Don’t mention it. You’re something of a hero for some of us, and a perfect illustration of the 20-80 rule: 20% of the Maltese make up 80% of the total IQ.

No. But in my line of work, knowledge gives strength to the arm, what. And Daphne’s the best source of intel on the island.

P.S. “What” isn’t cockney at all. It’s upper class.

[Daphne – Thank you for pointing that out. Imagine if I had said it myself.]

James Tyrell, don’t you think it’s rather silly to keep on posting as Beowulf? Your cover has been blown so why insist on the disguise? And it’s an embarrassing moniker too, straight out of Boys’ Own Paper.

[Daphne – Ah, but you don’t know the half of it, Antoine. He has even bothered to create and give me an email address that begins ‘beowulfireland’.]

Phew! Dery always came across as an obsessive pedant of a woman with ulterior motives.

I suspect that Raymond Gatt could easily be taking Nakita for a ride.

and L

“I don’t think it uses any double letters at the end of words, actually – I can’t think of any at present. ”

Double Ls are very common – hell, bell, wall, well, sell, mall.

Several words with other letters come to mind – mass, butt, cross, less, inn, loo, burr, and so on. Quite common I would say but cannot think of any double Gs other than egg unless one counts Dogg as a word.

[Daphne – Yes, I didn’t think long enough, though I was pretty certain straight off about the GG, which is kind of Scandinavian.]

B’liema dritt il-monti ta’ Marsaxlokk jaghtti l-veduta tal-bahar. Min jixtieq igawdi x-xena tal-port ma jistax. Ikollu jitqanna bil-panties, bras u dvalji. (Mhux qed nirreferi ghall-bejjegha tal-hut, dawk parti mill-ambjent).

Nghid il-verita’ niehu gost naqra certu kummenti ghas-semplici raguni biex nara l-jet set ta’ Malta xi kwalita’ ta’ hajja ghandhom kif ukoll il-gosti u xi haga nitghallem minn ghandhom ukoll.

As Mr. Baxxter pointed out above, ‘egg’ is a word that has a double ‘g’ at the end of the word. Not much of a lengthy word, true, but he’s nonetheless correct.

[Daphne – Yes, it is in fact the only one I can think of, and the reason it’s got a double g is because the alternative ‘eg’ cannot really be countenanced. I’ve just remembered which consonant often gets doubled at the end of a word: F.]