Maltese language

"Malti" redirects here. For people with the name, see Malti (given name).

Maltese (Maltese: Malti, also L-Ilsien Malti or Lingwa Maltija) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata. It is spoken by the Maltese people and is the national language of Malta, and the only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of the European Union. Maltese is a Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091. As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-Christianization of the islands, Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of latinisation. It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic. Maltese is thus classified separately from the 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage. Maltese is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages, namely Italian and Sicilian.

Maltese
Malti
Pronunciation	[ˈmɐːltɪ]
Native to	Malta
Ethnicity	Maltese
Native speakers	570,000 (2012)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic West Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Pre-Hilalian Sicilian Arabic Maltese
Early form	Siculo-Arabic
Dialects	Cottonera Gozitan Qormi Żejtuni Australian Central Western Eastern Zurrieq Port Maltese Mġarr Xlukkajr Għaxaq Qawsra †
Writing system	Latin (Maltese alphabet) Maltese Braille
Official status
Official language in	Malta European Union
Regulated by	National Council for the Maltese Language Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mt
ISO 639-2	mlt
ISO 639-3	mlt
Glottolog	malt1254
Linguasphere	12-AAC-c

A Maltese speaker, recorded in Malta

The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words, but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian; and English words make up between 6% and 20% of the vocabulary. A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic, which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic.

Maltese has always been written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages. It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script.

History

See also: History of Malta

Oldest Maltese text: Il-Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro, 15th century

The origins of the Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the 11th century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic was spoken, reversing the Fatimid Caliphate's conquest of the island at the end of the 9th century. This claim has been corroborated by genetic studies, which show that contemporary Maltese people share common ancestry with Sicilians and Calabrians, with little genetic input from North Africa and the Levant.

The Norman conquest in 1091, followed by the expulsion of the Muslims, complete by 1249, permanently isolated the vernacular from its Arabic source, creating the conditions for its evolution into a distinct language. In contrast to Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic became extinct and was replaced by Sicilian, the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934, alongside English. The first written reference to the Maltese language is in a will of 1436, where it is called lingua maltensi. The oldest known document in Maltese, Il-Kantilena (Xidew il-Qada) by Pietru Caxaro, dates from the 15th century.

The earliest known Maltese dictionary was a 16th-century manuscript entitled "Maltese-Italiano"; it was included in the Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost. A list of Maltese words was included in both the Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and Propugnaculum Europae (1606) of Hieronymus Megiser, who had visited Malta in 1588–1589; Domenico Magri gave the etymologies of some Maltese words in his Hierolexicon, sive sacrum dictionarium (1677).

An early manuscript dictionary, Dizionario Italiano e Maltese, was discovered in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome in the 1980s, together with a grammar, the Regole per la Lingua Maltese, attributed to a French knight named Thezan. The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, who also wrote the first systematic grammar of the language and proposed a standard orthography.

Demographics

Ethnologue reports a total of 530,000 Maltese speakers: 450,000 in Malta and 79,000 in the diaspora. Most speakers also use English.

The largest diaspora community of Maltese speakers is in Australia, with 36,000 speakers reported in 2006 (down from 45,000 in 1996, and expected to decline further).

The Maltese linguistic community in Tunisia originated in the 18th century. Numbering several thousand in the 19th century, it was reported to be only 100 to 200 people as of 2017.

Classification

Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family. In the course of its history, Maltese has been influenced by Sicilian, Italian, to a lesser extent by French, and more recently by English. Today, the core vocabulary (including both the most commonly used vocabulary and function words) is Semitic, with a large number of loanwords. Due to the Sicilian influence on Siculo-Arabic, Maltese has many language contact features and is most commonly described as a language with a large number of loanwords.

Maltese has historically been classified in various ways, with some claiming that it was derived from ancient Punic (another Semitic language) instead of Siculo-Arabic, and others claiming it is one of the Berber languages (another language family within Afroasiatic). Less plausibly, Fascist Italy classified it as regional Italian.

Dialects

Main articles: Żejtun dialect, Qormi dialect, Cottonera dialect, and Maltralian

Urban varieties of Maltese are closer to Standard Maltese than rural varieties, which have some characteristics that distinguish them from Standard Maltese.

They tend to show some archaic features such as the realisation of ⟨kh⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ and the imāla of Arabic ā into ē (or ī especially in Gozo), considered archaic because they are reminiscent of 15th-century transcriptions of this sound. Another archaic feature is the realisation of Standard Maltese ā as ō in rural dialects. There is also a tendency to diphthongise simple vowels, e.g., ū becomes eo or eu. Rural dialects also tend to employ more Semitic roots and broken plurals than Standard Maltese. In general, rural Maltese is less distant from its Siculo-Arabic ancestor than is Standard Maltese.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonant phonemes

	Labial		Dental/ Alveolar		Palatal		Velar		Pharyngeal		Glottal
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	p	b	t	d			k	ɡ			ʔ
Affricate			t͡s	d͡z	t͡ʃ	d͡ʒ
Fricative	f	v	s	z	ʃ	ʒ			ħ
Trill				r
Approximant				l		j		w

Vassalli's Storja tas-Sultân Ċiru (1831), is an example of Maltese orthography in the 19th century, before the later standardisation introduced in 1924. Note the similarities with the various varieties of romanised Arabic.

Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced. Voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters; thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e.g. /niktbu/ is realised [ˈniɡdbu] "we write" (similar assimilation phenomena occur in languages like French or Czech). Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and word-final voiceless stops have no audible release, making voiceless–voiced pairs phonetically indistinguishable in word-final position.

Gemination is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a stressed vowel. Stressed, word-final closed syllables with short vowels end in a long consonant, and those with a long vowel in a single consonant; the only exception is where historic *ʕ and *ɣ meant the compensatory lengthening of the succeeding vowel. Some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters.

The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters. /t/ and /d/ are usually dental, whereas /t͡s d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not word-initial). /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e.g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ "newspaper" and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ "television". The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ is velar ([x]), uvular ([χ]), or glottal ([h]) for some speakers.

Vowels

Maltese has five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/, written a e i o u; six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː ɪː iː ɔː ʊː/, written a, e, ie, i, o, u, all of which (with the exception of ie /ɪː/) can be known to represent long vowels in writing only if they are followed by an orthographic għ or h (otherwise, one needs to know the pronunciation; e.g. nar (fire) is pronounced /nɐːr/); and seven diphthongs, /ɐɪ ɐʊ ɛɪ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ ɔʊ/, written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu.

Historical phonology

The original Arabic consonant system has undergone partial collapse under European influence, with many Classical Arabic consonants having undergone mergers and modifications in Maltese:

Classical Arabic	ت /t/	ط /tˤ/	ث /θ/	د /d/	ض /dˤ/	ذ /ð/	ظ /ðˤ/	س /s/	ص /sˤ/	ح /ħ/	خ /x~χ/	ع /ʕ/	غ /ɣ~ʁ/	ق /q/		ه /h/
Maltese	/t/			/d/				/s/		/ħ/		/ː/, /∅/		/ʔ/	/k/	/∅/

Orthography

Alphabet

Main articles: Maltese alphabet and Maltese Braille

The modern system of Maltese orthography was introduced in 1924. Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation:

