Żejtun dialect

This article needs additional citations for verification. Please help by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources:  –  ·  ·  · scholar · JSTOR (January 2021) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

Żejtun dialect
Żejtuni dialect
Żejtewni
Region	Żejtun and surrounding area
Native speakers	About 12 000[1]
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Siculo-Arabic Maltese Żejtun dialect
Writing system	Maltese alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
IETF	mt-u-sd-mt67
Żejtun in Malta

One of the dialects found in the Maltese language is the Żejtuni Dialect (Standard Maltese: Djalett taż-Żejtun' or Żejtuni; Żejtun Maltese: Żejtewni). This dialect is used by many of the Żejtun inhabitants and in other settlements around this city like Marsaxlokk, that consists of about twelve thousand people.^[1]

The following two words are an example, there are many more that make it into the list of vocabulary found in this Dialect.

• For kite the Maltese word is tajra but in this dialect it is found as manuċċa.
• For foggy weather the Maltese word is ċpar but in this dialect it is found as ċlambu.

All the vocal letters in this dialect possess a liquid versatility which allows the position, emphasis and tone of the vowels to change without any distinct rule; in some words the consonant letters are found to change as well. Such variations in the dialect are innate to native speakers.^{[citation needed]}

The Vocal 'A'[]

The vowel 'A' in the Żejtun dialect is changed into 'U' or 'E'. Example:

This form happens to roughly all of the words that end in the vowel ' A ', but when the sentence construction does not allow the vowel 'A' to transmute into 'E', such as in the Maltese equivalent of potato, i.e. ' patata ', a different vowel has to be used to elongate the syllable. Here, the word does not become petete but changes into ' Û ', becoming patûta.

The Vowel 'E'[]

The vowel 'E' changes into the vowels 'A' or also 'I'. Example:

The Vocal 'O'[]

The vocal ' O ' in this dialect changes into ' U ', however it demands an element of phonetical emphasis to differentiate this changed ' U from the previous one. In philology such emphasis requires an accent, hence ' Ù '. Example:

This form occurs in many other words that have 'O' as their first vocal letter.

The Vocal 'U'[]

When the last vocal of the word is the U, it is changed into the vocal O with the consonant W with a muted-ending . Sometimes the U is changed into EW. Example:

References[]