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Maltese language
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Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,
while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic (the Arabic dialect that developed in Sicily, Malta and the rest of Southern Italy), but with a large percentage of borrowed vocabulary from Italian, Sicilian and English.
It is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form.
ese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped from official use.
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Encyclopedia
Maltese is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,
while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic (the Arabic dialect that developed in Sicily, Malta and the rest of Southern Italy), but with a large percentage of borrowed vocabulary from Italian, Sicilian and English.
It is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form.
History
Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped from official use. The oldest reference to Maltese comes from the Benedictine Monks of Catania, who were unable to open a monastery in Malta, in 1364, because they could not understand the native language. In 1436, in the will of a certain Pawlu Peregrino, Maltese is first identified as lingua maltensi. The oldest known document in Maltese is "Il Cantilena" (Maltese:Xidew il-Qada) a poem from the 15th century, written by Pietro Caxaro and the first known Maltese dictionary was written by the French Knight Francois de Vion Thezan Court in 1640. It includes notes about Maltese grammar and a concluding section detailing, in Italian and Maltese, phrases to be used when giving orders to soldiers. Facsimilies of the work are currently published.
In his book Dell’Istoria della Sacra Religione et Illustrissima Militia di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano , written between 1594 and 1602, Giacomo Bosio endorses the notion that Maltese descended from Carthaginian. Bosio writes that when the cornerstone of Valletta was placed, a group of Maltese elders said "Iegi zimen en fel wardia col sceber raba iesue uquie" (Which in modern Maltese reads, "Jigi zmien li fil-Wardija [l-Gholja Sciberras] kull xiber raba’ jiswa uqija," and in English, "There will come a time when every piece of land on Sciberras Hill will be worth its weight in gold"). This is the oldest example of printed Maltese.
Pasquale Vassallo, a Dominican friar, wrote a collection of songs in Italian and Maltese in 1584. They were burned at the order of the Inquisition in 1585 for allegedly 'obscene' content.
Demographics
In 1975, there were an estimated 371,000 Maltese speakers, of whom 300,000 resided in Malta. Thousands of Maltese emigrants in Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, Italy, the UK, and the US still speak the language, and in 2007 it was reported that Maltese is still spoken by descendants of Maltese immigrants in Tunisia.
Classification
Maltese is a Semitic language descended from Siculo-Arabic, that in the course of its history has been influenced by Sicilian and Standard Italian, to a lesser extent French, and more recently from English. Today, the core vocabulary (including both the most commonly used vocabulary and function words) is Semitic, with large numbers of loan words. 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.
The Maltese language has historically been classified in various ways, which are completely contradictory to the views of linguists today. Some claimed that the ancient Punic language was the base of the language, instead of Siculo-Arabic, while others believed the language to be Berber, and under Fascist Italy, it was considered simply a dialect of Italian.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Maltese has five short vowels, , written a e i o u; six long vowels, , written a, e, ie, i, o, u, and seven diphthongs, , written aj or ghi, aw or ghu, ej or ghi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or ghu.
Orthography
Alphabet
The modern system of Maltese orthography was introduced in 1924.
Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation:
| Letter | Name | Maltese example | IPA | Approximate English pronunciation |
|---|
| A a | a | anglu (angel) | | similar to 'u' in nut in RP | | B b | be | ballun (ball) | | bar, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to . | | C c | ce | cavetta (key) | | church (note: undotted 'c' has been replaced by 'k', so when 'c' does appear, it is to be spoken the same way as 'c') | | D d | de | dar (home) | | day, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to . | | E e | e | envelopp (envelope) | | end | | F f | effe | fjura (flower) | | far | | G g | ge | gelat (ice-cream) | | gem, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to . | | G g | ge | gallettina (biscuit) | | game, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to . | | GH gh | ajn | ghasfur (bird) | | has the effect of lengthening and pharyngealizing associated vowels (ghi and ghu are and ). When found at the end of a word or immediately before 'h' it has the sound of a double 'h' (see below). | | H h | akka | hu (he) | | not pronounced unless it is at the end of a word, in which case it has the sound of 'h'. | | H h | he | hanut (shop) | | larynx. | | I i | i | ikel (food) | | bit | | IE ie | ie | ieqaf (stop) | | ield, but opened up slightly towards towards | | J j | je | jum (day) | | yard | | K k | ke | kelb (dog) | | kettle | | L l | elle | libsa (dress) | | line | | M m | emme | mara (woman) | | march | | N n | enne | nanna (granny) | | next | | O o | o | ors (bear) | | like 'aw' in law, but shorter. | | P p | pe | pagna (page, sheet) | | part | | Q q | qe | qattus (cat) | | glottal stop, found in the Cockney English pronunciation of "bottle" or the phrase "uh-oh". | | R r | erre | re (king) | | road | | S s | esse | salib (cross) | | sand | | T t | te | tieqa (window) | | tired | | U u | u | uviera (egg-cup) | | but | | V v | ve | vjola (violet) | | vast, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to . | | W w | we | widna (ear) | | west | | X x | exxe | xadina (monkey) | | shade, sometimes as measure; when doubled the sound is elongated, as in "Cash shin" vs. "Cash in." | | Z z | ze | zalza (sauce) | | pizza; when doubled may change to lots | | Z z | ze | zraben (shoes) | | ze, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to . |
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 socjetà (Italian: "società; "society").
