| 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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