The new Maltese: English words spelled as pronounced by some Maltese people
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February 5, 2015 at 2:49am
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Why not ‘rawn-e-bawt’ I wonder?
That’s atrocious. You either write it all in Maltese or leave it in English.
Fakoff.
So why not “parowl”?
Whatever happened to the “d” in what was already an abomination?
Xi hadd tajjarha b’daqqa ta’ karozza.
Tawha parkin’ tikit.
This new mode of writing English words in Maltese is merely an excuse for not learning English. Although this word, hopefully, has not been approved by the Akkamedja or whatever committee it is that took it upon itself to decide what makes good Maltese, I always questioned the members’ level of proficiency in English.
Love your middle h.
The akkademja chooses to employ Winston Smith’s method.
They can’t even spell “xoghlijiet” properly. As for rawnabout, may God have mercy on the future of Maltese orthography.
Oh my. And it’s not even on Super One.
It is the people who work there who make a station and not the name on the screen, so I beg to differ.
TVM is Super One
No, it’s on Super II.
With “public” spelling like this and sms language, it is no wonder that the young are failing miserably in English.
Unfortunately it’s nothing new. Much of our language could be said to be a series of mispronounced, mispelt and then borrowed foreign words.
A few examples to get you started: poplu (popolo), bongu (bonjour), trabixu (tirebouchon), bonswa (bonsoir), pitlor (petrol), etc
‘Fajjar” (Fire!)
Dave, that’s what happens in all languages.
Looks like you misspelt *mispelt. But that’s OK, l-aqwa li ftehemna.
A bunch of foshermockers.
Shame on them! It’s spelt RUNTAPOWT.
I believe that is just a misprint. Usually the Maltese who cannot pronounce roundabout would say randabout. I hear it very frequently in Malta.
Might have been a genuine spelling mistake. BBC and Sky News sometimes do have mistakes too.
Dawwara?
Yawn-about.
I know that Malta faces more serious problems that should gain the attention of our politicians, but isn’t it high time that some parliamentarian asked who is responsible for this evidence of illiteracy in public signs, most of which have to do with transport?
Even “xogholijiet” is incorrectly spelled! It should read “xoghlijiet”.
So infuriating. The gene pool must be really restricted.
God bless Andrew Alamango.
https://maltashellac78rpm.files.wordpress.com/2010/12/screen-shot-2010-12-15-at-16-32-251.png
https://maltashellac78rpm.files.wordpress.com/2010/11/advert-9-250731.jpg
How about: lisptic (lipstick) or krips (Crisp).
They ran out of w’s in roundabout/rawndabout/roundabawt
Rabixx
PBS l-inqas jafu jiktbu bil-Malti sew. Isthu.
Minglish as she is spelled.
‘Dear children: In this spelling bee
You have my deepest sympathy;
For, in the days when I was yongue,
Tho’ werds tripped glibly from my toung,
Whene’er I came to spell them oubt
I found myself in dreadful dout
Trigh as I wood, strive as I mite,
I cood not tell the rong from wright.
I never new, I never saugh
A spelling book, but I cried “Faw!
There’s not won rool in awl the lot
That has not sum exceptions got.”
I red the lessons threw and threw,
Yet when into a man I grough
I never coodd lern hough to spell
Dou yew? I hope yough do — and well.’
From:
Works in the Herald 1930
AS SHE IS SPELT
My thought this morning while walking was that soon we shall be obliged to write English words in the new unconceivable Maltese language as I saw the word “cake” written “kejk”.
I would never have understood it meant the familiar “tea cake”.
Someone yesterday uploaded a photo of a recipe book page on Facebook. The recipe called for “ajsingxugar (icing sugar)” – yes, with the English version in brackets.
They can ‘oblige’ all they want, I for one flatly refuse to further mangle my English.
The latest ‘new’ spelling abomination I saw is on a billboard just off the ramp from the Regional Road to Marsa. It was advertising a ‘live xow.’
Don’t know about ‘pitrol’ or ‘trabixu’, I always said ‘petrol’ and ‘trabuxu’.
All the others words mentioned in Dave’s post were already there when I was born, so to me they are culture, but words such as ‘rouwnabout’ are double cringe.
Just leave the English spelling if there is no Maltese word for it.
Pirmli?
It’s getting more pathetic by the day.
Even xoghlijiet is spelt badly.
It’s “rawndebawt” in one of my daughter’s textbooks. Oh, and compositions are now officially “esejs” in Maltese, too. I despair. We used to write that way out of boredom in the early ’80s.
