Maltese Malti
Spoken in:	Malta  Australia  Canada  Gibraltar  Italy  UK  USA [1]
Total speakers:	ca 500,000
Language family:	Afro-Asiatic  Semitic   Central Semitic    South Central Semitic     Arabic      Maltese
Official status
Official language in:	European Union Malta
Regulated by:	Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali ta' l-Ilsien Malti
Language codes
ISO 639-1:	mt
ISO 639-2:	mlt
ISO 639-3:	mlt
Note: This page may contain IPA phonetic symbols in Unicode. Malta, officially the Republic of Malta (Repubblika ta' Malta is a European Microstate, comprising an Archipelago of three islands For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom, the UK or Britain,is a Sovereign state located The United States of America —commonly referred to as the List of language familiesA language family is a group of Languages related by descent from a common ancestor called the Proto-language of that family The Afro-Asiatic languages constitute a Language family with about 375 languages ( SIL estimate and more than 300 million speakers spread throughout North Africa The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, The Central Semitic languages are an intermediate group of Semitic languages, comprising Arabic and Northwest Semitic (including Canaanite The Arabic language family consists of The Arabic macrolanguage ( ISO 639-3 ara including the living Varieties of Arabic Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The European Union ( EU) is a political and economic union of twenty-seven member states, located primarily in Malta, officially the Republic of Malta (Repubblika ta' Malta is a European Microstate, comprising an Archipelago of three islands This is a list of bodies that regulate Standard languages Natural languages Auxiliary languages Interlingua The auxiliary language ISO 639-1 is the first part of the ISO 639 international-standard language-code family ISO 639-2 is the second part of the ISO 639 standard, which lists codes for the representation of the names of languages ISO 639 -3 (ISO 639-32007 is an international standard for Language codes The standard describes three‐letter codes for identifying languages In Computing, Unicode is an Industry standard allowing Computers to consistently represent and manipulate text expressed in most of the world's

Maltese (Maltese: Malti) is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,^[2] while the language also serves as an official language of the European Union. A national language is a Language (or language variant, ie Dialect) which has some connection - de facto or de jure - with Malta, officially the Republic of Malta (Repubblika ta' Malta is a European Microstate, comprising an Archipelago of three islands The current national language of Malta is Maltese, which along with English, is one of the official languages English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States The languages of the European Union are Languages used by people within the member states 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,^[3] with substantial borrowing from other languages such as Sicilian and Italian; a connection to the ancient Punic language has been discredited. Siculo Arabic (or Sicilian Arabic) was a variety of Arabic spoken in Sicily and Malta between the ninth and the fourteenth centuries Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy. Geography Southern Italy forms the lower "boot" of the Italian peninsula containing the ankle (Abruzzo and Molise and southern Lazio the toe (Calabria and the heel Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. The Punic language is an extinct Semitic language formerly spoken in the Mediterranean region of North Africa and several Mediterranean islands, by people of ^[4] It is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form. The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, A standard language (also standard dialect, standardized dialect, or standardised dialect) is a particular variety of a Language that

Apart from its phonology, Maltese bears considerable similarity to urban varieties of Tunisian Arabic and other North African Arabic dialects. Phonology ( Greek φωνή (phōnē voice sound + λόγος (lógos word speech subject of discussion is the systematic use of sound to encode meaning Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi Dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 11 million people Maghrebi Arabic is a cover term for the varieties of Arabic spoken in the Maghreb, including Morocco, Tunisia, Algeria, 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. Malta has been inhabited since around 5200 BC from the Italian island of Sicily. Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. Plural is a Grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the Referent in the real world English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped as the national language. An official language is a Language that is given a special legal status in a particular Country, State, or other territory Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. ^[5] 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. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Australia topics. The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Country to "Dominion of Canada" or "Canadian Federation" or anything else please read the Talk Page Gibraltar (dʒɨˈbrɒltər is a British overseas territory located near the southernmost tip of the Iberian Peninsula overlooking the Strait of Gibraltar In 2007 it was reported that Maltese is still spoken by Maltese descendants in Tunisia. Tunisia (تونس Tūnis officially the Tunisian Republic ( is a country located in North Africa. ^[6]

The oldest known document in Maltese is "Il Cantilena," a poem from the 15th century written by Pietro Caxaro. " Il Cantilena " is the oldest known literary text in the Maltese language. ^[7] For centuries, Maltese was nearly exclusively a spoken language, with writing being done in the language of the country's governing power.

