-ijiet
Maltese
Etymology
From Arabic يات (-iyyāt), feminine plural of the derivational suffix ي (-iyy), whence Maltese -i. Natively used with nouns in -ija, then probably first extended to Sicilian borrowings in -i and finally also to consonant-final borrowings.
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /ɪˈjɪːt/
Suffix
-ijiet
- a common plural suffix for nouns
- used with native nouns in -ija as well as some borrowings with this ending (most Romance words have -iji instead)
- used with borrowed nouns in -i or consonants
- impressjoni (“impression”) → impressjonijiet (“impressions”)
- patt (“pact”) → pattijiet (“pacts”)
- sptar (“hospital”) → sptarijiet (“hospitals”)
Related terms
This article is issued from
Wiktionary.
The text is licensed under Creative
Commons - Attribution - Sharealike.
Additional terms may apply for the media files.