Today I was complaining on Twitter that I seem to have lost my fire. Work, home-schooling and using the same 10sqm for months on end has started to take a toll. I stopped writing my novel. I stopped reading anything to do with current affairs as the thought of Covid news was just depressing me. I stopped doing those things that make me happy because I’m just so tired all the time.
Then, while doomscrolling on Twitter I come across an article on MaltaToday about ex-Maltese Prime Minister Joseph Muscat using the term ‘żobiku’ in court during a hearing. The judge didn’t reprimand the use of the word which is derived from the word ‘żobb’ in Maltese which means penis and is seen as vulgar.
Now I know what you are thinking. Why is the word for penis considered vulgar? Well that’s Maltese for you. All language that has to do with sex and comes from the semitic tends to be stamped as such. This is the way all of us have been conditioned since we were children, yet most of us seldom use the word ‘pesisa’ (the more acceptable term for penis) and paċoċċu (the more acceptable term for vagina instead of ‘għoxx,’ also vulgar). The reason being that they sound childish. Somehow, in Maltese, there doesn’t seem to be a neutral word for private parts.
At this point I felt some fire burning in my loins. There is nothing that I love more than the Maltese language and how it is used in literature and everyday life.
Since I’ve been living in the UK I do miss conversing in Maltese. What I miss most is being at work and hearing the odd vulgar term thrown about in a heated moment which I never have heard before. For a language that is spoken by around 500,000 people the differences in some sayings can be really astonishing.
In my 30+ years of being surrounded by the Maltese language, for example, I never heard the term żobiku.
According to Michael Spagnol who is the Head of the department of Maltese at the University of Malta the term developed from the word ‘żobb’ but since it only has one b it seems less vulgar. It is also a term which is widely used and tends to mean something along the lines of ‘not being up to standard.’
Believe it or not, at this point I’m jumping in my chair thinking of all the words that do derive from the word ‘żobb’, are seen as vulgar but are also incredibly beautiful. Yes, beautiful! Some of these are:
Inżabbab as in ‘inżabbab, mela ma ntikx l-ahhar bicca ċikkulata’ meaning as fu**ing if I’m going to give you the last piece of chocolate.
Żbubabti as in ‘u ejja tgħidx żbubati bħal dawn’ meaning oh come on don’t say such stupid things.
Iż-żubbaba as in ‘iż-żubbaba, issa ġie tal-ħobż,’ as in oh for god’s sake, why did the breadman arrive just now.
The beauty of all this is that these are the terms that I used to use in my daily life. And yes you may say that I do have a bit of a potty mouth. But I love these words, as vulgar as they are and I don’t think that they diminish in any way the person who speaks them.
Having said that, the most important issue from all of this is the use of these words in places like the Law Courts and Parliament. After all, these are meant to be the highest institutions of the country and letting such vulgar words in would drag these institutions down somehow. At the end of the day, higher standards need to be at work in places like this.
So was Muscat right in using the term? Did the judge do the right thing by not reprimanding him? Thoughts welcome!
Image: A page from Kelma Għal Kelma: Teżawru Tematiku Malti written by Dwayne Ellul and published by Merlin Publishers.