Maltese

It-traduzzjoni mill-Malti lejn lingwi oħrajn li tikkonċerna l-letteratura lokali għadha relativament fil-bidu tagħha billi ftit kienu dawk il-kittieba jew tradutturi Maltin li fl-imgħoddi kienu jħarsu lil hinn minn xtutna biex joffru lill-barranin dak li jinħoloq lokalment.

 Fabrice Condemi, make-up artist des stars et des people, vient de lancer une ligne de soins rien que pour eux.  Par ailleurs, j'ai aussi suivi une formation pour enlever au laser ce qui était mal fait.  Des jetsetteuses exigeantes issues du monde de la mode et du show-biz.  Un jour, une des ses clientes new-yorkaises débarque au salon avec de super longs cils.  Patrice est bluffé par les résultats.  Les femmes en sont fans, mais les hommes aussi.  Vogue lui fait l'honneur d'une interview de trois pages.  Une solution naturelle pour rajeunir le regard, mais aussi booster la croissance des cils des personnes qui ont subi une chimio.

This paper aims to analyse irregular verbs in Maltese and compares the examples to their counterparts in four Tunisian dialects, mainly the dialect of Sousse, Tunis, Judeo Tunisian Arabic, Tunisian Arabic as described by Stumme and Moroccan. Maltese as any other Arabic dialect has continued to evolve and grow further away from Classical Arabic; the close affinities Maltese shares with the Tunisian dialects are quite obvious as are the several isoglosses attested which distinguish the Maghrebi dialects as a group. It is for this reason that Maltese here is being compared to four Tunisian dialects, with the examples given from Moroccan to often serve as contrast. This paper is partly based on the questionnaire by Dominique Caubet, 'Questionnaire du Dialectologie du Maghreb', as well as another unpublished paper by the same author entitled: 'Towards a dialectological atlas of Maltese; questions to be raised' (2007), the aims of which was to draw a linguistic atlas of the Maghrebi dialects and Maltese.

This article gives an overview description of the key facts relating to the expression of negation in contemporary Standard Maltese. Issues considered include anaphoric negation, constituent negation, sentential negation expressed both with the particle mhux and the bipartite construction ma…-x, factors governing omission of one or both elements of the biparite construction, the interaction of negation with indefinite pronouns, and the analysis of-x in non-negative contexts.

Tradizzjonalment l-avverbju hu magħruf bħala l-parti tad-diskors li tispeċifika jew timmodifika t-tip ta’ azzjoni tal-verb. Madankollu l-avverbji jistgħu wkoll jimmodifikaw elementi li ma jaqgħux taħt il-verb, pereżempju l-aġġettivi, It-tifla ħelwa immens, ilprepożizzjonijiet,
Tela’ ’l fuq iżżejjed, u saħansitra avverbji oħra, Kiber wisq malajr
(Brother Henry 190). Bħalma jispjega Crystal (8), dan il-grupp ta’ kliem sar eteroġenju billi żdied miegħu għadd ta’ tipi ta’ kliem differenti, ngħidu aħna, intensifikaturi bħal tassew. Fi kliem ieħor, l-avverbju hu dak li jimmodifika kull element tas-sentenza, inkluż is-sentenza sħiħa, għall-kuntrarju tal-aġġettiv li jimmodifika biss in-nom. L-avverbju jista’ jimmodifika wkoll frażijiet jew anki sentenzi sħaħ, skont jekk jiġix integrat bejn l-elementi differenti tas-sentenza u jimmodifika wieħed jew tnejn minnhom biss, jew jekk jiħux ilforma ta’ sentenza subordinata avverbjali u b’hekk jimmodifika s-sentenza prinċipali kollha.

