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Web Itineraries / Maltese Pronounciation of Placenames in the simplest way
Originally published in the "Discount, Diary, Directory of the Maltese Islands" and is (C) C. Meli 1987-2001.
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Except for a few letters, the Maltese alphabet is entirely phonetic and placenames can be easily pronounced and read. i.e. phonetic transcriptions are not required.
There are five vowels which may be either short or long according to their position.
| Vowel | English Equivalent |
| a | o - in "come" - Marsa |
| e | e - in "else" - Birżebbuġia |
| i | i - in "pit" - Buġibba |
| o | o - in "hot" - Mosta |
| u | oo - in "foot" - Żurrieq |
The general rule can be taken to be:
The vowel is short unless there is a single consonant immediately after the vowel.
Long vowels are pronounced thus:
| a as in "star" | Żabbar (the long vowel is the last a) |
| e as in "where" | No placename has a long 'e' |
| i as in "meet" |
Mdina (pronounce this as Imdina - the 'I' is a helping vowel for the pronounciation of words
starting with two consonants, the first of which is 'n' or 'm', which are difficult to
pronounce together.
e.g. Msida (Imsida) Mġarr (Imġarr) Mnajdra (Imnajdra) Note that the 'I' is only pronounced and not written.) |
| o as in "cross" | (the last o) Vittoriosa |
| u as in "spoon" | Żejtun |
The vowel pair "ie" is considered as a single vowel where the sound is as in English "beer" but never as in "meet".
Examples are: Sliema, Ta' Xbiex, Armier.
Note that in "Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq" the "a"'s in "Baħar" are both short.
The consonants b, d, f, k, l, m, n, p, r, t, v are pronounced as in English.
(Except for b, p, t and d which are a bit more dental as in Italian)
| ċ | ch - "Church" | Ċenċ | j | y - "Yet" | Lija | s | s - "Say" | Salini, Marsa | w | w - "Wet" | Wardija | x | sh - "Show" | Xlendi, Ta' Xbiex | q | t - (Cockney accent) "Water" | Luqa | g (hard) (without a dot) | g - "Get" | Gżira | ġ (soft) (dotted) | j - "Jet" | Mġarr, Siġġiewi | z (without a dot) | ts - "Ants" | Balzan, San Lawrenz | ż (dotted) | z - "Zebra" | Żabbar, Gżira, Birżebbuġia | h | not pronounced except when it is at the end of a word (where it takes an aspirated h sound) | Qammieh | ħ | h - "Hard" | Mellieħa, Ħamrun | y | does not exist in Maltese instead the same function is provided by the letter "j" | għ | (See note below) |
Bengħisa
Għargħur |
Note about: għ
(This is considered as one letter) it is silent except:
1) when at the end of a word, or
2) when followed by i or u
In the first case, it is pronounced as ħ above, in the second case:
għi - a in "cake" - Bengħisa
għu - o in "home" - Għargħur
The vowels a, e, o following a għ are pronounced long as explained previously and pharyngalised.
Other examples of għ are Għaxaq, Għasri and Xagħra.
That's all you need to know. Remember when in doubt ask a local for help on pronouncing a placename.