Hamalli United update (3): A new Maltese word – TIHHEKKJA (to hack)

Published: October 6, 2014 at 7:26pm

hekkink

This is SO maddening.

If we are going to use loan words from English or whatever other language, and conjugate them like Maltese verbs, can we AT LEAST get the vowels right.

Is the English verb ‘to heck’?

No, it is not.

So why is it ‘tihhekkja’ in Maltese? Because poorly educated Maltese people pronounce the English ‘a’ as ‘e’?

And so the rest of us are expected to follow them rather than they following us because we are right and they are WRONG?

No wonder Maltese children are coming out of schools unable to read and write properly in either language.

“Hanini, it’s ‘heck’ in Maltese but ‘hack’ in English.”

That’s not what some people think, though, is it – they think it’s ‘heck’ in both English and Maltese, even though they’ve yet to hear anyone say ‘I’ve been hecked’ in any British or American film they’ve watched.

It’s not that they can’t pronounce ‘hack’, because when they want to use an old-fashioned curse that they think is still in current usage, they say WHAT THE HACK, just as Joseph Muscat famously did on one of his first forays into the European Parliament.




19 Comments Comment

  1. Not Sandy:P says:

    There were another two today: fultajm and onlajn.

  2. GiovDeMartino says:

    I have come across another new word in Maltese: stessu for selfie

  3. observer says:

    Kien hemm zmien meta l-MITA kienet istituzzjoni serja, u serja hafna.

    Dak iz-zmien, pero’ ma kellhomx lil Herrera jippozalhom u jippoppa zaqqu ghar-ritratti.

    Illum, l-affarijiet tbiddlu – u tbiddlu sewwa ghall-aghar.

    • H.P. Baxxter says:

      A hackathon is or hacking contest is usually a very good thing. But there must be something at the end of it for the coding wizkid geekoids.

      Usually, it’s a super-lucrative job with the NSA, GCHQ, or the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence. Plus job offers from Google and Facebook with three times the super-lucrative salary.

      What’s the prize here? A photo with a balding, blaspheming lawyer?

      Bloody joke, as we’ve come to expect from Malta. Bloody slick presscon joke. With appropriate list of sponsors.

  4. Banana Republic .... again says:

    Bloody heck!

  5. jackie says:

    What the hack!

  6. Corruption is now being extended to the Maltese language. This should be a crime.

  7. Joe says:

    What the heck. Nihhekkja rrid.

  8. ken il malti says:

    This is coming from the same great school of “il-karozza ipparkjata.”

  9. il-Ginger says:

    Anyone hear the Tander last night?

  10. La Redoute says:

    Are crumpled trouser hems the new black?

  11. Freedom5 says:

    Why does Jose always look so untidy – although he seems to have made an effort in this photo. But still:

    1) wrong trouser length;

    2) shirt collar too large;

    3) shirt sleeves too long;

    4) when you’ve lost most of your hair, go very short with what’s left.

    Finally, speech notes should be in breast pocket and not covering the genitalia like a paper shield.

  12. pacikk says:

    How about the absurd ‘Cermen’ for chairman? This is really getting ridiculous.

  13. Malti ta' Veru says:

    Everything is acceptable today…….the level of mediocrity and amateurism at OPM and Ministeries is unbelievable! (Or perhaps it is not unbelievable, when we consider who are running these institutions today!)

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