixes attached to them or before nouns. 1) Adverbs of manner: kif ‘how"; hekk ‘s0'; aajla ‘slowly’; sewwa ‘right’; ghair ‘except’. (iy) Adverbs of quantity: aktar or i#jed ‘more’ anaas ‘iess’; hafna, bosta ‘much’, ‘many’; wisa ‘too much’; ‘too many’; biss ‘only’; bigéeijed ‘enough’; kemm ‘how much, how many’; followed by a plural noun, or kemmeil followed by a singular noun. Ex. kemm tfal or kemm-il tifel ‘many a boy’ (statement) ‘how many boys?”; kemm-il darba ‘many times’ (statement) or ‘how often?’ (question). (y) Adverbs of negation: te ‘no’; mux ‘tt is not att ‘ever’; ever’ in a question); hadd ‘no one’; xein ‘nothing’; mkien ‘nowhere’. (vt) Adverbs of affirmation: iva ‘yes’; tajjeb ‘800% hekk ‘like this’; tabilhaga ‘truly’; tassew ‘indeed’, ‘really’; kollox sew ‘all right’. (vil) Adverbs of question: ghala? ‘why’; kif? ‘how?? jaqaw? ‘can it be by any chance?"; biex? ‘with what?":106 MALTESE Jewilla? ‘by any chance?, can it be that (+ sentence) ghalfejn? ‘for what reason?’ mnejn? ‘from where! safejn? ‘till where?’; minn sa fein? ‘by what right?’; shaliex? ‘why?’. ‘They can also be used in statements, except jaqaw. Of the above adverbs some are used always separate ly, and others sometimes separately and sometimes with pronominal suffixes:— 1, ghad ‘yet, still’. Exx, ghadni (for ghad + verbal suffix ni) ‘I am still’; ghadha ‘she is still’ ete., m’ghadnix ‘I am no longer’ (+ adj. or verb); ma ghadhiex also m'ghadhiex ‘she is no longer’ ete. 2. mnejn ‘whence’, Exx, mnejni ‘from my side’; mnejnek ‘from your side’ ete. used in Gozo, 3. dags ‘as much as’ or ‘of the same age’, Ex. dagsi ‘of my age’ or ‘height’; fh dagsek ‘he 1s as tall as you’, 4. ais. Though this’is the singular Imperative of aies/iais ‘he measured/measures', when attached to the pronominal suffixes it has an adverbial function mean- ing like’. Exx. gisha belha ‘she is like a fool’; aisu aed Aiblich ‘he seems to be growing foolish’, (lit. consider her, him, ete,), 5. Similarly ghodd, Imperative of ghadd/ighoda ‘he counted/counts’ has also an adverbial function. Ex. il- Milled ghoddu wasal ‘Christmas has nearly arrived’, (it. count Christmas. as if it had arrived). 6. Similarly donn (unused) + pron, sufflx has an adverbial function meaning ‘Iike’ or ‘as if’, Ex donnu bniedem fis-sakra ‘he is like (lit. consider him) a drun- kara’, 7. M (never used alone) + pron. suffix indicates the passing of time. EXx. ili (also imi) siegha nitkellem ‘I have been talking for an hour’; ghaxar snin ilu ‘ten years ago’. Remark 1: ghad, qis, donn and il + verbal suffixes can also be used negatively. Ex, m’ghadnix ete, PARTICLES 107 (b) CONJUNCTIONS oy 4 *; imma ‘but; jel‘ ‘and’; few ‘or’; idda ‘however’; imma buts jet oa epecause’; illi or li ‘that’; meta ‘when’ mela shel fore, then’; blex, less commonly sablex ‘so 7 (©) INTERJECTIONS . ‘0%; fahasra! ‘what a pity!’; xwahds dint ‘0 deat, jatta “come on’ ‘quiek!"; or ‘would At were sol” 1 depression of annoyance) ‘phew’: it (expression of fast) ‘ugh jaga (expression of physical distaste) Vet; Shh ‘ouch’ of ‘ow; ajma ‘alas’ also ‘ouch’; 7 a oe grea dln! "what amstortan j, x’gharukatal ‘what a shame!’