Enough with the ‘monti’. The proper word is ‘suq’. And it’s not a flea market, either.
From time to time, I find myself acting all Miss Whiplash about vocabulary, but the abuse and misuse of words truly upsets me, and for good reason. Words have specific meanings. When you use the wrong word, you’ve muddied your communication, rendered your sentence unclear and given scope for misinterpretation and misunderstanding of what you really meant to say.
Every time I see the word ‘monti’ in a newspaper article, especially if it is in English, I shudder. Then you have all those people, speaking English, who say “the monti”, and do the same when posting comments on Facebook.
IT’S NOT A MONTI. The word in English is MARKET, and the Maltese word for market is SUQ. The words monti and suq are not interchangeable because monti is not a real word. When used in colloquial speech to refer to a market, it refers ONLY to the open market on Merchants Street, which for generations was set up just outside the administrative offices of the Monte di Pieta, where slaves were once redeemed and gold was pawned thereafter. Hence the colloquialism: Monte di Pieta/il-Monti.
The market was set up in that section of Merchants Street as far back as I can remember and until fairly recently, when it was moved down the street. Earlier still – I don’t remember this, but my father, who lived there, does – Merchants Street wasn’t even closed to traffic while the market traded. There was two-way traffic in the street and the stalls were set up on both pavements, wiping pedestrians out of the equation.
The reason why Valletta’s open market came to be called, colloquially, il-Monti and not is-suq is because to Valletta people is-suq was the covered food market on the same street, which had been there for hundreds of years already before the open market came to trade, and so it was essential to differentiate between them. Even to people outside Valletta, is-suq tal-Belt was the covered food market and not the open market.
But all other open markets throughout the island were and still are what they should be: the Arabic word for market, suq, like is-suq tar-Rabat, is-suq tal-Mosta, is-suq tal-Birgu and is-suq ta’ Birkirkara.
People without this background information say and write ludicrous things like il-Monti tal-Mosta instead of is-suq tal-Mosta or, more painfully still, “the Birkirkara monti” (incomprehensible to English speakers who are not Maltese) instead of “the Birkirkara market”.
And another thing: it’s NOT A FLEA MARKET. It’s just a market. ‘Flea market’ is not interchangeable with ‘market held in open space’. A flea market is a very specific kind of market, one in which only old, used, junk, antique and second-hand goods are sold. It’s called a flea market because the goods sold were originally old clothing and bedding that were often flea-infested. Malta’s only flea market is the one that sets up between 5am and 11am every Sunday at the Birgu pitch. All other markets are just markets, not flea markets.
Given that it is no longer necessary to distinguish between the covered food market and the open market in Valletta, and given too that it will be detached from its traditional association with the Monte di Pieta, I think we can all begin using words correctly now and stop calling it il-Monti or (worse still) ‘the monti’.
It’s is-suq; the market. And Monti/flea market be damned.
20 Comments Comment
Leave a Comment
As far as I know, ‘suq’ is the building that permanently hosts indoor market stalls (the French would for this is ‘halle’) and ‘monti’ is an outdoor market.
[Daphne – I gather my explanation isn’t clear enough, despite being extremely specific. Suq is the Maltese (Arabic) word for market. Monti is not a word. It is the colloquialism used to distinguish the market set up outside the MONTE di Pieta from the food market down the same street. I trust you now understand.]
I was simply highlighting clear indications of a semantic shift where now the Maltese language disposes of two very specific words. As a matter of fact, the Valletta indoor market was always referred to as ‘suq’ while the other one was referred to as ‘monti’.
[Daphne – This is no semantic shift. Monti means suq in the same way that Biro means ball-point pen and Hoover means vacuum cleaner. It’s giving the ‘brand’ name of one of that that thing to all of those things.]
eponymously
It’s why we call them Monty Pietans.
Thank you, Daphne. “Phew” for a sense of clarity.
‘fuq il-monti’ describes the stretch of Merchants street where vendors traded their items from their tilari which they pushed themselves along the city’s streets.
You have a Facebook account, Daphne?
[Daphne – No.]
Properly called, it should be “fuq il-Monti” …
IL-Prim: X’tahseb jekk insemmuh ‘Is-Suq Parlamentari’, Ton?
Toni Abela: Ifhem, aktar narah qisu ‘bejn zewg teatri’.
IL-Prim: …jew ‘Is-Suq ta’ Taht il-Parlament.’
Toni Abela: (iqarras wiccu) Leeeee…
IL-Prim: Ghax kont qed nahseb, Ton, mhux fair ghall-bejjiegha fuq in-naha l-batuta ta’ Ordnance Steet, allura majtezwel inresquwwwhom ghal taht il-parlament…
Toni Abela: Il-ahwa x’idea brillanti dik, Lijder, x’genju fik!
IL-Prim: U int ghala tahseb Renzu Pjanu teffahhulna fuq l-istilts, Ton?