Letter	Name	IPA (Alphabet Name(s))	Maltese example	IPA (orthographically representing)	Approximate English pronunciation
A a	a	aː	anġlu 'angel'	ɐ, aː, æː	similar to 'u' in nut in RP; [aː] similar to father in Irish English; [æː] similar to cat in American English, in some dialects it may be [ɒː] in some locations as in what in some American English Dialects
B b	be	beː	ballun 'ball'	b	bar, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [p].
Ċ ċ	ċe	t͡ʃeː	ċavetta 'key'	t͡ʃ	church (note: undotted 'c' has been replaced by 'k', so when 'c' does appear, it is to be spoken the same way as 'ċ')
D d	de	deː	dar 'home'	d	day, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [t].
E e	e	eː	envelopp 'envelope'	eː, ɛ, øː, ə	[e:] somewhat like face in Northern England English [ɛ] end when short, it is often changed to [øː, œ] when following and more often when followed by a w, when at the end in an unstressed syllable it is pronounced as schwa [ə, Vᵊ] comma
F f	effe	ɛf(ː)ᵊ	fjura 'flower'	f	far
Ġ ġ	ġe	d͡ʒøː	ġelat 'ice cream'	d͡ʒ	gem, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [tʃ].
G g	ge	geː	gallettina 'biscuit'	ɡ	game, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [k].
GĦ għ	ajn	ajn, æːn	għasfur 'bird'	(ˤ)ː, ħː	has the effect of lengthening and pharyngealising associated vowels (għi and għu are [i̞(ˤ)j] (may be transcribed as [ə(ˤ)j]) and [oˤ]). When found at the end of a word or immediately before 'h' it has the sound of a double 'ħ' (see below).
H h	akka	ak(ː)ɐ	hu 'he'		not pronounced unless it is at the end of a word, in which case it has the sound of 'ħ'.
Ħ ħ	ħe	ħeː, heː, xe:	ħanut 'shop'	ħ	no English equivalent; sounds similar to /h/ but is articulated with a lowered larynx.
I i	i	iː	ikel 'food'	i̞ː, iː, ɪ	[i̞ː] bite (the way commonly realized in Irish English or [iː] in other words as beet but more forward) and when short as [ɪ] bit, occasionally 'i' is used to display il-vokali tal-leħen(the vowel of the voice) as in words like l-iskola or l-iMdina ,in this case it takes the schwa sound.
IE ie	ie	iːᵊ, ɛː	ieqaf 'stop'	ɛː, iːᵊ	sounds similar to yield or RP near, or opened up slightly towards bed or RP square
J j	je	jə, jæ, jɛ	jum 'day'	j	yard
K k	ke	kə, kæ, kɛ	kelb 'dog'	k	kettle
L l	elle	ɛl(ː)ᵊ	libsa 'dress'	l	line
M m	emme	ɛm(ː)ᵊ	mara 'woman'	m	march
N n	enne	ɛn(ː)ᵊ	nanna 'granny'	n	next
O o	o	oː	ors 'bear'	o, ɔ, ɒ	[o] as in somewhere between similar to Scottish English o in no [ɔ] like 'aw' in RP law, but short or [ɒ] as in water in some American dialects.
P p	pe	peː, pə	paġna 'page, sheet'	p	part
Q q	qe	ʔø, ʔ(ʷ)ɛ, ʔ(ʷ)æ, ʔ(ʷ)ə	qattus 'cat'	ʔ	glottal stop, found in the Cockney English pronunciation of "bottle" or the phrase "uh-oh" /ʔʌʔoʊ/.
R r	erre	ɛɹ(ː)ᵊ, æɹ(:)ᵊ, ɚ(ː)ᵊ or ɛr(ː)ᵊ, ær(:)ᵊ, ər(ː)ᵊ	re 'king'	r, ɹ	[r] as in General American English butter, or ɹ road (r realization changes depending on dialect or location in the word.)
S s	esse	ɛs(ː)ᵊ	sliem 'peace'	s	sand
T t	te	teː	tieqa 'window'	t	tired
U u	u	uː, ʉ	uviera 'egg cup'	u, ʉ, ʊ	[u] as in General American English boot or in some dialects it may be realized as [ʉ] as in some American English realizations of student, short u is [ʊ] put
V v	ve	vøː, veː, və	vjola 'violet'	v	vast, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [f] may be said as [w] in the word Iva(yes) sometimes this is just written as Iwa.
W w	ve doppja /u doppja/we	vedɒp(ː)jɐ, uːdɒp(ː)jɐ, wøː	widna 'ear'	w	west
X x	xe	ʃə, ʃøː	xadina 'monkey'	ʃ / ʒ	shade, sometimes as measure; when doubled the sound is elongated, as in "Cash shin" vs. "Cash in".
Ż ż	że/żeta	zə, zø:, ze:t(ɐ)	żarbun 'shoe'	z	maze, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [s].
Z z	ze	t͡sə, t͡søː, t͡seːt(ɐ)	zalza 'sauce'	t͡s / d͡z	pizza

Final vowels with grave accents (à, è, ì, ò, ù) are also found in some Maltese words of Italian origin, such as libertà 'freedom', sigurtà (old Italian: sicurtà 'security'), or soċjetà (Italian: società 'society').

The official rules governing the structure of the Maltese language are recorded in the official guidebook Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija (English: Knowledge on Writing in Maltese) issued by the Akkademja tal-Malti (Academy of the Maltese language). The first edition of this book was printed in 1924 by the Maltese government's printing press. The rules were further expanded in the 1984 book, iż-Żieda mat-Tagħrif, which focused mainly on the increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the academy issued the Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija, which updated the previous works.

The National Council for the Maltese Language (KNM) is the main regulator of the Maltese language (see Maltese Language Act, below). However, the academy's orthography rules are still valid and official.

Written Maltese

Since Maltese evolved after the Italo-Normans ended Arab rule of the islands, a written form of the language was not developed for a long time after the Arabs' expulsion in the middle of the thirteenth century. Under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller, both French and Italian were used for official documents and correspondence. During the British colonial period, the use of English was encouraged through education, with Italian being regarded as the next-most important language.

In the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century, philologists and academics such as Mikiel Anton Vassalli made a concerted effort to standardise written Maltese. Many examples of written Maltese exist from before this period, always in the Latin alphabet, Il-Kantilena from the 15th century being the earliest example of written Maltese. In 1934, Maltese was recognised as an official language.

Samples

Maltese has both Semitic vocabulary and words derived from Romance languages, primarily Italian. Words such as tweġiba (Arabic origin) and risposta (Italian origin) have the same meaning ('answer') but are both used in Maltese (rather like 'answer' and 'response' in English. Below are two versions of the same translations, one with vocabulary mostly derived from Semitic root words and the using Romance loanwords (from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe Archived 2015-12-29 at the Wayback Machine, see p. 17 Archived 2020-08-04 at the Wayback Machine):

English	Maltese (Semitic vocabulary)	Maltese (Romance vocabulary)
The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to the Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail.	L-Għaqda hija mibnija fuq is-siwi ta' għadir għall-ġieħ il-bniedem, ta' ħelsien, ta' għażil il-ġemgħa, ta' ndaqs bejn il-ġnus, tas-saltna tad-dritt u tal-għadir għall-ħaqq tal-bniedem, wkoll il-ħaqq ta' wħud li huma f'minoranzi. Dan is-siwi huwa mqassam bejn il-Pajjiżi Msieħba, f'nies li tħaddan il-kotrija, li ma tgħejjibx, li ddann, li tgħaqqad u li tiżen indaqs in-nisa u l-irġiel.	L-Unjoni hija bbażata fuq il-valuri tar-rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, il-libertà, id-demokrazija, l-ugwaljanza, l-istat tad-dritt u r-rispett għad-drittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti minn minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà fejn jipprevalu l-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel.

