Everything about Maltese Language totally explained
Maltese (
Maltese: Malti) is the
national language of
Malta, and a co-official
language of the country alongside
English, while the language also serves as an
official language of the European Union. Maltese is generally accepted to be descended from
Siculo-Arabic, the Arabic dialects that developed in
Sicily and the rest of
Southern Italy, but a few sources also claim it was from
Tunisian or
Maghrebi Arabic, with substantial borrowing from other languages such as
Sicilian and
Italian; a connection to the ancient
Punic language has been discredited. It is the only
Semitic language written in the
Latin alphabet in its
standard form.
Apart from its
phonology, Maltese bears considerable similarity to urban varieties of
Tunisian Arabic and other
North African Arabic dialects. In the course of
history, the language has adopted numerous loanwords, phonetic and phonological features, and even morphological and syntactic patterns from
Sicilian and
Italian, while many words (some with their
plural forms) are also borrowed from
English.
Maltese became an
official language of Malta in
1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped as the national language. Today, there are an estimated 500,000 Maltese speakers, of whom 400,000 reside in Malta. Thousands of Maltese emigrants in
Australia, the
United States,
Canada and
Gibraltar can still speak the language. In 2007 it was reported that Maltese is still spoken by Maltese descendants in
Tunisia.
The oldest known document in Maltese is "
Il Cantilena," a poem from the
15th century written by Pietro Caxaro. For centuries, Maltese was nearly exclusively a spoken language, with writing being done in the language of the country's governing power.
Phonology
Consonants
Vowels
Orthography
Alphabet
Below is the Maltese alphabet, with symbols and approximate English pronunciation:
| Letter |
Name |
IPA |
Approximate English pronunciation |
| A a |
a (for anġlu (angel)) |
a |
similar to 'a' in father |
| B b |
be (for ballun (ball)) |
b |
bar, but at the end of a word it's devoiced to [p]. |
| Ċ ċ |
ċe (for ċavetta (key)) |
tʃ |
church (note: undotted 'c' has been replaced by 'k', so when 'c' does appear, it's to be spoken the same way as 'ċ') |
| D d |
de (for dar (home)) |
d |
day, but at the end of a word it's devoiced to [t]. |
| E e |
e (for envelopp (envelope)) |
ɛ |
end |
| F f |
effe (for fjura (flower)) |
f |
far |
| Ġ ġ |
ġe (for ġelat (ice-cream)) |
dʒ |
gem, but at the end of a word it's devoiced to [tʃ]. |
| G g |
ge (for gallettina (biscuit)) |
ɡ |
game, but at the end of a word it's devoiced to [k]. |
| GĦ għ |
ajn (for għasfur (bird)) |
ˤː, ħː |
has the effect of lengthening and pharyngealizing associated vowels. 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 (for hu (he)) |
|
not pronounced unless it's at the end of a word, in which case it has the sound of 'ħ'. |
| Ħ ħ |
ħe (for ħanżir (pig)) |
ħ |
no English equivalent; sounds like /h/ to English speakers. |
| I i |
i (for ikel (food)) |
i |
seat |
| IE ie |
ie (for ieqaf (stop)) |
iɛ, iː |
yet, feet |
| J j |
je (for jott (yacht)) |
j |
yard |
| K k |
ke (for kelb (dog)) |
k |
cave |
| L l |
elle (for libsa (dress)) |
l |
line |
| M m |
emme (for mara (woman)) |
m |
march |
| N n |
enne (for nanna (granny)) |
n |
next |
| O o |
o (for ors (bear)) |
o |
like 'aw' in law, but shorter. |
| P p |
pe (for paġna (page)) |
p |
part |
| Q q |
qe (for qattus (cat)) |
ʔ |
glottal stop, found in the Cockney English pronunciation of "bottle" or the phrase "uh-oh". |
| R r |
erre (for reġina (queen)) |
r |
road |
| S s |
esse (for salib (cross)) |
s |
sand |
| T t |
te (for tieqa (window)) |
t |
tired |
| U u |
u (for uviera (egg-cup)) |
u |
food |
| V v |
ve (for vjola (violet)) |
v |
vast, but at the end of a word it's devoiced to [f]. |
| W w |
we (for widna (ear)) |
w |
west |
| X x |
exxe (for xadina (monkey)) |
ʃ / ʒ |
shade, sometimes as measure; when doubled the sound is elongated, as in "Cash shin" vs. "Cash in." |
| Ż ż |
że (for żarbun (shoes)) |
z |
maze, but at the end of a word it's devoiced to [s]. |
| Z z |
ze (for zalza (sauce)) |
ts / dz |
pizza; when doubled may change to gods |
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 security, or
soċjetà 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
Tagħrif 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,
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. 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 anymore. However, these orthography rules are still valid and official.