Contents 1 Phonology 1.1 Consonants 1.2 Vowels 2 Orthography 2.1 Alphabet 2.2 Written Maltese 2.3 Sample 3 Vocabulary 3.1 Romance 3.2 Siculo-Arabic 3.3 Quranic Arabic 3.4 English 4 Grammar 5 Media 6 Future 7 See also 8 Notes 9 References 10 External links

Phonology

Consonants

Consonants of Maltese^[8]

		Bilabial	Labio- dental	Dental	Post- alveolar	Velar	Pharyn- geal	Glottal
Nasal		m		n
Plosive	voiceless	p		t		k		ʔ
	voiced	b		d		g
Affricate	voiceless			ts	tʃ
	voiced			dz	dʒ
Fricative	voiceless		f	s	ʃ		ħ
	voiced		v	z
Trill				r
Approximant				l

Vowels

Vowels of Maltese^[9]

	Front	Back
Close	i	u
Mid	e	o
Open	a

Orthography

Alphabet

Main article: Maltese alphabet

Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA 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 is devoiced to [p]. In Phonetics, a bilabial consonant is a Consonant articulated with both Lips The bilabial consonants identified by the International Phonetic Alphabet In Phonetics, labiodentals are Consonants articulated with the lower Lip and the upper Teeth. In Linguistics, a dental consonant or dental is a Consonant that is articulated with the tongue against the upper teeth such as /t/ /d/ /n/ and Postalveolar consonants are Consonants articulated with the tongue near or touching the back of the Alveolar ridge, placing them a bit further back in the A pharyngeal consonant is a type of Consonant which is articulated with the root of the Tongue against the Pharynx. Glottal consonants are Consonants articulated with the Glottis. A nasal consonant (also called nasal stop or nasal continuant) is produced with a lowered velum in the mouth allowing air to escape freely through the A stop, plosive, or occlusive is a Consonant sound produced by stopping the airflow in the Vocal tract. Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Affricate Consonants begin as stops (most often an alveolar, such as or) but release as a fricative (such as or or occasionally into Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Fricatives are Consonants produced by forcing air through a narrow channel made by placing two articulators close together Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless Voice or voicing is a term used in Phonetics and Phonology to characterize speech sounds, with sounds described as either voiceless In Phonetics, a trill is a Consonantal sound produced by vibrations between the articulator and the Place of articulation. Approximants are speech sounds ( Phonemes) that could be regarded as intermediate between Vowels and typical Consonants In the articulation of approximants A front vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a front vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far forward A back vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a back vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far back as A close vowel is a type of Vowel sound used in many spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a close vowel is that the tongue is positioned as close as A mid vowel is a Vowel sound used in some spoken Languages The defining characteristic of a mid vowel is that the tongue is positioned mid-way between an An open vowel is a Vowel sound of a type used in most spoken Languages The defining characteristic of an open vowel is that the tongue is positioned as far as The Maltese alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet with the addition of some letters with Diacritic marks and Digraphs It is used to write the Maltese
Ċ ċ	ċe (for 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 (for dar (home))	d	day, but at the end of a word it is 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 is devoiced to [tʃ].
G g	ge (for gallettina (biscuit))	ɡ	game, but at the end of a word it is devoiced to [k].
GĦ għ	ajn (for għasfur (bird))	ˤː, ħː	has the effect of lengthening and pharyngealizing associated vowels. For the village in Azerbaijan see Əyin. or is the sixteenth letter in many Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Pharyngealization is a Secondary articulation of Consonants or Vowels by which the Pharynx or Epiglottis is constricted during the articulation 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 is 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 is 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 is 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. Year 1924 ( MCMXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Tuesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 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. Year 1984 ( MCMLXXXIV) was a Leap year starting on Sunday (link displays the 1984 Gregorian calendar) In 1992 the Academy issued the Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija, which updated the previous works. Year 1992 ( MCMXCII) was a Leap year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1992 Gregorian calendar) All these works were included in a revised and expanded guidebook published in 1996. Year 1996 ( MCMXCVI) was a Leap year starting on Monday (link will display full 1996 Gregorian calendar)

