Ilsienna and companion series

Ilsienna und Beihefte
Working Papers of the International Association of Maltese Linguistics
GHILM ISSN 1866-62,56
IL-LINGWA TAGĦNA – Companion Series
ISSN 1866-6264.
Editor-in-chief: Thomas Stolz
Executive Editor: Cornelia Stroh
Review Editor: Joseph Brincat
University Press Dr. N. Brockmeyer
Universitätsverlag Dr. N. Brockmeyer
University Press Dr. N. Brockmeyer
Im Haarmannsbusch 112, D 44797 Bochum
Tel +49/234/9791600 Fax +49/234/9791601
info@brockmeyer-verlag.de
shop: www.brockmeyer-verlag.de
Homepage: www.brockmeyer-online.de (deutsch)
www.brockmeyer-universitaetsverlag.com (english)
www.brockmeyer-ebooks.de (eBOOKs)

Ilsienna und Beihefte
Working Papers of the International Association of Maltese Linguistics (GHILM) ISSN 1866-
6256. Editor-in-chief: Thomas Stolz; Executive Editor: Cornelia Stroh; Review Editor: Joseph
Brincat Editorial Board: Bernard Comrie, Ray Fabri, Beth Hume, Manwel Mifsud, Martine
Vanhove; Advisory Board: Albert Borg, Antoinette Camilleri Grima, Sandro Caruana, Martin
Haspelmath, Utz Maas, Mauro Tosco, Adam Ussishkin, Sumikazu Yoda. This periodical
publishes scholarly articles and reviews which are directly connected to topics of Maltese
Linguistics (including languages other than Maltese which belong to the linguistic landscape
of Malta).
IL-LINGWA TAGHNA - Our language -
Companion series of ILSIENNA ISSN 1866-6264. The companion series publishes
monographs and collections of articles including "festschrifts" and memorial volumes as well
as outstanding MA and PhD theses dedicated to all kinds of topics which are highly relevant
to our understanding of the Maltese language and the linguistic landscape of Malta and its
sister islands. The languages of publication are English , French, German, Italian and Maltese.
All publications are accompanied by an abstract in English and a Maltese translation thereof.
The companion series appears in variable intervals and different sizes.
ILSIENNA - Our Language (Price)
EINZELPREIS/UNIT PRICE € 39,90
ABONNEMENTSPREIS/SUBSCRIPTION PRICE € 34,90
MITGLIEDERPREIS/MEMBER PRICE only for members of GHILM € 25,00
We hope that the first issues of ILSIENNA convinces the interested public of the necessity to
investigate what Maltese has on offer for the linguistic community world-wide. Furthermore,
we also hope that the quality of the articles, Kelmtejn bil-Malti and the reviews induces many
more linguists to contribute to the journal with their own original work or with reviews of
publications with a bearing on Maltese matters. Of course, we also expect to welcome many
more members of GHILM who want to become part of the international network of students
of Maltese.