Written Maltese
Since Maltese evolved after the
Normans ended the Arab rule of the islands, there was little interest in developing a written form of the language for a long time after the Arabs' expulsion in the eleventh century. This was caused by the clergy's preference of
Latin or Italian vernacular over the local tongue, and since the clergy was the educated class of Maltese society, their preference for foreign tongues undermined the early development of Maltese in literature and prose. Furthermore, as the islands were almost always under foreign rule, those in power preferred the advancement of their own mother language over the native tongue. Throughout the centuries, the use of the Maltese language was often discouraged with varying degrees of enthusiasm and success, ostensibly in the hope that supplanting it would strengthen ties with the country which held possession of Malta at that particular point in time, a concept which has continuously surfaced in the islands and is also present to a certain extent in the present day. Under the rule of the
Order of the Knights of Malta both French and an embryonic version of Italian were used for official documents and correspondence. During the
British colonial period the use of English was encouraged through education, while Italian was regarded as the next most important language. It wasn't until
1934 that Maltese was even recognised as an official language, more as a British coup to offset Italian influence from that increasingly belligerent country than as a genuine belief in the importance of Maltese in the islands' administration. 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. One would hence have to note that the lack of an established
written tradition affected Maltese culture and fueled apathy towards the Maltese language in certain segments of the nation.
Sample
From the
Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe:
|
|
| 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-Unjoni hija mibnija fuq il-valuri ta' rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, ta' libertà, ta' demokrazija, ta' ugwaljanza, ta' l-istat tad-dritt u tar-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 karatterizzata mill-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel.
|
Vocabulary
Maltese vocabulary is a hybrid based on a foundation of
Arabic Semitic roots with a heavy borrowing of
Sicilian,
Italian, and
English loanwords. Its vocabulary consists of 52% Italian and Sicilian, 32% Arabic, and 6% English, with some of the remainder being French. In this respect it's similar to
English (a Germanic language heavily influenced by Norman French). The result of this highly uneven distribution of loanwords throughout the language is that a speaker of the loanword-source language (in this case Romance or English language speakers) can find a number of familiar words in, for instance, the or comprehend the subject of a newspaper article, but can't understand even such basic Maltese sentences such as
Ir-raġel qiegħed fid-dar (
The man is in the house). This situation resembles that of a monolingual English speaker, who will often be able to guess the content of something in
French if it's formal academic writing, but not understand much simpler sentences.
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, These are generally more 'learned' words, having to do with new ideas, objects, government, law, education, art, literature, and general learning. They are mostly derived from
Sicilian and thus exhibit Sicilian phonetic characteristics, such as /u/ in place of /o/ and /i/ in place of /e/ (for example
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' cf. Italian
ambasciata, scena).
Below are just a few examples (
Arabic is included for comparison):
| Maltese |
Sicilian |
Italian |
English |
Arabic |
| Skola |
Scola |
Scuola |
School |
مدرسة (madrassah) |
| Gvern |
Cuvernu |
Governo |
Government |
حكومة (ḥukūmah) |
| Repubblika |
Ripùbblica |
Repubblica |
Republic |
جمهورية (ǧummhūriyyah) |
| Re |
Re |
Re |
King |
ملك (malik) |
| Natura |
Natura |
Natura |
Nature |
طبيعة (ṭabīʿah) |
| Pulizija |
Pulizzìa |
Polizia |
Police |
شرطة (shurta) |
| Ċentru |
Centru |
Centro |
Centre |
مركز (markaz) |
| Teatru |
Tiatru |
Teatro |
Theatre |
مسرح (masraḥ) |
Siculo-Arabic
There are also strong similarities between Maltese and
Sicilian words of Arabic origin, on account of the
comparable cultural situation. between the two countries.
| Siculo-Arabic |
Maltese |
English |
Arabic |
| Babbaluciu |
Bebbuxu |
Snail |
قوقع |
| Caponata |
Kapunata |
Caponata |
|
| Cassata |
Qassata |
Sicilian cake |
|
| Gebbia |
Ġiebja |
Cistern |
جابية |
| Giuggiulena |
Ġunġlien |
Sesame seed |
جلجلان |
| Saia |
Saqqajja |
Canal |
ساقية |
| Tanura |
Kenur |
Oven |
تنور |
| Zaffarana |
Żaffran |
Saffron |
زعفران |
| Zagara |
Zahar |
Blossom |
زهرة |
| Zibbibbu |
Żbib |
Raisins |
زبيب |
| Zuccu |
Zokk |
Tree trunk |
ساق |
Quranic Arabic
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
Syrian 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 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.
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. So, original
Arabic /d/, /ð/, and /dˤ/ all merged into Maltese /d/. The vowels, however, separated from the three in Arabic (/a i u/) to the five that are common in most other European languages (/a ɛ i o u/) and another vowel found in Maltese (/iɛ/); some unstressed short vowels have been elided. The common Arabic greeting
as-salāmu 'alaykum would look like
is-sliem għalikom in Maltese.
English
It is estimated that English loanwords, which are becoming more commonplace, make up 20% of the Maltese vocabulary, although other sources claim it's only 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're not included in certain dictionaries.
The use of the Maltese language on the internet isn't 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.
Future
The future of the Maltese language is a long disputed one. Due to
code-switching between Maltese, English, and Italian, it's unclear whether the Maltese language will survive as it currently is, especially with the increasingly widespread use of English in the country. The dialectial variations of Maltese have been dropped in favour of the standardized usage, which shows a severe Anglicization and Romantification of the language, due to the codeswitched words entering the language. Amongst various circles, a language shift towards English has begun, and lexological and grammatical patterns of the language are shifting with it.
[Further Information]
Get more info on 'Maltese Language'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://maltese_language.totallyexplained.com">Maltese language Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
