qal

Translingual

Etymology

Clipping of Alfinu with q as a placeholder.

Symbol

qal

1. (international standards) ISO 639-2 & ISO 639-3 language code for reserved for local use.
2. CLCR code for Alfinu.

Maltese

Root
q-w-l
6 terms

Etymology

A suppletive formation: The third-person forms of the perfect are from Arabic قَالَ (qāla, “to say”); all other forms are from أَعَادَ (ʔaʕāda, “to repeat, say repeatedly”).

The use of the latter verb in the imperfect tense is somewhat understandable, because one will more often mention the fact that someone says something repeatedly or generally, rather than that they are saying something right now (though, of course, the imperfect is also used for the future). More surprising is perhaps that Âgħad also conquered the first and second persons of the perfect. This, in turn, could be due to a parallelism with other verbs with a long stem vowel (“hollow roots”), where these forms are phonetically closer to the imperfect than to the third person (cf. sab, sibt, isib, or kien, kont, ikun).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʔaːl/
• Rhymes: -aːl

Verb

qal (imperfect jgħid, past participle moqul or mequl or maqul)

1. to say; to tell

Conjugation

Conjugation of qal (irregular)

positive forms
		singular			plural
		1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
perfect	m	għidt	għidt	qal	għidna	għidtu	qalu
	f			qalet
imperfect	m	ngħid	tgħid	jgħid	ngħidu	tgħidu	jgħidu
	f			tgħid
imperative			għid			għidu
negative forms
		singular			plural
		1st person	2nd person	3rd person	1st person	2nd person	3rd person
perfect	m	għidtx	għidtx	qalx	għidniex	għidtux	qalux
	f			qalitx
imperfect	m	ngħidx	tgħidx	jgħidx	ngħidux	tgħidux	jgħidux
	f			tgħidx
imperative			tgħidx			tgħidux

Quinault

Alternative forms

• qalʼ

Noun

qal

1. water
2. river
3. a certain constellation, a somewhat triangular arrangement of stars

Further reading

• Lawrence R. Morgan, Kootenay-Salishan Linguistic Comparisons. A Preliminary Study (thesis, Vancouver, University of British Columbia, 1980), page 95
• Ronald Leroy Olson, The Quinault Indians: Adze, canoe, and house types of the Northwest (1967)