With this first issue of ILSIENNA – Our Language, Maltese linguistics has acquired a brandnew
forum. ILSIENNA, modestly termed Working Papers on the title page, is the official
journal of l-GHaqda Internazzjonali tal-Lingwistika Maltija (GHILM) theInternational
Association of Maltese Linguistics, founded in Bremen on 19 October, 2007, on the occasion
of the 1st International Conference of Maltese Linguistics at the University of Bremen (18–20
October, 2007). During the inauguration ceremony of GHILM, it was decided that the new
association should have its own journal in order to provide students of Maltese an opportunity
to publish their scholarly papers on Maltese and the linguistic landscape of Malta in a
periodical that not only dedicates itself to the cause of Maltese linguistics but also addresses
an international audience of diverse theoretical and methodological convictions without
presupposing that the reader of ILSIENNA is well-versed in traditional Oriental Philology.
The new journal is meant to mark the emancipation of Maltese Linguistics from Oriental
Studies, in the framework of which Maltese topics used to occupy a marginal position, if at
all. We are convinced, however, that Maltese is linguistically too rich a language to be
confined to the also-ran within a huge philological discipline whose canonical subjects With
this first issue of ILSIENNA – Our Language, Maltese linguistics has acquired a brand-new
forum. ILSIENNA, modestly termed Working Papers on the title page, is the official journal
of l-GHaqda Internazzjonali tal-Lingwistika Maltija (GHILM) theInternational Association of
Maltese Linguistics, founded in Bremen on 19 October, 2007, on the occasion of the 1st
International Conference of Maltese Linguistics at the University of Bremen (18–20 October,
2007). During the inauguration ceremony of GHILM, it was decided that the new association
should have its own journal in order to provide students of Maltese an opportunity to publish
their scholarly papers on Maltese and the linguistic landscape of Malta in a periodical that not
only dedicates itself to the cause of Maltese linguistics but also addresses an international
audience of diverse theoretical and methodological convictions without presupposing that the
reader of ILSIENNA is well-versed in traditional Oriental Philology. The new journal is
meant to mark the emancipation of Maltese Linguistics from Oriental Studies, in the
framework of which Maltese topics used to occupy a marginal position, if at all. We are
convinced, however, that Maltese is linguistically too rich a language to be confined to the
also-ran within a huge philological discipline whose canonical subjects hardly leave space for
a language like Maltese. The talks given on the occasion of the 1st International Conference
of Maltese Linguistics demonstrate amply how fascinating the detailed study of Maltese can
also be for the general linguist, phonetician or phonologist, syntactician, typologist, language
historian or language-contact researcher and many others. At the same time, we have learned
how much still needs to be done before Maltese can be declared a satisfactorily described
language. There are so many phenomena in spoken and written Maltese which urgently
require our attention. Thus, right from the start, it has been clear that the publication of the
proceedings of the 1st International Conference of Maltese Linguistics (COMRIE et al. 2009)
is only the first step towards uncovering the potential of Maltese as the object of our scholarly
interest. Accordingly, the 2nd International Conference of Maltese Linguistics, scheduled for
19–21 September, 2009 (again at the University of Bremen), focuses on issues of change and
variation in Maltese. Moreover, the four articles included in this first issue of ILSIENNA
cover a wide range of topics, none of which is in the centre of interest of the above two
conferences. This shows that there is no shortage of interesting subject matter in the realm of
Maltese Linguistics. Each future issue of ILSIENNA will start with an articles section with a
minimum of three and a maximum of six scholarly articles addressing issues from all areas of
our discipline from phonetics/phonology via sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics to
etymology and the history of Maltese Linguistics

ILSIENNA - Our Language- Vol. 1, 2009.
Working Papers of the International Association of Maltese Linguistics (GHILM) Vol 1
(2009) ISBN 978-3-8196-0733-2, Pb. 152 pp. 15,5 x 22,5 cm EINZELPREIS/UNIT PRICE
€ 39,90 PdF edition € 12,00 www.brockmeyer-ebooks.de
ABONNEMENTSPREIS/SUBSCRIPTION PRICE € 34,90
MITGLIEDERPREIS/MEMBER PRICE only for members of GHILM € 25,00
In this issue, RAY FABRI provides the opener with his treatment of stem allomorphy in the
Maltese verb. This morphological study is followed by JOE FELICE PACE’s study of the
history of the Maltese digraph and its phonological correlate, i.e. the author looks at the
phenomenon from two perspectives, orthographical and phonological. MICHAEL SPAGNOL
gives an account of the two types of aspectual distinctions in the verbal system of Maltese as
he distinguishes lexical aspect from grammatical aspect. In this study which has grown out of
the author’s outstanding M.A. thesis, issues of semantics and grammatical categories are
addressed. The final paper is a joint study by THOMAS STOLZ, NATALIYA
LEVKOVYCH and BARBARA DEWEIN comparing reduplicative stemformations like
paqpaq ‘to hoot’ with similar patterns found in a genetically, typologically and geographically
unrelated language, Chamorro (an Austronesian language), in order to draw general (and
tentatively crosslinguistic) conclusions as to the phonological and semantic regularities of this
kind of stem-formation. It is planned that the articles section will be regularly followed by
Kelmtejn bil-Malti, a column of variable size, dedicated to current and hotly debated issues of
Maltese written in Maltese. Since ILSIENNA aims at reaching as broad an audience as
possible, it was decided that the primary language of publication should be English. However,
as the official journal of GHILM, ILSIENNA must reserve some space for Maltese on a
regular basis. The articles may be accompanied by a short abstract in Maltese (in addition to
the compulsory abstract in English). However, this was felt to be too little prominence for the
language we study and thus Kelmtejn bil-Malti is a far more adequate category for Maltese to
come to the fore. In this issue of ILSIENNA, MANWEL MIFSUD, the president of Il-Kunsill
tal-Ilsian Malti, expresses his opinion on the situation of Maltese in the past and its prospects
in the future. The final section in this issue of ILSIENNA is the reviews section (edited by
JOSEPH H. BRINCAT). There are six reviews – a number which proves that Maltese issues
come up more often than one might expect. articles, Kelmtejn bil-Malti and the reviews
induces many more linguists to contribute to the journal with their own original work or with
reviews of publications with a bearing on Maltese matters.
Here you can find an extract:
http://books.google.de/books?printsec=frontcover&id=0TdLXJDn7cwC#v=onepage&q&f=fa
lse

