Gozitan dialects

The Gozitan dialects are rural dialects of Maltese spoken in the island of Gozo. The vowel shift of *ā (phonologically a) to o or u is their main differentiating trait.

Gozitan
għawdxi
Pronunciation	[/ˈaːw.t͡ʃɪ/]
Native to	Malta
Region	Gozo
Native speakers	About 32,000
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Pre-Hilalian Sicilian Arabic Maltese Gozitan
Dialects	Għarb Xewkija
Writing system	Latin (Maltese alphabet)
Language codes
ISO 639-3	–
Glottolog	gozo1238
Linguasphere	12-AAC-cag
Gozo Island, Malta

Vocabulary

Comparison of some words in Standard Maltese and in the Gozitan dialects:

English	Maltese	Gozitan
pills	pilloli	pinuri
shy	staħa	regħex
biscuit	biskuttel	fettul
mattress	saqqu	mitraħ
Gozo	Għawdex	Għawdix
dizzy	sturdament	mejt
bunch of	għanqud	xenxul
small table	tavolina	mejdina
internal hall door	antiporta	boxxla
to spoil someone	fsied	ħajm
silver foil	fidda	smontor
Yes	iva	ijwa

See also

• Gozo
• Nadur Carnival
• Languages of Malta

Further reading

• Aquilina, Joseph, and B.S.J. Isserlin. 1981. A Survey of Contemporary Dialectal Maltese. Volume I: Gozo. Leeds: B.S.J. Isserlin.
• Farrugia, Ruben. 2021. ‘The Acoustic Vowel Space of Gozitan Naduri and Sannati Dialects’. In Semitic Dialects and Dialectology: Fieldwork—Community—Change, edited by Maciej Klimiuk, 197–211. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.
• Gwida Il-Malti Kontra L-Għawdxi – Is-Sbuħija Tad-Djalett.
• Klimiuk, Maciej. 2021. ‘Language Questionnaire for Gozo, Malta’. Folia Orientalia 58: 111–89
• Klimiuk, Maciej. 2022. ‘Vowel Length in Maltese Dialects of Gozo’. In Semitic Dialects and Dialectology: Fieldwork—Community—Change, edited by Maciej Klimiuk, 213–27. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.
• Klimiuk, Maciej, and Ruben Farrugia. 2022. ‘A Text in the Maltese Dialect of Sannat (Gozo) with Grammatical Remarks’. In Semitic Dialects and Dialectology: Fieldwork—Community—Change, edited by Maciej Klimiuk, 381–96. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.
• Klimiuk, Maciej, and Maria Lipnicka. 2019. ‘Dialectology in Practice: Notes from Fieldwork in Gozo’. In Arabic Dialectology: Methodology and Field Research, edited by Werner Arnold and Maciej Klimiuk, 23–32. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
• Klimiuk, Maciej, and Maria Lipnicka. 2022a. ‘Fishing and Cyclone Cutting: A Text from the Area of Għasri within the Dialect Continuum of Gozo (Malta)’. Mediterranean Language Review 29: 19–52.
• Klimiuk, Maciej, and Maria Lipnicka. 2022b. ‘The Gozitan Dialect of Xewkija: Three Recorded Dialogues and Some Preliminary Remarks’. The Israel Oriental Studies Annual 22: 145–77.
• Lipnicka, Maria. 2022. ‘Pausal Diphthongisation in Gozitan Dialects Compared to Zaḥlé, Lebanon’. In Semitic Dialects and Dialectology: Fieldwork—Community—Change, edited by Maciej Klimiuk, 229–41. Heidelberg: Heidelberg University Publishing.