Maltese people explained

Group:Maltese people
Maltin
Flag:Flag of Malta.svg
Flag Caption:Flag of Malta
Total:400,000–700,000
Popplace: 404,113[1]
Region1:
Pop1:198,996[2]
Region2:
Pop2:41,920[3]
Pop3:40,230[4]
Region4:
Pop4:40,820 [5]
Region5:
Pop5:31,000[6]
Region6:
Pop6:1,000[7]
Region7:
Pop7:1,000[8]
Region8:
Pop8:~1,000–2,000[9] [10]
Langs:Maltese
EnglishItalian
Rels:Predominantly Roman Catholicism[11] [12]
Footnotes: The total figure is merely an estimation from all the referenced populations.

The Maltese (Maltese: Maltin) people are an ethnic group native to Malta who speak Maltese, a Semitic language and share a common culture and Maltese history. Malta, an island country in the Mediterranean Sea, is an archipelago that also includes an island of the same name together with the islands of Gozo (Maltese: Għawdex) and Comino (Maltese: Kemmuna); people of Gozo, Gozitans (Maltese: Għawdxin) are considered a subgroup of the Maltese.

History

See main article: History of Malta and Immigration to Malta.

The current Maltese people, characterised by the use of the Maltese language and by Roman Catholicism, are the descendants – through much mixing and hybridisation – of colonists from Sicily and Calabria who repopulated the Maltese islands in the beginning of the second millennium after a two-century lapse of depopulation that followed the Ifriqiyian conquest by the Aghlabids in AD 870.[13] [14] A genetic study by Capelli et al. indicates that Malta was barely inhabited at the turn of the tenth century and was likely to have been repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic.[15] [14] Previous inhabitants of the islands – Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines – did not leave many traces, as most nameplaces were lost and replaced. The Normans conquered the island in 1091 and completely re-Christianised them by 1249.[16] This re-Christianisation created the conditions for the evolution of the Maltese language from the now extinct Siculo-Arabic dialect.[17]

The influences on the population after this have been fiercely debated among historians and geneticists. The origins question is complicated by numerous factors, including Malta's turbulent history of invasions and conquests, with long periods of depopulation followed by periods of immigration to Malta and intermarriage with the Maltese by foreigners from the Mediterranean, Western and Southern European countries that ruled Malta. The many demographic influences on the island include:

Over time, the various rulers of Malta published their own view of the ethnicity of the population.[21] The Knights of Malta downplayed the role of Islam in Malta and promoted the idea of a continuous Roman Catholic presence.[22]

Genetics

Paternal lineages

According to Capelli et al. (2005), Y-DNA haplogroups are found at the following frequencies in Malta: R1 (35.55% including 32.2% R1b), J (28.90% including 21.10% J2 and 7.8% J1), I (12.20%), E (11.10% including 8.9% E1b1b), F (6.70%), K (4.40%), P (1.10%).[23] Haplogroup R1 and I are typical in European populations and E, K, F and J haplogroups consist of lineages with differential distribution mostly in the Middle East and North Africa. The study by Capelli et al. has concluded that the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy[24] and that there is a minuscule input from the Eastern Mediterranean with affinity to Lebanese Christians.[25] The study also indicates that Malta was barely inhabited at the turn of the tenth century and was likely to have been repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic.[15] [14] These findings confirm the onomastic and linguistic evidence presented in 1993 by Geoffrey Hull, who traced the oldest Maltese surnames to southern and south-eastern Sicily, especially the Agrigento district.[26]

Another study carried out by geneticists Spencer Wells and Pierre Zalloua et al. in 2008 claimed that more than 50% of Y-chromosomes from Maltese men could have Phoenician origins.[27] [28]

Autosomal DNA

According to a 2014 study by Iosif Lazaridis et al., the genetic makeup of most European populations is a mixture of three ancestral sources: Western Hunter-Gatherer, Ancient North Eurasian and Early European Farmer, but this model does not work for groups like the Maltese people and Sicilians. They have more Near Eastern-related ancestry than can be explained by EEF admixture. They "also cannot be jointly fit with other Europeans", as they are shifted towards Near Eastern populations.[29]

Culture

See main article: Culture of Malta. The culture of Malta is a reflection of various cultures that have come into contact with the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries, including neighbouring Mediterranean cultures, and the cultures of the nations that ruled Malta for long periods of time prior to its independence in 1964.

