Observations From Malta

simmo

simmo

Senior Jockey
Joined
Mar 4, 2004
Messages
5,779
Location
South Lanarkshire
The English - My God, what an annoying race of people. Never in the course of human history have so few annoyed so many. Whiney accents.

The Scots - I hate to point this out lads, but a draw with Italy and a win against Norway does not entitle you to start singing "Ally's Tartan Army".

The Danish - You're drunken Germans aren't you? Now I understand why the rest of Scandanavia hates you.

The Germans - actually I didn't see many Germans, except for one large and unruly family. This pleased me inordinately. Usually when you see large German families they look for all the world as if the only thing they are missing is a whistle.

The Irish - well you're a quiet lot then. Except for that one woman - "Well I think, well I think, well I think......" Do you really? It strikes me that if you shut your gob and lsitened to someone else for a minute you might have some valid things to think.

The Maltese - Weirdo's. British in culture (Witness deck chairs and flasks of tea on the beach), Italian in nature and wannabe French in Cuisine. Although the linguists on here would love their language - a mixture of Arabic, English, Italian, French, German, Greek and Spanish. Weirdo's.
 
Simmo.
Shame that there were none that qualified to your very high standard.
 
One can only say things as one finds them. On reflection I may have been a bit harsh on the Danes as it was a genuine minority which fell into the bracket described. The others, well, it was a (in some cases very large) majority of the sample I'm afraid.
 
Originally posted by simmo@Sep 15 2005, 02:37 PM
The Maltese - Weirdo's. British in culture (Witness deck chairs and flasks of tea on the beach), Italian in nature and wannabe French in Cuisine. Although the linguists on here would love their language - a mixture of Arabic, English, Italian, French, German, Greek and Spanish. Weirdo's.
Click to expand...
No massive coincidence then that the Maltese are very similar to the Gibbos!! :lol: :lol:

No, seriously - the two races are very closely entwined - many Maltese have settled in Gibraltar & many Gibraltarians have settled in Malta. The architecture/attitude to life/physical appearance of the natives/accents/family names etc of both cultures are virtually identical. When I went to Malta last year on holiday I thought that somehow I had stepped on the wrong plane at Gatwick & flown back to Gib!

Although Maltese is a different language to Llanita (which is essentially a hybrid mix of Spanish & English) the accents of both the Maltese & the Gibraltarians when speaking English is virtually identical. It's a very bizarre accent that is almost sing-song, at least it is in Gib at least! Gibraltar's culture is also a mix of Spanish/Italian (mainly Genoese)/Arabic/English and it makes for a bizarre, yet interesting mix. On one side of Gibraltar (on the other [Eastern] side of the Rock from the main population, strangley a pretty much detached community from the rest of Gib) at Catalan Bay, a tiny settlement, the people there claim to be Genoese & a lot of the older generation will only speak Italian, refusing to speak anything else.

Whereabouts in Malta did you stay, simmo? I was near Marsascala in the south; my mother was born in Malta as my grandparents lived in Birzebbuga. We spent a bit of time in Birzebbuga trying to identify their old house from a 50 year old black & white photo! It's a sweet little town actually, quite picturesque, as is Marsascala.
 
Interesting SL, I did wonder at the time how many similarities there would be. The thing I found strangest about the Maltese language was the way that it would sound (to my untrained ear) pretty much like Arabic for the most part, but then entire sentences would appear to be constructed from say Italian or French most commonly, before reverting to Arabic. The Spanish/English/Greek/German influence seemed to be more in single words.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Sep 15 2005, 01:47 PM
Whereabouts in Malta did you stay, simmo?
Click to expand...
Mellieha Bay. North West of the island - and the only resort that I saw which wasn't like Blackpool with sun. Lovely location, would thoroughly recommend it to those with a stronger stomach for other people than I.
 
It is an exceptionally bizarre language Simmo, you're right - quite pleasant to listen to though! I found it very strange that when speaking English the Maltese & Gibraltarians sounds so very alike yet their native tongues are so dissimilar - Llanita is simply a Spanish/English hybrid.

I'm pretty sure a lot of the settling of Maltese in Gib & Gibraltarians in Malta had something to do with evacuations during the War - some evacuees settled where they were taken & their families eventually started joining them. I'm also pretty sure a lot of it had to do with the Navy & the strong links that Malta (like Gibralter) had to England. There was a large Navy/Army presence in Malta for a long time (Grandpa was in the Navy, hence my grandparents living there) also - & Gibraltar has had/still has a large British military presence too.
 
Originally posted by simmo@Sep 15 2005, 04:01 PM
Mellieha Bay. North West of the island - and the only resort that I saw which wasn't like Blackpool with sun. Lovely location, would thoroughly recommend it to those with a stronger stomach for other people than I.
Click to expand...
I didn't go up to the north end of the island when I was there, the furthest I got to was Mdina - an amazing & beautiful city. My mother was born in what was a naval hospital in sight of Mdina at Mtarfa, we went past it as Ma wanted to see where she was born. It's now a boy's private school.

I really can't remember the name of the place we stayed in bar that it was near Marsascala. It was a lovely place, not a resort at all but a small fishing village.
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Sep 15 2005, 02:10 PM
Mdina - an amazing & beautiful city.
Click to expand...
Now if they could take the same care with Valetta it could also be amazing & beautiful - instead it just looks like a mess that they want to charge money for!
 
Originally posted by Shadow Leader@Sep 15 2005, 03:06 PM
I'm pretty sure a lot of the settling of Maltese in Gib & Gibraltarians in Malta had something to do with evacuations during the War - some evacuees settled where they were taken & their families eventually started joining them.
Click to expand...
I wouldn't have thought so - evacuating Gibraltarians to Malta or Maltese to Gib would be a story of frying pans and fires. Surely the evacuations were to GB?

During World War II Malta was a key base in the successful Allied struggle for North Africa. Consequently, Malta withstood very heavy Axis bombing raids. Indeed, in 1942 the island as a whole was awarded the George Cross for heroism. So, the correct name of the country is Malta GC.

Nearly every civilian was evacuated from Gibraltar with only a brave 4,000 who stayed behind to help defend the rock. Because of the "neutrality" of Spain the British base was not subjected to the sustained bombing attacks that were suffered by Malta, though the rock was bombed by Vichy France in 1940. There were German plans to take Gibraltar by a land and sea invasion in 1941 but Franco withheld permission for Spanish soil to be used at the last minute (though he allowed German staff officers in civilian clothing to study the rock from the Spanish side of the border.
 
Cheers Brian - I can't remember but something niggling tells me that evacuations during the war had something to do with so many Maltese coming to Gib & vice-versa - maybe they were evacuated to the same place or something?
 
Originally posted by BrianH@Sep 15 2005, 04:44 PM
Quite possibly - I don't know or sure but I'd be very surprised if anyone was evacuated to either Gib or Malta.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I didn't mean evacuated to either place I meant maybe they were evacuated to the same place, be it in the UK or whatever. I'm not sure what it is but there's something niggling that the war evacuations did something to help strengthen the bond between the countries, I'm sure I was told that by a Maltese Gibraltarian (I kid you not, that's what he called himself!!!) from work. An intelligent one mind - he escaped to the UK to go to Uni!! :lol:
 
Back
Top