Fil-każ tal-Malti ma sarx ħafna studju fuq l-avverbji. Fil-fatt ħafna grammatiċi (Cachia 125-29; Cremona 229-300; Sutcliffe 193-199; Brother Henry 190-91) kemm isemmuhom fuq fuq u jinnutaw li jinqasmu, fost l-oħrajn, f’avverbji taż-żmien, bħal għada, f’tal-post, bħal hemm, f’tal-mod, bħal bil-mod, f’tal-kwantità/grad, bħal immens, f’tan-negazzjoni, bħal ma ... xejn, jew f’tal-mistoqsija, bħal kif. Ħafna grammatiċi bikrin (Cremona 228-30; Brother Henry 190; Zarb 294) iqisu l-avverbju fil-Malti bħala kategorija grammatikali li taqa’ taħt il-partiċella. L-iskop ta’ din it-teżi hija li nfittex ilkunċett tal-avverbju fiex jissarraf fil-Malti u kif iġibu ruħhom il-kliem u l-frażijiet kollha lijaqgħu taħt din il-kategorija. Biex nagħmel dan, l-ewwel se nibda billi niċċara l-kunċett tal-avverbiju billi nesplora kif jiġi użat fid-deskrizzjoni grammatikali ta’ lingwi differenti.
Għażilt li niffoka fuq tliet lingwi, l-Ingliż, it-Taljan u l-Għarbi, u nara kif l-avverbju jidher f’dawn il-lingwi biex b’hekk inkun nista’ nqabbel id-differenzi u s-similaritajiet interlingwistiċi. Għażilt dawn it-tliet lingwi l-għaliex minħabba li għandhom tradizzjoni
twila u estensiva ta’ riċerka grammatikali u minħabba li fl-istorja lingwistika ta’ pajjiżna, dawn it-tliet ilsna kellhom l-aktar kuntatt ma’ tagħna u allura setgħu jaffettwawh b’xi mod jew ieħor.
Fejn jidħlu t-transliterazzjonijiet bl-Għarbi ma stajtx nagħti l-gloss bħalma hu mistenni minħabba li l-kotba li kont qed nikkonsulta ma taw l-ebda ħjiel tal-elementi individwali
tas-sentenza, anzi ħafna drabi l-eżempji li kienu jagħtu kienu bl-Għarbi biss, allura kienet sfida għalija, li ma naqrax bl-Għarbi biex neqleb l-eżempji bl-alfabett Latin u biex nipprova nsib it-tifsira ta’ kull kelma individwali li kienet użata. Fejn kien hemm bżonn
biex il-punt li nkun qed niddiskuti joħroġ akar ċar, niżżilt ukoll il-kategorija grammatikali tat-transliterazzjoni.

Fejn jidħlu l-eżempji, fejn ħassejt li kelli niġbed l-attenzjoni lejn xi parti partikolari ta’ sentenza jew frażi li kont qed inġib bħala eżempju, għamilt dan billi qtajt linja taħtha.

This paper studies "hidden" effects of language contact between Maltese, Romance languages and English that are not cases of borrowing, copying, or replication from dominant or prestigious language(s), the usual categorization in studies on language contact.

The relationship between the Maltese and Arab Culture has not been as well-examined as that between Sicily and the Arabs. This article reviews that association, with parituclar reference to the Maltese language and its status vis-a-vis Arabic.

This chapter presents an overview of the most prominent contact-induced developments in the history of Maltese, a language which is genetically a variety of Arabic, but which has undergone significant changes, largely as a result of lengthy contact with Sicilian, Italian, and English. We first address the precise affiliation of Maltese and the nature of the historical and ongoing contact situations, before detailing relevant developments in the realms of phonology, inflectional and derivational morphology, syntax, and lexicon.

This dissertation is a quantitative analysis of constituent order (i.e. the order of subject, verb and object) in contemporary (post-2000) Maltese, a Semitic language descended from North African varieties of Arabic, spoken primarily in the Malta archipelago and Australia. The analysis is based on data collected in two corpora: a general corpus and a syntactically annotated corpus (dependency treebank); the compilation and description of the treebank is the secondary aim of this work.
The dissertation comprises 8 chapters divided into two parts: the first three chapters ofwhich provide a conceptual foundation (chapter 1), a review of existing major approaches to the study of constituent order (chapter 2) and a review of previous works on Maltese constituent order (chapter 3). Using these as the background, chapter 4 then sets the research questions and methodology. The remaining three chapters form the core of the dissertation: chapter 5 describes the composition and enrichment of the general corpus of Maltese. Chapter 6 then provides a thorough description of the Maltese treebank and the annotation decisions, thus in effect assembling a sketch of
Maltese syntax. Chapter 7 contains the actual quantitative analysis of constituent order in Maltese based on the treebank, arriving at the conclusion that the dominant order is SVO or SV/VO and making a detailed case for rejecting previous descriptions of Maltese constituent order as “discourse-configurational”, “topic-prominent” and “free”.
The final chapter summarizes the findings and lays out a number of avenues for further research into the topic.