Below is the Lord's Prayer in Maltese compared to other Semitic languages (Arabic and Syriac) which cognates highlighted:

English	Maltese	Standard Arabic (Romanised)	Syriac (Romanised)
Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen	Missierna, li inti fis-smewwiet, jitqaddes ismek, tiġi saltnatek, ikun li trid int, kif fis-sema, hekkda fl-art. Ħobżna ta' kuljum agħtina llum. Aħfrilna dnubietna, bħalma naħfru lil min hu ħati għalina. U la ddaħħalniex fit-tiġrib, iżda eħlisna mid-deni. Ammen	ʔabāna, allaḏi fī as-samāwāt, li-yataqaddas ismuka, li-yaʔti malakūtuka, li-takun mašīʔatuka, kamā fī as-samāʔi kaḏālika ʕalā al-arḍ. ḵubzana kafāfanā ʔaʕṭinā alyawm, wa aḡfir lanā ḏunūbanā, kamā naḡfiru naḥnu ʔayḍan lil-muḏnibīn ʔilaynā. wa lā tudḵilna fī tajāriba, lākin najjinā min aš-širrīr. ʔāmīn	Abun, d-bashmayo, nithqadash shmokh, tithe malkuthokh, nehwe sebyonokh aykano d-bashmayo oph bar`o. hab lan lahmo d-sunqonan yowmono washbuq lan hawbayn wahtohayn aykano doph hnan shbaqan l-hayobayn lo ta`lan l-nesyuno elo paso lan men bisho Amin

Vocabulary

Although the original vocabulary of Maltese was Siculo-Arabic, it has incorporated a large number of borrowings from Romance sources (Sicilian, Italian, and French) and, more recently, Germanic ones (from English).

The historical source of modern Maltese vocabulary is 52% Italian/Sicilian, 32% Siculo-Arabic, and 6% English, with some of the remainder being French. Today, most function words are Semitic, so despite only making up about a third of the vocabulary, they are the most used when speaking the language. In this way, Maltese is similar to English, a Germanic language that has been strongly influenced by Norman French and Latin (58% of English vocabulary). As a result of this, Romance language-speakers (and to a lesser extent English speakers) can often easily understand more technical ideas expressed in Maltese, such as Ġeografikament, l-Ewropa hi parti tas-superkontinent ta' l-Ewrasja ('Geographically, Europe is part of the supercontinent of Eurasia'), while not understanding a single word of a basic sentence such as Ir-raġel qiegħed fid-dar ('The man is in the house'), which would be easily understood by any Arabic speaker.

Romance

An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese–English Dictionary shows that words of Romance origin make up 52% of the Maltese vocabulary, although other sources claim from 40% to 55%. Romance vocabulary tends to deal with more complex concepts. Most words come from Sicilian and thus exhibit Sicilian phonetic characteristics, such as /u/ rather than Italian /o/, and /i/ rather than Italian /e/ (e.g. tiatru not teatro and fidi not fede). Also, as with Old Sicilian, /ʃ/ (English sh) is written x and this produces spellings such as: ambaxxata /ambaʃːaːta/ ('embassy'), xena /ʃeːna/ ('scene'; compare Italian ambasciata, scena).

Maltese	Sicilian	Italian	English
skola	scola	scuola	school
gvern	cuvernu	governo	government
repubblika	ripùbblica	repubblica	republic
re	re	re	king (Germanic)
natura	natura	natura	nature
pulizija	pulizzìa	polizia	police
ċentru	centru	centro	centre
teatru	tiatru	teatro	theatre

A tendency in modern Maltese is to adopt further influences from English and Italian. Complex Latinate English words adopted into Maltese are often given Italian or Sicilian forms, even if the resulting words do not appear in either of those languages. For instance, the words evaluation, industrial action, and chemical armaments become evalwazzjoni, azzjoni industrjali, and armamenti kimiċi in Maltese, while the Italian terms are valutazione, vertenza sindacale, and armi chimiche respectively. (The origin of the terms may be narrowed even further to British English; the phrase industrial action is meaningless in the United States.) This is comparable to the situation with English borrowings into the Italo-Australian dialect. English words of Germanic origin are generally preserved relatively unchanged.

