Maltese language

, 15th century 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. 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. 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. ==Demographics==

Ethnologue reports a total of Maltese speakers: in Malta and in the diaspora. Most speakers also use English, 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. ==Classification==

Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family. In the course of its history, Maltese has been influenced by Sicilian, Italian, to a lesser extent by Norman, and, more recently, English. Today, the core vocabulary (including both the most commonly used vocabulary and function words) is Semitic, with a large number of loanwords. 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. Maltese has historically been classified in various ways, with some arguing that it was derived from ancient Punic (another Semitic language) instead of Siculo-Arabic, and others arguing it is one of the Berber languages (another language family within Afroasiatic). ==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 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. ==Phonology==

Consonants 's (1831) is an example of Maltese orthography in the 19th century, before the later standardisation introduced in 1924. Note the similarities with the various varieties of romanised Arabic. 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. is realised "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 and meant the compensatory lengthening of the succeeding vowel. Some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters. The two nasals and assimilate for place of articulation in clusters. and are usually dental, whereas are all alveolar. are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not word-initial). and are only found in loanwords, e.g. gazzetta "newspaper" and televixin "television". The pharyngeal fricative is velar (), uvular (), or glottal () for some speakers. Vowels Maltese has five short vowels, , written a e i o u; six long vowels, , written a, e, ie, i, o, u, all of which (with the exception of ie ) 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 ); and seven diphthongs, , written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu. While many of these changes (chiefly the merger of emphatic consonants with their non-pharyngealized counterparts) are the result of European influence, others (such as the merger of into ) are found in other varieties of Arabic, and may be either independent developments or features of the Sicilian Arabic dialect which Maltese descends from. ==Orthography==

Alphabet The modern system of Maltese orthography was introduced in 1924. Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation: Final vowels with grave accents (à, è, ì, ò, ù) are also found in some Maltese words, mostly of Italian origin, such as (old Italian: ), (Italian: ), (a name), ( ) and (Italian: ). The official rules governing the structure of the Maltese language are recorded in the official guidebook (English: Knowledge on Writing in Maltese) issued by the (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, , which focused mainly on the increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the academy issued the , which updated the previous works. 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. Written Maltese 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 made a concerted effort to standardise written Maltese. Many examples of written Maltese exist from before this period, always in the Latin alphabet, from the 15th century being the earliest example of written Maltese. In 1934, Maltese was recognised as an official language. Samples Maltese has both Semitic vocabulary and words derived from Romance languages, primarily Italian. Words such as (Arabic origin) and (Italian origin) have the same meaning ("answer") but are both used in Maltese, rather like "answer" and "response" in English. Below are two versions of the same translations, one with vocabulary mostly derived from Semitic root words and the other using Romance loanwords from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe Below is the Lord's Prayer in Maltese compared to other Semitic languages (Arabic and Syriac) with cognates highlighted: Below is the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Maltese compared to Arabic: ==Vocabulary==

Although the original vocabulary of Maltese was Siculo-Arabic, it has incorporated a large number of borrowings from Romance sources (Sicilian, Italian, and French) and, more recently, Germanic ones (from English). The historical source of modern Maltese vocabulary is 52% Italian/Sicilian, 32% Arabic/Siculo-Arabic, 10% French and 6% English, with the remainder being Spanish and German. Today, most function words are Arabic, so despite only making up about a third of the vocabulary, they are the most used when speaking the language. In this way, Maltese is similar to English, a Germanic language that has been strongly influenced by Norman French and Latin (58% of English vocabulary). As a result of this, Romance language-speakers (and to a lesser extent English speakers) can often easily understand more technical ideas expressed in Maltese, such as ('Geographically, Europe is part of the supercontinent of Eurasia'), while not understanding a single word of a basic sentence such as ('The man is in the house'), which would be easily understood by any Arabic speaker. Arabic At the time Malta was thoroughly Arabized, the conquerors brought to the island the vulgar (colloquial) variant of Arabic, not the classical one (Classical Arabic); therefore, the Maltese language differs from Classical Arabic in the same way as the Arabic dialects differ from Classical Arabic. The Maltese language also comprises a considerable number of Maghrebi features, but in other ways, it can be closer to other Arabic dialects, or closer to Classical Arabic than to the other dialects as in the word ('to see'). While Arabic words represent roughly one-third of the Maltese lexicon, they comprise most of the language's core vocabulary, as well as most of its most frequently used words. Siculo-Arabic dialect which was spoken in Sicily and Malta is the ancestor of the Maltese language, some Siculo-Arabic words are still used in modern Sicilian (a Romance language spoken in Sicily): The Maltese language has merged many of the original Arabic consonants (in particular the emphatic consonants) with others common to European languages. Thus, original Arabic , , and all merged into Maltese . The vowels, meanwhile, separated from the three in Classical Arabic () into five, as is more typical of many European languages (). Some unstressed short vowels have been elided. The common Arabic greeting is cognate with in Maltese (lit. "the peace for you", peace be with you), as are similar greetings in other Semitic languages (e.g. in Hebrew). Romance (Sicilian, Italian, Spanish and French) 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 report percentages between 40% and 62%. English English loanwords, which are becoming increasingly common, can make up between 6% and 20% of the Maltese vocabulary. This percentage discrepancy is due to the fact that a number of new English loanwords are sometimes not considered part of the official Maltese vocabulary, hence they are not included in certain dictionaries. Also, English loanwords of Latinate origin are very often Italianized, as discussed above. English loanwords are generally transliterated, although standard English pronunciation is virtually always retained. Below are a few examples: "Fridge" is a common shortening of "refrigerator". "Refrigerator" is a Latinate word which could be imported into Maltese as , whereas the Italian word is or . Calendar The days of the week (Maltese: ) in Maltese, which are derived from Arabic, are referred to by number which is also typical in other Semitic languages, Days of the week are commonly preceded by the word nhar meaning 'day'. The months of the year (Maltese: ) in Maltese are mostly derived from Sicilian, though and may be derived from African Romance via Siculo-Arabic. Time Question words Sample phrases ==Grammar==