The negative existential cycle has been shown to be operative in several language families. Here it is shown that it also operates within a single language. It happens that the existential fī that has been adduced as an example of a type A in the Arabic of Damascus, Syria, negated with the standard spoken Arabic verbal negator mā, does not participate in a negative cycle, but another Arabic existential particle does. Reflexes of the existential particle šay(y)/šē/šī/ši of southern peninsular Arabic dialects enter into a type A > B configuration as a univerbation between mā and the existential particle ši in reflexes of maši. It also enters that configuration in others as a univerbation between mā, the 3rd-person pronouns hū or hī, and the existential particle šī in reflexes of mahūš/mahīš. At that point, the existential particle šī loses its identity as such to be reanalyzed as a negator, with reflexes of mahūš/mahīš negating all manner of non-verbal predications except existentials. As such, negators formed of reflexes of šī skip a stage B, but they re-enter the cycle at stage B > C, when reflexes of mahūš/mahīš begin negating some verbs. The consecutive C stage is encountered only in northern Egyptian and southern Yemeni dialects. An inchoate stage C > A appears only in dialects of Lower Egypt.

Astratt: Din l-analiżi turi kif is-Semitiku, ir-Rumanz u l-Ingliż li minnhom magħmul il-Malti jippermettu dinamiżmu u flessibilità kbira fil-qasam tat-traduzzjoni kemm letterarja kif ukoll nonletterarja. Il-forma ortografika u t-tifsira semantika tal-kliem Malti-Rumanz huma ħafna drabi l-istess bħal dawk tal-kliem Malti-Ingliż u dan għax kemm l-Ingliż kif ukoll it-Taljan għandhom fil-lessiku għadd ta' għeruq komuni li etimoloġikament imorru lura għal-Latin Medjevali. Ir-rwol tat-traduzzjoni hu li jwassal it-test sors b'mod awtentiku lill-qarrej tat-test mira u mhux li jippreserva l-element Semitiku fil-Malti. Għalhekk għandha ssir distinzjoni bejn lingwa u traduzzjoni sabiex jiġi osservat id-determiniżmu lingwisitku stabbilit mill-awtur tal-lingwa sors fl-għażla tal-lessiku li twassal għar-replika vera tat-test oriġinali fil-lingwa mira tat-traduttur.

This paper examines the developments of the Proto-Arabic short vowel
system as it develops up to its reflexes in modern Maltese. The analysis focuses
on establishing regular correspondence from underived primary nouns. From
there it is shown that several developments in the verbal system cannot be the
result of regular sound change, and instead have undergone analogical developments.
Finally, through these regular sound correspondences, it becomes
clear that the alternation of jeHCeC and jahCeC verbs in Maltese must reflect a
continuation of the ancient alternation in the verbal prefix of Proto-Arabic
which was lost in Classical Arabic.

Dan l-artiklu jitratta l-possibbiltà ta' annotazzjoni kompluta ta' Ulied in-Nanna Venut fl-Amerika ta' Juann Mamo, fid-dawl tal-edizzjonijiet differenti tiegħu mill-1930-31 sal-2010 li jistgħu jolqtu r-riċezzjoni tal-qarrej ta' żminijiet differenti minħabba l-volum ta' referenzi kulturali li, bħal ma jissuġġerixxi Bernard MIcallef, kienu saru bħala kumment, anki satiriku, li jirfed il-ġrajja ġurnalistika magħruf mill-ewwel qarreja tar-rumanz.

EN

Synopsis: Through interdisciplinary description and analysis, this thesis investigates the city as a concept in the poems written by Norbert Bugeja. The founding discourse is elicited from the fields of architecture, philosophy (mainly phenomenology), and sociology. This research deals with the relation between the body (physically) and the house (mentally) on one side, and space on the other, whilst reference is made to verticality, horizontality, betweenness, roundness, and techniques of cyclicality, such as the chiasmic structure. I also investigate the relationship humanity has with the environment, plants and trees, animals, and individuals themselves. My critical outlook also includes the dialectics of haunting, that is, whether the inhabitants haunt (i.e. possess) the environment they live in, or whether it is the environment that haunts them. The works of Gaston Bachelard and Walter Benjamin proved inspirational to the analysis carried out in this research.

