“Se tmur bl-Autobuses de Leon?” “Ha naqbad l-Autobuses de Leon.”
Or else, a Times of Malta front page story: AUTOBUS DE LEON BUS INVOLVED IN CRASH.
When I heard the news that the Spanish company Autobuses de Leon will be taking over the public bus service, I laughed. I had a sudden mental image of all those people who suddenly began using ‘Arriva’ in substitute for ‘bus’ doing the same with the rather more complicated name Autobuses de Leon.
They’re going to have to, if they want to be consistent.
Buses are now buses again – we have segued merrily from ‘nistenna l-Arriva’ to ‘nistenna l-bus’. So now what’s it going to be – ‘nistenna l-Autobuses de Leon’?
I am all agog to see what verbal contortions will emerge of the ‘pirmli/spukxin/petlor/ekstrajn’ variety. I just love these things.
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We are familiar with the name Auberge de Castille, Leon et Portugal.
Please also include the infamous “majkinbrejk”? Can somebody/anybody explain which part of a car engine this is or is it peculiar to Malta?
[Daphne – Make ‘n’ break is accurate, so nothing to laugh at there. I used to work for a lift engineering company when I left school so I have always known what a make-and-break is: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/make-and-break . I’m afraid the laugh’s on you here…]
“Majkinbrejk” is “make and break” or to be more technical, the mechanical contact breaker which used to be found in motor cars.
Its purpose was to interrupt the low voltage from the battery; this pulsating voltage was applied to the ignition coil, actually a transformer, which generated the high voltage necessary to produce a spark and thereby cause combustion of the fuel in the cylinders.
Nowadays in modern cars most of this is done electronically.
Nistenna l-bassa tal-iljun.
Perfect.
Much more interesting is the advert at the top of the screen grab. World Class Speakers indeed!
My feeling is that they will become a plain and simple ‘l-Ispanjoli’.
Yes, it would have to be sufficiently xenophobic to fit into the Maltese context.
I disagree.
The obvious moniker for Autobuses de Leon is ‘Ta’ l-Iljun’.
Sejjer bl-iljun.
Anzi…bil-bass tal-iljun.
Tbasbis tal-iljun.
Qed nistenna l-iljun.
Issa flok ma ngħidu qbadt l-Arriva , ngħidu qbadt tal-iljun.
Xi qbatlu l-iljun?
Mhux il-bass?
Bilħaqq, ikteb Malti tajjeb jekk jogħġbok.
“qbadtlu” niktbu.
Ha naqbad tal-linja. Just that.
“Se mmur il-belt mal-basbas tal-iljun, Mer.”
Mill-ewwel tas-sena Mizzi bus
Jew bil-bass ta Mizzi
Skuzi, sa l-ahhar tas-sena biss bil-“Mizzi bus”. Allahares nibqghu sejrin hekk anki mis-sena d-diehla. Ehles jghaddu dawn ix-xahrejn li fadal.
Halliha li (ma niskantax) li sejrin inhallsu ferm aktar.
Pero’ m’ghandix ghaliex nisma’ tgergir tafx – ghaliex sejra taghmel tajjeb iz-zieda ta’ 58 centezmi.
Int ghadek temmen lil dan-nies?
Meta kienet iddum il-bus in-nies kienu joffendu l-Arriva. Issa meta iddum jistaw jibdew joffendu lil Ministru Mizzi.
Iktar hafifa milli toqod toffendi l-isem il-gdid.
Or back to karozza tal-“Leon”ja.
Bus riders can use the initials of this new bus company, so they would be “ADL” and pronounced “addle” and very appropriate too.
ad·dle/ˈadl/
verb
make unable to think clearly; confuse.
adjective
(of an egg) rotten.
Ha naqbad ta’Joe Mizzi.
Marija qabdet il bass ta’ l-iljun. Imma kella tinzel wara ftit ghax il bass marrulha l-ispartan plukks.
Dlonk hareg Joey is-sewwieq u gera wara Marija ghax din kienet insiet il-humbakk fuq il bass u fit kellha erbghin ewro u kaxxa pirmli ta lesperina.
Joey kien jaf li Marija tbaghti mil-ugieh ta ras. Il pirmli kien taghhomlha l-Profs wara ghamlilha extrajt l-ipstar.
Zmien l-Ispanjoli.
The new bus service is the brainchild of Joe Mizzi. So they will be called “il-bass ta l-iljun”
This blog post was seriously hilarious. You are brilliant, I laughed so hard as I was one of those people who made the transition from bus to Arriva. Thank God I don’t have to say that anymore in a year’s time when I get my driving licence.
However the buses are still the Arriva buses. If they remain the same, they will still be Arriva buses, however run by a different company.
I refer to buses as “buses” or “karozzi tal-linja”. Am I the only one to use the latter term?
No, mate, you are not. As a matter of fact, until some time ago we used to be told that “b’tal-linja jaqbillek”
But – and big but – those darned bus-drivers still refer to the bus as ‘it-trakk’.
It’s useless to tell them, much as I myself often do, that a ‘trakk’ is used to carry boxes, pigs and cows – not human beings.
Bus tal-Manjana, stennieh ja cuc.
We just need to change Arriva to Arriba.
Soon that joke won’t be funny anymore.
Why are the Maltese bus owners so silent about the Autobuses de Leon deal?
Is it true that, as rumour has it, most of them are part of this setup?
Isn’t it obvious they’ll be paid off again? And then when there’s a campaign to get rid of the Spanish, they’ll be taken on again.
When I asked someone about it, the answer was that the present bus drivers (not bus owners) will be taken into government employment. How this can or will be done, I don’t know.
The silence is deafening. Commuters are also keeping mum on the increase in fares. Anke jekk isawwathom dan il-gvern, joqghodulu.
Xala-l-iljun-bank
“Dalghodu rrid naqbad lil tal-ljun, Chalie! ” …..”Dawk il-homor, Chal, qishom forn daqs kemm hemm shuna minghajr il condixinn!….Haqq ghal Mizzi ..dak zgur, hu fil karozza bil kondixxin jigi ghax-xoghol Chal, mela b’tal Ljun!”
Joe Mizzi – The Colossus of Roads
Ghadni kif smajt li hierga tender ghal gabjetti, flokkijiet ta’ taht u sigarri tal-farfett (dawk li jnittnu kullikiem) ghax xufiera tal-bassis. Dan biex inzommu tradizzjoni antikatax xufiera ta’ qabel.
Meta l-bus jigi tard nibdew nighdu ‘f’gh*xx il-ministru Mizzi’ flok ‘f’gh*xx l-Arriva’.
Joe Mizzi- Our own version of King Midas : Everything he touches turns into gold.
I have a feeling it will be more like, “Din il-beeeeep ta’ karrozza meta gejja”.
Other than that people will revert to the progressive “tal-linja”