The official rules governing the structure of the Maltese language are found in the official guidebook issued by the Akkademja tal-Malti, the Academy of the Maltese language, which is named Taghrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija, that is, Knowledge on Writing in Maltese. 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, iz-Zieda mat-Taghrif, which focused mainly on the increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the Academy issued the Aggornament tat-Taghrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija, which updated the previous works. All these works were included in a revised and expanded guidebook published in 1996.
Nowadays, the National Council for the Maltese Language (KNM) is the main regulator of the Maltese language (see Maltese Language Act, below) and not the Akkademja tal-Malti. However, these orthography rules are still valid and official.
Written Maltese
Since Maltese evolved after the Normans ended the Arab rule of the islands, a standard, written form of the language was not developed for a long time after the Arabs' expulsion in the eleventh century. Throughout the centuries the use of the Maltese language was discouraged with varying degrees of success. Under the rule of the Order of the Knights of Malta 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 regarded as the next most important language.
It was not until 1934 that Maltese was recognised as an official language. Uniquely, no other European country lacked a standardised written form of its language until the nineteenth century, when philologists and academics such as Mikiel Anton Vassalli made a concerted effort to transcribe spoken Maltese in a comprehensive written form. Many examples of written Maltese exist from before this period, always in the Latin alphabet.
Sample
From the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe:
Vocabulary
Although the original vocabulary of the language was Sicilian Arabic, it has incorporated a large number of borrowings from Romance sources of influence (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. In this way, it is similar to English, which is a Germanic language that had large influence from French - although lesserly so than Maltese. As a result of this, Romance language-speakers may easily be able to comprehend more complex ideas expressed in Maltese, such as "Geografikament, 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 simple sentence such as "Ir-ragel qieghed fid-dar" (The man is in the house).
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 as low as 40%, to as high as 55%. These vocabulary tend to deal with more complicated concepts. They are mostly derived from Sicilian and thus exhibit Sicilian phonetic characteristics, such as in place of , and in place of (e.g. tiatru not teatro and fidi not fede). Also, as with Old Sicilian, (English 'sh') is written 'x' and this produces spellings such as: ambaxxata ('embassy'), xena ('scene' cf. Italian ambasciata, scena).
| Maltese | Sicilian | Italian | English |
|---|
| skola | scola | scuola | school | | gvern | cuvernu | governo | government | | repubblika | ripùbblica | repubblica | republic | | re | re | re | king | | natura | natura | natura | nature | | pulizija | pulizzìa | polizia | police | | centru | centru | centro | centre | | teatru | tiatru | teatro | theatre | |
Siculo-Arabic
Siculo-Arabic was the ancestor of the Maltese language, and between 32% and 40% of the language's vocabulary today is from its Arabic roots.
| Maltese | Siculo-Arabic | English |
|---|
| bebbuxu | babbaluciu | snail | | kapunata | caponata | caponata | | qassata | cassata | [Sicilian cake] | | giebja | gebbia | cistern | | gunglier | giuggiulena | sesame seed | | saqqajja | saia | canal | | kenur | tanura | oven | | zaffran | zaffarana | saffron | | zahar | zagara | blossom | | zbib | zibbibbu | raisins | | zokk | zuccu | tree trunk | | tebut | tabbutu | coffin |
found that 40% of a sample of 1,820 Quranic Arabic roots were found in Maltese, a lower percentage than found in Moroccan (58%) and Lebanese Arabic (72%). 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 ragel (man), mara (woman), tifel (boy), dar (house), xemx (sun), sajf (summer), are of Arabic origin. Moreover, belles lettres in Maltese tend to aim mainly at diction belonging to this group.
The Maltese language has merged many of the original Arabic consonants together, in particular the emphatic consonants, with others that are common in European languages. Thus, original Arabic , , and all merged into Maltese . The vowels, however, separated from the three in Arabic to five as is more typical of other European languages . Some unstressed short vowels have been elided. The common Arabic greeting as salamu 'alaykum is cognate with sliem ghalikhom in Maltese.
