| Maltese | |
| Nativename: | Malti |
| Pronunciation: | in Maltese pronounced as /ˈmɐːltɪ/ |
| States: | Malta |
| Ethnicity: | Maltese |
| Date: | 2012 |
| Ref: | e27 |
| Familycolor: | Afro-Asiatic |
| Fam2: | Semitic |
| Fam3: | West Semitic |
| Fam4: | Central Semitic |
| Fam5: | Arabic |
| Fam6: | Maghrebi Arabic |
| Fam7: | Pre-Hilalian[1] |
| Fam8: | Sicilian Arabic |
| Ancestor: | Siculo-Arabic |
| Dia1: | Cottonera |
| Dia2: | Gozitan |
| Dia3: | Qormi |
| Dia4: | Żejtuni |
| Dia5: | Australian |
| Dia6: | Central |
| Dia7: | Western |
| Dia8: | Eastern |
| Dia9: | Zurrieq |
| Dia10: | Port Maltese |
| Dia11: | Mġarr |
| Dia12: | Xlukkajr |
| Dia13: | Għaxaq |
| Script: | Latin (Maltese alphabet) Maltese Braille |
| Nation: | Malta European Union |
| Agency: | National Council for the Maltese Language Maltese: Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti |
| Iso1: | mt |
| Iso2: | mlt |
| Iso3: | mlt |
| Glotto: | malt1254 |
| Glottorefname: | Maltese |
| Lingua: | 12-AAC-c |
| Notice: | IPA |
| Map: | Idioma maltés.PNG |
Maltese (Maltese: Malti|links=no, also Maltese: L-Ilsien Malti or Maltese: 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,[2] 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.[3] 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.[4] [5] It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic.[6] 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.[7]
The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words,[8] 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,[9] which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic,[10] whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese.[11] This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic.[12]
Maltese has always been written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages.[13] It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script.[14]
See also: History of Malta. 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.[15] [16]
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.[17] [20] 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.[17]
Ethnologue reports a total of Maltese speakers: in Malta and 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).[21]
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.[22]
Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family,[23] that in the course of its history has been influenced by Sicilian and 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 large numbers of loanwords. Because of 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, with some claiming that the ancient Punic language (another Semitic language) was its origin instead of Siculo-Arabic,[24] [25] while others believed the language to be one of the Berber languages (another family within Afroasiatic). The Kingdom of Italy classified it as regional Italian.[26]
See main article: Żejtun dialect, Qormi dialect, Cottonera dialect and Maltralian. Urban varieties of Maltese are closer to Standard Maltese than rural varieties,[27] which have some characteristics that distinguish them from Standard Maltese.They tend to show some archaic features such as the realisation of and 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.
| Dental/ Alveolar | Palatal | Velar | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||||
| Plosive | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Affricate | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | |||||||||
| Fricative | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||
| Trill | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||||
| Approximant | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | pronounced as /link/ | ||||||||||
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. pronounced as //niktbu// is realised pronounced as /[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 pronounced as /
The two nasals pronounced as //m// and pronounced as //n// assimilate for place of articulation in clusters. pronounced as //t// and pronounced as //d// are usually dental, whereas pronounced as //t͡s d͡z s z n r l// are all alveolar. pronounced as //t͡s d͡z// are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not word-initial). pronounced as //d͡z// and pronounced as //ʒ// are only found in loanwords, e.g. pronounced as //ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta// "newspaper" and pronounced as //tɛlɛˈviʒin// "television". The pharyngeal fricative pronounced as //ħ// is velar (pronounced as /link/), uvular (pronounced as /link/), or glottal (pronounced as /link/) for some speakers.
Maltese has five short vowels, pronounced as //ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ//, written a e i o u; six long vowels, pronounced as //ɐː ɛː ɪː iː ɔː ʊː//, written a, e, ie, i, o, u, all of which (with the exception of ie pronounced as //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 pronounced as //nɐːr//); and seven diphthongs, pronounced as //ɐɪ ɐʊ ɛɪ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ ɔʊ//, written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu.
