The
origins and contemporary use of the Maltese
Language
The language
spoken in Malta is ‘Maltese’, it is one
of the national registered languages of Malta,
the other registered language is English.
Around 95% of the
Maltese people speak Maltese whilst 30% of these
speak some form of dialect of the Maltese
language; however they still read and write the
language in the same way as the national
non-dialect version.
The Maltese
language has been adopted in Malta in the year
1935 when Malta was still an English colony.
Estimations as to how many people speak the
Maltese language vary some suggesting even the 1
million people mark, nevertheless it is a
generally accepted fact that there are around
600,000 people speaking the Maltese language,
even tough there are far fewer people living in
Malta. Maltese emigrants to certain countries
such as Australia and the UK are still trying to
keep the Maltese language alive, although a
recent observation was made that they are still
speaking an older version of the Maltese language
with rigid rules and non-phonetical acquisition
of foreign new words as the emigrants did in the
60’s when they left Malta to look for work
in other countries.
During the year 2008 the government published a
document approved by the National Maltese
language council in which certain misconceptions
about the language have been standardized. Many
scholars do agree with these decisions however
some others are completely against this because
they are arguing that the Maltese language is
‘borrowing’ phonetic variations of
foreign words, whilst this is partially true for
certain words which came into common use in the
Maltese language. The scholars writing the report
decided to use commonly used language in everyday
use so as not to create a difference between
spoken Maltese and written Maltese. This means
that young children at school will learn the
language just as they speak it at home.
The Maltese language also became an officially
recognized European Union language, this means
that most documents presented in the European
parliament and most laws are being translated
from English to Maltese, whilst interpreters are
providing their services in the Maltese language
too in the EU. Nevertheless there seems to be not
enough translators and interpreters for the
Maltese language in the various EU institutions.
History of the Maltese Language
Most scholars agree that the Maltese language
formed after being influenced from a mixture of
Arabic and Sicilian dialects. Another interesting
fact about the Maltese language is that although
it is Semitic in the nature that it is spoken, it
is written using the Latin orthographic rules.
Around 75% of the words and rules that exist in
the Maltese language at present derive from a
dialect spoken in Sicily. Nevertheless scholars
think that certain rules which these dialects are
based upon resemble more the Punic language which
is not spoken anymore rather than today’s
Italian language or any of the dialects spoken in
parts of Sicily which seem to resemble closely
some Maltese dialects such as the dialects spoken
in Messina and Palermo. As far as history shows
the Punic language is now defunct and nobody uses
this language to communicate anymore and some
parts of the language including certain
orthographic rules have been lost forever.
The Maltese language also borrows vaguely from
Arabic morphological rules, it was recently
discovered that recently a dialect very similar
to the Maltese language was being spoken in parts
of Tunis. The close geographic location and the
historical links between Malta and the Arabic
world means that some rules have been morphed
into the Maltese language.
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