Ejja mmorru drinkk gol pupp
Maltese pronunciation turns the final ‘b’ in words into a ‘p’ sound – ‘bieb’ (door), for example, is pronounced ‘biep’. ‘Inhobb’ (I love) becomes ‘inhopp’. And so on.
People who grow up speaking only Maltese have terrible trouble with the final ‘b’ in other languages, most notoriously English, which they are required to speak on a regular basis.
So ‘job’ becomes ‘jopp’, club becomes ‘clupp’, and on and on. The problem is a difficult one to overcome because linguistic sounds not learned in early childhood are tough to master later on. It is not enough to teach basic English in schools unless these lessons include routine repetition which teaches the pronunciation of sounds that do not exist in Maltese: like the final ‘b’ sound or the flat ‘a’ sound in words like ‘cat’, ‘sat’ and my name, which almost nobody Maltese can pronounce (thanks, mum and dad).
But first, the problem has to be acknowledged, and the ‘anything goes’ attitude which dictates that you don’t have to do things properly or well as long as you do them at all doesn’t allow for that.
So you get hilarious results, like this one in Maltastar, in a story about a protest demo held after a gay couple were thrown out of a public house in Eastenders:
The protest was being held after a gay couple were ousted out of a pup because they shared a kiss at the bar.
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Can you expect any better from Maltastar?
“Happy Birday” has got to be the best one.
Actually, that’s Hoppy Birdy Two Yew
And, isn’t “ousted out” a terrible tautology?
Horribly horrible ain’t it?
It is.
But besides being “ousted out” of that pup, those gays risked being jabbed too.
At first I thought that you had nothing better to say today…but your last sentence summed it all up!
You are having problems in finding things to write about!! You need to get Joe Muscat to speak up a bit more often, as when he is silent no one it shouting at him!
I couldn’t agree more. Our dear Maltese language has sadly become a joke, also on our national TV, media, newspapers etc. Pity! Akkademja tal – Malti?
As usual you are right. The trouble is that in our schools, in my time – long ago – we learnt grammar and grammar and more grammar. We wrote reams but never in my school life did I ever have any lessons in pronounciation – in any language. We learnt three other languages besides Maltese.
And I think the position is almost still the same today with some schools organising English speaking sessions.
The same happened in evening classes – at one time, our pronounciation was better then the teacher’s.
The word I find most difficult to pronounce is – vicar. I try and repeat with Mrs. Bucket but I haven’t really mastered it.
Daphne, it has nothing to do with Eastenders. The incident happened in a pub in Soho.
[Daphne – That’s Maltastar’s reporting for you…I thought it was odd, given that the only pup in Eastenders is the Queen Vic.]
And if you plan on visiting Pompeii, make sure that it’s the one in Italy.
That joke no longer works. It’s “Mumbai” now, wouldn’t you know. Like Kingsway becoming Republic Street.
Like Strada San Giorgio becoming Strada Reale (Kingsway).
Then why is it still called “Victoria” – sorry, “Vikturrja” – Gozo?
By the by, since some misguided zealot mentioned it, “zobb” and other words ending in strong consonants are not being mispronounced when the final consonant is softened. That’s the way it is in Maltese. Other languages have it too – Russian, for instance (just ask Kev).
Daphne, what about the last judgement by Consuelo Scerri Herrera regarding the incidents at the National Stadium between Valletta officials and two Birkirkara players.
Carlos, missed that. Please tell us more.
Daphne
On a completely different note …
Earlier today I was in Valletta and was admiring the excellent job done in St George’s Square. For the fun of it I tried to use the free wifi there and to my surprise I found that your blog is actually blocked by the filter. I managed to go to other sites so my connection was good but when I tried to go on your blog a pop-up informed me that access to http://www.daphnecaruanagalizia.com was blocked by the filter.
What’s this? A new form of censorship?
Censorship on the internet does not exist.
Use a free internet proxy, here is one: http://www.anonymouse.org
What a cute pub.
Adoraple.
Apsolootly
You attribute this ‘p’ mistake to the Maltese way of learning English .
In Maltese we say ‘pubbijiet’, so the ‘b’ is pronounced.
I think it’s a typo.
[Daphne – No, John, it isn’t, and you are being deliberately obtuse as usual. Read my piece again: people brought up speaking only Maltese can’t pronounce the FINAL b not ALL bs (obviously not all bs, because the b sound exists in Maltese). Maltese pronunciation converts the final b to a p. Sounds not learned from birth are very difficult, and sometimes impossible, to pick up later on in life. This problem lots of Maltese people have with job, pub, club etc is not so much a mispronunciation as the inability to pronounce a final b. It takes lots of practice to get it right, but first you have to acknowledge that you’ve got it wrong.]
http://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/aid-ship-reaches-malta-from-misurata
By KARL STAGNO-NAVARRA
The French Aid Ship birthed in Valletta this morning.
