Re: English as a creole.

On 15 Jul, 14:58, phogl...@xxxxxx wrote:
On Jul 14, 11:05 am, Andrew Woode <andrew_wo...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:





On 13 Jul, 22:39, Darkstar <darkstar...@xxxxxxxx> wrote:

On Jul 14, 12:04 am, "Richard Wordingham" <jrw0...@xxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:

<phogl...@xxxxxx> wrote:
Has anybody got a Swadesh list for Maltese?

http://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/Transwiki:Maltese_swadesh_list

Richard.

Thanks, Richard...

Well, I don't speak Arabic, but I've found 4 borrowings (animal,
forest, fjura (flower), stikka (stick)) in a 200-word list. There's
probably more, though. Maybe 10.
From the list given (I'm away from my Maltese dictionary to do any

checking, and it's a while since I tried to read any Maltese).
Probably add 'uman' (human), 'frott' (fruit), 'serp' (snake),
'stilla' (star, but only one of the options given: 'kewba' is Arabic),
'muntanja' (mountain), 'antik' (one of the words for 'old' - 'xih is
Arabic), 'dritt' (straight) and 'tond' (round). Still not a vast
amount.

Incidentally, what's the etymology of 'missier' (father)? It's not
from the most standard Arabic equivalent.

Missier is a Romance word, a cognate of "monsignore" and "monsieur".- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

That's what I'd always assumed, but while doing my post I came across
a couple of JSTOR summaries in Google which produced a putative link
to Arabic musawwir:

--- begin quote of Google summary----
JSTOR: Modern Maltese LiteratureMissier (father, presumably the Arabic
musawwir) makes the plur. missirijiet. A foreign word like " company"
is written kumpanija, the Maltese doublet being ...
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1356-1898(1935)7%3A4%3C791%3AMML%3E2.0.CO
%3B2-E - Similar pages - Note this

JSTOR: Notes and QueriesThe peculiarities of Maltese are plentifully
illustrated in the present ... though not likely, that this word
missier stands for the Arabic musawwir, ...
links.jstor.org/sici?sici=1356-1898(1929)5%3A3%3C667%3ANAQ%3E2.0.CO
%3B2-V -
---end quote------

I can't access the original articles, am currently 300 km away from my
Arabic dictionary, and don't really have much expertise on Arabic -
can anyone comment as to the plausibility of this? Most occurrences of
Maltese <ie> are from Arabic /a:/ if I remember rightly.

.

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