Maltese grammar is fundamentally derived from Arabic, although Latin and English noun pluralisation patterns are also used on borrowed words. Adjectives and 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, , lit. "The boy the elder"="The elder boy"). This rule does not apply to adjectives of Romance origin. Nouns Nouns are pluralised and also have a dual marker. Semitic plurals are complex; if they are regular (sħaħ), 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 plural miksur (broken plural) category, in which a word is pluralised by internal vowel changes: ktieb, kotba" book", "books"; raġel, irġiel "man", "men". Some nouns can also take both kinds of plurals, like bieb (door) = bwieb, bibien, triq (road) = toroq, triqat, and tazza (cup) = tazzez, tazzi Words of Romance origin are usually pluralised in two manners: addition of -i or -jiet . For example, lingwa, lingwi "languages", from Sicilian , . 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. Interestingly, some nouns of English origins still take Semitic plurals, like senter (gun) coming from 'centre', takes the plural snieter, like in ħanut (shop) = ħwienet, although it is no longer done with new loanwords. Derivation 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: • CaCiC – xadin (monkey), sadid (rust) • CCiC – żbib (raisin), ġbid (pulling) • CaCCa – baqra (cow), basla (onion) • CeCCa – werqa (leaf), xewqa (wish) • CoCCa – borka (wild duck), forka (gallows) • CaCC – qalb (heart), sajd (fishing) • CeCC – kelb (dog), xemx (sun) • CCuCija – tfulija (childhood), xbubija (maidenhood) • CCuCa – rtuba (softness), bjuda (whiteness) • CaCCaC – tallab (beggar), bajjad (whitewasher) The so-called mimated nouns (nomi mimmati) 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: • ma-CCeC – marden (spindle) • mi-CCeC – minkeb (elbow), miżwed (pod) • mu-CCaC – musmar (nail), munqar (beak) Article 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. • l-omm (the mother) • rajna l-Papa (we saw the Pope) • il-missier (the father) The Maltese article assimilates to a following non-ġ coronal consonant (called konsonanti xemxin "sun consonants"), namely: • Ċ iċ-ċikkulata (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 child) • X ix-xemx (the sun) • Ż iż-żarbuna (the shoe) • Z iz-zalzett (the sausage) Verbs Verbs show the Semitic triliteral pattern, in which a verb is conjugated with prefixes, suffixes, and infixes (for example ktibna, Arabic , Hebrew (Modern Hebrew: ) "we wrote"). An example is the Semitic root X-M-X ('sun'), for 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 agglutination 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 and 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. The two tenses are 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. There is no infinitive in Maltese, yet something similar called the mamma is used, where the 3rd person male perfect singular is considered the root where the consonants are used to form the root (l-għerq), and the verb form found in dictionaries. In order to make a future sentence, we use the present tense with the addition of ħa or sejjer (conjugated, abbreviated to se or ser for simplicity). Ex. Għada ħa mmur naħsel il-ħwejjeġ (tomorrow I'll go wash my clothes). ==Media==

As Malta is a multilingual country, the use 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, Italian broadcasts are also picked up. Coverage in newspaper periodicals is generally equally split between Maltese and English. Maltese is little used on the internet and few websites are written in the language. In a survey of Maltese cultural websites conducted in 2004 on behalf of the Maltese government, 12 of 13 were in English only and the remaining one was multilingual but did not include Maltese. 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. ==Code-switching==

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. ==See also==