. (@) PREPOSITIONS WITH THEIR SUFFIXES | ‘The following prepositions take the pronom! ee 7, bile ‘with thee’, bik ‘with ‘qvith’: bifa ‘with me’, bile ‘v4 th wth et mm a oe. finom ‘with them’; GD FE, ‘in’: $a, fi, ha, ine, fikom, ikem; (ib WARA, ‘behind’: | waraiie, |e araija), waraik (urail) vaca Coral) oe i> warajaa (arajna), warajkom (urail 2 ara ralhiom); (iv). HDEIN ‘near ndetia, Bact Sau ndedna neta, deikom, haem) LEN Tefia, lik, ete; (v1) MINN ‘from: rain JABEL ‘before’: aabli, aablelz, ew , beini, beinel 0 GO) BED alee, ete; i) FOS ‘amongst “ 7 jel, ghajrek, etc.; (xiv) t HLIEF ‘except’; shaitl, shal > Sih ad cmt, GHAL ‘for’; ghalija, ghalik, etc.; (xvi) MIN! ‘instead of + 4, ok, ete. (e) OTHER PREPOSITIONAL USAGES , Ma’ (oith) Ta’ (of) hand (at, in the possession of) -. pronominal suffix.108 MALTESE When the pronominal suffixes are attached to the first two words, vowel a becomes stress-bearing ie in the singular, but remains stressed a in the plural and the word is written out in full, that is, with gh, according to the general rule, These three prepositions are very useful and should be memorised with their pronominal suffixes. MAY ‘with’: mieghi ‘with me’, mieghek ‘with you’, mie- shu ‘with him’, maghha ‘with her’, maghna ‘with us’, maghkom ‘with you’, maghhom ‘with them’. ‘Ta’ ‘of’: tieghi ‘my, mine’, tieshek ‘your, yours’, tie~ shu ‘his’, taghha ‘her, hers’, taghna ‘our, ours’, taghkom ‘your, yours’, taghhom ‘thelr, theirs’. Like adjectives these follow the nouns. (Affected forms used mostiy in sermons are variants preceded by MINN ‘from’: minn tieghi ‘my, mine’, minn tieghek ‘your, yours’, ete.). Ghand ‘at’ ‘to’: (in the sense of Fr. chez) ghandi, ghandek, ghandu, ghandha ghandna (‘anna), ghandkom, ghandhom ‘at my, your (sing.) his, her, out, your (pl) their house’. Mar ghand ohtu ‘he went to his sister's house’. Ghand + Pron. Suffiz = ‘To Have’ or ‘Must’ Maltese has no equivalent for the English verb to have or must, but tts value {s conveyed by the prepo- sition ghand followed by the pronominal suffixes. Examples of verbal functions: ghandi ‘I have’, m'ghandix ‘I have not’; ghandek ‘you have’, m’ghandekx ‘you have not’; ghandu ‘he has’, m’ghandux ‘he has not’; ghandha ‘she has’, m’ghandhiex ‘she has not’; ghandna Canna) ‘we have’, m’ghandniex (man'nief) ‘we have not’; ghandkom ‘you have’, m’ghandkomx ‘you have not’ ghandhom ‘they have’, m'ghandhomx ‘they have not’ Ghandi #lit itfal I have three children’; it-tif_a #-ighira ghandha tliet snin ‘the youngest daughter is three years old’, m’ghandekx tindahal ‘you must not interfere’. PARTICLES 109 : Youn or + the Infinitive, Kell + Pron, Suffir = Had + Noun 0 oe ‘Had to’ » to have ‘Maltese expresses the Past Tense of the ver y by kell + pron. suffixes. Kell is a modification of kien it was’ + preposition 1 ‘to’, It expresses the future by ikollu, etc, (See Lesson 27 p. 200). i i jen ‘ y+ Hi ‘to me’) ‘Memorise: sing. kelli (for kien ‘it was’ + li ‘Thad’; kellek ‘you had’; kellu ‘he had’; keltha ‘she had’ kellna (‘kenna) ‘we had’; kellkom ‘you had’; kellhom. ‘hey had’; kelli ktieb ‘I had a book’; Kelli nitkellem ‘I had to speak’. The Use of Ha/Biex ner particles in common use are ha and biex. Ha, “ynich. Is short for halli, grammatically imperative of halla ‘he permitted’, and biex both introduce a clause of purpose; but biex to the idea of purpose adds that of the instrument with which that purpose is attained. Exx, Ha (or bali) nara x’sa jaghmel ‘let me see what he will do’; aghtini [-flus ha nballas id-dejn ‘give me money so that I may pay the debt’; aghtini I-flus biex nixtri Likel ‘give me money with which to buy food. EXERCISE 12 Translate: ” allo ti Saalliia (a) Hemm 60 mil bahar minn Pozzall (Sicily) ghal Malta, Fein bi t-tifla? Hdejn it-tfal, Td-dar. tieghi biswit (opposite) id-dar ta’ huti, Kif int? Tajieb grazzi (thank you). Missierek tajjeb? Le, marid. Ommok? va, taba hafna. Ohtok waslet? (arrived) Ini siegha nistennicha (waiting for her) hawn; ida huma ihom aktar minn saghtejn wehidhom fejn il-bleb (door) tad- dar, Dal-Ktied tieghi; I-iehor (the other) taghha. Gie ghandi bil-ketb mieghu, Biex gejt (you have come) minn Ruma? Bl-airu jew bil-bahar? Bil-bahar. Ha nara (I see) biex gie huk uw ghaliejn, Hu donnu marid (sick) u bl aisha dejjem (always) imdejga (sad).110 MALTESE (b) Where is your brother? I don’t kno " ther? rv (ma nafs! where he is. There are bastions ews) around the clty 1 allot, Sicy Ss on isdand whence we import (nimpor- fa) fruit and fish “How many gis ate there in your class? kiss). He is not as tll as you, She ts sil sek it (oughod) near me, The boy is three years old. T have not been long here (hawn). ee Lesson 13 PREPOSITIONS + BEFIN ITE AR OR + RELATIVE PRONOUN, The following particles are attache ed some te - aie article or its assimilated forms when the ‘hover adjective following them is preceded by the definite article and some to the relative pronoun ili, + bil- ‘with the’; fi ‘In’; fil- ‘dn the’, mee. swith the’; ta’ ‘of; tat- ‘of the’; bhal i} e the i shal ‘for’; ghall- ‘for the’; lil ‘to’; lill- ‘to the’ sa ‘till’ or ‘as far as’; Sal- ‘till the’ or ‘as far as the’; &¢ ‘in’; gol- in the’; minn ‘from’; mill- ‘from the’ ° Exx. bhal hmar ‘like a donkey’, i 1 y', bhall-hmar ‘like th = key’, lil tifla ‘to a girl’, lit-tifla ‘to the girl’, othe don The student must remember that th . ie defin! assimilates with some consonants, (See pp. S020) otic Exx. bil- becomes bis- before set 4 : is ‘wwa, ‘by fair me a ghall- be f and shall: ecomes ghax in ghax-xahar, ‘for the month’ and -, fl- when the noun be! with, " gins mS a vowel, and in the spoken language also with h or Exx, bil-bahar ‘by sea’; bl-art ‘overi . rian I-hin * it time’; fl-ahhar mill-ahhar ‘in the long run’. Bohstie Ma’, ta’, dan, dim, go, sa are not att PREPOSITIONS i js not followed consistently in the written language ¢x- cept In the case of the demonstrative pronouns. xx, mal-ktieb ‘with the book’ but ma’ I-ishab or ma}- iheb ‘with the companions’; tad-deheb ‘golden’ or ‘gold~ Smith’ but ta’ I-Indja or tal-Indja ‘of Indio’; dal-everna- tur ‘this