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. The Normans were the people who gave their names to Normandy, a region in northern France. 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. Latin ( lingua Latīna, laˈtiːna is an Italic language, historically spoken in Latium and Ancient Rome. Furthermore, as the islands were almost^[10] 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. The Knights Hospitaller (also known as the Sovereign Military Hospitaller Order of St During the British colonial period the use of English was encouraged through education, while Italian was regarded as the next most important language. Malta has been inhabited since around 5200 BC from the Italian island of Sicily. It was not 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. Year 1934 ( MCMXXXIV) was a Common year starting on Monday (link will display full 1934 calendar of the Gregorian calendar. 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. Mikiel Anton Vassalli (March 1764 in Żebbuġ, Malta - January 12 1829) was a Maltese Writer and linguist 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. The term Maltese literature may be used to refer to any literature originating from Malta or by Maltese writers

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

Maltese vocabulary is a hybrid based on a foundation of Arabic Semitic roots with a heavy borrowing of Sicilian, Italian, and English loanwords. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language. Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Its vocabulary consists of 52% Italian and Sicilian, 32% Arabic, and 6% English, with some of the remainder being French. ^[3][11] In this respect it is similar to English (a Germanic language heavily influenced by Norman French). English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States 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. French ( français,) is a Romance language spoken around the world by 118 million people as a native language and by about 180 to 260 million people

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,^[3] although another source claims 40%. ^[12] 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/ (e. Sicilian (scn '''''lu sicilianu''''' lingua siciliana, also known as Siculu or Calabro-Sicilian) is a Romance language. 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).

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. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language Siculo Arabic (or Sicilian Arabic) was a variety of Arabic spoken in Sicily and Malta between the ninth and the fourteenth centuries Sicily ( Italian and Sicilian: Sicilia) is an autonomous region of Italy.

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

Żammit (2000) 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%). Saffron ( Kurdish/Persian زَعْفَرَان is a Spice derived from the dried Stigma of the Flower of the saffron crocus ( Crocus sativus Maltese (Maltese Malti is the National language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, Classical Arabic (CA also known as Qur'anic or Koranic Arabic, is the form of the Arabic language used in literary texts from Umayyad Moroccan Arabic (also known as Darija, الدارجة) is the variety of Arabic spoken in the Arabic -speaking areas of Morocco Syrian Arabic ( اللهجة السورية) is a Levantine Variety of Arabic spoken in Syria. ^[13] 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^[3], although another source claims 40%. ^[14] 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. Emphatic consonant is a term widely used in Semitic Linguistics to describe one of a series of Obstruent Consonants which originally contrasted So, original Arabic /d/, /ð/, and /dˤ/ all merged into Maltese /d/. The Arabic alphabet is the script used for writing several languages of Asia and Africa such as Arabic, Persian, and Urdu. 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 ^[15], 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. ^[3] English loanwords are generally transliterated, although standard English pronunciation is virtually always retained. Below are just a few examples:

Maltese	English
Futbol	Football
Baskitbol	Basketball
Mowbajl	Mobile [Phone]
Lift	Lift/Elevator
Friġġ	Fridge
Friżer	Freezer
Wejter	Waiter
Biljard	Billiard
Strajk	Strike
Plejer	Player
Frejm	Frame
Blijċ	Bleach
Fowlder	Folder
Kompjuter	Computer
Spikers	Speakers
Televixin	Television
Tojlit	Toilet

Grammar

Maltese grammar is fundamentally derived from Siculo-Arabic, although Romance and English noun pluralization patterns are also used on borrowed words. The Romance languages (sometimes referred to as Romanic languages, or Neolatin languages) are a branch of the Indo-European language family comprising all English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States

Adjectives follow nouns, there are no separately formed native adverbs, and word order is fairly flexible. In Grammar, an adjective is a word whose main syntactic role is to modify a Noun or Pronoun, giving more information about the As in Arabic and Hebrew, both nouns and adjectives of Semitic origin take the definite article (for example It-tifel il-kbir, lit. Arabic (ar الْعَرَبيّة (informally ar عَرَبيْ) in terms of the number of speakers is the largest living member of the Semitic language The Semitic languages are a Language family whose living representatives are spoken by more than 467 million people across much of the Middle East, "The boy the elder=The elder boy"; cf. Arabic at-tifl-u l-kabi:r, Hebrew ha-na`ar ha-gadol). cf is an abbreviation for the Latin -derived (but also modern English) word confer, meaning "compare" or "consult" This rule does not apply to adjectives of Romance origin.

Nouns are pluralized and also have a dual marker. Dual is a Grammatical number that some languages use in addition to singular and Plural. 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.

