7 Uncanny Ways Maltese People Speak Like Yoda
As if constant code-switching between English and Maltese wasn’t confusing enough to foreigners, we also share speech patterns with our Star Wars friend, Yoda. His odd word positioning makes him sound wiser and his utterances more profound. Our odd word positioning – less so.
The English language uses the ‘Subject-Verb-Object’ sentence structure, for instance; ‘I love figolli‘, which in Yoda speech would translate to ‘Figolli I love’. Yet Yoda’s riddle-like syntax is not limited to the Object-Subject-Verb construction, and neither is ours, lending our speech an unusual quality to any foreigner paying attention.
A few ways Maltese speakers sound like Yoda, here are.
1. Sarcasm
Maltese Yoda speech is most commonly used in sarcasm in two ways;
a) ‘It’s good this joke.’
(Subject- Verb – Complement – Repeated Subject)
b) ‘Ten shits I give.’
(Object – Subject – Verb.) A.k.a Yoda for ‘I couldn’t care less.‘
‘It changed my life this grammar lesson.’
2. The Vague Subject
Bus driver: ‘It’s kamink enader.’
For those of you who are perplexed, that is Yoda for ‘Another bus is coming’.
#ButcherThatSentenceBro
‘Full up, ħi. It’s kamink enader’
Bus driver
3. Emphasising
Yoda language is often used to make a point or emphasise how much we really (don’t) want something.
Waiter: ‘Would you like some more salad?
Customer: ‘Xi biċċa chocolate cake u barmil fondue I want, mela salad!’
4. Me, Myself and I
Like the French, we sometimes repeat the subject to emphasise difference.
Jolene: ‘Għandi bżonn immur waxing waħda sew, qisni xadina.’
Camilla: ‘Le me, I go once a month.’
#Me²
5. Feigning Offence
Generally uttered by a tal-pepé speaker in a whiny voice, to flirt or just nauseate anyone around.
Tal-pepé speaker: ‘Uwejja how cheeky you are!’
6. Asking for confirmation
… and sounding like cavemen in the process.
For that one time we aren’t sure whether the ginger bus driver is Maltese or Irish:
‘The bus to Mellieħa from here, yes?’
Maltese person catching a bus
7. Murder
Yoda Borg: Downed ten shots of Vodka at Hefu Bar and proceeded to puke, did I.’
Yana: Illa how you kill me, lol!
(Translation to something coherent: ‘You really crack me up!’)
And in case you’re horrified to have just found out you’ve been speaking like a little green creature all this time, remind yourself that Shakespeare himself did so too; ‘Something wicked this way comes‘.