TVM touched rock bottom when it comes to quality of reporting and grammar. It’s even worse than Super One.
Owen u Geniss
Cepter 3 – Nitrennjaw
Mad-dawl taz-zerniq, jew forsi tubu tan-nejon, bexxaq ghajnejh bil-mod u stenbah. Idu malajr tharrket sabiex issib il-gisem townjat u slimm tal-mahbuba tieghu. Izda ma sab xejn.
Hares madwaru, u induna li kien l-isptar, fil-kexwilti wort. Imbaghad qam hesrem u kollox gie lura fi flexxbekk tremend – il-lejl ta’ mhabba passjonali, it-tiri, it-twerziq tal-mahbuba, il- karcejs frenetika madwar toroq u rawnebawts.
“Fl-ahhar qomt? Fittex hu l-brejkfast u x-xawer ghax ghandna bzonn is-sodda,” qal lehen jirbombja.
Kienet in-ners. Kien fiha ‘l fuq minn mitt kilò, ma nafx kemm jigu stowns, u mibnija qisha panzer.
“Int taf min jien jien? Jien il-min—”
Imma kienet digà telqet mill-wort, bil-karkur ikaxkar mal-art polixjata, biex tiddiskuti l-ahhar ajtim li xtrajt minn fuq ijbej ma’ shabha n-nersis.
Hares lejn genbu u stenna li jara l-ganxott wuwnt. Ma kien hemm xejn. Din ma stennihiex. Mela x’ra lbierah? Insomma kien ihobb jiehu s-saxejs tal-kecapp mieghu meta jmorru Berger Kink. U bil-fernezija ta’ mhabba ma bediex jaghraf jolly rubber minn kecapp hu u jiftah l-envilopps tal-enemilju bi snienu.
Insomma, l-aqwa li ma kellu xejn.
Anke l-Glock kienu tawulu lura.
Ha l-brejkfast (bajda skrembilt u kornflejks), ha xawer, u ihhowlsterja l-Glock.
Kellu donink rijalajzejxin li waqa’ ghan-nejk wahda u sewwa mal-partner.
Meta r-ra s-siluwett tal-hajert gunman ilbierah, ipprova jigri warajh imma wara hamsin metru kellu jieqaf b’nifsu maqtugh. Sadattant il-gunman kien et larc. Ma jistax ikun. Jehtieg li jittrennja.
Dakinhar stess beda. Libes ix-xorts, il-papocc tal-krosstrejnink, flokk tal-Hellihensin, u cempel lill-persinal trejner. Dak gie fuq il-bajsikil. Kien fit, mhux bhalu. Kardjo kemm jiflah, qallu.
U telqu. Bdew fuq is-sifrant. Hawn bdew sitt gimghat li fihom ir-rumanz sar mowxin bler wahda ta’ trejnink montaxx wara l-iehor. Bis-sawntrekk ejtiss, ovvjament.
Tum tum tum aj of di tajger…tum tum tuuu tuuu tumm. Beda jara l-ebs jixirfu mill-massa tax-xaham. Beda jhoss vivacità gdida kemm fizika kif ukoll psikosesswali. Il-pekks issudawlu. Kardjo, wejts, kardjo, ergajna wejts, naq’a krosstrejnink, u kardjo. Beda l-Muj Tajj. Kien qed isir baff u xreddit. U n-nies indunaw u kienu qed jghidulu, u n-nisa wkoll.
Baff u maco u hadd ma jista’ ghalih. Il-Glock kienet lest. Ghamlilha naqra frejm jisslajdja bhal tal-kxaxen. Ju tokin tu mi? Ju tokin tu mi? Daqqa ta’ drieghu u tohrog l-arma fuq l-islajd. Issa jaraw. Ma qaxxarx xaghru mowhok imma thajjar biex.
In the U.K. some argue that children who use ‘textisms’ have greater phonological awareness and are probably writing more than ever before.
Maltese children are at a disadvantage because English isn’t their native language. The problem is further compounded by a limited English vocabulary and a difficulty in producing a correctly spelled stream of coherent text. This problem is easily noticable in blogs written by adults on local papers.
The irritating idea of spelling English words to Maltese pronunciation is going to confuse the issue even further. English words should be retained in their original English spelling and written within inverted commas while Maltese alternative words should be sought or created thus enriching the language.
You cannot enrich rubbish. And inverted commas are a non-starter. They’re used in every other language in the world for other purposes (sarcasm, innuendo, quotes).
There only one option for Maltese: euthanasia.
Ewtanasja please.