I LSIENNA - Our Language- Vol. 2, 2012
Working Papers of the International Association of Maltese Linguistics (GHILM) Vol 2
(2012) ISBN 978-3-8196-0857-5, Pb. 116 pp. 15,5 x 22,5 cm. EINZELPREIS/UNIT
PRICE(We deliver postfree) € 39,90 PdF edition € 12,00 www.brockmeyer-ebooks.de
ABONNEMENTSPREIS/SUBSCRIPTION PRICE € 34,90
MITGLIEDERPREIS/MEMBER PRICE only for members of GHILM € 25,00
CONTENT: ARTICLES: MARIS CAMILLERI: The Maltese relative clause: a source of
Standard-dialect variation; DONNA BORG: Lexical epistemic verbs in Maltese: an analysis
of some semantic and grammatical properties; LUKE GALEA: The representation of strong
tri-consonantal Semitic verbs in the Maltese Mental Lexicon; BENJAMIN SAADE: Pro-drop
systems in Maltese and Italian: a quantitative approach; JOE FELICE PACE: Towards a
classification of the adverb in Maltese; JOE FELICE PACE: Fifty-‘odd’ words from ERIN
SERRACINO-INGLOTT’S Il-Barrani; JOE FELICE PACE: An unpublished Maltese-
English dictionary. REVIEWS: BUSUTTIL, JOSEPH; FIORINI, STANLEY & VELLA,
HORATIO C.R., Tristia ex Melitogaudo. Lament in Greek Verse of a XIIth-century Exile on
Gozo, Malta: The Farsons Foundation, 2010 JOSEPH M. BRINCAT; BEZZINA CARMEL,
Saydon, Biblista u Studjuż tal-Malti, Malta: Pubblikazzjoni Preca, 2006 JOSEPH M.
BRINCAT; BRIFFA, CHARLES, Dictionary for Specific Purposes. English–Maltese,
Maltese–English. Malta: Midsea Books, 2007; FARRUGIA, CARLO, Dictionary for
Financial Services, Malta: Midsea Books, 2006; CUTAYAR , JOSEPH, Franco-Maltese
Dictionary, Agius and Agius, Malta, 2008 JOSEPH M. BRINCAT
Preview and extract:
http://www.libreka.de/9783819608575/FC#X2ludGVybmFsX0ZsYXNoRmlkZWxpdHk/eG1
saWQ9OTc4MzgxOTYwODU3NSUyRkZDJmltYWdlcGFnZT1GQw==

Snapshot.
Fabri, Ray: Maltese Linguistics: A
In Memory of Joseph A. Cremona (1922–2003) IL-LINGWA-TAGHNA Vol. 1, 2009, ISBN
978-3-8196-0734-9, Pb. 144 pp. 15,5 x 22,5 cm.
EINZELPREIS/UNIT PRICE € 39,90
ABONNEMENTSPREIS/SUBSCRIPTION PRICE € 34,90
MITGLIEDERPREIS/MEMBER PRICE only for members of GHILM € 25,00
PdF edition € 15,00 www.brockmeyer-ebooks.de
This volume is dedicated to JOSEPH CREMONA, a dear colleague and friend of ours, who
passed away in 2003. JOE, as he was affectionately known by his friends, was the son of
Gozitan parents, but, since his father worked in the British Diplomatic Service, he lived all of
his life away from Gozo and Malta, namely, in Italy and in the UK. The language situation in
which JOE grew up, and which was a result of the fact that his family was Gozitan but lived
away from the island, must have had an influence on his choice of career, later in life, as an
expert in Romance languages. CONTENTS: RAY FABRI: Introduction: in memory of
JOSEPH A. CREMONA; GODFREY WETTINGER: Gozitan women in Tunis ransomed
from captivity, ca. 1486; JOSEPH M.BRINCAT: FRANCESCO VELLA and the
standardization of Maltese; MARTINE VANHOVE : The nominal quantifier xi in Matese;
RAY FABRI: To agree or not to agree: suspension of formal agreement in Maltese;
ALEXANDRA VELLA: Maltese intonation and focus structure; MARIE AZZOPARDI-
ALEXANDER: Iconicity and the development of Maltese Sign Language; ANTOINETTE
CAMILLERI GRIMA: From “That’s correct!” to “Let’s explore!” Developments in the
teaching of native language grammar.
Preview and extract:
http://books.google.de/books?printsec=frontcover&id=Zy4ykxfU78YC#v=onepage&q&f=fal
se