A French aid ship has reached Malta from Misurata this morning.
The Saint Antoine Marie II birthed at Pinto Wharf in Valletta and disembarked a number of evacuees from the war-torn port of Misurata, where representatives of the Medecins Sans Frontieres told reporters on the serious humanitarian situation thousands of civilians are facing.
Misurata has been heavily bombed throughout yesterday evening and last night.
It-tfal jigu bil-vapuri!
Jew il-vapuri jigu bhat-tfal.
It must have been a water birth in a birthing pool ….no harbour.
And there was silly me thinking that babies were delivered by storks.
If this ‘pup’ mistake was common, I would tend to agree with you. Our mistakes in the English language lie elsewhere, God forbid that this mistake wasn’t a typo.
Nicky Camilleri, further down on this thread evaluates this mistake like I do.
Sometimes people like you who are keen on something see things which are not really there. Only the other day I was watching an interesting interview with Mr Joseph Muscat who is an expert on ex voto graffiti of ships.
http://www.google.com/search?q=ex+voto+graffiti+of+ships&hl=mt&client=safari&rls=mt-mt&prmd=ivnsb&source=lnms&tbm=isch&ei=5ya3TbWRAoybOsvX5f4O&sa=X&oi=mode_link&ct=mode&cd=2&ved=0CAsQ_AUoAQ&biw=1440&bih=709
He was saying that he has to be careful how to interpret a small scratch on a ship graffito which could be accidental . “Sometimes we see things which are not really there” he humbly told the interviewer.
[Daphne – Sorry, John, but you can’t compare the two. The difficulty which people who speak only Maltese have with the final b in words – both Maltese words and English words, incidentally – is a fact and not an opinion. Maltese converts the final b to a p sound and those who grow up speaking no other language transmit this b-to-p conversion when they learn other languages later in life. Yes, those whose sole native language is Maltese routinely say PUPP rather than PUB. They also say JOPP instead of JOB and CLUPP instead of CLUB. As somebody else pointed out here, there is also a problem with the hard G, which is converted to a K: LEKKS instead of LEGS, THINK (or rather, TINK) instead of THING, and so on. Another problem is the use of the ‘continuous’ tense of verbs as you do here: ‘he was saying’ instead of ‘he said’. This comes directly from Maltese usage: kien qieghed jghid. These are simple things to clear up, but without the desire for improvement nothing will change.]
I don’t blame you for your interpretation, but I see it differently.
Prosit hej, u dan mar St. Edward’s.
Jien Had-Dingli kont immur…Savio College.
“pubbijiet” is easy. it has “ijiet” at the end which makes it easier to pronounce.
I’m learning at my own expense that as a nation we are not bilingual as we’ve always been led to believe.
In general, we have a good understanding and everyday use of English and other languages – agreed. however, our spoken English is horrible when compared to that of native-English speakers. What we easily pick up though is slang and incorrect (or inaccurate) words such as “I’ve been asked to stand in a line at the bank”. Where did the word “queue” go? “In a line” is a perfectly acceptable modern alternative to “in a queue”, but it’s inaccurate.
Re sounds – I agree with you, Daphne, and the most problematic in my opinion is the “th” as in “thirsty” for instance, and the different “th” sound that the word “than” has. Most people simply can’t get it right including yours truly. It’s simply impossible for me to get it right without making it sound imqanzha.
In our own defence though, I’ve been told that we tend to speak cleaner (as in void of slang and filth) English than the British do in general.
Karl – BERTHED not BIRTHED.
Daphne, you are right. It is the inability to pronounce the final b. The same happens with Maltese words eg. the famous “z” word referring to male genitalia.
Was it a baby boy ship or a baby girl ship ?
Jesus!… That really sounded bad in this context… Maybe the homophobic movements outside of the LGBT Labour wanted to take the (what normally gets ‘ousted from a pup’)
How did the gays get into the pup in the first place? Is this an extension of the ‘If we let gays marry, in no time, people will want to marry animals’ concept?
At first I thought you were referring to an advert on radio which has been hounding me for quite some time. It refers to a particular ‘ pupp and diner ‘.
Krishnamurti says, ”If we can really understand the problem the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.”
DEFNI, I can pronounce your name correctly! But really, before I read your article, I had seen the story in Maltastar and thought ‘pup’ was just a careless typo!
