Maqjel versus burdell

A reader posted a comment saying that the Speaker’s reprimand to MPs, that parliament is not a maqjel (pigsty) was inappropriate and degrading.

Then another reader posted a comment saying that it was entirely appropriate, given how many pigs there are at the trough.

And that got me thinking about why the Speaker’s maqjel reference sounded all wrong to me when I first heard it on the video recording. Linguistically wrong, that is, rather than offensive or annoying in other ways.

When I heard it, I thought to myself “Maqjel, why maqjel? This is not about dirt and mess. It’s about fighting and shouting.” And now it’s just clicked: the word he should have used in that context is burdell (bordello)and not maqjel.

In the form of Maltese that I grew up familiar with, maqjel (id-dar tieghu maqjel) is used as a metaphor for dirt, squalor and untidiness, but burdell is used for rowdy behaviour, brawling and slanging matches (ghamlu burdell shih).

The Speaker of the House is not great with vocabulary – most of us remember how he visited the ‘Empire Station’ in New York – but then again, perhaps it’s best that he got confused. Joe Debono Grech might have run off with the idea that somebody had called him a prostitute.

The Speaker of the House