http://www.maltapark.com/item.aspx?ItemID=3543473

@Liberal.

What is alum derivative of?

There’s no equivalent phoneme in Maltese for the English “-al”, “-el”, “-il”, or “-le”.

It’s neither easy, nor impossible.

My mother (and father) couldn’t speak English fluently and neither of them was particularly familiar with the chemical composition of metals.

Going back some 40 years and more, where I come from (the south) I used to hear the adjectival phrase ‘tal-enemel’, used to distinguish between items of crude metal and those that were enamelled, i.e. covered by a glossy, smooth hard coating.

Thus, mother would say ‘il-banju tal-enemel’ to distinguish it from ‘taz-zingu’. Or ‘stanjata tal-enemel’. It seemed that ‘enemiliju’ was derived from ‘enemel’ but obviously the two are not connected.

At that time such working-class kitchen items were made of zinc or iron, and occasionally enamelled (or enameled). I believe the widespread use of aluminium came later and it seems natural to have been referred to it in common parlance as ‘enemilju’.

Whatever it is, I find it equally irritating to see this butchering of language which is neither Maltese and definitely not English.

With the spread of education, reading opportunities coupled with radio and TV exposure in more ‘modern’ times it is unacceptable to see private messages on the public domain containing words like empli-fire, humidity fire(s), enemilju, etc.

– fejs clock (face cloth)
– fexin blajnd ( venetian Blind)
– xok absovers (shock absorbers)
– sangwicc tal hobz
– tixuwwa
– kanolla
– uculetka

“Contact or massage me for more details”

The ‘a’ in festival is not easy for the Maltese or even non-native English speakers, to pronounce.

Liberal: By your reasoning we should do away with most of the proper Maltese words as most of them are corruptions of Italian and Arabic words.