The culture of modern Malta has been described as a "rich pattern of traditions, beliefs and practices," which is the result of "a long process of adaptation, assimilation and cross fertilisation of beliefs and usages drawn from various conflicting sources." It has been subjected to the same complex, historic processes that gave rise to the linguistic and ethnic admixture that defines who the people of Malta and Gozo are today.[30]

Language

See main article: Languages of Malta and Maltese language. Maltese people speak the Maltese language, a Semitic language with a substantial Romance (Italian) superstratum and morphology, and written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form. The language is descended from Siculo-Arabic, an extinct dialect of Arabic that was spoken in Sicily by indigenous people who were at that time divided in religion into continuing Greek-rite Christians and Muslims whose recent ancestors were Sicilian converts from Christianity.[31] In the course of Malta's history, the language has adopted massive amounts of vocabulary from Sicilian and Italian, to a much lesser degree, borrowings from English (anglicisms being more common in colloquial Maltese than in the literary language), and a few dozen French loanwords. A large number of superficially Arabic words and idioms are actually loan translations (calques) from Sicilian and Italian which would make little or no sense to speakers of other Arabic-derived languages.

Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, replacing Italian and joining English. There are an estimated 371,900 speakers in Malta of the language, with statistics citing that 100% of the people are able to speak Maltese, 88% English, 66% Italian and 17% French, showing a greater degree of linguistic capabilities than most other European countries.[32] In fact multilingualism is a common phenomenon in Malta, with English, Maltese and on occasion Italian, used in everyday life. Whilst Maltese is the national language, it has been suggested that with the ascendancy of English a language shift may begin;[33] [34] though a survey dating to 2005 suggested that the percentage speaking Maltese as their mother tongue within Malta remained at 97%.[35]

Religion

See main article: Religion in Malta. The Constitution of Malta provides for freedom of religion but establishes Roman Catholicism as the state religion.[36] Malta is described in the Book of Acts (and) as the place where Paul the Apostle was shipwrecked on his way to Rome, awaiting trial. Freedom House and the World Factbook report that 98% of the Maltese are Catholic (mostly Roman-rite, with a Byzantine-rite minority), making the nation one of the most Catholic countries in the world in terms of total population.[37]

Emigration

See main article: Emigration from Malta.

Malta has long been a country of emigration, with big Maltese communities in English-speaking countries abroad as well as in France.

Mass emigration picked up in the 19th century, reaching its peak in the decades after World War II. Migration was initially to north African countries (particularly Algeria, Tunisia and Egypt); later Maltese migrants headed towards the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. There is little trace left of the Franco-Maltese communities in north Africa, most of them having been displaced, after the rise of independence movements, to places like France (especially Marseille and the Riviera), the United Kingdom or Australia. The Franco-Maltese are culturally distinct from the Maltese from Malta, in that the former have remained attached to the use of the Italian language (often, but not always, alongside Maltese) as well as speaking French. Although migration has ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance there are still important Maltese communities in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom. Emigration dropped dramatically after the mid-1970s and has since ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance.

Since Malta joined the EU in 2004, expatriate communities emerged in a number of European countries particularly in Belgium and Luxembourg.