Some influences of African Romance on the Arabic and Berber spoken in the Maghreb are theorised; these may then have passed into Maltese. For example, in calendar month names, the word furar 'February' is only found in the Maghreb and in Maltese – proving the word's ancient pedigree. The region also has a form of another Latin month in awi/ussu < augustus. This word does not appear to be a loan word through Arabic, and may have been taken over directly from Late Latin or African Romance. Scholars theorise that a Latin-based system provided forms such as awi/ussu and furar in African Romance, with the system then mediating Latin/Romance names through Arabic for some month names during the Islamic period. The same situation exists for Maltese which mediated words from Italian, and retains both non-Italian forms such as awissu/awwissu and frar, and Italian forms such as april.

Siculo-Arabic

Siculo-Arabic is the ancestor of the Maltese language, and supplies between 32% and 40% of the language's vocabulary.

Maltese	Siculo-Arabic (in Sicilian)	Arabic text	English
bebbuxu	babbaluci	ببوش (babbūš)	snail
ġiebja	gebbia	جب (jabb)	cistern
ġunġlien	giuggiulena	جنجلان (junjulān)	sesame seed
sieqja	saia	ساقية (sāqiya)	canal
kenur	tannura	تنور (tannūr)	oven
żagħfran	zaffarana	زعفران (zaʿfarān)	saffron
żahra (less common than fjura, borrowed from Sicilian)	zagara	زهرة (zahra)	blossom
żbib	zibbibbu	زبيب (zabīb)	raisins
zokk (borrowed from Sicilian)	zuccu	ساق (sāq)	tree trunk
tebut	tabbutu	تابوت (tābūt)	coffin

Żammit (2000) found that 40% of a sample of 1,821 Quranic Arabic roots were found in Maltese, considerably lower than that found in Moroccan (58%) and Lebanese (72%) varieties of Arabic. An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese–English Dictionary shows that 32% of the Maltese vocabulary is of Arabic origin, although another source claims 40%. Usually, words expressing basic concepts and ideas, such as raġel (man), mara (woman), tifel (boy), dar (house), xemx (sun), sajf (summer), are of Arabic origin. Moreover, belles-lettres in Maltese aim to maximise their use of vocabulary belonging to this group.

The Maltese language has merged many of the original Arabic consonants (in particular the emphatic consonants) with others common to European languages. Thus, original Arabic /d/, /ð/, and /dˤ/ all merged into Maltese /d/. The vowels, meanwhile, separated from the three in Classical Arabic (/a i u/) into five, as is more typical of many European languages (/a ɛ i o u/). Some unstressed short vowels have been elided. The common Arabic greeting as salāmu 'alaykum is cognate with is-sliem għalikom in Maltese (lit. 'the peace for you', peace be with you), as are similar greetings in other Semitic languages (e.g. shalom ʿalekhem in Hebrew).

Since the attested vocabulary of Siculo-Arabic is limited, the following table compares cognates in Maltese and some other varieties of Arabic (all forms are written phonetically, as in the source):

Maltese	Cairene	Damascene	Iraqi	Negev (bedouin)	Yemenite (Sanaani)	Moroccan	Modern Standard Arabic	English
qalb	'alb	'aleb	galeb	galb	galb	qalb	قلب (qalb)	heart
waqt	wa't	wa'et	waket	wagt	wagt	waqt	وقت (waqt)	time
qamar	'amar	'amar	qamar	gumar	gamar	qmar	قمر (qamar)	moon
kelb	kalb	kaleb	čaleb	čalb	kalb	kalb	كلب (kalb)	dog

Berber

Like the Maghrebi Arabic dialects, Maltese has a significant vocabulary derived from Berber languages. Whether these words entered Maltese by being inherited from Siculo-Arabic or were directly loaned from Berber languages is not yet known. These include:

Maltese	Berber languages	English
gremxula	azrem ašal, lit. 'land worm', (Kabyle)	lizard
fekruna	tifakrunin (Jerbi), ifekran (Tashelhiyt), ifkran (Kabyle)	turtle
geddum	aqadum, lit. 'face, frown' (Kabyle)	chin
gendus	gandūz, lit. 'young calf' (Jerbi)	ox, bull
gerżuma	ageržum (Mozabite, Tashelhiyt)	throat
tfief	tilfaf (Ouargli), tifāf, tilfāf, tiffāf (Tarifit)	sow thistle (Sonchus oleraceus)
tengħud	talaɣūda (Tunisian Arabic), telɣūda (Algerian Arabic)	spurge (Euphorbia)
kosksu	kuskesu, kuskus (Kabyle)	couscous, small round pasta
fartas	aferḍas (Ouargli, Kabyle)	bald
għaffeġ	‘affež (Algerian Arabic), effeẓ (Ouargli, Mozabite)	to crush, to squash
żrinġ	tažrant (Jerbi)	frog
żrar	zrar (Mozabite, Ouargli), azrar (Kabyle, Nafusi)	gravel
werżieq	wárẓag (Mrazig)	cicada, lit. screamer, shrieker
buqexrem	buqišrem (Kabyle)	vervain (Verbena officinalis)
fidloqqom	fudalɣem (Kabyle)	borage (Borago officinalis)
żorr	uzur (Kabyle), uzzur (Tarifit)	rude, arrogant
lellex	lelleš (Mozabite)	to shine, to glitter
pespes	bbesbes (Ouargli)	to whisper
teptep	ṭṭebṭeb (Ouargli)	to blink, to twinkle
webbel	webben (Mozabite)	to induce, to tempt