Seychell, Laurent: La Traduction Spécialisée: L’Exemple
de L’Énonciation en Linguistique Française (2 vol.)
It-Traduzzjoni Speċjalizzata: L-Eżempju Tat-Tlissina Fil-Lingwistika Franċiża (2. vol.)
Bochum 2011, IL-LINGWA-TAGHNA Vol. 2, ISBN 978-3-8196-0829-2, together 802 pp.
22,5 x 15,5 cm.
EINZELPREIS/UNIT PRICE € 49,90
ABONNEMENTSPREIS/SUBSCRIPTION PRICE € 39,90
MITGLIEDERPREIS/MEMBER PRICE only for members of GHILM € 29,90
PdF edition Vol. 1 € 12,,00 Vol. 2 € 12,00 www.brockmeyer-ebooks.de
Since Malta joined the EU way back in 2004, the Maltese language was officially recognized
as a working passive tool of communication in oral and written documents prepared by the
European Institution. In view of this, many Maltese and why not foreign students coming
from the Arab world are trying to get trained in Maltese as interpreters and translators at the
University of Malta. The book entitled: La traduction spécialisée: l’exemple de l’Énonciation
en linguistique française/It-Traduzzjoni Speċjalizzata: l-Eżempju tat-Tlissina fil-Lingwistika
Franciza (volumes 1 and 2) gives ample training both theoretic and practical in translation and
translation studies. It is written both in French and Maltese, except for Annex 3 which is
solely written in Maltese due to the fact that special emphasis is made by the translator to
facilitate the notions and concepts in Maltese to Maltese learners in the field of translation and
translation studies. Apart from its use in the theory of translation and translation studies, it can
be read by those students of Maltese who are interested in getting profound training in
Maltese utterance. This book complements the extensive work carried out in the past and
presently by Maltese researchers in both Maltese etymology and morphosyntaxic studies since
nowadays great importance is given to both utterance and discourse analysis. Last but not
least this work targets those Maltese students of French reading for BA (Arts) and BA (Hons)
at the University of Malta as well as those French students of Maltese reading for their
Licence at the INALCO Institute in Paris whose linguistic programme may include the
famous work of Dominique Maingueneau, that is: L’énonciation en linguistique française
(1994,1999). The Maltese translation of this specialized book, together with the 509 notes in
Maltese, that are to be found in Annex 3, prove extremely helpful to the understanding of the
original text. The other annexes are very helpful to those French students reading for a
Licence in French who wish to enhance their understanding of D. Maingueneau’s book of
1994, which was then re-printed in 1999. I hope that this work serves as a model to other
languages taught at tertiary level in other EU countries where D. Maingueneau’s book is
included in their linguistic programme.
Book extract:
http://books.google.de/books?printsec=frontcover&id=HQm2baVOpJsC#v=onepage&q&f=fa
lse

Schembri, Tamara: The Broken Plural in Maltese
A Description, IL-LINGWA-TAGHNA Vol. 3, ISBN 978-3-8196-0858-2, Pb. 125 pp. 15,5 x
22,5 cm. € 39,90
ABONNEMENTSPREIS/SUBSCRIPTION PRICE € 34,90
MITGLIEDERPREIS/MEMBER PRICE only for members of GHILM € 25,00
PdF edition € 12,00 www.brockmeyer-ebooks.de
In this study, SCHEMBRI explores, describes and analyses the broken plural in Maltese, one
of many intriguing areas in Maltese grammar that have not been studied in great detail up to
now. This is the first exclusively synchronic, in-depth study focusing on the broken plural in
Mal-tese; other studies deal with this phenomenon either briefly, mainly in the context of
other plural forms or other aspects of Maltese grammar, or emphasise the diachronic more
than the synchronic aspect. A number of questions are relevant to a study of the broken plural,
in-cluding: What is the actual range of patterns displayed? What is the for-mal relationship
between different plural patterns? What is the formal relationship between singular and plural
forms? How systematic and, therefore, predictable are these formal relations? Is it possible to
predict whether a noun will have a sound or broken plural? Does meaning play any role in the
determination of patterns? To what extent is the broken plural productive in modern Maltese?
In what way is the broken plural in Maltese similar or different from the same phenomenon in
other lan-guages of the Semitic family, especially Arabic? SCHEMBRI tries to answer some
of these questions by examining the relevant data, and by looking for significant
generalisations, trying to re-duce the richness of forms to more general basic patterns.
SCHEMBRI’s conclusions provide important insights on the basis of which one can move on
to the next step and attempt a formal account in some theoretical framework, such as
Optimality Theory, to pick example of a framework that is actually mentioned by
SCHEMBRI herself in the following study. SCHEMBRI’s analysis of the broken plural is
another important contri-bution to the study of Maltese linguistics, and, in particular, the
study of Maltese morpho-phonology. Through this work, this volume of Il-Lingwa Tagħna –
Our Language is adding another precious stone to the colourful mosaic that is being put
together to create as complete a picture as possi-ble of the Maltese language and Maltese
linguistics. Other studies are planned to follow and enrich this picture further. (RAY FABRI
(Malta)
Book extract:
http://www.libreka.de/9783819608582/FC#X2ludGVybmFsX0ZsYXNoRmlkZWxpdHk/eG1
saWQ9OTc4MzgxOTYwODU4MiUyRkZDJmltYWdlcGFnZT1GQw==

