Ara how nice – tal-Labour learned a new word: yaRRRTTTstick. Ghax ma jafux bil-Malti, jahasra.
Yardstick gejja u yardstick sejra.
Even that Ramona Attard, who wouldn’t know a yardstick if it crept up on her and washed her hair, has begun using it.
Her Fearless Leader is using it all the time and used it again this morning.
I’m waiting eagerly for the hour when Kurt Farrugia says it, because the irony will be blissful. If the chap were not so rotund, he would almost be a yardstick himself.
A yard is three feet, and he is maybe four feet eight inches, so we’re almost there.
These are people who haven’t a clue what a yard is, not just because of their age but also because their linguistic history will not have encompassed either the word or the measurement.
I’ll bet you both Ramona and Joseph think that a yardstick is something you might need for your bitha.
In any case, why are they using an English expression they don’t understand when they’re speaking Maltese? I might not be as native a native speaker of Maltese as they are, but even I know that there is the precise equivalent expression in the only language they grew up speaking: tkejjel bl-istess xiber.
I have, however, noticed that Muscat’s Maltese is as bad as his English. He is ineloquent and inarticulate in both, with a very limited vocabulary and unable to form sentences that flow freely.
Measure by the same yardstick (not ‘USE the same yardstick’ – for God’s sake learn the proper expression if you’re going to insist on using it) = tkejjel bl-istess xiber.
All right, Ramona and Joseph? Now please don’t let me hear either of you say, ever again, ‘tuza l-istess yarrrtstick’, because you sound like a couple of klutzes.
13 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
I bet you that they would not know the meaning of xiber, so it would be much better if they use the expression ” bl’istess kejl”.
[Daphne – Oh, really? Then I’ll have to explain that too, the poor things. It’s a handspan, but with fingers splayed. You will notice that since I began this blog they’ve stopped mocking me as a tal-pepe person who doesn’t know Maltese. They’re probably gobsmacked to find out that it’s better than theirs. I can’t do their accent though.]
I have an idea where he should stick his ‘yardstick’.
‘I can’t do their accent though’
When Joseph Muscat pronounces many words with his accent you hardly understand him.
So thank God that no one do his accent.
Ghalhekk jien Sciberras (Xiber ras).
[Daphne – That never occurred to me. How interesting.]
It is not xi beer ras, the origin is xib ir-ras. Semitic for the light on the headland.
Hence ‘mount scibberas’ where Valletta is sited.
The harbours flanking the headland that is now Valletta have been in use for thousands of years and the scibberas heights would have been the natural location for a guiding light for mariners.
Ramona xaghra maghqud. Bhal Partit Laburista.
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10200297535216805&set=a.1332256622266.2051169.1106534380&type=1&theater
[Daphne – Bit pointless. The election will have come and gone by then, unless we’re now eating figolli throughout Lent.]
The mind boggles! I suppose instead of giving lemons to the losing party, they can give a figolla…
Ara vera nies bla bajd.
Imma froga manja mill-pajjiz kollu jafu jaghmluha, tafux!
MIN siehbi ?
Suddenly all the Tal-Labor are speaking in English to everyone – I wonder why?
They have a new buzzword: not ‘barunijiet’ (ghax they’re helping them with their campaign) but ‘yardstick’.