Cottonera dialect

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

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.

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 meet, instead of diphthongizing to /ai/ as in the English like.

English	Standard Maltese	Cottonera dialect
my/mine	tiegħi [tiai]	tiegħi [ti:i]
he curses	jidgħi [jidai]	jidgħi [jidi]
with me	miegħi [miai]	miegħi [mi:i]

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

The vowel U after Għ

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

English	Standard Maltese	Cottonera dialect
his	tiegħu [tiau]	tiegħu [ti:u]
sent (passive participle)	mibgħut [mibaut]	mibgħut [mibu:t]
a piece of wood	għuda [auda]	għuda [u:da]
we can/could	nistgħu [nistau]	nistgħu [nistu]
we sell	nbigħu [mbiau]	nbigħu [mbi:u]
with him	miegħu [miau]	miegħu [mi:u]

The vowel E after Għ

Although in contemporary Maltese (21^st 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 [baʔet]	baqgħet [baʔet] / [baqit]	baqgħet [baʔat]
she fell	waqgħet [waʔet]	waqgħet [waʔet] / [waqit]	waqgħet [waʔat]
he tired them	għejjiehom [ejji:om]	għejjiehom [ejji:om]	għejjiehom [ajji:om]

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 [ʔatt]	qatt [qatt]
we reside	noqogħdu [noʔo:du]	noqogħdu [noqo:du]
artichokes	qaqoċċ [ʔaʔotʃtʃ]	qaqoċċ [qaqotʃtʃ]
poverty	faqar [faʔar]	faqar [faqar]
he reached	laħaq [lahaʔ]	laħaq [lahaq]