See also

Further reading

References

External links

Notes and References

  1. https://nso.gov.mt/en/nso/Media/Salient-Points-of-Publications/Documents/2022/Census%20of%20Population%20and%20Housing%20Preliminary%20Report/Census%20of%20population%202021.pdf Census of population and housing 2021
  2. Web site: Australia General Community Profile . Australian Bureau of Statistics . 28 June 2022.
  3. Web site: Census Profile, 2016 Census: Ethnic origin population . Statistics Canada . 3 December 2021.
  4. Web site: Population data . OECD . xls . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20090617032129/http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/18/23/34792376.xls . 2009-06-17 .
  5. Web site: 2016 American Community Survey 1-year estimates . 2018-05-18 .
  6. Web site: Italy | Joshua Project.
  7. Web site: Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin and Destination. 10 February 2014.
  8. Web site: Immigrant and Emigrant Populations by Country of Origin and Destination. 10 February 2014.
  9. Web site: Maltese living in Turkey celebrate traditional feast. 20 September 2015.
  10. Web site: The Great Exodus (Maltese in Turkey from Lancs to the Levant). 10 March 2015.
  11. Web site: Malta . State.gov . 1 January 2004 . 17 August 2012.
  12. News: Sansone . Kurt . Census 2021: Maltese citizens overwhelmingly identify as Roman Catholics . . 16 February 2023 . https://web.archive.org/web/20240117135402/https://www.maltatoday.com.mt/news/national/121338/census_2021_maltese_citizens_overwhelmingly_identify_as_roman_catholics . 17 January 2024.
  13. News: Gozo. IslandofGozo.org. 7 October 2007 . https://web.archive.org/web/20080822215525/http://www.islandofgozo.org/history.htm . 22 August 2008.
  14. Book: So who are the 'real' Maltese. 14 September 2014 . There’s a gap between 800 and 1200 where there is no record of civilisation. It doesn’t mean the place was completely uninhabited. There may have been a few people living here and there, but not much……..The Arab influence on the Maltese language is not a result of Arab rule in Malta, Prof. Felice said. The influence is probably indirect, since the Arabs raided the island and left no-one behind, except for a few people. There are no records of civilisation of any kind at the time. The kind of Arabic used in the Maltese language is most likely derived from the language spoken by those that repopulated the island from Sicily in the early second millennium; it is known as Siculo-Arab. The Maltese are mostly descendants of these people..
  15. Book: Genetic Origin of Contemporary Maltese People. 5 August 2007 . Repopulation is likely to have occurred by a clan or clans (possibly of Arab or Arab-like speaking people) from neighbouring Sicily and Calabria. Possibly, they could have mixed with minute numbers of residual inhabitants, with a constant input of immigrants from neighbouring countries and later, even from afar. There seems to be little input from North Africa..
  16. Book: The origin of the Maltese surnames. Ibn Khaldun puts the expulsion of Islam from the Maltese Islands to the year 1249. It is not clear what actually happened then, except that the Maltese language, derived from Arabic, certainly survived. Either the number of Christians was far larger than Giliberto had indicated, and they themselves already spoke Maltese, or a large proportion of the Muslims themselves accepted baptism and stayed behind. Henri Bresc has written that there are indications of further Muslim political activity on Malta during the last Suabian years. Anyhow there is no doubt that by the beginning of Angevin times no professed Muslim Maltese remained either as free persons or even as serfs on the island..
  17. Web site: Joseph M. Brincat . Feb 2005. Maltese – an unusual formula . MED Magazine . Originally Maltese was an Arabic dialect but it was immediately exposed to Latinisation because the Normans conquered the islands in 1090, while Christianisation, which was complete by 1250, cut off the dialect from contact with Classical Arabic. Consequently Maltese developed on its own, slowly but steadily absorbing new words from Sicilian and Italian according to the needs of the developing community.. live . https://web.archive.org/web/20230401012113/http://macmillandictionaries.com/MED-Magazine/February2005/27-LI-Maltese.htm . Apr 1, 2023 .
  18. Web site: Debattista . Martin . Timeline of Malta History . AboutMalta.com . 2008-05-14 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20080518060838/http://www.aboutmalta.com/history/time-Line.htm . May 18, 2008 .
  19. Constantiae Imperatricis et Reginae Siciliae Diplomata: 1195–1198, ed. T.K.Slzer (Vienna, 1983), 237–240.
  20. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305084256/http://www.geocities.com/melitahistoricac/CC06.htm Joseph M. Brincat, "Language and Demography in Malta: The Social Foundations of the Symbiosis between Semitic and Romance in Standard Maltese," in Malta: A Case Study in International Cross-Currents.
