Cottonera dialect

The Cottonera dialect is one of the special ways people speak the Maltese language. It is also called Kottoneran by the people who live there. About 10,000 people in the Three Cities speak this special way of talking.

One of the most interesting parts of the Cottonera dialect is how it treats certain sounds. In Standard Maltese and other dialects, special vowel sounds change after a quiet sound. But in Cottonera, these vowel sounds usually stay the same and do not change into a mix of sounds. This makes the Cottonera dialect unique and special.

The vowel I after Għ

In the Cottonera dialect, the vowel i after għ stays like the English "ee" sound. It does not change into the "ai" sound like in some other words.

This special change does not happen in words like għid (meaning easter), erbgħin (forty), sebgħin (seventy), and disgħin (ninety).

A famous poet from Senglea, Dwardu Cachia, helped create one of the first versions of written Maltese. He also wrote a poem using a special rhyme pattern that only works correctly when read in the Cottonera dialect.

The vowel U after Għ

In the Cottonera dialect, when the vowel u comes after the silent sound għ, it stays as the long /u:/ sound, like in the English word "goose". It does not change into the /au/ sound, which is how we say "mouth" in English.

The vowel E after Għ

In the Cottonera dialect, a special way of saying words with the letters għe is used. Instead of changing it to sound like the vowel /a/, like in regular Maltese today, the Cottonera dialect keeps it to sound more like /e~i/, similar to Standard Maltese.

The consonant Q

In the Cottonera dialect, spoken in places like Senglea, older people still say the letter q with a special sound, just like in Classical Arabic. This sound is different from what most Maltese speakers use today. Usually, the q sound is replaced with another sound in standard Maltese, but in Cottonera, it stays the same. However, this special way of speaking is getting less common over time.