# Maltese: ikbar, akbar



## clevermizo

I was reading the Wikipedia article on the city of _Rabat (Victoria/Vittoria) _in Gozo, and I came across the following sentences:



> Il-belt għandha popolazzjoni ta' 6,414 (Novembru 2005), u b'din il-popolazzjoni din il-lokalità hi l-ikbar waħda f'Għawdex.


The city has a population of 6,414, and the population of this area is the greatest/largest in Gozo.



> Il-Belt Victoria hi l-akbar lokalità f'Għawdex, u taqa' taħt ir-responsabbilta' tal-Kunsill Lokali tar-Rabat.


The city(?) Victoria is the largest area in Gozo, and it falls(?) under the responsibility of the Local Counsil of Rabat.

I'm not sure if my translations are totally right, but my question concerns the word for "largest" or "greatest" - is this a typo? A lack of standardization? Is the word _ikbar_ or _akbar_ depending on some grammatical rule?

I'm not sure how many Maltese speakers there are here on WR, but I hope someone is around to respond. Thanks for your help!


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## StinaMT

Hi clevermizo, 

According to Joseph Aquilina*, author of THE maltese-englisch dictionary - ikbar is a variation of akbar < kiber.


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## Manuel_M

_Ikbar _and _akbar_ are simply variants of the comparative of _kbir (_which means *big* or *large*). The superlative is formed by adding the article to the comparative: _l-ikbar_ or _l-akbar._


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## chevalblanc

Both of them are correct and used interchangeably in daily use. They are just phonetic variations. However, I guess the best version is l-ikbar taking into consideration that the comparative form is ikbar.


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