English

English loanwords, which are becoming more commonplace, may constitute up to 20% of Maltese vocabulary, though other sources claim as little as 6%. This percentage discrepancy is due to the fact that a number of new English loanwords are sometimes not considered part of the official Maltese vocabulary, hence they are not included in certain dictionaries. Also, English loanwords of Latinate origin are very often Italianized, as discussed above. English loanwords are generally transliterated, although standard English pronunciation is virtually always retained. Below are a few examples:

Maltese	English
futbol	football
baskitbol	basketball
klabb	club
friġġ	fridge

"Fridge" is a common shortening of "refrigerator". "Refrigerator" is a Latinate word which could be imported into Maltese as rifriġeratori, whereas the Italian word is frigorifero or refrigeratore.

Calendar

The days of the week (Maltese: jiem il-ġimgħa) in Maltese are referred to by number, as is typical of other Semitic languages, especially Arabic. Days of the week are commonly preceded by the word nhar meaning 'day'.

English	Maltese	Literal
Sunday	Il-Ħadd	first [day]
Monday	It-Tnejn	second [day]
Tuesday	It-Tlieta	third [day]
Wednesday	L-Erbgħa	fourth [day]
Thursday	Il-Ħamis	fifth [day]
Friday	Il-Ġimgħa	gathering [day]
Saturday	Is-Sibt	Sabbath [day]

The months of the year (Maltese: xhur is-sena) in Maltese are mostly derived from Sicilian, though Frar and Awwissu may be derived from African Romance via Siculo-Arabic.

English	Maltese
January	Jannar
February	Frar
March	Marzu
April	April
May	Mejju
June	Ġunju
July	Lulju
August	Awwissu
September	Settembru
October	Ottubru
November	Novembru
December	Diċembru

Time

English	Maltese
today	illum
yesterday	ilbieraħ
tomorrow	għada
second	sekonda
minute	minuta (archaic: dqiqa)
hour	siegħa
day	jum or ġurnata
week	ġimgħa
month	xahar
year	sena

Question words

English	Maltese	Example	Translation
What (standalone)	Xiex	Xiex?	What?
What (preceding)	X'	X' għamilt?	What did you do?
Who	Min	Min hu dak?	Who is he?
How	Kif	Kif inti llum?	How are you today?
Where	Fejn	Fejn sejjer?	Where are you going?
Where (from)	Mnejn	Mnejn ġie?	Where did he come from?
Why	Għala, Għaliex, Għalxiex, Ilgħala	Għala telaq?	Why did he leave?
Which	Liem, Liema	Liem wieħed hu tajjeb?	Which one is good?
When	Meta	Meta ħa titlaq?	When will you leave?
How Much	Kemm	Kemm jiswa dan?	How much does this cost?

Sample phrases

English	Maltese
Hello.	Ħelow.
Yes.	Iva.
Yes please.	Iva, jekk jogħġbok.
No.	Le.
No thanks.	Le grazzi.
Please.	Jekk jogħġbok.
Thank you.	Grazzi.
Thank you very much.	Grazzi ħafna.
You're welcome.	M'hemmx imniex.
I'd like a coffee please.	Nixtieq kafè, jekk jogħġbok.
Two beers please.	Żewġ birer, jekk jogħġbok.
Excuse me.	Skużani.
What time is it?	X'ħin hu?
Can you repeat that please?	Tista' tirrepeti jekk jogħġbok?
Please speak more slowly.	Jekk jogħġbok tkellem iktar bil-mod.
I don't understand.	Mhux qed nifhem.
Sorry.	Skużani.
Where are the toilets?	Fejn huma t-toilets?
How much does this cost?	Kemm jiswa dan?
Welcome!	Merħba!
Good morning.	Bonġu.
Good afternoon.	Il-wara nofsinhar it-tajjeb.
Good evening.	Is-serata t-tajba.
Good night.	Il-lejl it-tajjeb.
Goodbye.	Saħħa.

Grammar

Maltese grammar is fundamentally derived from Siculo-Arabic, although Romance and English noun pluralisation patterns are also used on borrowed words.

Adjectives and adverbs

Adjectives follow nouns. There are no separately formed native adverbs, and word order is fairly flexible. Both nouns and adjectives of Semitic origin take the definite article (for example, It-tifel il-kbir, lit. "The boy the elder"="The elder boy"). This rule does not apply to adjectives of Romance origin.