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"). In the terminology used to discuss the grammar of the Semitic languages and some other Afro-Asiatic languages, a triliteral ( Arabic: جذر ثلاثي In Linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a Verb, Noun or Adjective from its Principal parts by Inflection An affix is a Morpheme that is attached to a stem to form a word In Grammar, a suffix (also postfix, ending) is an Affix which is placed at the end of a word An infix is an Affix inserted inside a stem (an existing word There are two tenses: present and perfect. Grammatical tense is a temporal linguistic quality expressing the time at during or over which a state or action denoted by a verb occurs 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. See Arabic languages for the historical family of dialects The Arabic language is a Semitic language with many varieties Tunisian Arabic is a Maghrebi Dialect of the Arabic language, spoken by some 11 million people

Media

See also: Languages of Malta

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 current national language of Malta is Maltese, which along with English, is one of the official languages English is a West Germanic language originating in England and is the First language for most people in the United Kingdom, the United States Italian ( or lingua italiana) is a Romance language spoken by about 63 million people as a First language, primarily in Italy. The majority of television stations broadcasted from Malta are in English or Maltese, although broadcasts from Italy in Italian are also received on the islands. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest 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. Magazines, periodicals or serials are Publications generally published on a regular schedule containing a variety of articles, generally ^[16]

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. ^[17]

Future

The future of the Maltese language is a long disputed one. Due to code-switching between Maltese, English, and Italian, it is unclear whether the Maltese language will survive as it currently is, especially with the increasingly widespread use of English in the country. Code-switching is a term in Linguistics referring to using more than one language or variety in conversation 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. ^[16]

See also

• Languages of Malta

Notes

References

• Azzopardi, C. Maltese (Maltese Malti is the National language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, (2007) Gwida għall-Ortografija. Malta, Klabb Kotba Maltin.
• Borg, A. J & M Azzopardi-Alexander (1997), Maltese, Routledge, ISBN 0415022436
• Brincat, Joseph M. (2005), Maltese-an unusual formula, MED Magazine, <http://www.macmillandictionary.com/MED-magazine/February2005/27-LI-Maltese.htm>. Retrieved on 2008-02-22
• Hume, Elizabeth (1996), "Coronal Consonant, Front Vowel Parallels in Maltese", Natural Language & Linguistic Theory 14 (1): 163-203
• Mifsud, M. & Borg, A. J. (1997) Fuq l-għatba tal-Malti. Strasbourg, Council of Europe.
• Zammit, Martin (2000), "Arabic and Maltese Cognate Roots", in Mifsud, Manwel, Proceedings of the Third International Conference of Aida, 241-245, ISBN 99932-0-044-1
• Vassalli, Michelantonio Grammatica della lingua Maltese, 1827

External links

Dictionaries:

• Malta Online Dictionary
• English-Maltese-English dictionary
• English-Maltese dictionary
• Collection of Maltese dictionaries
• English-Maltese-English online translator

Laws:

• L-Att dwar l-Ilsien Malti (Kap. 470)PDF (97. 5 KB)
• Il-Kostituzzjoni ta' Malta (Kap. 1, Art. 5)PDF (368 KB)
• Maltese Language Act (Chap. 470)PDF (3. 38 KB)
• Constitution of Malta (Chap. 1, Art. 5)PDF (303 KB)
• Maltese and English - their roles at the University of MaltaPDF (76. 58 KB)

Organisations:

• Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali ta' l-Ilsien Malti
• L-Akkademja tal-Malti
• Għaqda tal-Malti - Università
• Għaqda Poeti Maltin

Technology and Maltese:

• Download the Maltese keyboard driver (Id-driver tat-Tastiera Maltija)
• Manwal tad-driver tat-Tastiera Maltija (MT)PDF (481. 42 KB)
• Maltese keyboard driver's Manual (EN)PDF (328. 77 KB)
• Enabling the Maltese Language in Windows XPPDF (176 KB)
• Unicode for Maltese
• Maltese Spellchecker
• YahooGroup Kelmet - The Maltese language online forum

Literature and Linguistics:

• The Technical Committee for Literature within the National Council for the Maltese Language
• Maltese Language in Broadcasting
• Maltese verbal morphologyPDF (208 KB)

Translations into Maltese:

• Technical Documentation for Europe: Malta
• Maltese Style Guide (interinstitutional)

Glossaries and Resources of the Maltese Language:

• Rimarju Malti
• Kappelli Maltin
• Ġonna Maltin
• L-ewro
• Il-Lingwa tas-Sinjali Maltija
• Ikteb l-inviti tat-tieġ bil-Malti

---

© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org
Dapyx Software network: MP3 Explorer | Ebook Manager | Zenithic