Qormi dialect

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Qormi dialect
Qurmi
Region	Qormi and surrounding area
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Siculo-Arabic Maltese Qormi dialect
Writing system	Maltese alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
IETF	mt-u-sd-mt43
Qormi in Malta

One of the dialects of the Maltese language is the Qormi Dialect. In standard Maltese it is termed Qormi and by its speakers, Qurmi, and is affectionately known as it-Tuf, or in standard Maltese, it-Taf. Literally translated, taf is the Maltese word for "you know". This dialect is used by many of the inhabitants of Qormi and other settlements around that city of around twenty thousand people. The most distinctive feature of the Qormi dialect lies in its treatment of vowels.

Although there is no strict rule, generally the vowels in the dialect take the following forms. Vowels in the first syllables are the ones most often affected, but sometimes medial vowels are changed as well. Final vowels, on the other hand, are usually identical to those of the standard language.

The Vowel 'A'[]

The vowel 'A' changes into the vowel 'U'. If at the end of a word, it becomes an 'O'.

The Vowel 'O'[]

The vowel 'O' in the Qormi dialect also changes into 'U'. For example:

This form happens to almost all words that have the vowel "O" in the first syllable, although there may be exceptions.

Vowels after the Għ[]

The vowels after the 'Għ' change their sound as well.

• The syllable Għi, instead of an 'AJ' sound, takes an EJ sound. Example: Għid il-Kbir (Easter) would be pronounced as ejd il-kbir instead of ajd il-kbir
• The syllable Għe, instead of an 'E' sound, takes an 'A' sound. Example: Qiegħed (to stay) would be pronounced qijad instead of qijed.
• The syllable Għu, instead of an 'OW' sound, takes an 'EW' sound. Example: Għuda (piece of wood) would be pronounced ewda instead of owda.

Exceptions[]

Although there may be exceptions, such as Kollha (all of it), which would be pronounced as Killha, and Meta (when), as Mita, one must note that the vowels are almost never lengthened, and their accent remains the normal Maltese one.