MT

Sinopsi: Din it-teżi tistħarreġ il-kunċett tal-belt fil-poeżiji ta’ Norbert Bugeja permezz ta’ deskrizzjonijiet u analiżi interdixxiplinarji, fost oħrajn b’diskors mill-oqsma tal- arkitettura, il-filosofija (primarjament il-fenomenoloġija), u s-soċjoloġija. Fost l-aspetti mistħarrġa hemm ir-relazzjonijiet bejn il-ġisem (mil-lat fiżiku) u d-dar (mil-lat mentali) fuq naħa, u l-ispazji fuq naħ’ oħra. Issir ukoll referenza għall-vertikalità, l-orizzontalità, il- bejjieni (betweenness), it-tond, u tekniki ta’ ċikliċità bħall-istruttura kjażmika. Nistħarreġ ukoll ir-relazzjonijiet bejn l-abitanti tal-ibliet, u l-ispazji li jgħixu fihom, b’referenza għar- relazzjonijiet mal-art, mal-pjanti u s-siġar, mal-annimali, u mal-bnedmin infushom. Tingħata wkoll ħarsa kritika lejn id-djalettika tal-ħkim, jiġifieri jekk humiex l-abitanti li jaħkmu l-ambjent ta’ madwarhom, jew jekk hux l-ambjent li jaħkimhom. Fost l- esponenti ewlenin li bnejt fuqhom hemm Gaston Bachelard u Walter Benjamin.

F'din il-kitba nistħarrġu fil-qosor l-istorja ġewwinija ta’ Dun Ġorġ fuq l-isfond ta’ diversi ‘ambjenti’ li aktarx sawruha, fosthom il-familja tat-trobbija tiegħu, il-qagħda ta’ Malta fi żmien l-ewwel nofs ta’ ħajtu, l-edukazzjoni formali tiegħu, u l-politika tal-Knisja Kattolika. Fl-aħħar nisiltu ftit prinċipji filosofiċi li setgħu nebbħuh fil-missjoni li wettaq.

Traduzzjoni tiegħi tat-test “L-Anus Solari” ta’ Georges Bataille. Fil-bidu dan it-test kellu jkun l-iskritt ċentrali ta’ ġabra qasira ta’ traduzzjonijiet ta’ Bataille li kellha tidher bl-isem “L-Anus Solari u Skritti Oħra.” Kellu jkun ukoll is-suġġett ta’ koreografija tiegħi li kellha tittella’ fit-Teatru Nazzjonali tal-Lussemburgu kif ukoll hawn Malta f’Ħaġar Qim. Il-proġett kien sfaxxa, iżda l-ġabra maż-żmien kompliet tikber u l-pjanijiet huma li toħroġ bl-isem “Eċċessi Veġġenti.”
Georges Bataille kiteb dan it-test fl-1927 u ppubblikah fl-1931, voldieri fiż-żmien meta “l-virulenzi u l-ossessjonijiet” tiegħu wassluh biex jisfa’ taħt l-iskrutinju tal-psikanaliżi. Kien kiteb dan it-test simboliku b’għanijiet konfrontattivi, ġieli wkoll distruttivi, li jiżvelaw bosta mit-tendenzi intellettwali ewlenin tiegħu. Fil-qalba tal-mira hemm l-edifiċji kunċettwali ta’ Descartes u ta’ Hegel. (Ilaqqtuha wkoll ir-Romantiċi u s-Surrealisti.) Fid-diskorsi filosofiċi ta’ dawn kollha, minkejja d-differenzi, insibu t-tentattiv komuni li jwettqu l-istess bravura impossibbli: l-“identifikazzjoni totali” tas-suġġett li tasal tħaddan lis-“sħiħ traxxendentali.”
Bataille jwaqqa’ dan kollu għan-nelħ billi joħloq kosmogonija “għalkollox parodika” li mit-tifrik tad-dijalettika taċ-ċrieki magħluqa ta’ Hegel u mill-istħarriġ filosofiku benfondat fuq veritajiet ċertissimi ta’ Descartes tibni viżjoni t’univers instabbli b’ċentru dejjem mobbli. Fid-diskors kollu ma tonqosx il-vjolenza tas-simboloġija oxxena, ġaladarba, ma ninsewx, f’Bataille l-univers huwa fenomenu intrinsikament vjolenti u oxxen – tumakka taħt iċ-ċinturin tas-Surrealisti u tar-Romantiċi.
“L-Anus Solari“ huwa parodija daqskemm mhux. Fil-kollija tal-iskema parodika ta’ Bataille kull bersall tal-parodija jkun dejjem ukoll huwa nnifsu parodija ta’ bersall ieħor, u sejrin. Għaldaqstant kull tentattiv ta’ parodija jisfa’ inutli b’tali mod li jxejjen il-possibbiltà li l-parodija jseħħilha tiżgiċċa minnha nfisha u ssir diskors jew valur ġdid u traxxendentali.