The original Arabic consonant system has undergone partial collapse under European influence, with many Classical Arabic consonants having undergone mergers and modifications in Maltese:[28]
| Classical Arabic | Arabic: ت|rtl=yes pronounced as //t// | Arabic: ط|rtl=yes pronounced as //tˤ// | Arabic: ث|rtl=yes pronounced as //θ// | Arabic: د|rtl=yes pronounced as //d// | Arabic: ض|rtl=yes pronounced as //dˤ// | Arabic: ذ|rtl=yes pronounced as //ð// | Arabic: ظ|rtl=yes pronounced as //ðˤ// | Arabic: س|rtl=yes pronounced as //s// | Arabic: ص|rtl=yes pronounced as //sˤ// | Arabic: ح|rtl=yes pronounced as //ħ// | Arabic: خ|rtl=yes pronounced as //x~χ// | Arabic: ع|rtl=yes pronounced as //ʕ// | Arabic: غ|rtl=yes pronounced as //ɣ~ʁ// | Arabic: ق|rtl=yes pronounced as //q// | Arabic: ه|rtl=yes pronounced as //h// | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maltese | pronounced as //t// | pronounced as //d// | pronounced as //s// | pronounced as //ħ// | pronounced as //ː/, /∅// | pronounced as //ʔ// | pronounced as //k// | pronounced as //∅// | |||||||||
See main article: Maltese alphabet and Maltese Braille. The modern system of Maltese orthography was introduced in 1924.[29] 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 | pronounced as /aː/ | Maltese: anġlu | pronounced as /ɐ, aː, æː/ | similar to 'u' in nut in RP; pronounced as /[aː]/ similar to father in Irish English; pronounced as /[æː]/ similar to cat in American English, in some dialects it may be pronounced as /[ɒː]/ in some locations as in what in some American English Dialects |
| B b | be | pronounced as /beː/ | Maltese: ballun | pronounced as /b/ | bar, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to pronounced as /[p]/. |
| Ċ ċ | ċe | pronounced as /t͡ʃeː/ | Maltese: ċavetta | pronounced as /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 | pronounced as /deː/ | Maltese: dar | pronounced as /d/ | day, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to pronounced as /[t]/. |
| E e | e | pronounced as /eː/ | Maltese: envelopp | pronounced as /eː, ɛ, øː, ə/ | pronounced as /[e:]/ somewhat like face in Northern England English pronounced as /[ɛ]/ end when short, it is often changed to pronounced as /[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 pronounced as /[ə, Vᵊ]/ comma |
| F f | effe | pronounced as /ɛf(ː)ᵊ/ | Maltese: fjura | pronounced as /f/ | far |
| Ġ ġ | ġe | pronounced as /d͡ʒøː/ | Maltese: ġelat | pronounced as /d͡ʒ/ | gem, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to pronounced as /[tʃ]/. |
| G g | ge | pronounced as /geː/ | Maltese: gallettina | pronounced as /ɡ/ | game, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to pronounced as /[k]/. |
| GĦ għ | pronounced as /ajn, æːn/ | Maltese: għasfur | pronounced as /(ˤ)ː/, pronounced as /ħː/ | has the effect of lengthening and pharyngealising associated vowels (għi and għu are pronounced as /[i̞(ˤ)j]/ (may be transcribed as pronounced as /[ə(ˤ)j]/) and pronounced as /[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 | pronounced as /ak(ː)ɐ/ | Maltese: hu | not pronounced unless it is at the end of a word, in which case it has the sound of 'ħ'. | |
