| Qormi dialect | |
| Nativename: | Maltese: Qurmi |
| Region: | Qormi and surrounding area |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Semitic |
| Fam3: | West Semitic |
| Fam4: | Central Semitic |
| Fam5: | Arabic |
| Fam6: | Maghrebi Arabic |
| Fam7: | Pre-Hilalian[1] |
| Fam9: | Maltese |
| Script: | Maltese alphabet |
| Isoexception: | dialect |
| Ietf: | mt-u-sd-mt43 |
| Map: | Qormi-map.svg |
| Mapcaption: | Qormi in Malta |
The Qormi dialect (Qormi dialect: Maltese: Qurmi, Standard Maltese: Maltese: Qormi) is a dialect of the Maltese language spoken by inhabitants of Qormi. It is affectionately known as Maltese: it-Tuf, or in standard Maltese Maltese: it-Taf, because of the difference in the Maltese word Maltese: taf 'you know'.[2] The most distinctive feature of the Qormi dialect is its treatment of vowels.
The Qormi dialect has the following vowels:[3]
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
| Front | Central | Back | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Mid | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||
| Open | pronounced as /link/ |
Vowels in the first syllables are the ones most often affected, but sometimes medial vowels are changed as well. Final vowels, on the other hand, are usually identical to those of the standard language.
The Maltese vowel a corresponds to the vowel /u/ in the Qormi dialect. If at the end of a word, it is realized as /o/.[4]
| English | Maltese | Qormi dialect |
|---|---|---|
| steeple (church tower) | kampnar | kampnur |
| seriousness | serjetà | serjetò |
| seminary | seminarju | seminurju |
| potato | patata | patuta |
| fog | ċpar | ċpur |
| house | dar | dur |
The vowel o in Maltese often corresponds to /u/ in the Qormi dialect.[4] For example:
| English | Maltese | Qormi dialect |
|---|---|---|
| we went | morna | murna |
| go (imperative 3rd pers. pl.) | morru | murru |
| spring coil | molla | mulla |
| car | karozza | karuzza |
| glue | kolla | kulla |
| postage stamp | bolla | bulla |
| St George | San Ġorġ | San Ġurġ |
This form happens to almost all words that have the vowel o in the first syllable, although there may be exceptions.
The vowels after the għ change their sound as well.
Although there may be exceptions, such as kollha 'all of it', which is pronounced like killha in the dialect, and meta 'when' like mita, one must note that the vowels are almost never lengthened, and their accent remains the normal Maltese one.