Issue link: https://maltatoday.uberflip.com/i/1546604
4 gozotoday | FRIDAY • 18 SEPTEMBER 2026 NEWS CONTINUES FROM PAGE 1 Pausal forms are particular pronunciations that occur when a word comes before a pause, such as at the end of a sentence or phrase. Lipnicka said the same word can therefore sound slightly dif- ferent depending on whether it occurs in the middle of a phrase or immediately before a pause. One particularly feature found in Gozitan is what linguists call "pausal diphthongisation." This can see a vowel that is normally pronounced as a steady sound change into a diphthong, a moving vowel sound, before a pause. Examples include forms such as ommoj#, kbejr# and tabojb#, compared with ommi, kbir and tabib when the words occur without a pause. For Lipnicka, the phenomenon is particularly fascinating be- cause it sits at the intersection of sound, rhythm and meaning. "There is something poetic, or even musical, about them: a word can change its sound simply because it comes before silence, a little like the end of a verse in poetry or a cadence in music," she said. Pausal forms eventually be- came the subject of her master's thesis before becoming part of a joint research project with Pro- fessor Maciej Klimiuk and later her PhD research. The phenomenon is also unu- sual in the wider Western North African dialect group, although comparable pausal phenomena have been documented in some Lebanese and Syro-Palestinian dialects. Why do Gozitans change their accent in Malta? Lipnicka's research also looked at how Gozitan speakers modify their speech depending on who they are speaking to and where they are. She stressed that adapting one's speech to different situations is normal and happens across lan- guages and communities. In Gozo, however, there are ad- ditional social factors. Standard Maltese is the variety encountered in education, the media and many public and institutional settings, while Gozitan dialects are more strongly associated with the home village and local community. Some people interviewed by Lip- nicka also recalled being teased or mocked for their Gozitan accent when working in Malta. Moving towards Standard Mal- tese in such circumstances can therefore be a way of adapting to a particular setting, avoiding un- wanted attention or facilitating communication, she explained. Rather than describing this as people "giving up" their dialect, Lipnicka said it is more accurately understood as linguistic accom- modation. 'There is no single Gozitan attitude towards dialect' Lipnicka also encountered nega- tive attitudes towards local speech during her fieldwork. Some speakers described their dialect in negative terms or wor- ried that it did not sound "proper" or "polite", using expressions such as imgħawweġ or mhux bil-pole- jt#. In some cases, speakers became more conscious of their dialect as soon as they realised, they were being recorded and began moving towards Standard Maltese. That creates a particular chal- lenge for dialect researchers, Lip- nicka explained, because people who monitor their own speech may no longer speak in the way they naturally would at home. But such attitudes were far from universal. Lipnicka also encoun- tered many people who were ex- tremely proud of their dialect and keen to pass it on to younger gen- erations. "There is no single 'Gozitan at- titude' towards dialect," she said, pointing to differences linked to factors including generation, mo- bility, occupation and social net- works. She therefore cautions against reducing attitudes towards dialect to a simple question of pride ver- sus shame. "The picture is much more complex," she said. Some traditional features are disappearing Lipnicka compared contempo- rary recordings with recordings made around 50 years earlier, in- cluding material recorded by Pat- rick Formosa in the 1970s. Her research into the dialect of Għarb found that some older features have disappeared among younger speakers. One example concerns one of the two historical sounds repre- sented in Maltese by the letter għajn. In words such as Għawdex, Għarb and il-għudwa, the sound could traditionally be pronounced somewhat like a French r. Lipnicka said she continued to find this pronunciation among older speakers, but not among younger generations. Other features have proved con- siderably more resilient. The ret- roflex r associated with the west- ern Gozitan dialect group remains well preserved, including among younger speakers. This is significant, she said, be- cause the sound has sometimes been assumed to have been influ- enced by English. Her research instead indicates that it is a genuine feature of the western Gozitan dialect group. 'I could hear children using pausal forms in the streets' Perhaps the most encouraging finding for Lipnicka has been the survival of pausal forms themselves. These are not merely linguis- tic relics preserved in old re- cordings or restricted to elder- ly speakers. "When I visited Gozo again this June, I could hear children and young people using pausal forms naturally in the streets," she said. For a dialectologist, she add- ed, this is one of the clearest indications that a linguistic feature continues to be passed naturally from one generation to another. Lipnicka therefore urges cau- tion when describing Gozitan dialects as being in the process of disappearing. Some individual features have undoubtedly been lost, while others may be becoming less frequent. But the continued use of pausal forms among younger speakers suggests that impor- tant elements of the dialect system remain in everyday use. "Gozitan dialects are chang- ing, as all living varieties do, but they are still very much alive," Lipnicka said. Lipnicka has also produced a short video explaining pausal forms, available on YouTube. Gozitan speakers modify their speech depending on who they are speaking to "There is something poetic, or even musical, about them: a word can change its sound simply because it comes before silence, a little like the end of a verse in poetry or a cadence in music," she said Lipnicka also encountered negative attitudes towards local speech during her fieldwork