ABSTRACT
Apart from finite verbs such as ċafċaf ‘he splashed’, capcap ‘he clapped’, ċekċek ‘he tinkled’, ħaxwex ‘he rustled’, paqpaq ‘he sounded the horn of a car’, żanżan ‘he buzzed’, żaqzaq ‘he creaked’, etc. (including also verbal nouns associated with each, e.g.: ċafċif ‘splashing’, ċapċip ‘clapping’, ċekċik ‘tinkling’, tħaxwix ‘rustling’, żanżin ‘buzzing’, żaqżiq ‘creaking’) which are considered onomatopoeic, there is a small number of other ideophones usually occurring in discourse with children, such as paqq or ċlaqq to imitate the sound of a small explosion, zinn zinn to imitate the sound of cymbals and qumpa qumpa for the sound of the trombone in (popular) band marches. There is also the baby word paqqa for karozza or mowtor for ‘car’ which is taken as imitating the sound of a car's horn, and tuttu for żiemel ‘horse’, taken as a rendition of the sound made by a horse's hooves.
