Maltese

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Etymology

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From Arabic رُوح (rūḥ). The expected plural is rwieħ with a post-consonantal variant irwieħ. The form erwieħ shows development of ir to er, as frequently in verbs, but otherwise not with epenthetic sounds. This unusual e- is therefore not felt as epenthetic anymore.

Pronunciation

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Noun

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ruħ f (plural erwieħ or rwieħ, diminutive rwejħa)

  1. soul

Pronoun

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ruħ-

  1. -self, -selves; used with a pronominal suffix to form reflexive pronouns
    Żewġi ma jinteressax ruħu fil-politika.
    My husband isn’t interested in politics.
    (literally, “My husband doesn’t interest himself in politics.”)

Usage notes

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  • With plural suffixes, the stem may remain unchanged, but may also become rwieħ-. The form erwieħ is generally not used in reflexive pronouns.
  • The reflexive pronoun is in limited use. Generally, the accusative particle lil followed by an emphatic pronoun (see nnifs-) takes its place in cases of incidental, non-idiomatic reflexivity: Għandek tħobb lilek innifsek. (You should love yourself.) Moreover, many verbs have a special mediopassive form with the prefixes n- (so-called VII. stem) or t- (V. and VI. stems).

Inflection

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Inflected forms of ruħ
Personal-pronoun-
including forms
singular plural
m f
1st person ruħi ruħna, rwieħna
2nd person ruħek ruħkom, rwieħkom
3rd person ruħu ruħha ruħhom, rwieħhom