I wonder if the gay couple came out of the front or rear doors of the pup…
Well, at least they did come out of the closet…
I can sympathise with your comment, yet you still come over as a linguistic snob. Joe public in the U.K. is taking short cuts in pronunciation whenever it takes their fancy.
English is the international language of choice, a living language is in continuous flux and different cultures/parts of the world mould it to their own fancy.
Australian English hurts my ears yet they proudly own it. I’m quite sure English is butchered and reconstituted in south east Asia in ways that we would find imaginative and hilarious, yet they use it, they understand it and are propagating further its use internationally.
The French are legally trying to keep English out of their mother tongue yet even they cannot get to gripes with the influx of English.
English is definitely not a virgin tongue. Germanic (Anglo Saxon settlers ) Latin and old Norse have all added to the pot. The growth of English has reduced linguistic diversity, conversely the natural internal variety of English along with ‘creole’ and ‘pidgin’ have the potential to produce new distinct languages from English over time.
Where our Malenglish is heading I don’t care to know. If used it shall morph and if it still understandable in 200 years we won’t be around to savour it .
Even if many Maltese pronounce the word as ‘pup’, is it possible that the Maltastar writers have never seen it written?
And there’s also a ‘pup’ cervical smear. That’s another pronunciation problem.
I’ve come across instances where a Maltese man would shrug his shoulders and say “X’iz-zopp trid taghmel?” when things don’t work out.
But what I love most is the imported words such as Piloti which has become “BDOTI” football has become “FUTBAL” scouts has now become “SCAWTS”.
Ironically this language we are so proud of and to which we give so much importantance to the extent of having Maltese translators at EU level can not stomach the fact that it is a relativley poor and unsophisticated language.
We were not happy with using our second language which we have tried so hard to dilute at EU level. We chose the “Lingwa tal-BIGILLA” to belong to the rest of Europe who do not have the privilege of having English as their second option.
One of the worst cases when correcting Maltese compositions:
In-numBri jibdew ….
Is it associated with numbers in English?
Jew iddardar l’alla thanbaq fuq l-istess suggett jew issib xi cucata bhal din fuq x’hiex tahli z-zmien. Hemm tant ghaddej bhalissa!
Of course the typical one is when the male organ is brought into discussion – more like during swearing. The singular is erroneously pronounced as ending in a strong ‘p’ when the plural is in even stronger ‘bb’
Povru
In certain areas of Malta the word ‘petrol’ is pronounced ‘petlor’, the word ‘pappagall’ is pronounced ‘pakkagal’ and the word ‘self-starter’ is pronounced ‘sejfstarter’. You even hear these skewed pronunciations from ‘educated’ people.
bit off the point – this is from the Gap developers website
“An outstanding development by Gap, featuring a vibrant blend of residential apartments, maisonettes and penthouses. The development is located in the sort after area of Attard”
You forgot to mention the g=k phenomenon …. goinK, eKKs (eggs), leKs (legs), puK (pug) and so on …
Daphne,
Do you have an opinion regarding the saga in the UK parliament :
Calm down dear, calm down …..
Thanks
‘Deaf-nee’ – Anyone pronouncing English correctly will be mocked in Malta and that is why students are reluctant to pronounce English correctly in schools, people think that anyone pronouncing English the proper way is showing off (jitkessah). Another reason is the poor teaching of English in schools. English is not the easiest language to pronounce.
I experienced exactly the same situation in francophone Africa with French.
English words mispronounced in Malta which irritate my ears are:
salad ‘seh-lidd’
festival ‘festivill’
apple ‘eh-pill’
Have you heard how the British pronounce Latin? I am not talking about the man on street, but professors of Latin! This irritates me even more. The same goes with French spoken by the British.
ohra daphne.
tron bil-malti
throne bl-ingliz
trono bit-taljan
trône bil-franciz
thron bil-germaniz
U
U
U
THROWN bil-mlatsatar
lie down and weep
http://www.maltastar.com/pages/r1/ms10dart.asp?a=15188
and also the infamous:
“veedeeoow” for video
“roaster” for roster
You mean ‘row-ster’!
and “meemow” for memo
Well, at least they weren’t ousted from the “par’.
and “sellmin” for salmon
what about the inability to pronounce the “s” turning in into a convenient z?
Viza Card
Bazement
ExerciZe
baZe
*Sigh*
[Daphne – That’s actually not so clear-cut. The sound here should be neither an S nor a Z, but a soft cross between the two. The American spelling is actually ‘exerciZe’.]
kaybow for cowboy
Tonight on TVM news Willjam u Kate bil Qamar il Ghazel !
Mewbajl