| Ħ ħ | ħe | pronounced as /ħeː, heː, xe:/ | Maltese: ħanut | pronounced as /ħ/ | no English equivalent; sounds similar to pronounced as //h// but is articulated with a lowered larynx. |
| I i | i | pronounced as /iː/ | Maltese: ikel | pronounced as /i̞ː, iː, ɪ/ | pronounced as /[i̞ː]/ bite (the way commonly realized in Irish English or pronounced as /[iː]/ in other words as beet but more forward) and when short as pronounced 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 | pronounced as /iːᵊ, ɛː/ | Maltese: ieqaf | pronounced as /ɛː, iːᵊ/ | sounds similar to yield or RP near, or opened up slightly towards bed or RP square |
| J j | je | pronounced as /jə, jæ, jɛ/ | Maltese: jum | pronounced as /j/ | yard |
| K k | ke | pronounced as /kə, kæ, kɛ/ | Maltese: kelb | pronounced as /k/ | kettle |
| L l | elle | pronounced as /ɛl(ː)ᵊ/ | Maltese: libsa | pronounced as /l/ | line |
| M m | emme | pronounced as /ɛm(ː)ᵊ/ | Maltese: mara | pronounced as /m/ | march |
| N n | enne | pronounced as /ɛn(ː)ᵊ/ | Maltese: nanna | pronounced as /n/ | next |
| O o | o | pronounced as /oː/ | Maltese: ors | pronounced as /o, ɔ, ɒ/ | pronounced as /[o]/ as in somewhere between similar to Scottish English o in no pronounced as /[ɔ]/ like 'aw' in RP law, but short or pronounced as /[ɒ]/ as in water in some American dialects. |
| P p | pe | pronounced as /peː, pə/ | Maltese: paġna | pronounced as /p/ | part |
| Q q | qe | pronounced as /ʔø, ʔ(ʷ)ɛ, ʔ(ʷ)æ, ʔ(ʷ)ə/ | Maltese: qattus | pronounced as /ʔ/ | glottal stop, found in the Cockney English pronunciation of "bottle" or the phrase "uh-oh" pronounced as //ʔʌʔoʊ//. |
| R r | erre | pronounced as /ɛɹ(ː)ᵊ, æɹ(:)ᵊ, ɚ(ː)ᵊ/ or pronounced as /ɛr(ː)ᵊ, ær(:)ᵊ, ər(ː)ᵊ/ | Maltese: re | pronounced as /r, ɹ/ | pronounced as /[r]/ as in General American English butter, or ɹ road (r realization changes depending on dialect or location in the word.) |
| S s | esse | pronounced as /ɛs(ː)ᵊ/ | Maltese: [[sliem]] | pronounced as /s/ | sand |
| T t | te | pronounced as /teː/ | Maltese: tieqa | pronounced as /t/ | tired |
| U u | u | pronounced as /uː, ʉ/ | Maltese: uviera | pronounced as /u, ʉ, ʊ/ | pronounced as /[u]/ as in General American English boot or in some dialects it may be realized as pronounced as /[ʉ]/ as in some American English realizations of student, short u is pronounced as /[ʊ]/ put |
| V v | ve | pronounced as /vøː, veː, və/ | Maltese: vjola | pronounced as /v/ | vast, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to pronounced as /[f]/ may be said as pronounced as /[w]/ in the word Iva(yes) sometimes this is just written as Iwa. |
| W w | ve doppja /u doppja/we | pronounced as /vedɒp(ː)jɐ, uːdɒp(ː)jɐ, wøː/ | Maltese: widna | pronounced as /w/ | west |
| X x | xe | pronounced as /ʃə, ʃøː/ | Maltese: xadina | pronounced as /ʃ / ʒ/ | shade, sometimes as measure; when doubled the sound is elongated, as in "Cash shin" vs. "Cash in". |
| Ż ż | że/żeta | pronounced as /zə, zø:, ze:t(ɐ)/ | Maltese: żarbun | pronounced as /z/ | maze, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to pronounced as /[s]/. |
| Z z | ze | pronounced as /t͡sə, t͡søː, t͡seːt(ɐ)/ | Maltese: zalza | pronounced as /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 Maltese: libertà, Maltese: sigurtà (old Italian: Italian: sicurtà), or Maltese: soċjetà (Italian: Italian: società).