Seychell, Laurent: LA TRADUCTION
SPÉCIALISÉE: L’EXEMPLE DE L’ÉNONCIATION EN LINGUISTIQUE
FRANÇAISE (VERSION FRANÇAISE DE L’ANNEXE 3 LIVRET
COMPLÉMENTAIRE).
IT-TRADUZZJONI SPECJALIZZATA: L-EZEMPJU TAT-TLISSINA FIL-LINGWISTIKA
FRANCIZA (IL-VERŻJONI FRANĊIŻA TAL-ANNESS NUMRU 3 KTEJJEB
KUMPLIMENTARI) IL-LINGWA-TAGHNA Vol. 4, ISBN 978-3-8196-0895-7, pp. 120,
22,5 x 15,5 cm. EINZELPREIS / /UNIT PRICE. € 24,90
ABONNEMENTSPREIS/SUBSCRIPTION PRICE € 17,90
MITGLIEDERPREIS/MEMBER PRICE only for members of GHILM 14,90
PdF edition: € 10,,00 www.brockmeyer-ebooks.de
MALTESISCH: Waqt il-˙olqien ta’ dan ix-xog˙ol tieg˙i li jikkonsisti f’Ωewg volumi, li hu
miktub kwaΩi kollu b’Ωewg lingwi, u li deher f’Diçembru tal-2011, jien skartajt mill-ewwel
l-idea li nag˙mel traduzzjoni bil-FrançiΩ tal-Anness numru 3 billi ˙allejtha fil-verΩjoni
vernakulari tag˙ha, jigifieri fil-Malti. Wara li ˙are© dan ix-xog˙ol lejn in-nofs ta’ Diçembru
tal-2011, jien irrealizzajt li g˙amilt ingustizzja lingwistika lejn dawk il-qarrejja kollha
Frankofoniçi attwali jew potenzjali billi impedejthom li jag˙mlu gwadann mir-rimarki u nnotazzjonijiet
li gew miΩjuda minni mal-verΩjoni Maltija tax-xog˙ol ta’ D. Maingueneau
(g˙alkemm x’u˙ud minnhom huma evidenti g˙alihom) kif ukoll lejn dawk l-istudenti
konçittadini tieg˙i li jixtiequ jkollhom g˙ad-dispoΩizzjoni tag˙hom il-verΩjoni FrançiΩa
sabiex itejbu il-konoxxenzi tag˙hom lingwistiçi u fix-xjenza tat-traduzzjoni. “Dan in-nuqqas”
kien gej minn problematika fl-Edizzjoni: ilbiΩa’ li Hachette Livre kienet ser tkun timpedini
milli nipproduçi g˙as-suq tal-kotba xog˙ol mag˙mul baΩikament b’Ωewg lingwi! Dan ma
kienx il-kaΩ g˙aliex il-biΩa’ tieg˙i ma kinitx iggustifikata!
Book extract: http://www.libreka.de/9783819608957

Ilsienna und Beihefte
Working Papers of the International Association of Maltese Linguistics
GHILM ISSN 1866-62,56
IL-LINGWA TAGĦNA – Companion Series
ISSN 1866-6264.
Editor-in-chief: Thomas Stolz
Executive Editor: Cornelia Stroh
Review Editor: Joseph Brincat
University Press Dr. N. Brockmeyer
Im Haarmannsbusch 112, D- 44719 Bochum
www.brockmeyer-verlag.de
www.brockmeyer-online.de
Please place your order with our Publishing House, or your Bookseller
________________________________________________________________________________
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with an invoice payable within 30 days
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…..Ex. Vol. Ilsienna 1
…. Ex. Vol. Ilsienna 2
Companion series
… vol. 1 Maltese Linguistics
Fax + 49/234/9791601
… vol. 2: La traduction spécialisée 2. Vol.
… vol. 3: Broken Plural
… vol. 4: La traduction spécialisée 3 (Livret complémentaire)
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