  21. https://web.archive.org/web/20160305064956/http://www.geocities.com/melitahistoricac/CC03.htm Anthony Luttrell, "Medieval Malta: the Non-written and the Written Evidence", in Malta: A Case Study in International Cross-Currents.
  22. https://web.archive.org/web/20080314001257/http://www.geocities.com/melitahistorica/index1.html Anthony T. Luttrell, "Girolamo Manduca and Gian Francesco Abela: Tradition and invention in Maltese Historiography," in Melita Historica, 7 (1977) 2 (105–132)
  23. (n=90), Population structure in the Mediterranean basin: a Y chromosome perspective, Capelli et al. 2005
  24. http://www.timesofmalta.com/articles/view/20070805/opinion/genetic-origin-of-contemporary-maltese.9032 A.E. Felice; "The Genetic Origin of Contemporary Maltese"
  25. Book: Genetic Origin of Contemporary Maltese People. 5 August 2007 . Together with colleagues from other institutions across the Mediterranean and in collaboration with the group led by David Goldstein at the University College, London, we have shown that the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy, including Sicily and up to Calabria. There is a minuscule amount of input from the Eastern Mediterranean with genetic affinity to Christian Lebanon....We documented clustering of the Maltese markers with those of Sicilians and Calabrians. The study is published in the Annals of Human Genetics by C. Capelli, N. Redhead, N. Novelletto, L. Terrenato, P. Malaspina, Z. Poulli, G. Lefranc, A. Megarbane, V. Delague, V. Romano, F. Cali, V.F. Pascali, M. Fellous, A.E. Felice, and D.B. Goldstein; "Population Structure in the Mediterranean Basin; A Y Chromosome Perspective", AHG, 69, 1–20, 2005...
  26. Geoffrey Hull, The Malta Language Question: A Case Study in Cultural Imperialism, Valletta: Said International, 1993, pp. 317–330. Scientific etymologies of the longest-established Maltese family names are given in Geoffrey Hull, “The Oldest Maltese Surnames: A Window on Sicily’s Medieval History”, in Claudia Karagoz and Giovanna Summerfield (eds), Sicily and the Mediterranean: Migration, Exchange, Reinvention, New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2015, pp. 78–108; "Late Medieval Maltese Surnames of Arabic and Greek Origin", Symposia Melitensia No. 11 (2015), pp. 129–143
  27. Web site: Phoenicians Online Extra @ National Geographic Magazine. https://web.archive.org/web/20040922062050/http://magma.nationalgeographic.com/ngm/0410/feature2/online_extra.html. dead. September 22, 2004. 12 January 2017.
  28. 10.1016/j.ajhg.2008.10.012. Identifying Genetic Traces of Historical Expansions: Phoenician Footprints in the Mediterranean. 2008. Zalloua. Pierre A.. Platt. Daniel E.. El Sibai. Mirvat. Khalife. Jade. Makhoul. Nadine. Haber. Marc. Xue. Yali. Izaabel. Hassan. Bosch. Elena. Adams. Susan M.. Arroyo. Eduardo. López-Parra. Ana María. Aler. Mercedes. Picornell. Antònia. Ramon. Misericordia. Jobling. Mark A.. Comas. David. Bertranpetit. Jaume. Wells. R. Spencer. Tyler-Smith. Chris. The American Journal of Human Genetics. 83. 5. 633–642. 18976729. 2668035.
  29. Lazaridis . Iosif . Patterson . Nick . Mittnik . Alissa . Renaud . Gabriel . Mallick . Swapan . Kirsanow . Karola . Sudmant . Peter H. . Schraiber . Joshua G. . Castellano . Sergi . Lipson . Mark . Berger . Bonnie . Economou . Christos . Bollongino . Ruth . Fu . Qiaomei . Bos . Kirsten I. . 2014 . Ancient human genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans . Nature . en . 513 . 7518 . 409–413 . 10.1038/nature13673 . 0028-0836 . 4170574 . 25230663. 1312.6639 . 2014Natur.513..409L .
  30. J. Cassar Pullicino, "Determining the Semitic Element in Maltese Folklore", in Studies in Maltese Folklore, Malta University Press (1992), p. 68.
  31. Web site: MED Magazine . 9 May 2008 . 12 January 2017 . bot: unknown . https://web.archive.org/web/20080509033627/http://www.macmillandictionary.com/MED-magazine/February2005/27-LI-Maltese.htm . 9 May 2008 .
  32. Web site: Europeans and their Languages. Ec.europa.eu. 12 December 2017.
  33. European Commission, "Malta: Country Profile", Euromosaic Study (September 2004)
  34. Web site: Archived copy . 2006-12-04 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20060919160121/http://www.ec.europa.eu/education/policies/lang/languages/langmin/euromosaic/mal_en.pdf . 2006-09-19 .
  35. Web site: EUROPEANS AND LANGUAGES. Ec.europa.eu. 12 December 2017. dead. https://web.archive.org/web/20070128095746/http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_237.en.pdf. 28 January 2007.
  36. Web site: Chapter 1 – The Republic of Malta . Legal-Malta . 4 September 2011 . dead . https://web.archive.org/web/20110827044831/http://www.legal-malta.com/law/constitution-1.htm . 27 August 2011 .
  37. Web site: Catholic Church in Malta . GCatholic.org . 17 August 2012.

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