The official rules governing the structure of the Maltese language are recorded in the official guidebook Maltese: Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija (English: Knowledge on Writing in Maltese) issued by the Maltese: 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, Maltese: iż-Żieda mat-Tagħrif, which focused mainly on the increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the academy issued the Maltese: Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija, which updated the previous works.[30]
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.
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.
The Maltese language has a tendency to have both Semitic vocabulary and also vocabulary derived from Romance languages, primarily Italian. Words such as Maltese: tweġiba (Arab origin) and Maltese: risposta (Italian origin) have the same meaning ('answer') but can be and are both used in Maltese. Below are two versions of the same translations, one in vocabulary derived mostly from Semitic root words while the other uses Romance loanwords (from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe , see p. 17):
Below is the Lord's Prayer in Maltese compared to other Semitic languages (Arabic and Syriac) which cognates highlighted:Although the original vocabulary of the language was Siculo-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.[34] Today, most function words are Semitic, so despite only making up about a third, they are the most used among Maltese people when conversing. In this way, it is similar to English, which is a Germanic language that had large influence from Norman French and Latin (58% of English vocabulary). As a result of this, Romance language-speakers may easily be able to comprehend more technical ideas expressed in Maltese, such as Maltese: 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 more basic sentence such as Maltese: Ir-raġel qiegħed fid-dar ('The man is in the house'), which would be easily understood by any Arabic speaker.
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%,[35] to as high as 55%. This vocabulary tends to deal with more complex concepts. They are mostly derived from Sicilian and thus exhibit Sicilian phonetic characteristics, such as pronounced as //u// rather than Italian pronounced as //o//, and pronounced as //i// rather than Italian pronounced as //e// (e.g. Maltese: tiatru not Italian: teatro and Maltese: fidi not Italian: fede). Also, as with Old Sicilian, pronounced as //ʃ// (English sh) is written x and this produces spellings such as: Maltese: ambaxxata pronounced as //ambaʃːaːta// ('embassy'), Maltese: xena pronounced as //ʃeːna// ('scene'; compare Italian Italian: ambasciata, Italian: 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 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 Maltese: evalwazzjoni, Maltese: azzjoni industrjali, and Maltese: armamenti kimiċi in Maltese, while the Italian terms are Italian: valutazione, Italian: vertenza sindacale, and Italian: 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 also 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 Arabic and Berber spoken in the Maghreb are theorised, which may then have passed into Maltese. For example, in calendar month names, the word Maltese: furar 'February' is only found in the Maghreb and in Maltese – proving the word's ancient origins. The region also has a form of another Latin named month in Maltese: awi/ussu < Latin: 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 Maltese: awi/ussu and Maltese: 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 Maltese: awissu/awwissu and Maltese: frar, and Italian forms such as Maltese: april.
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 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maltese: bebbuxu | Sicilian: babbaluciu | ببوش|rtl=yes | snail | |
| Maltese: ġiebja | Sicilian: gebbia | Arabic: جب|rtl=yes | cistern | |
| Maltese: ġunġlien | Sicilian: giuggiulena | Arabic: جنجلان|rtl=yes | sesame seed | |
| Maltese: sieqja | Sicilian: saia | Arabic: ساقية|rtl=yes | canal | |
| Maltese: kenur | Sicilian: tannura | Arabic: تنور|rtl=yes | oven | |
| Maltese: żagħfran | Sicilian: zaffarana | Arabic: زعفران|rtl=yes | saffron | |
| Maltese: żahra (less common than Maltese: fjura, borrowed from Medieval Sicilian) | Sicilian: zagara | Arabic: زهرة|rtl=yes | blossom | |
| Maltese: żbib | Sicilian: zibbibbu | Arabic: زبيب|rtl=yes | raisins | |
| Maltese: zokk (may be borrowed from Sicilian) | Sicilian: zuccu | Arabic: ساق|rtl=yes | tree trunk | |
| Maltese: tebut | Sicilian: tabbutu | Arabic: تابوت|rtl=yes | coffin |
