<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><p style="margin: 0.0px 0.0px 1.0px 90.0px; text-indent: -90.0px; font: 14.0px Helvetica"><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Times; font-size: 16px; font-weight: normal; "><div style="font-size: 14px; ">(Clive)</div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 14px; ">> BTW, Bruce, my Maltese friends tell me that , <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">in their enchanting tongue also, <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">ħuta</font> (f.sg.) [Two plurals (Determinate) <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">ħutiet</font> ; </span></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">> (Collective) <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">ħut</font>] is the usual word for <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">fish</font>. </span></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: rgb(0, 0, 0); ">> Their word for <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">whale</font> is <font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">baliena</font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">. Not sure of plural there, prob. </font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">balienat</font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">, or </font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0000">balieniet</font><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#000000">. </font></span></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Clive, some 20 years back when in Għawdex (Gozo), I had been grappling with this very interesting language Malti for a couple of</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">years; Maltese being the only "Arabic" I ever ventured to deal with, I was eager then to even filter out some news from the local newspapers.</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">(I still own some yellowed copies, BTW.)</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Consulting my old sources (Kaptan Pawlu Buġeja's "Kelmet il-Malti - Dizzjunarju Malti-Ingliż Ingliż-Malti and a grammar book by Joseph</span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Aquilina) I wasn't able to get a definite answer to your "quite simple" question ;-) Obviously the manifold plural forms in Maltese are </span></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">so obvious for native speakers - and students of English - that teacher Buġeja didn't regard them as worth mentioning.</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">So I've to dare a guess: the word for "whale" might be treated as a loan word (not being of Arabic descent rather than adopted from Sicilian or</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Italian la balena), and it - also - seems to be fem.. So I'd suggest baliena [IPA baliə:na] - balien<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#FF0606">i</font> [IPA baliə:ni]. Having checked all the rules</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">regarding "plural by suffixes" (a "broken plural" doesn't seem to be appropriate), this seems to be the most probable result - but who knows? :(</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">My doubts regarding your ?balienat or **balieniet - the stress would've to move to the last syllable -> ?baliniet - derive from baliena 1) NOT being</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">of Arabic origin, 2) maybe not being adapted to the semitic word-pattern of Maltese. Here (2) I might be wrong though. What do you mean?</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Kind regards (and apology for being far off-topic)</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Alfred</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">_________________________________</font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div style="font-size: 14px; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Arial; ">Ṫaigmuakiṫo (AWT)</span></div></span></b></p><div apple-content-edited="true"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-align: auto; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0; "><span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse: separate; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); font-family: Helvetica; font-size: 14px; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; letter-spacing: normal; line-height: normal; orphans: 2; text-indent: 0px; text-transform: none; white-space: normal; widows: 2; word-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-horizontal-spacing: 0px; -webkit-border-vertical-spacing: 0px; -webkit-text-decorations-in-effect: none; -webkit-text-size-adjust: auto; -webkit-text-stroke-width: 0px; "><div style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; "><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial">Laḱota iyapi wóuŋspeḱiye</font></div><div><font class="Apple-style-span" face="Arial"><a href="http://www.fa-kuan.de/LAKSTRUCT.HTML">http://www.fa-kuan.de/LAKSTRUCT.HTML</a></font></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div><div><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></div></div></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"></span><br class="Apple-interchange-newline"> </div><br></body></html>