governor’ but dam L-iskultur oF tur ‘this sculptor’; dil-mara ‘this woman’ Piskola ‘this school’; got-but ‘in the pocket’; go T-Afciie vel Attika ‘in Aftica’; sal-Hamrun, ‘as far as Hamrun'; Sa Lisptar or sal-isptar ‘as far as the hospital’. ‘BL Fi, Mi, Minn, Ta’ + Relative Pronoun Hts ‘that () Bi hi = Dill ‘since’ also ‘with what’ xx, Billi m’ghandekx flus, siefer (go abroad) sena o8TS ee you have no money, go abroad another year": Bil faghti feb what you do to others, others do to You: Haat (or bill) taghti tiehu ‘with what you give you take’ fe, wiht you do to others, others do to you'. Gi) Fi + ii + Alli ‘as soon as, no sooner than’. eux, FIM haj, {ili medjet (iit, No sooner alive than dead) Tealed very suddeniy’: fil jldag fill jbki “he begins to laugh and soon after to cry’. (i) Ma’ +i = malli ‘no sooner than; when; 25 soon as’ foe Malli rani harab ‘As soon as he sav me he ran away’, Gv) Minn + ili = milli ‘from what’. ex, Dan bise nlftakar aailii qal ‘T remember only this of it from) what he said’; milli qed nara ‘from what T am seeing’ (v) Ta’ + Iii =talli ‘because, for the reason that’. xx, Palli grefl wagajt “because you ran, you fells tallt Ediint tithallas ‘for the work you have done you will be paid’. Note also the following combinations: ghad B, shad imi, ‘although’; wagt If ‘while; wate Tf ‘after’112 MALTESE Particles compounded with indefinite pronoun ma: bhalma (bhal + ma) ‘as’; bla ma or minghajr ma ‘with- out; abel ma’ ‘before’. These are all followed by a verb in the Perfect or the Imperfect, which we shall explain further on. This ma, meaning ‘what’ which is suffxed to a few words, is not to be confused with the adverb of negation ma meaning ‘not’ Ex, Kulma ma tghidx inkun nafu min ghand haddiehor ‘Whatever you won't speak about, I shall know (it) from someone else’. Other compounds similarly followed by verbs are dags kemm ‘as much as’; kull meta ‘whenever’; Ia darba ‘since, seeing, considering that’ xx, bhal ma gal Shakespeare ‘as Shakespeare said’; dads kemm gera (ran) data’ (cut) nifsu (his breath) ‘he ran so much that he was out of breath’. SOME PREPOSITIONAL USAGES 1. Bi or B’-+ Noun (with or without the definite article) = an adverb, adverbial or adjectival phrase in English. Exx, b’reqaa, bir-reaga ‘with great attention’, ‘serupulous- ly’; Diimhabba ‘with affection’ or ‘lovingly’; bis-sewwa jew bid-dnewwa ‘by fair or foul means’; bil-ghatx ‘thirsty’; bil-guh ‘hungry’; bi mhar ‘during the day’; Dil-leji ‘at night’; bl-ajru ‘by air’; bl-art ‘overland’; klieb bil-Fran- ii (bit-Taljan, bir-Russu, ete.) ‘a French (Italian, Rus- sian, ete.) book’; bil-gieghda ‘sitting’, bil-wiegfa ‘stand- ing’; bil-jedd ‘by right’ 2. Fi or F’+ pron, suffix ‘it contains’; ‘there is. ‘Ex, Malta fiha hafna rbula ‘Malta contains (it. in her) many villages’; dit-tigiega fiha tewg lbbri ‘this hen weighs two pounds’; din I-ittra ma fibiex gbalji ‘this let- ter has no mistakes’; dar-ragel fih sitt pledi (feet) ‘this man 4s six feet tall’; fl-aqwa, fl-isbah or fl-ahjar ‘at the height or best of’; | flimkien ‘together’; fl-art ‘on the PREPOSITIONS U3 floor’; fiex (fi + tex ‘what’, unused) ‘in what's ffex inaas- tek? ‘in what have I failed you”; fih (fi + any other Tv" texninal suffix) x'tara ‘it is worth seeing’. Din x‘fiha! Rinat’s wrong with this!’ Le. there is nothing to be ashamed of or offended at. ‘Note that bi and fi can also take verbal suffix ni (st pers, sing.), Bxx. Bint I-ghatx (rare) ‘I am thirsty’; fink i-plg ‘I am heavily bullt’. 3, Wara ‘behind’ (adjectival form warrant). xx. wara I-hin ‘not in time’, ‘overtime’; wara {tit ‘after ‘2 while; minn wara ‘from behind’; ta’ wara ‘the one coming ‘after’; wara koliox ‘after all’. 4, Wdejn ‘near’ means also ‘when compared to’. xx. hdein darek ‘near your house’; hdejn dan, I-fehor ae (not) jiswa (is Worth) xeim ‘as (or ‘when’) compared 5, Minn: Exx, dit-tfajla mill-Mosta ‘this girl 1s from Mosta; ‘Toni (Anthony) jigi (comes) mill-mara tieghi ‘anthony is # relative of my wife’; ragel minn taghna ‘a nice man’; minn fein int? ‘where do you hail from: Ramsa minn tleght ‘five of mine’; mabbub minn kulhadd floved by everybody’; minn issa ’t quddiem ‘from now on~ wards; ohtok ahjar minn huk ‘your sister is better than Your brother’; minnu (m.) minnha (f,) sainnhom (pl) ‘rue’; mhux minnu ‘It is not true’ : Bux, sabih fuq li sabih ‘couldn't be more fug tieghu (m.) taghha (f.) taghhom (pl.) ‘smart, Hvely’; fag fuq ‘superficially’; fug ir-rih “In an fdvantageous position’; minn {ug ‘into the bargain’: fag il-qalb ‘unwillingly; fuq kollox ‘above all”, rih fu ‘the North-West wind’; fuq I-ghoxrin ‘over twenty’. 7, abt; Exx, minn taht ‘In an unfavourable posi- tion’; taht I-eta ‘under age’; taht il-kura tat-tabib ‘under jmedical attention’; minn taht ‘from below’ or ‘in an Gnderhand manner’ or ‘in an unfavourable position’.114 MALTESE 8, Qabel: Exx, Qabel xejn ‘to begin with’; minn ‘veforehand’; eabel ii-waat,‘petore, the me’ ot ret urely’; {tit asbel or gabel hafna ‘ ’ matutely's ft qabel or eabelhafna ‘some time befor! ot 9. Rejn: Exx, Bein is-sitta u s-sebgha ‘between six ond seven o'clock’; qal (he sald) bejnu.u bein rubu ‘he sold in his heart of hearts’; bejn haga u ohra ‘between one thing and another’; bejn wiehed u iehor ‘approximately’ beinietna ‘in confidence’ (between you and me and the bed-post). Note that bein can also be followed by a verb. Exx, Bejn ried jitkellem w beja ma riedx ‘he would speak and at the same time would not’; m’hemm xejn bejntet- hom ‘there is nothing (wrong) between them’, 10. Lejn: Exx, lejn ix-xellug ot lemin ‘toward: is the Jeft or right’; lejn I-art or il-batiar ‘towards the land or sea’. 11, Bhal ‘as’; bhallikieku ‘as if’; “for example’ % 3 ple’, Note also that bhal when followed by a verb takes the indefinite pronoun ma, Ex. Bhal me gal l-avukat ‘as the advocate said’; bhallikieku ma gara xejn ‘ savonate Hid “jn ‘as if nothing 12, Fost: whence adjective fustani ‘middle’. Exx, Jum fost l-obrajn ‘once upon a time’; fost kuthadd ‘of all people’; fost hwejjeg obra ‘among other things’. 