found that 40% of a sample of 1,821 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%.[36] Usually, words expressing basic concepts and ideas, such as Maltese: raġel (man), Maltese: mara (woman), Maltese: tifel (boy), Maltese: dar (house), Maltese: xemx (sun), Maltese: sajf (summer), are of Arabic origin. Moreover, French: [[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, in particular the emphatic consonants, with others that are common in European languages. Thus, original Arabic pronounced as //d//, pronounced as //ð//, and pronounced as //dˤ// all merged into Maltese pronounced as //d//. The vowels, however, separated from the three in Arabic (pronounced as //a i u//) into five, as is more typical of other European languages (pronounced as //a ɛ i o u//). Some unstressed short vowels have been elided. The common Arabic greeting is cognate with Maltese: is-sliem għalikom in Maltese (lit. 'the peace for you', peace be with you), as are similar greetings in other Semitic languages (e.g. Hebrew: 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):[37]
| Maltese | Cairene | Damascene | Iraqi | Negev (bedouin) | Yemenite (Sanaani) | Moroccan | Modern Standard Arabic | English | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maltese: qalb | 'alb | 'aleb | qalb | galb | galb | qalb | Arabic: قلب | heart | |
| Maltese: waqt | wa't | wa'et | waket | wagt | wagt | waqt | Arabic: وقت | time | |
| Maltese: qamar | 'amar | 'amar | qamaɣ | gumar | gamar | qmar | Arabic: قمر | moon | |
| Maltese: kelb | kalb | kaleb | kalb | čalb | kalb | kalb | Arabic: كلب | dog |
Like all Maghrebi Arabic dialects, Maltese has a significant vocabulary derived from Berber languages. Whether these words entered Maltese by being inherited from Siculo-Arabic or directly loaned Berber languages is not yet known. These include:[38]
| 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 |
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. Also, English loanwards of Latinate origin are very often Italianised, 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 |
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] |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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? |
| 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. |
Maltese grammar is fundamentally derived from Siculo-Arabic, although Romance and English noun pluralisation patterns are also used on borrowed words.
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, Maltese: It-tifel il-kbir, lit. "The boy the elder"="The elder boy"). This rule does not apply to adjectives of Romance origin.
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.
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:[40]
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:
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.
The Maltese article assimilates to a following non-ġ coronal consonant (called konsonanti xemxin "sun consonants"), namely:
Verbs show a triliteral Semitic pattern, in which a verb is conjugated with prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (for example ktibna, Arabic katabna, Hebrew kathabhnu (Modern 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; iddeċidejna "we decided" ← (i)ddeċieda "decide", a Romance verb + -ejna, a Maltese first person plural perfect marker.
An example would be the Semitic root X-M-X, which has something related to the sun, 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 stringing 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; 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.
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 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.
By the early 2000s, the use of the Maltese language on the Internet is uncommon, and the number of websites written in Maltese are few. In a survey of Maltese cultural websites conducted in 2004 on behalf of the Maltese Government, 12 of 13 were in English only, while the remaining one was multilingual but did not include Maltese.[41] 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.[42]
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.
"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."
"An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese-English Dictionary shows that 32.41% are of Arabic origin, 52.46% are from Sicilian and Italian, and 6.12% are from English. Although nowadays we know that all languages are mixed to varying degrees, this is quite an unusual formula. However, the words derived from Arabic are more frequent because they denote the basic ideas and include the function words."
The earliest known Maltese dictionary was a 16th-century manuscript entitled "Maltese-Italiano"; it was included in the Italian: Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost. A list of Maltese words was included in both the Latin: Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and Latin: Propugnaculum Europae (1606) of Hieronymus Megiser, who had visited Malta in 1588–1589; Domenico Magri gave the etymologies of some Maltese words in his Latin: Hierolexicon, sive sacrum dictionarium (1677).
An early manuscript dictionary, Italian: Dizionario Italiano e Maltese, was discovered in the Italian: [[Biblioteca Vallicelliana]]|italic=no in Rome in the 1980s, together with a grammar, the Italian: Regole per la Lingua Maltese, attributed to a French knight named Thezan.[17]