That many Arabic dialects negate with an enclitic –š has attracted much comment, very often drawing analogies between the French and Arabic systems. Constructs negated with a post-positioned negative –š alone without the characteristically Arabic preposed negator mā are said to bear similarities to stage III of the Jespersen’s cycle as it operates in Indo-European languages. Nevertheless, comparisons between the copular interrogatives anīš or anāš and huwāš in medieval Andalusi Arabic, their 19th century Maltese counterparts jeniex and hujex, their survivals in modern Maltese huwa and hux, and their relics in the modern spoken Moroccan Arabic interrogative waš, and its equivalents huwwa/hiyya/humma in spoken Egyptian Arabic call such assumptions into question. From those, it appears that the enclitic –š began as an interrogative, having lost much—but not all—of its interrogative quality as it was reanalysed as a negator. As such, Arabic negation never went through a Jespersen’s cycle.

Keywords
Andalusi Arabic interrogatives, Arabic negation, Arabic copular interrogatives, Jespersen’s cycle, Maltese interrogatives, Negative polarity""""

Translation was an important tool in the development of the Maltese language and the country’s identity. This dissertation seeks to distinguish the qualities of translation, adaptation and appropriation, and to use these classifications to examine one of the earliest examples of narrative translation into Maltese, Il Haỹa u il Vinturi ta’ Robinson Krusoe, in an attempt to find its place in the literal-liberal translation spectrum.
Along with this, the research also seeks to identify the methods in translating linguistic, pragmatic, social and cultural elements of the source text in order to understand its standing within the Maltese context. This work hopes to facilitate the deeper understanding of the importance of translation in early Maltese literature and to the development of the Maltese language

Demographers are confronted with considerable difficulties when they set about studying family structures.  This paper will seek to show that the behaviour of Spanish migrants in Malta in the early-modern period, conforms to the migratory patterns evident elsewhere. The term ‘migrant’ is here understood as referring to a person who changes his habitual place of residence in a more or less permanent form  by crossing an administrative boundary.  A key marker of a permanent move to a new land is marriage and the starting of a family there.

Within the framework of Arabic dialectology, this paper examines the different features that allow for the historical and typological classification of the Maltese language as a member of the most ancient group of Arabic varieties of the western branch.

Based in the Distributed Morphology and Minimalist frameworks, this dissertation provides an in-depth analysis of the DP in Maltese, an area of the language that has largely gone untouched by generative frameworks. In doing so, it focuses on two separate areas of interest: adjectival definite marking and construct states.

Astratt: Din l-analiżi turi kif is-Semitiku, ir-Rumanz u l-Ingliż li minnhom magħmul il-Malti jippermettulu dinamiżmu u flessibilità kbira fil-qasam tat-traduzzjoni kemm letterarja kif ukoll nonletterarja. Il-forma ortografika u t-tifsira semantika tal-kliem Malti-Rumanz hi ħafna drabi l-istess bħal dik tal-kliem Malti-Ingliż u dan għaliex kemm l-Ingliż kif ukoll it-Taljan għandhom fil-lessiku għadd ta' għeruq komuni li etimoloġikament imorru lura għal-Latin Medjevali. Ir-rwol tat-traduzzjoni hu li twassal it-test sors b'mod awtentiku lill-qarrej tat-test mira u mhux li tippreserva l-element Semitiku fil-Malti. Għalhekk għandha ssir distinzjoni bejn lingwa u traduzzjoni sabiex jiġi osservat iddeterminiżmu lingwisitku stabbilit mill-awtur tal-lingwa sors fl-għażla tal-lessiku li twassal għarreplika vera tat-test oriġinali fil-lingwa mira tat-traduttur.

The number of user-contributed comments is increasing exponentially. Such comments are found widely in social media sites including internet discussion forums and news agency websites. In this paper, we summarize the current approaches to text analysis and the visualization tools which deal with opinion and topics mining of those comments. We then describe experiments for topic modeling on users' comments and examine the possible extensions of methods on visualization, sentiment analysis and opinion summarization systems.