Nouns

Nouns are pluralised and also have a dual marker. Semitic plurals are complex; if they are regular, they are marked by -iet/-ijiet, e.g., art, artijiet "lands (territorial possessions or property)" (cf. Arabic -at and Hebrew -ot/-oth) or -in (cf. Arabic -īn and Hebrew -im). If irregular, they fall in the pluralis fractus (broken plural) category, in which a word is pluralised by internal vowel changes: ktieb, kotba " book", "books"; raġel, irġiel "man", "men".

Words of Romance origin are usually pluralised in two manners: addition of -i or -jiet. For example, lingwa, lingwi "languages", from Sicilian lingua, lingui.

Words of English origin are pluralised by adding either an "-s" or "-jiet", for example, friġġ, friġis from the word fridge. Some words can be pluralised with either of the suffixes to denote the plural. A few words borrowed from English can amalgamate both suffixes, like brikksa from the English brick, which can adopt either collective form brikks or the plural form brikksiet.

Derivation

As in Arabic, nouns are often derived by changing, adding or removing the vowels within a triliteral root. These are some of the patterns used for nouns:

• CaCiC – xadin (monkey), sadid (rust)
• CCiC – żbib (raisin)
• CaCCa – baqra (cow), basla (onion)
• CeCCa – werqa (leaf), xewqa (wish)
• CoCCa – borka (wild duck), forka (gallows)
• CaCC – qalb (heart), sajd (fishing)
• CeCC – kelb (dog), xemx (sun)
• CCuCija – tfulija (childhood), xbubija (maidenhood)
• CCuCa – rtuba (softness), bjuda (whiteness)
• CaCCaC – tallab (beggar), bajjad (whitewasher)

The so-called mimated nouns use the prefix m- in addition to vowel changes. This pattern can be used to indicate place names, tools, abstractions, etc. These are some of the patterns used for mimated nouns:

• ma-CCeC – marden (spindle)
• mi-CCeC – minkeb (elbow), miżwed (pod)
• mu-CCaC – musmar (nail), munqar (beak)

Article

The proclitic il- is the definite article, equivalent to "the" in English and "al-" in Arabic.

The Maltese article becomes l- before or after a vowel.

• l-omm (the mother)
• rajna l-Papa (we saw the Pope)
• il-missier (the father)

The Maltese article assimilates to a following non-ġ coronal consonant (called konsonanti xemxin "sun consonants"), namely:

• Ċ iċ-ċikkulata (the chocolate)
• D id-dar (the house)
• N in-nar (the fire)
• R ir-razzett (the farm)
• S is-serrieq (the saw)
• T it-tifel (the child)
• X ix-xemx (the sun)
• Ż iż-żarbuna (the shoe)
• Z iz-zalzett (the sausage)

Verbs

Verbs show the Semitic triliteral pattern, in which a verb is conjugated with prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (for example ktibna, Arabic katabna, Hebrew kathabhnu (Modern Hebrew: katavnu) "we wrote"). An example is the Semitic root X-M-X ('sun'), for example xemx (sun), xmux (suns), xemxi (sunny), xemxata (sunstroke), nixxemmex (I sunbathe), ma xxemmixtx (I didn't sunbathe), tixmix (the act of sunbathing).

Maltese also features the agglutination of verb suffixes indicating direction of action, for example agħmilhomli "make them for me"← agħmel "make" in the imperative + hom from huma "them" + li suffix indicating first person singular and ħasletielu "she washed it for him"←ħaslet "she washed" from the verb ħasel "to wash" + ie the object + lu suffix indicating third person masculine singular.

The two tenses are present and perfect. The Maltese verb system incorporates Romance verbs and adds Maltese suffixes and prefixes to them, for example; iddeċidejna "we decided" ← (i)ddeċieda "decide", a Romance verb + -ejna, a Maltese first person plural perfect marker.

Media

Main article: Language in the media in Malta

As Malta is a multilingual country, the use of Maltese in the mass media is shared with other European languages, namely English and Italian. The majority of television stations broadcast from Malta in English or Maltese, although broadcasts from Italy in Italian are also received on the islands. Similarly, there are more Maltese-language radio programs than English ones broadcast from Malta, but again, Italian broadcasts are also picked up. Coverage in newspaper periodicals is generally equally split between Maltese and English.

Maltese is little used on the internet and few websites are written in the language. In a survey of Maltese cultural websites conducted in 2004 on behalf of the Maltese government, 12 of 13 were in English only and the remaining one was multilingual but did not include Maltese. In 2011, only 6.5 per cent of Maltese internet users reported employing Maltese online, which may be a consequence of the lack of online support for the language.

Code-switching

The Maltese population, being fluent in both Maltese and English, displays code-switching (referred to as Maltenglish) in certain localities and between certain social groups.

