@grezz

“Louise – “tigbghax” mhux “tixbax” – wrong.

The mamma is xeba’ or xaba’ not ġaba’ so the negative can never be tiġbagħax… Louise was right.

“iridhek”, mhux “iridlek” – again Louise was right, iridlek was correct. And iridhek is a form you invented – since when do we have a ‘h’ in irid? It is never written with an ‘h’ unless it’s iridilha or iridha, tridha, iriduha etc…

@Daphne

“‘Mihiex’, Louise, mhux ‘mhix'”… actually Louise was right again.

‘mhix’ is good Maltese, while ‘mihiex’ does not exist.
‘mhijiex’ and ‘mhix’ are both correct.

Check ‘id-deċiżjonijiet’ by the Akkademja tal-Malti plus other useful Maltese grammar books.

—–

There are other mistakes I can point out but I don’t want to nitpick. I only pointed out these 3 points above because the ‘corrections’ were so blatantly erroneous. Let’s all just enjoy reading Daphne’s blog, as she pleases to write it; informative, interesting and hilarious. I love your humour Daphne! Keep up the good work.

‘It would also be opportune if you were to back me up in my explanation to Louise – as somebody who knows exactly what I mean – that the Maltese spoken by our parents would be very different from the Maltese spoken by her parents.’

I don’t know if ‘aghraf aghzel’ is enough to justify your statement, but I know what you mean. The pervasive ‘anti-Sliema’ mentality conditions many people from outside the Sliema/St. Julians/Swieqi conurbation to believe that Slimizi’s Maltese is somehow inferior because it is (or can be) different.

I catch a hint of this in Louise’s remarks. She thinks her Maltese is superior but even she got ‘tixbax’ wrong. Hysterically, so did Grezz when he corrected her – it should be ‘tigbax’ as far as I know, using ‘jismax’ as an example. A ‘trilitteru’ verb doesn’t have the consonants stuck together in the imperative and present singular persons, Grezz, so even if you do show the ‘gh’ it should be ‘tigbaghx’. However, good though my Maltese is, I make no claim to write it perfectly and am glad to be corrected – politely, of course – by the experts.

I don’t like to get personal though, and I’m not going to put this in terms of what our various parents speak or spoke. And I’m definitely not going to go into class differences.

Jiena naf l-espressjoni bhal, perezempju, “pampalun ta’ Mintoff”.

The problem with the jokes is people who take things literally just don’t get them, do they? Apart from the fact that a lack of a sense of humour generally reflects a lack of intelligence.

@Emanuel – Mhux ovvja li “Louise” kitbet/kiteb sarkastikament?

@ Louise – “tigbghax” mhux “tixbax”
“iridhek”, mhux “iridlek”

Inkompli? Nahseb li l-kas tieghek huwa kas ta’ “the pot calling the kettle black”.

Forsi qeghda tghid li Daphne ma’ tantx taf bil-Mlti ghaliex titfa kelma bhal “majtezwel” l-hawn u l-hemm? Forsi ma’ ndunajtx li tkun qeghda taghmilha biex titmellah?

Daphne, I have always been surprised at the journalistic quality and quantity of your English. I can’t understand how you can cope with this blog. In fact I was wondering if there is only one of you!

[Daphne – No, there are several of me. I have multiple personality disorder, which makes me eligible for recruitment by Media Today.]

As someone who has lived in the UK for over 30 years, I understand the cultural difference between Maltese and British sense of humour and why the Maltese who have never lived in the UK or lived with British people take offence at certain things you say in your blog.

Daphne donnu li mhux tikteb u taqra bl-Ingliz u bil-Malti taf – jista jkun li anke taf taqra between the lines jekk kif qeda tassumi int.
Eman

[Daphne – Pampaluni tal-partit jew ta’ xi bendklabb.]

Imma sejjer żball, ħabib(a).