Taking to social media, linguist Kurt Rumbajsa went viral attempting to find the Maltese versions of currently trending phrases ‘demure’, ‘mindful’ and ‘cutesy’.
The phrase “very mindful, very demure” has gone viral, thanks to TikTok user Jools Lebron, who popularized it in a series of videos. The TikToker uses these words to describe the appropriateness of makeup and fashion choices for different settings.
@rumbajsa kif tkun demure b’mod Mediterran u meħud mix-xemx 🫶🏼💖💋🌸🍰✨🩰🎀 #demure #fyp #fypmalta #fypage #foryou #foryoupage #tiktokmalta #maltatiktok #maltafyp #malti #🇲🇹 #malta #maltese #malteselanguage #language #linguistics
Kurt concluded that ‘dekoruż/a’ or ‘għandha d-dekor’ can be the best version of demure in Maltese (whilst also commending a commenter who shared a photo of Freddie Portelli as someone with demure).
Meanwhile, Kurt suggested we use the phrase ’nkun nies’ (literally ‘to be people’) as the alternative for mindful.
As for cutesy, while quite simple, Kurt urged us to bring back the diminutive forms of adjectives and thus recommends ‘ħlejju’.
What do you think of Kurt’s suggestions?
#MaltaDaily