Flash of revelation
Thursday, 9 August 2007 11:04I just realised something.
I looked up Al-Qaeda (which I had just seen mentioned somewhere) to see how it was spelled in Arabic (القاعدة, FWIW).
Then I imagined what the cognate Maltese word would be... and, from al-qāʕida, got as far as il-qiegħ... and realised that it must be cognate to e.g. qagħhad joqgħod and poġġi bil-qiegħda.
(Not sure whether the cognate would really be il-qiegħda, though; could also be il-qagħda, for example, which is a word, according to my dictionary.)
Hmm... since qiegħda is the feminine form of qiegħed, would that make "Al-Qaeda" be "the sitting female" in Maltese?