See also

• Languages of Malta
• Maltese people

References

• Aquilina, Joseph (1965). Teach Yourself Maltese. English University Press.
• Azzopardi, C. (2007). Gwida għall-Ortografija. Malta: Klabb Kotba Maltin.
• Borg, Alexander (1997). "Maltese Phonology". In Kaye, Alan S. (ed.). Phonologies of Asia and Africa. Vol. 1. Eisenbrauns. pp. 245–285. ISBN 9781575060194.
• Borg, Albert J.; Azzopardi-Alexander, Marie (1997). Maltese. Routledge. ISBN 978-0-415-02243-9.
• Brincat, Joseph M. (2005). "Maltese – an unusual formula". MED Magazine (27). Archived from the original on 5 September 2005. Retrieved 22 February 2008.
• Bugeja, Kaptan Pawlu, Kelmet il-Malti (Maltese—English, English—Maltese Dictionary). Associated News Group, Floriana. 1999.
• Friggieri, Oliver (1994). "Main Trends in the History of Maltese Literature". Neohelicon. 21 (2): 59–69. doi:10.1007/BF02093244. S2CID 144795860.
• Hume, Elizabeth (1996). "Coronal Consonant, Front Vowel Parallels in Maltese". Natural Language & Linguistic Theory. 14 (1): 163–203. doi:10.1007/bf00133405. S2CID 170703136.
• Kossmann, Maarten (2013). The Arabic Influence on Northern Berber. Brill. ISBN 9789004253094. {{cite book}}: |work= ignored (help)
• Mifsud, M.; A. J. Borg (1997). Fuq l-għatba tal-Malti. Strasbourg: Council of Europe.
• Vassalli, Michelantonio (1827). Grammatica della lingua Maltese. Stampata per l'autore.
• Vella, Alexandra (2004). "Language contact and Maltese intonation: Some parallels with other language varieties". In Kurt Braunmüller and Gisella Ferraresi (ed.). Aspects of Multilingualism in European Language History. Hamburg Studies on Multiculturalism. John Benjamins Publishing Company. p. 263. ISBN 978-90-272-1922-0.
• Żammit, Martin (2000). "Arabic and Maltese Cognate Roots". In Mifsud, Manwel (ed.). Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Aida. Malta: Association Internationale de Dialectologie Arabe. pp. 241–245. ISBN 978-99932-0-044-4.

Further reading

• (it) Giovan Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, Della lingua punica presentemente usata da maltesi Archived 2023-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, per Generoso Salomoni alla Piazza di S. Ignazio. Si vendono in Malta, 1750
• (it) Antonio Emanuele Caruana, Sull'origine della Lingua Maltese Archived 2023-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Malta, Tipografia C. Busuttil, 1896
• (it) Giovanni Battista Falzon, Dizionario Maltese-Italiano-Inglese Archived 2023-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, G. Muscat, 1845 (1 ed.) Archived 2023-04-04 at the Wayback Machine, 1882 (2 ed.)
• (it) Giuseppe Nicola Letard, Nuova guida alla conversazione italiana, inglese e maltese ad uso delle scuole Archived 2023-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Malta, 1866–75
• (it) Fortunato Panzavecchia, Grammatica della Lingua Maltese, M. Weiss, Malta, 1845
• (it) Michele Antonio Vassalli, Grammatica della lingua Maltese, 2 ed., Malta, 1827
• (it) Michele Antonio Vassalli, Lexicon Melitense-Latino-Italum Archived 2023-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Roma, Fulgonius, 1796
• (it) Francesco Vella, Osservazioni sull'alfabeto maltese Archived 2023-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, 1840
• (it) Francesca Morando, Il-lingwa Maltija. Origine, storia, comparazione linguistica e aspetti morfologici, Prefazione di Joseph M. Brincat, Palermo, Edizioni La Zisa, 2017, ISBN 978-88-9911-339-1
• (en) S. Mamo, English-Maltese Dictionary Archived 2023-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Malta, A. Aquilina, 1885
• (en) A Short Grammar of the Maltese Language Archived 2023-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Malta, 1845
• (en) C. F. Schlienz, Views on the Improvement of the Maltese Language Archived 2023-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Malta, 1838
• (en) Francesco Vella, Maltese Grammar for the Use of the English Archived 2023-04-12 at the Wayback Machine, Glaucus Masi, Leghorn, 1831
• (en) Francesco Vella, Dizionario portatile delle lingue Maltese Italiana, Inglese. pt. 1 Archived 2023-04-30 at the Wayback Machine, Livorno, 1843
• (en) Joseph Aquilina, Teach Yourself Maltese, English University Press, 1965
• (en) Geoffrey Hull, The Malta Language Question: A Case Study in Cultural Imperialism, Said International, Valletta, 1993
• (mt) Vicenzo Busuttil, Diziunariu mill Inglis ghall Malti, 2 parts, N. C. Cortis & Sons, Malta, 1900

External links

• Maltese travel guide from Wikivoyage
• Maltese languages and literatures Archived 2023-02-01 at the Wayback Machine collection of L-Università ta' Malta