how to make pretty pictures for managers

[Peter Korsten]

Jay Vaughan schreef:

> Its a fascinating language, I've been reading up on it a bit ..  
> apparently nobody speaks true Maltese any more.

They might do so on the island of Gozo (where I was yesterday for a 
wedding, lovely setting overlooking the sea), where people are a bit 
more traditional. Or at least, their version of Maltese might be a bit 
more pure. When I first got here, I could actually hear the difference 
between a Gozitan and a Maltese, although nowadays I can no longer.

But for a small country that has seen so many foreign rulers, it's 
obvious that it borrowed many words from other languages. That wedding 
was in Marsalforn, but there's also Marsaxlokk, Marsaskala and plain 
Marsa. It's a Phoenician word meaning 'harbour', and 'Marseille' is 
derived from it as well.

These days, it's usually words taken from English and either 
Maltesefied, or the English word is taken but spelt in a Maltese way. 
For example 'mobile' (a mobile phone) becomes 'mobajl', which is 
pronounced the same.

And of course, languages changes. My Limburgish is that of 20 years ago, 
whereas my parents speak a version that has gone closer to Dutch (much 
to my regret).

And Maltese emigrants to Australia (when Malta was still an emigration 
country, rather than an immigration country, a process that has taken 
maybe a decade) would speak the Maltese of the 1950's, and also expect 
Malta to be like it was when they left it, which is a bit of a 
unexpected surprise if they ever go back.

>> Or the word for 'book' being 'kotba', but 'books' is 'ktieb'... the  
>> same
>> insane system where the consonants stay the same, but by throwing the
>> vowels about you make different words.
> 
> That is indeed wierd.

And then every word that contains the root 'ktb', has something to do 
with books and writing. It's like you've been writing software in C all 
your life, and then you're asked to write a device driver in Miranda.

- Peter