Cottonera dialect

One of the dialects of the Maltese language is the Cottonera dialect, known to locals as Kottoneran. Many inhabitants of the Three Cities speak the local dialect, and thus roughly amount to 10,000 speakers.

Cottonera dialect
Kottoneran
Pronunciation	[kɔtːɔnɛˈrɐn]
Region	Three Cities and surrounding area
Native speakers	About 10,000 (2014)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Pre-Hilalian Sicilian Arabic Maltese Cottonera dialect
Writing system	Maltese alphabet
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–

The most distinctive feature of this dialect is its treatment of vowels i and u after the silent consonant għ. In Standard Maltese, and other dialects, these vowels are realized as diphthongs after għ. However, in most situations, they remain monophthongs in the Cottonera dialect.

The vowel I after Għ

The vowel i after għ remains an /i/ as in the English fleece, instead of diphthongizing to /ai/ as in the English price.

English	Standard Maltese	Cottonera dialect
my/mine	tiegħi [ˈtiɐɪ]	tiegħi [ˈtiːɪ]
he curses	jidgħi [ˈjɪdɐɪ]	jidgħi [ˈjɪdɪ]
with me	miegħi [ˈmiɐɪ]	miegħi [ˈmiːɪ]

This dialectal change does not occur with the words għid (easter), erbgħin (forty), sebgħin (seventy), and disgħin (ninety).

The local poet from Senglea, Dwardu Cachia (1858–1907), formed part of the Xirka Xemija in 1882, an organization which formulated one of the first standardized versions of written Maltese. Moreover, Cachia wrote a poem about this very alphabet, in which he made use of the 4-line rhyme. Coincidentally, the ABCB rhyme of the second stanza only works if read in his Cottonera dialect.

"Ebda ħażż ma jibdel leħnu
fil-fonetiku, qed ingħid:
Ga, Ge, Gi ibsin jinstemgħu
"Għax tgħid", ħadthom bla taħbit"

[ɪˈniːt], not [ɪˈnɐɪt]

[tɐhˈbiːt]

—Dwardu Cachia (1858–1907)

The vowel U after Għ

The vowel u after għ remains an /u:/ as in the English goose, instead of diphthongizing to /au/ as in the English mouth.

English	Standard Maltese	Cottonera dialect
his	tiegħu [ˈtiɐu]	tiegħu [ˈtiːʊ]
sent (passive participle)	mibgħut [mɪˈbɐʊt]	mibgħut [mɪˈbuːt]
a piece of wood	għuda [ˈɐʊdɐ]	għuda [ˈuːdɐ]
we can/could	nistgħu [ˈnɪstɐʊ]	nistgħu [ˈnɪstʊ]
we sell	nbigħu [mˈbiɐʊ]	nbigħu [mˈbiːʊ]
with him	miegħu [ˈmiɐʊ]	miegħu [ˈmiːʊ]

The vowel E after Għ

Although in contemporary Maltese (21st Century), the combination għe sometimes produces an /a/ vowel, the Cottonera dialect has widely kept the /e~i/ realization comparable to Standard Maltese.

English	Standard Maltese	Cottonera dialect	Contemporary Maltese
she remained	baqgħet [ˈbɐʔɛt]	baqgħet [ˈbɐʔɛt] / [ˈbɐqɪt]	baqgħet [ˈbɐʔɐt]
she fell	waqgħet [ˈwɐʔɛt]	waqgħet [ˈwɐʔɛt] / [ˈwɐqɪt]	waqgħet [ˈwɐʔɐt]
he tired them	għejjiehom [ɛjˈjiːɔm]	għejjiehom [ɛjˈjiːɔm]	għejjiehom [ɐjˈjiːɔm]

The consonant Q

In Cottonera, most notably among the eldest demographic of Senglea, the consonant q is still pronounced as a voiceless uvular plosive /q/, as its counterpart in Classical Arabic. This sound survived in Modern Maltese only through the Cottonera dialect, instead of being replaced with the Standard glottal stop /ʔ/. However, it is important to note that it is severely in decline.

English	Standard Maltese	Cottonera dialect (archaic pronunciation)
never	qatt [ʔɐtt]	qatt [qɐtt]
he told me	qalli [ˈʔɐllɪ]	qalli [ˈqɐllɪ]
we reside	noqogħdu [nɔˈʔɔːdʊ]	noqogħdu [nɔˈqɔːdʊ]
artichokes	qaqoċċ [ʔɐˈʔɔtʃtʃ]	qaqoċċ [qɐˈqɔtʃtʃ]
poverty	faqar [ˈfɐʔɐr]	faqar [ˈfɐqɐr]
he reached	laħaq [ˈlɐhɐʔ]	laħaq [ˈlɐhɐq]