13. Ghajr or hlief ‘except’, ‘save that’, Exx. Alla wiehed; m’hemmx tehor ghajra (or hliefu) there is oné God and no other except Hlm'; minghajr (for minn + ghajr) ‘without’, Ex. Minghajr Alla ma nagh- main xejn ‘without God we ean do nothing’; ghair Jekk ‘unless. Ex. ma mingdews ghaje jekk immorra abna nfusna ‘we shall not be served unless we go ourselves’. 14, Lil: Besides being a preposition lil is also used before the object of a verb, regularly so when the object is a proper noun, When so used It must not be confused with the definite article il-, PREPOSITIONS 1s Exx. Thobb ‘| Alla (Alla does not take the def, art.) ‘he loves God’; shobb lil missieru ‘he loves his father’; ra "1 Ganni ‘he saw John’. it can be attached to the definite article. fut, Spara lill-kelb ‘he shot the dog’. Lill- in this case stands for lil ‘to’ + 1-, the definite article, 45, Ma’: Exx, max-xatt ix-xatt ‘along the coast’; ma? kutlimkien ‘in every place’; ma’ genb ‘beside’; ghandha mad-dsatax jew I-ghoxrin sena ‘she Is about nineteen oF twenty years old’; mas-sebh ‘at daybreak’; ~mal- Teil ‘in the night’; ma’ mini ix-xemx ‘at sunset’; madwar ‘ground’, about’; madwar il-belt ‘in the neighbourhood of the town’; madwar ghoxrin ruh ‘about twenty people’. 16, Ghal: Exx. ghal-lum ‘for today’; ghal xein ‘for no good reason’, ‘for nothing’; ghal sena ‘for one year; shal kein b'xejn ‘for no reason’; mar ghat ohtu ‘he went for his sister; ghamel ghalih ‘he attacked him’; minn ghallb te seems, (seemed) to him’; ghal + lex ‘what’ = ghaliex meaning ‘why?’ or ‘because’, also + fein ‘why?’ also ‘“whereto? Exx, Ghaliex (ghalfejn) slefer buk? Ghaliex ma sabx xoghol Malta ‘why did your brother emigrate? Because he did not find work in Malta’; ghalfejn int illum? ‘where are you off to today?”. 17. Quadiem: Ex. ghadda msinn quddiemi ‘he pass- ed in front of me’; hlas (kera) bil-quddiem ‘payment (rent) in advance’; ‘il quddiem ‘later on’; minn ta’ qud- diem ‘of the very first’; quddiem in-nies ‘publicly’; aud- diem, kulhadd ‘in everybody's presence’. (Note that when: prepositions which end In 1 com- pine with the definite article and the noun begins with an 1, these prepositions are written with one I. Exx. bhal- Tapu ‘like the wolf"; mil-lista ‘from the list’ not bhall~ lupu, mill-lista, Similarly we write min-nies, ‘from the people’ for minn ++ in-nies)6 MALTESE ‘The word ta’ ‘of’, which becomes tal- in combina- tion with the definite article 1- or its assinallated forms, when followed by a noun is equivalent to an adjective or adjectival phrase in English indicating: (i) A mora? or physical quality: Exx, ragel ta’ gieh ‘a man of honour’ for ‘an honourable man’; mara ta’ dixxiplina ‘a disciplinary woman’; bniedem ta’ sahha ‘a strong person’ jum ta’ ferh ‘a day of Joy’ for ‘a joyful fay’. (GD _ The material of which something is made: Exx. gandlier tal-fidda ‘a sliver candlestick’; pina tad-deheb ‘a golden pen’. (ii) trade or crafé: Bx. tal-halib ‘milkman’; tal- haxix ‘greengrocer’; tal-laham ‘butcher’; tal-kappar ‘caper-seller’ (generally a woman). In these and other similar phrases, the word mars or ragel is understood, (iv) function or use: Exx. hwejjeg ta’ taht ‘und d