The Maltese language - a primer
If you’ve joined this forum then you're probably studying in Malta… and perhaps you’re even studying the Maltese language or considering learning a few words. Or else you’re wondering where this strange language, with less than half a million speakers worldwide, comes from.
Maltese is a Semitic language steeped in the Maghrebi Arabic dialects of the Emirate of Sicily (we’re talking between 831 and 1091, so not exactly recent). In fact, they are similar to the dialects which were spoken in some areas conquered by the moors in places such as Sicily, Southern Italy, and several parts of Spain. The second stratum of the language is romance languages, notably Sicilian and Italian and, lately, English (of course!).
Maltese is definitely unusual on many counts. Not many languages can boast to be composed of three distinct language families; Maltese has elements of Semitic, Romance, and Anglo-Saxon all rolled into one. As such, although it might seem somewhat limiting to learn a language that isn’t that widely spoken, it gives a huge advantage to anyone wanting to learn and or gain a better understanding of either of these linguistic branches. If it was in a supermarket, it would be an unbeatable 3-for-1 offer!
The base structure of Maltese is built around this ancient Arabic structure. However, what makes it even more interesting is that more than one-third of the vocabulary comes from standard Italian and Sicilian. Words are introduced from other language families and often first ‘Arabized’ in structure and then ‘Latinized’ in pronunciation. There is a notable increase in words from romance languages with language concepts that are administrative, philosophical or more complex in nature, sometimes more than half. This is because, although Maltese people have a language which - at its base level - is built on Arabic, are so historically removed from Arabic that it is not easily mutually intelligible with Arabic.
As if this unusual marriage between Arabic and romance languages wasn't complicated enough, there are many other elements from different languages. There's French, Catalan, and anyone else we said ‘hello’ to or decided to conquer us (the French did both! We got ‘good morning’). Furthermore today English is quite a dominant force when it comes to Maltese vocabulary, composing between 6 to 20% of the daily vocabulary.
If you are wondering if Maltese could be used in an Arabic country, this is unfortunately not the case. Many speakers of Arabic tend to understand Maltese since it is an earlier version of their own language. But because of the archaic nature of the language, the opposite is not true.
There are also some other interesting firsts when it comes to Maltese. It is the only Semitic language of the EU. Maltese has always been written in the Latin script and as such is the only Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script. It has never been written in any other type of script.
So, how did this strange mix come about? You will learn more about the history of Malta in another post. However I would like to just explain briefly that the …. has been conquered by many different dominating forces all vying for dominance in the Mediterranean and because of its size and small population has, quite frankly, been dominated by larger countries fairly easily. This means we were part of the Fatimid caliphate telephone at the peak of its power (and as often the case, it also means that for many centuries we were part of Sicily. And of course, in recent history, we spent more than a decade under British rule.
Going around the island you will notice that no one speaks Maltese or English exclusively, but mixes the two. It turns instead to be a mix of these concepts and also words coming from Italian on occasion.
Some claim that the ancient punic language is the basis of Maltese, but there is no proof to give credence to this theory.
Interestingly, for such a small place, there are different dialects. These dialects are dying out leaving nearly standard Maltese as the only version of the language. However, the exception remains Gozitan Maltese. Gozitan speakers can be easily spotted by Maltese speakers due to particular inflections and the way certain things are voiced, as well as words that are not necessarily used on the main island.
The oldest known version of a literary text is Il-Kantilena from the 15th century. This is written in an archaic type of Maltese which bears little resemblance to the Maltese used today, with its many long words from Italian and English.