Maltese language
| Maltese | |
|---|---|
| Malti | |
| Native to | Malta |
|
Native speakers
|
520,000 (2012) |
|
Latin (Maltese alphabet) Maltese Braille |
|
| Official status | |
|
Official language in
|
 Malta European Union
|
| Regulated by |
National Council for the Maltese Language Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti |
| Language codes | |
| ISO 639-1 | mt |
| ISO 639-2 | |
| ISO 639-3 | |
| Glottolog | malt1254 |
| Linguasphere | 12-AAC-c |
 |
|
Maltese (Maltese: Malti) is the national language of Malta and a co-official language of the country alongside English, while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, the variety of Arabic that developed in Sicily and was later introduced to Malta, between the end of the ninth century and the end of the twelfth century. Maltese is a unique branch of Arabic because it has evolved independently of Literary Arabic into a standardized language over the past 800 years in a gradual process of Latinisation. About half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian;English words make up between 6% and 20% of the Maltese vocabulary, according to different estimates. The original Semitic base (Siculo-Arabic) comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, and typically includes words that denote basic ideas and the function words. Maltese has always been written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages.
The origins of the Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the eleventh century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo Arabic was spoken, following the Fatimid Caliphate's conquest of the island at the end of the ninth 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.
The Norman conquest in 1090, 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. In contrast to Sicily (where Siculo Arabic became extinct, replaced by Sicilian), the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934 (alongside English).
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Wikipedia