One of the dialects found in the Maltese language

Maltese language

Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic...

 is the Qormi Dialect (in general Maltese termed as Qormi and by the speakers as Qurmi, and affectionately as it-Tuf, and standard Maltese is called it-Taf. Literally, Taf is the Maltese word for "you know"). This dialect is used by many of the Qormi

Qormi

Qormi is a city in Malta with a population of 18,550 , which makes it the second largest locality in Malta...

inhabitants and in other settlements around this city, that consists of around twenty-thousand people. The most distinctive feature of the Qormi dialect lies in its treatment of vowels.

Although there is no strict rule, generally the vowels in the dialect take the following forms. Vowels of first syllabes are the ones most affected, but sometimes medial vowels are changed as well. Final vowels, on the other hand, are usually identical to those of the Standard language.

The Vocal 'A'

The vocal 'A' changes into the vocals 'U'. If in the end, it becomes an 'O'.

English	Maltese	Qormi Dialect
steeple (church tower)	kampnar	kampnur
seriousness	serjetà	serjetò
seminary	seminarju	seminurju
potato	patata	patuta
fog	ċpar	ċpur

The Vocal 'O'

The vocal 'O' in the Qormi dialect is also changed into 'U'. Example:

English	Maltese	Qormi Dialect
we went	morna	murna
go (imperative 3rd pers. pl.)	morru	murru
spring coil	molla	mulla
car	karozza	karuzza
glue	kolla	kulla
postage stamp	bolla	bulla

This form happens to roughly all of the words that have the vowel ' O ' in the first syllabe, although there may be exceptions.

Vowels after the Għ

The vowels after the 'Għ' change their sound as well.

• The syllabe Għi, instead of an 'AJ' sound, takes an EJ sound. Example: Għid il-Kbir (Easter) would be pronounced as ejd il-kbir instead of ajd il-kbir
• The syllabe Għe, instead of an 'E' sound, takes an 'A' sound. Example: Qiegħed (to stay) would be pronounced as qijad instead of qijed.
• The syllabe Għu, instead of an 'OW' sound, takes an 'EW' sound. Example: Għuda (piece of wood) would be pronounced as ewda instead of owda.

Exceptions

Although there may be exceptions, such as Kollha (all of it) would be pronounced as Killha, Meta (when) as Mita, etc. one must note that the vowels are never lengthened, and their accent remains as the normal Maltese one.