ruħ

Maltese

Etymology

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

• IPA^(key): /ruːħ/

Noun

ruħ f (plural erwieħ or rwieħ, diminutive rwejħa)

1. soul

Pronoun

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

• 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

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