Maltese is the
happy child of a marriage between Arabic and Italian. What makes me intrigued
to learn about a language is when two or more cultures decide to marry and give
birth to a new language. Just like Cypriot MaroniteArabic.
Geographically,
Malta is a European island off the coast of Libya, Tunisia and Italy. Being in
this unique location, it is no wonder that it was influenced by its neighbors’
cultures.
What comes to
your mind when you think of Semitic languages? A distinct alphabet, writing
from right to left and probably the Middle East? Well, Maltese is a Semitic
language that decided not to go by a lot of these rules.
Malta is the
only EU country that has a Semitic official language. What makes Maltese a
unique language is that it is the only Semitic language written in Latin script
and therefore from left to right, even though a lot of the words come from
North African Arabic. Visitmalta.com states, “The influence of the Arabs who made the Islands home from
the 9th to 13th centuries is clear in the Maltese language whose roots are
closely akin to Arabic. Place names and numbers are the most obvious examples
of Arabic influence on the language.” And being less than
200km away from Sicily, it was influenced by its language too. In fact Maltese
belongs to the Siculo-Arabic language family.
Check out this video that teaches Maltese numbers, they’re so similar to Arabic:
Video posted on YouTube by TheHuSkY1984