Since the attested vocabulary of Siculo-Arabic is limited, the following table compares cognates in Maltese and some other varieties of Arabic:
| Maltese | Cairene | Damascene | Iraqi
(Jewish Baghdad) | Negev
(bedouin) | Yemenite
[Sanaani] | Moroccan | English |
|---|
| qalp | 'alb | 'alb | qalb | galb | galb | q?lb | heart | | waqt | wa't | wa't | -- | wagt | wagt | w?qt | time | | qamar | 'amar | 'amar | qama? | gumar | gamar | q?mr | moon | | kelp | kalb | kalb | kalb | calb | kalb | k?lb | dog |
English
It is estimated that English loanwords, which are becoming more commonplace, make up 20% of the Maltese vocabulary , although other sources claim amounts as low as 6%. This percentage discrepancy is due to the fact that a number of new English loanwords are sometimes not officially considered part of the Maltese vocabulary, hence they are not included in certain dictionaries. English loanwords are generally transliterated, although standard English pronunciation is virtually always retained. Below are a few examples:
| Maltese | English |
|---|
| futbol | football | | baskitbol | basketball | | mowbajl | mobile [phone] | | lift | lift/elevator | | frigg | fridge | |
Grammar
Maltese grammar is fundamentally derived from Siculo-Arabic, although Romance and English noun pluralization patterns are also used on borrowed words.
Adjectives & 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 pluralized 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) or -in (cf. Arabic -in and Hebrew -im). If irregular, they fall in the pluralis fractus category, in which a word is pluralized by internal vowel changes: ktieb, kotba "books", ragel, irgiel "man", "men".
Words of Romance origin are usually pluralized in two manners: addition of -i or -jiet. For example lingwa, lingwi "languages", from Sicilian lingua, lingui.
Words of English origin are pluralized by adding either an "-s" or "-jiet", for example frigg, frigis from the word fridge. Some words can be pluralized with either of the suffixes to denote the plural. A few words borrowed from English can amalgamate both suffixes together, like brikksa from the English brick, which can adopt either collective form brikks or the plural form brikksiet.
Article
The proclitic il- is the definite article, equivalent to "the" in English.
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 coronal consonant (called konsonanti xemxin "sun consonants"), namely:
ic-cikkulata (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 boy)X ix-xemx (the sun)Z iz-zarbun (the shoe)Z iz-zalzett (the sausage)
Maltese il- is coincidentally identical in pronunciation to the one of the Italian masculine articles, il, which is also l’ before, but not after, a vowel. Because of this many nouns borrowed from Standard Italian did not change their original article when used in Maltese. Romance vocabulary taken from Sicilian did change where the Sicilian articles u and a, before a consonant, are used.
Verbs
Verbs show a triliteral Semitic pattern, in which a verb is conjugated with prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (for example ktibna, Arabic katabna, Hebrew katavnu "we wrote"). There are two tenses: present and perfect. The Maltese verb system incorporates Romance verbs and adds Maltese suffixes and prefixes to them (for example iddecidejna "we decided" < (i)ddecieda "decide", a Romance verb + -ejna, a Maltese first person plural perfect marker). Arabic only rarely does this, although several Arabic dialects do.
Dialects
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 realization of kh and gh and the imala of Arabic a into e (or i especially in Gozo)-considered archaic because they are reminiscent of 15th century transcriptions of this sound. Another archaic feature is the realization of Standard Maltese a as o in rural dialects. There is also a tendency to diphthongize simple vowels, e.g., u 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 the Arabic of the Western Mediterranean than Standard Maltese.
Media
With Malta being a multilingual country, the usage of Maltese in the mass media is shared with other European languages, namely English and Italian. The majority of television stations broadcast from Malta are 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, as with television, Italian broadcasts are also picked up. Maltese generally receives equal usage in newspaper periodicals to English.
The use of the Maltese language on the internet is not altogether common and the number of websites written in Maltese are few. Out of a survey conducted on 13 Maltese websites, 12 of them were English only, and the remainder was bilingual with neither language being Maltese.
Trends
Declining usage
Amongst the population, a language shift towards English has begun, and some argue that Maltese is even comparable to a language like Irish, which has been largely displaced by English in its native country.
Increasing input from English and Italian
A tendency in modern Maltese is to adopt further influences from English and Italian.
English words adopted into Maltese are often given Italianate or Sicilianate 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 kemikali" in Maltese, while the Italian terms are valutazione, vertenza sindicale and armi chimiche respectively.
Code-Switching
The Maltese population, being fluent in both Maltese and English, is more and more frequently code-switching them as Maltenglish.
See also
External links
Dictionaries
Literature and linguistics
Laws
Technology
Organisations
Glossaries and resources
Translation services
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