Borża or pakkett Twistees? The word test that could reveal your true identity
A Times of Malta × Dizzjunarju.mt series
Do you say borża Twistees or pakkett (packet)? Sausage or zalzett? Fjura or pastarda (cauliflower)?
Whichever of these you choose could blow your cover: you’re either Maltese or Gozitan.
Although some of these words have crossed the channel and are used by Maltese as well, there are hundreds of others that are almost only used by Gozitans, such as għakruxu (snail), ħaxxem (pinched, such as pinched a finger in a drawer), bankunċini (traditional almond biscuits) and ħajz - a versatile word that could mean anything from jaqq to għajb għalik.
Gozitans make up over 7% of Malta’s population, so it was only fair to dedicate our final episode in the first series about the first national dictionary to Gozitan words.
And we did not have to search far: our very own Mark Lawrence Zammit took a break from his current affairs reporting to give us a rundown of a series of words used, almost exclusively by Gozitans.
If you want to learn more about Gozitan words, such as trampa (antics, gimmick), or investa the Gozitan way (to let in a draught), check out the entries here and here.
And if you think the researchers have missed out on a meaning, get in touch here.
Dizzjunarju.mt is a free, authoritative and up-to-date reference resource that has started taking shape and went live on June 19.
It is accessible on any mobile device. It is set to become the first national digital dictionary of Maltese and is currently being developed by the Department of Maltese at the University of Malta.
It builds on the work done in the sector over the past decades while remaining abreast of the current use of the language and will take years to compile.
Among others, its features include a pronunciation tab, definitions in Maltese and English equivalents, grammatical information such as which part of speech the word falls under, its plural, root (għerq) and etymology.
The site also provides information about the various meanings of a word, examples based on the natural use of the language, idioms and phrases.