Toni Abela: Il-lami, qatt m’ghaddietli minn mohhi din. Kemm se jiehdu pjacir it-Teletubbies la nghidilhom!
All absolutely correct. However, I think the Valletta market will remain known as il-Monti. There simply is nothing correct about that lot so calling them the right name is not going to happen.
I was surprised when I saw that the word flea market was used by your readers here, because as you explained, a flea market is something else.
Il-monti tal-arkotta.
Behold a flea market gone totally borghese, vintage, eclectic, iconic, European.
It’s only once a month and at Milan’s Naviglo grande, the canal which served barges supplying the city, the dock outside Porta Genova, one of the gates delineating the old city walls. That would be the equivalent of the menqa in Marsa.
The Milanese would never tolerate a flea market in Piazza della Scala with the Opera and Palazzo Marino, the seat of government, at both ends.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mnNOvUetNes
Trust the Milanese to design a market to flourish into a phenomenon. Collectors beware, or drive up in a van. The side street leading from the metro everything 20th century jewellery.
It’s also pertinent to ask why Labour intends to disrupt Birgu’s flea market. It had taken on a life of its own. Obviously not Taghna Lkoll.
Or this:
http://www.midnightbazar.de/muenchen
Correct me if I am wrong but I was always under the impression that the term “Monti” originated from the three-card Monte game that was very popular in the market, hence colloquially it was used instead of Suq.
[Daphne – You have the explanation in my post above. The open market was set up for generations just outside the Monte di Pieta in Merchants Street. There was a closed (food) market further down the street (still is). The food market was and still is simply ‘is-suq’, for the reason that it was there first, long before the other one. When the other one came along, it called ‘is-suq tal-Monti (di Pieta)’ to distinguish it from the other. And then it became just ‘il-Monti’.]
The ‘monti’ reminds me of another word derived from a public building in Malta whose usage became part of colloquial Maltese.
Before the construction of Mount Carmel Hospital in the nineteenth century, patients with mental disease were housed in Villa Franconi in Floriana. It was known by the now unacceptable terminology as The Lunatic Asylum for Imbeciles.
But ta’ Frankuni became part of the Maltese vernacular for a mental hospital, and to this day some people refer to Mount Carmel Hospital as ta’ Frankuni. I have even heard a psychiatric hospital in the UK being referred to as ta’ Frankuni.
Very interesting. Actually, for most people from Valletta, like Daphne’s father, the area where that open air market was located was known as “fuq il-monti” rather than just “il-monti”.
It had been located there since the time of the knights when there also used to be some craftsmen working there, such as cobblers. The historical background given by Daphne is correct but I disagree with the semantic explanation.
I believe any linguistics scholar would hold that the word “monti” has now acquired the meaning of “open air market” by analogy with the original one in Valletta. Many or most of today’s open air markets are a relatively recent development and the word monti is now associated with them. Today, the philosophy of linguistics is descriptive – how people use words – rather than prescriptive – how people should use words. One may agree or disagre but this how it is.
[Daphne – ‘Minn fuq il-Monti’: fascinating, because that’s exactly how I say it, but I never stopped to wonder about it, or why, when I hear people say ‘mill-Monti’, it sounds like they’ve got it wrong. Well, now I know that it sounds to me like they’ve got it wrong because they have got it wrong. I grew up with ‘xtrah minn fuq il-Monti’ and ‘ibiegh fuq il-Monti’, so much so that – I now recall, thanks to you – the kind of ‘Slimizi’ who used to joke around by using phrases translated literally from Maltese used to say ‘did you buy that from ON THE MONTI?’ Again, it never clicked until I read your comment.
As for the word ‘monti’ being absorbed into the language in lieu of ‘suq’, I have to disagree completely. You have to distinguish between colloquial and proper use of language. The fact that most Maltese people call vacuum-cleaners ‘Hoovers’, even when speaking English, does not mean that ‘hoover’ is now the new word for vacuum-cleaner.
Open air markets in towns and villages are absolutely not a recent development. It is shops which are ‘recent’ developments. Markets were the precursors of shops. Maltese towns and villages had market before they had shops. But that was the same everywhere in the world.]
It-termos, il-biro, il-hoover, il-kenwood and il-monti. Kulhadd sejjer sal-Monti, jghid.
I read elsewhere that Flea Markets was coined from the verb “to flee”. It came about from Travelers and Roma who would be forced out of towns and in the rush “to flee” they would sell as much of their gear as possible to lighten the load.
[Daphne – Comments like this one make me want to…well, never mind. Haven’t you noticed that the spelling of ‘flea’ and ‘flee’ is different? That means that the words have completely different meanings despite sounding exactly the same. They’re called flea markets because they started out selling used clothes and bedding, which tended to be flea-infested in less hygienic decades than ours.]
Yes, noticed the difference in spelling and I referred to it in my post. I believe that there is debate behind the etymology of the word.
[Daphne – Please.]