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Maltese language

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, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic (the Arabic dialect that developed in Sicily and the rest of Southern Italy), but with a large percentage of borrowed vocabulary from Italian (particularly 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. Today there are an estimated 500,000 Maltese speakers, of whom 400,000 reside in Malta. Thousands of Maltese emigrants in Australia, Canada, Gibraltar, Italy, the UK, the USA still speak the language. In 2007 it was reported that Maltese is spoken by descendants of Maltese immigrants in Tunisia.

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.

A discredited hypothesis is that it was not Siculo-Arabic, but instead the ancient Punic language that formed the original base of the language. This hypothesis was first put forward in 1565 by Gian Battista Tebaldi, a visitor to the island who described the Maltese language as Phoenician. In 1572 the Italian poet and historian Tommaso Porcacchi, is his book L’isole più famose del mondo (English:The Most Famous Islands in the World):, claimed the language descended from Carthaginian. Hieronymus Megiser, a German traveller, wrote a list of Maltese words in his Thesaurus Polyglottus (published in 1603) and also in the celebrated Propugnaculum Europae (published in 1606). Megiser also described Maltese as a Punic descendent.

Athanasius Kircher spent two years in Malta (1637-38) and developed theories running counter to those accepted by his contemporaries. In his Mundus Subterraneus he says of the Maltese, "they speak the purest form of Arabic, corrupted by neither Italian nor any other language". Other theories include those in Johann Friedrich Breithaupt's Christliche Helden Insel Malta (Malta, Home of Christian Heros), published in 1632, where he calls Maltese a mixed 'barbaric' language and John Dryden's description of the language as 'Berber' on his visit to the islands (the memoires of those journeys appeared in 1776).

In his book Dell’Istoria della Sacra Religione et Illustrissima Militia di San Giovanni Gierosolimitano (The History of the Sacred Religion and Illustrious Militia of St John of Jerusalem), written between 1594 and 1602, Giacomo Bosio endorses the hypothesis 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, 'Jiġi żmien li fil-Wardija [l-Għolja 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.

Classification

Maltese is a Semitic language, descended from Siculo-Arabic, itself a dialect of Maghrebi Arabic, but in the course of its history, Maltese absorbed large numbers of loan words from Sicilian and Standard Italian, and more recently, from English. However, the Maltese are ethnically distinct from the Arabs, and so sociolinguistically it is not considered to be a dialect of Arabic but a separate language with its own independent literary standards.

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants of Maltese
		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Post- alveolar	Velar	Pharyn- geal	Glottal
Nasal
Plosive	voiceless
Plosive	voiced
Fricative	voiceless
Fricative	voiced
Affricate	voiceless
Affricate	voiced
Trill
Approximant

Vowels

Maltese has five short vowels, , written a e i o u; six long vowels, , written a, e, ie, i, o, u, of which all but ie /ɪː/ require an orthographic għ or h to show they're long; and seven diphthongs, , written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu.

Orthography

Alphabet

Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation:

Letter	Name	Maltese example	IPA	Approximate English pronunciation
A a	a	anġlu (angel)	a	similar to 'a' in father
B b	be	ballun (ball)	b	bar, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [p].
Ċ ċ	ċe	ċavetta (key)	tʃ	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	dar (home)	d	day, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [t].
E e	e	envelopp (envelope)	ɛ	end
F f	effe	fjura (flower)	f	far
Ġ ġ	ġe	ġelat (ice-cream)	dʒ	gem, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [tʃ].
G g	ge	gallettina (biscuit)	ɡ	game, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [k].
GĦ għ	ajn	għasfur (bird)	ˤː, ħː	has the effect of lengthening and pharyngealizing associated vowels (għi and għu are [aˤj] and [oˤw]). 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	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	ħanut (shop)	ħ	no English equivalent; sounds like /h/ to English speakers.
I i	i	ikel (food)	i	seat
IE ie	ie	ieqaf (stop)	iɛ, iː	yet, feet
J j	je	nazzjonali (national)	j	yard
K k	ke	kelb (dog)	k	kettle
L l	elle	libsa (dress)	l	line
M m	emme	mara (woman)	m	march
N n	enne	nanna (granny)	n	next
O o	o	ors (bear)	o	like 'aw' in law, but shorter.
P p	pe	paġna (page, sheet)	p	part
Q q	qe	qattus (cat)	ʔ	glottal stop, found in the Cockney English pronunciation of "bottle" or the phrase "uh-oh".
R r	erre	re (king)	r	road
S s	esse	salib (cross)	s	sand
T t	te	tieqa (window)	t	tired
U u	u	uviera (egg-cup)	u	food
V v	ve	vjola (violet)	v	vast, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [f].
W w	we	widna (ear)	w	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 gods
Ż ż	że	żraben (shoes)	z	maze, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [s].

