English Maltese Dictionary


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The English Maltese Dictionary contains 100% original work and International copyright laws apply.

created by Ian Vella - Copyright (c) 2006-10

 

 


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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