December, by Saviour Baldacchino

What did the Maltese say when the beloved Azure Window disappeared? ‘Xi Dwejraq!’’

Coined around a sorrowful event, this pun is one of several that surfaced this year on social media, where the play on words seems to be gaining popularity.

Wordplay is an intrinsic part of language and culture, and puns are ages old. They are part of our oral tradition, but with the explosion of social media, people have started to create new puns in Maltese.

“Or rather, people have always created puns, but on social media they attract much more attention. More people see them and share them,” said Michael Spagnol, who set up Kelma Kelma, a Facebook page dedicated to the intricacies of the Maltese language.

October, by Bruce Micallef Eynaud

“For instance, one of the most popular sections of my page is the album Logħob bil-kliem, consisting mainly of puns, and there is also a group called Min jitwieled vojt ma jmutx kwadru. Users not only come up with new puns on a daily basis, but they often engage in so-called ping-pong punning.”

Kelma Kelma turned this trend into a fundraising initiative and teamed up with 12 artists to design a desk calendar in Maltese.

The puns chosen for this calendar, in aid of the Inspire Foundation, were written by Dr Spagnol, Maria Debono, Yurgen Schembri, Matthew Brincat, Julian Vella and Matthew Darmanin.

From a linguistic point of view, 2017 was dominated by politics

This is the second such calendar, with last year’s consisting of 12 proverbs related to each month.

Dr Spagnol usually provides the Times of Malta with the yearly list of newly coined Maltese words.

June, by Berivan Serin. Photos provided by Kelma Kelma

Read: Perf, piżellu, ġobnuż... make it into Maltese vocabulary

In recent years, Times of Malta readers have been regaled with the gems stessu (selfie) and borrinu (snowman), with the former frequently used in newspapers and the latter having been included in some dictionaries and children’s books.

Read: Maltese snowman is on list of ‘words of the year’

This year there is no such list, but when asked which word he thinks stood out, Dr Spagnol said that from a linguistic point of view, 2017 was dominated by politics.

Read: Maltese vocabulary gets new additions in 2015

The most common words or phrases were ‘Egrant’, ‘Panama’, ‘Pilatus’, L-aqwa żmien (a political slogan meaning ‘The best of times’ that has turned into an idiom) and, more recently, stat ta’ fatt (statement of fact) and trapass (struggle).

Sadly, another phrase which was frequently used was karozza bomba – a relatively recent addition to the Maltese language, most likely calqued on the English ‘car bomb’ or Italian autobomba.

Other than politics, there was a singular event that triggered the invention of a creative expression. After the Azure Window collapsed, many at their keyboards moaned, Xi Dwejraq! – yet another pun.

Find more information about the calendar on https://inspire.org.mt/events/kalendarju-kelmakelma-2018/ .

August, by Ġorġ Mallia

It started with a Toyota

A local, well-known pun that sparked other puns (ping-pong punning)

A: Xtrajt Toyota Vitz.
B: GT?
A: Le, mort għaliha jien.

- Nissan ’kun naf x’inhu jiġri hawnhekk?
- Mhux aħjar t’Ferrari kikkra te?
- Il-ħajja oHONDhA kif tiġi.
- Tajba... Tata ħallejtkom.

September, by Debbie Caruana Dingli

May, by Mark Scicluna

January, by Nadine Noko

July, by Hannah Galea