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 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, 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:

English

Maltese

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

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. In this respect it is 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 main page of the Maltese Wikipedia or comprehend the subject of a newspaper article, but cannot 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 is 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, although other sources claim from as low as 40% to as large 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 /u/ in place of /o/ and /i/ in place of /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' 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
Ċentru	Centru	Centro	Centre
Teatru	Tiatru	Teatro	Theatre

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. Although Siculo-Arabic is extinct in Sicily, it survived on Malta and developed into what is now the Maltese language..

Maltese	Siculo-Arabic	English
Bebbuxu	Babbaluciu	Snail
Kapunata	Caponata	Caponata
Qassata	Cassata	[Sicilian cake]
Ġiebja	Gebbia	Cistern
Ġunġlier	Giuggiulena	Sesame seed
Saqqajja	Saia	Canal
Kenur	Tanura	Oven
Żaffran	Zaffarana	Saffron
Zahar	Zagara	Blossom
Żbib	Zibbibbu	Raisins
Zokk	Zuccu	Tree trunk

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 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 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. Thus, original Arabic /d/, /ð/, and /dˤ/ all merged into Maltese /d/. The vowels, however, separated from the three in Arabic to the five that are common in most other European languages (). Some unstressed short vowels have been elided. The common Arabic greeting as salāmu 'alaykum would look like sliem għalikhom 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 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
Friġġ	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

As in Italian and other Romance languages, adjectives follow nouns. There are no separately formed native adverbs, and word order is fairly flexible. As in Siculo-Arabic, 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 -īn 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", raġel, irġiel "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 tojlit, tojlits from the English toilet, toilets and friġġ, friġis 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 enclitic il- is the definite article, equivalent to "the" in English. It is the Maghribi pronunciation of the Arabic definite article, which is al- in Standard 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 coronal consonant (called konsonanti xemxin "sun letters"), namely Ċ, D, N, R, S, T, X, Ż and Z:

iċ-ċikkulata (the chocolate)
id-dar (the house)
in-nar (the fire)
ir-razzett (the farm)
is-serrieq (the saw)
it-tifel (the boy)
ix-xemx (the sun)
iż-żarbun (the shoe)
iz-zalzetta (the sausage)

Maltese il- is coincidentally identical in pronunciation to the one of the Italian masculine articles, il, which is also l’ before (though not after) a vowel. Because of this, many nouns borrowed from Standard Italian did not need to change their article when used in Maltese. (However, most Romance vocabulary in Maltese was taken from Sicilian, and as the Sicilian articles are u and a before a consonant, those did need to change.)

Verbs

Verbs still 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 Arabic suffixes and prefixes to them (for example iddeċidejna "we decided" < (i)ddeċieda 'Romance verb' + -ejna, an Arabic first person plural perfect marker). Arabic only rarely does this, although several Arabic dialects like Tunisian do.

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. Maltese people tend to prefer to bring their children up in English, while the number of people speaking Italian has also been noted to be increasing due to media outlets.

When adopting new English vocabulary into the language, it is common to "Italianize" it. For instance, the words "evaluation", "industrial action" and "chemical armaments" are turned into "evalwazzjoni", "azzjoni industrjali", and "armamenti kemikali".

Notes

References

Azzopardi, C. (2007). Gwida għall-Ortografija. Malta: Klabb Kotba Maltin. .
Mifsud, M.; A.J. Borg (1997). Fuq l-għatba tal-Malti. Strasbourg: Council of Europe. .
Vassalli, Michelantonio (1827). Grammatica della lingua Maltese.