ler- wear"; Hbsa ta’ fug ‘the dress’; ilma tax-xorb (hasil) ‘drinking (washing) water’. Note on Particle "il or "1 Not to be confused with the definite artiele is parti- cle ‘il which precedes a few adverbs of place. This parti- cle is a shortened form of the Arabic adverbial particle °ilaa meaning to, till, towards, Exx. ‘I isfel (not I-isfe) ‘downwards’; ‘il fuq ‘upwards’; ‘il gewwa ‘inside’; ‘il barra ‘outside’; "1 hemm ‘there’; ‘I hhawa ‘here’ as in jigri ‘I hawn u ‘I hemm ‘he runs here and there’. "il or ‘I is also to be distinguished from the definite article when it occurs before words which belng already defined, do not take the definite article (See Lesson 1, b. 39). : THE NUMERALS a7 EXERCISE 13 Translate: (a) Kemm fiha nies Malta? Fiha fuq (over) tliet mitt elf, Kemm kienet ilha kolonja Inglia (British Colony) Malta gabel saret (became) indipendenti? Bil- ghatx? Hawn [-ilma, Bil-guh? Hawn il-hobé, Ma’ min mar (went) missierek? Mal-hbieb (friends). Dil-mara ghand- ha éurkett (ring) tad-deheb. Bagel bla aalb (heart) w mara bia mobh (brain). Hdejn Malta hemm tliet szejier (slands) — Ghawdex, Kemmuna u Filfla. Filfla hi blata (rock) ghat-tahrig ta’ sparar (firing exercises). Vapur (ship) ben sema u ima, Dur (turn) fuq ix-xellug; fuq il-lemin, Hu hares ) ‘This (f.) is not like that (m.). The son ts like his father, but the girl is like her mother. A silver (fidda) wateh (arlogé). He came (gie) an hour and a haif (nofs) behind time. For today it is enough (blidejjed). Near his shop (hanut) there is a house opposite the palace (alazz) of the governor (gvernatur).. This is the fee (hlas) for the month. This 1s a prize (premju) for a girl. Give it (aghtih) to the girl from Géira (a place-name in Malta). He first (-ewwel) went (mar) by sea then (imbaghad) by land. Lesson 14 THE NUMERALS CARDINAL NUMBERS Of all cardinal numbers which are the simple ones as one, two, ete. (a) only number one has a masculine (wiehed) and feminine (wahda) gender; (b) numbers 2-10 have two different numerical forms, one used with- out the counted object (ex. sitta ‘six') and another (the adjectival form) used with the counted object (ex. sitt18 MALTESE soldi ‘six pence’). The adjectival forms are shown in brackets In the list, below; (c) the ‘tens’ have the plural suffix in (‘iin) added to the last consonant of the singular form (ex, tlieta 3, tletin 30): (d) the hundreds are formed by the cardinal adjectives plus mija (sing,) (ex. tilet mija, 300); (e) the thousands and the millions are formed by the cardinal adjective + elef (plural) or miljuni (ex. tlitt elef 3,000; tliet miljuni, 3,000,000); (f.) mija (mitt adjec- tival form) ‘a hundred’ and elf ‘a thousand’ have their plural forms mijiet ‘hundreds’ used indefinitely as in mi- jiet ta’ liri ‘hundreds of pounds’; elu ‘thousands’, and their dual mifejn ‘two hundred’ and elfejn ‘two thousand’; (g) gh is omitted in the adjectival numbers 4, 7 and 9 (ex, erbat, sebat, disat irglel not erbaght, sebaght, disaght irgiel ‘4, 7, 9 men’; (h) Similarly gh is omitted in numbers 11-19. We write erbatax, sbatax, ete, not