Maltese language

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Maltese
Malti
Spoken in: Flag of Malta Malta

Flag of Australia Australia
Flag of Canada Canada
Flag of Gibraltar Gibraltar
Flag of Italy Italy
Flag of the United Kingdom UK
Flag of the United States USA [1]
Total speakers: ca 500,000
Language family: Afro-Asiatic
 Semitic
  Central Semitic
   South Central Semitic
    Arabic
     Maltese 
Official status
Official language in: Flag of Europe European Union
Flag of Malta 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.

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. 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.[4] It is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form.

Apart from its phonology, Maltese bears considerable similarity to urban varieties of Tunisian Arabic and other North African Arabic dialects. 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.

Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped as the national language.[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. In 2007 it was reported that Maltese is still spoken by Maltese descendants in Tunisia.[6]

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

Contents

[edit] Phonology

[edit] 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        

[edit] Vowels

Vowels of Maltese[9]
Front Back
Close i u
Mid e o
Open a

[edit] Orthography

[edit] 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].
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. 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. 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. In 1992 the Academy issued the Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija, which updated the previous works. All these works were included in a revised and expanded guidebook published in 1996.[citation needed]

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.[citation needed]

[edit] 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. 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. 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. During the British colonial period the use of English was encouraged through education, while Italian was regarded as the next most important language. 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. 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. 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.

[edit] 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.

[edit] Vocabulary

Maltese vocabulary is a hybrid based on a foundation of Arabic Semitic roots with a heavy borrowing of Sicilian, Italian, and English loanwords. 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). 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.

[edit] 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.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)

[edit] 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.

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

[edit] 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%).[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. So, original Arabic /d/, /ð/, and /dˤ/ all merged into Maltese /d/. 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.

[edit] 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

[edit] Grammar

Maltese grammar is fundamentally derived from Siculo-Arabic, although Romance and English noun pluralization patterns are also used on borrowed words.

Adjectives follow nouns, there are no separately formed native adverbs, and word order is fairly flexible. As in Arabic and Hebrew, both nouns and adjectives of Semitic origin take the definite article (for example It-tifel il-kbir, lit. "The boy the elder=The elder boy"; cf. Arabic at-tifl-u l-kabi:r, Hebrew ha-na`ar ha-gadol). This rule does not apply to adjectives of Romance origin.

Nouns are pluralized and also have a dual marker. 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"). There are two tenses: present and perfect. 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.

[edit] 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 majority of television stations broadcasted from Malta are in English or Maltese, although broadcasts from Italy in Italian are also received on the islands. 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.[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]

[edit] 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. 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]

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Ethnologue entry for Maltese
  2. ^ Constitution of Malta, I.5.(1),
  3. ^ a b c d e Brincat (2005)
  4. ^ Vella, Alexandra (2004). "Language contact and Maltese intonation: Some parallels with other language varieties", in Kurt Braunmüller and Gisella Ferraresi: Aspects of Multilingualism in European Language History, Hamburg Studies on Muliculturalism. John Benjamins Publishing Company, p. 263. ISBN 9027219222. 
  5. ^ Ignasi Badia i Capdevila. "A view of the linguistic situation in Malta". Retrieved on 2008-01-04.
  6. ^ Times of Malta, 11 February 2007
  7. ^ The 'Cantilena'. Retrieved on 2007-07-29.
  8. ^ Hume (1996:165)
  9. ^ Hume (1996:165)
  10. ^ Except for a period of roughly one hundred years of nominal Spanish rule over the island, while the government lay in the hands of the Maltese Kunsill Popolari, Malta was continuously in foreign hands up until independence in 1964. This period was termed Żmien l-Ispanjoli.
  11. ^ About Malta; GTS; retrieved on [2008-02-24]
  12. ^ BBC Education - Languages
  13. ^ Żammit (2000:241-245)
  14. ^ BBC Education - Languages
  15. ^ BBC Education - Languages
  16. ^ a b Ignasi Badia i Capdevila; A view of the linguistic situation in Malta; NovesSl; [2004]; retrieved on [2008-02-24]
  17. ^ Country report for MINERVA Plus in 2005; Multilingual issues in Malta; Retrieved on [2008-02-24]

[edit] References

  • Azzopardi, C. (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

[edit] External links

Dictionaries:

Laws:

Organisations:

Technology and Maltese:

Literature and Linguistics:

Translations into Maltese:

Glossaries and Resources of the Maltese Language:

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