erbagh- tax, shaghtax, etc, With reference to section (b) for numbers 2-10, of the two adjectival forms, the one which ends in. t, known as the t marbuta, {s used (1) before. words which begin with a vowel (ex. hamest elef 5,000) (ii) before plural monosyllable words which, in this case, take initial euphonic vowel i (ex, hamest ihmir ‘five asses’) and some- times, though less commonly also (iii) before dissyllable words beginning with two consonants or with a conso- nant plus semi-vowel and initial euphonic vowel:i (ex. hamest ikmamar ‘five rooms’, hamest izwiemel ‘five horses"). The other form is used more commonly with plural dissyllable nouns which begin with more than one consonant or a consonant plus a semi-vowel. Exx, hames skieken ‘five knives’, hames dwiemel ‘five horses’, Initial i prefixed to a two-consonant group in some of the foregoing examples is purely euphonic and there- fore does not form an integral part of the plural word, ‘Thus the plural of ziemel Is ¢wiemel not iéwiemel; of Kamra, kmamar and not ikmamar, This euphonie i ls required only when the numerical form used is that which ends In t-marbuta, THE NUMERALS id The Cardinal numbers are: wiehed (m.) ‘one’; wahda (2) ‘one’; wahdiet (pl) ‘single ones’; uhud (common plural) ‘ones’; tnejn (ews or aewgt, sometimes glex or Hiext ‘a couple of) 2; tlieta (Hiet or tlitt) 3; erbeha (erba’ or erbat) 4; Rarnsa (hames or hamest) 5; sitta (sitt) 6; sebgha (seba’ or sebat for sebaght) 7; tmienja (tmien or tmint) 8; disgha (isa! or disat for disaght) 9; shaxra (ghaxar or ghaxarl) 10; hidax (hdax-il) 11; tax (imax-il) 12; tlettax (Glettax-il) 13; erbatax (erbatax-if) 14; hmistax (hmistax-il) 15; sittax (sittax-i) 16; sbatax (shatax-il) 17; tmintax (tmintax-il) 18; dsatax (dsatax- ) 19; ghoxrin 20 Remark 1: Note that tlitt = tifet (three) + t-marbuta. So we write tliet suldati ‘three soldiers’ but ‘litt iswieq ‘three markets’; tmion siggifiet ‘elght chairs’ but tmint ijiem ‘eight days’. Compound numbers: wiehed u ghoxrin, (lit. one and twenty) 21; and so on till twenty nine; tletin 30; wiehed u tletia Git, one and thirty) 31; and so on tll thirty nine; erbghin 40; and so on for the following tens: hamsin 50 sittin 60; sebghin 70; tmenin, 80; disghin 90; mija 100; but mija a wiehed a hundred and one (101) and not wiebed u mija (lit, one and hundred). Similarly mija a tnejn, 102; mija u tlieta, 103; mija u wiehed u ghoxrin 121, as in English 9 hundred and twenty one; mitein, 200; mitejn u Hieta u sebshin 273; tliet mija (sing.) 304 erba’ mija, 400;. hames mija, 500; disa’ mija, 900; elf 1,000; elf disa’ mija u hamsa u sittin, 1,965; elfeja, 2,000; clfejn u sitt mija u hamsin, 2,650; bamest clef, 8,000; sitt lez, 6,000; hdax-il elf, 11,00; sbatax-il elf, 17,000; wiehed u ghoxrin elf, 21,000; ete. miljun, a million, 1,000,000; ewe miljuni, two million, 2,000,000 hames miljuni u hames mitt, elf 5,500,000. NUMBERS 11 - 19 ‘The hyphenated -il of hdax-il, tmax-il, etc. which some Maltese grammarians mistook for the definite arti- cle is etymologically an integral part of the number, In