L-ilsien Malti
(The Maltese Language)

Fundamentally, Maltese is a Semitic tongue, the same as Arabic, Aramaic (the language spoken by Jesus), Hebrew, Phoenician, Carthaginian and Ethiopian. ? These, in turn, are said to have evolved from the earlier Semitic language of the Assyrians and the Babylonians, whose empire stretched westwards from the Middle East till as far as the shores of Palestine in the Eastern Mediterranean.

Unlike other Semitic languages, however, Maltese is written in the Latin alphabet, but with the addition of special characters to accommodate certain Semitic sounds. ? It would not be fair, however, to stop here. For there is much in the Maltese language today that is NOT Semitic, due to the immeasurable Romance influence from our succession of (Southern) European rulers through the ages.

the 29 letters of the Maltese Alphabet

It is perhaps also important to mention here that in Maltese we have a special glottal sound for the letter "Q" which resembles neither the Arabic, nor the European sounds for its equivalent (which are more akin to our 'k' sound), but is rather like the sound produced by a 'silent cough'. ? You may refer to the section on the Maltese alphabet for more.

Over the ages, our people have been subjected to various dominions. ? Every significant power dominating the Mediterranean basin vied for a foothold over Malta, so that they could keep an eye on such an arterial sea corridor, while ensuring safe haven for their own ships.

Map of the Western Mediterranean Sea, showing
Punic/Roman Malta (Melita) as a central hub.

Naturally, the languages (and customs) of such ruling nations would leave their footprints on the native tongue and lifestyle of our Islands; adding colour to, yet strangling the life out of extant forms of speech and local traditions.

The seafaring Phoenicians may have found the Maltese Islands largely uninhabited and used them as safe anchorage for their ships. It is a known fact that the Carthaginians ? -- who were themselves descendants of the Phoenicians -- later colonized Malta and, until fairly recently, the Maltese language was held to be a direct descendant of the "Punic" tongue of these early settlers.

Artifacts found in Malta³, inscribed in both Carthaginian and Classic Greek writing -- apart from being the 'key' to decyphering⁴ the former -- indicated that the Punic language was spoken by whoever else inhabited (or made use of) these Islands at the time.

The main problem with the Punic tongue is that nowadays it is a 'dead language' to which no one really knows the true pronunciation of the written text. ? Reference has been made by Quintinus to passages from Plautus' play Poenulus, containing words in this ancient 'Carthaginian' form of speech, but it is merely an intelligent guess that Punic pronunciation resembled Hebrew. ? Words from the Bible, such as Ephtha (open up!) and Cumi (wake up/arise!) were cited by Quintinus as if to corroborate the kinship between the spoken-Maltese he heard during his stay at Malta in 1536 and the Aramaic/Hebrew vernacular thought to have been its origin.

See Horatio C. R. Vella -- The Earliest Description of Malta; Lyons 1536 -- 1980

Thereafter, the mighty Carthaginians were challenged by the warring Romans for domination over Sicily and Malta (for one was unsafe unless the other was also secured). ? Classic literature suggests that the small Maltese population of Punic times preferred Roman rule over the Carthaginian.

Jean Quintin d'Autun ⁵ mentions that "Malta was more inclined towards the Romans" and he cites the Roman chronicler Livius [Livy], whose words actually imply a popular Maltese 'betrayal' of their Semitic rulers in favour of the Romans; an investment which paid off nicely according to history. ? Pax Romana thus reigned over Malta (then known as Melita) at the height of the Roman Empire, with the Maltese populace being considered as ? socii (partners, as it were) rather than a conquered people.

The Arabs, who -- towards the end of the 1st century AD -- were spreading their might, religion, language and customs across the Berber wastelands of North Africa, advanced northwards into Spain and then overran Sicily and Malta. The Aghlabid Arab occupation ² is claimed to have vacated the Maltese Islands of ALL their inhabitants around the year AD 869, carrying 'one and all' into slavery. ? Consequently, it is claimed, neither Punic, nor Latin, survived.

It is now widely held by scholars that the Maltese language -- as it is spoken today -- originated from Arabic, rather than Punic, and goes back to circa 1050 AD. ? Some, perhaps emotionally-motivated, diehard loyalists still find it hard to admit that the entire Punic origin has since been wiped out of our language, especially since both are Semitic tongues and it would, therefore, be possible to obscure one beneath the other; the older beneath the new, the 'dead' Punic beneath the 'surviving' Arabic? The subsequent Romance overlay that followed gave our language its unique Mediterranean character, as will be shown hereunder.

The Norman Count Roger of Hauteville recaptured Sicily and Malta for the Christian Faith but he is said not to have expelled the Arabs, and thus their influence here remained strong until his heir, Roger II, had his own way. ? Now officially a part of Europe and divested of direct Arabic influence, the Maltese Islands would be affected by whatever political interactions occured between the Royal Families of the European continent.

Needless to say, foreign families settled in Malta, bringing with them their European family names and native parlance. ? And so, aside from Latin, the official language of the Roman Catholic Church and of the European scholar, Sicilian and, eventually, Tuscan Italian contributed to the re-Romanization of the Islands.

Latin plaque on Mdina's Main Gate

The ceding of the Maltese Islands by Charles V (in the year 1530) to the Order of the Knights of Saint John (made up of 8 Langues) further increased the cultural and linguistic influences on the Maltese population.

The Order was a cosmopolitan institution, comprised of French knights, of the Provence and Auvergne langues, the Spanish from Aragon, the Italians, the Portughese from the langue of Castille & Leon, German (Bavarian) knights and even a group of English knights, though this langue became unpopular following Henry VIII's quarrels with the Roman Catholic Church. ? Perhaps not all the mentioned languages left their imprint on the extant Maltese vernacular, but a few certainly did.

French Republican soldiers

Napoleon's victory over the Order brought French Rule to Malta in 1798. ? Practically throughout this brief occupation, the French garrison was confined to the shelter of our walled cities (following a Maltese insurrection), so little influence could be imparted. While Napoleon left us a wealth in Codes of Law the opposite could be said about our own national treasures, carried off by General Buonaparte on L'Orient which eventually met her own doom at the bottom of the Mediterranean, treasures and all. ? Though French rule was brief and highly unpopular, we still retain a few French words in common, everyday Maltese.

The coming of Britain's Royal Navy to the aid of the besieging Maltese citizens brought about the surrender and ousting of Napoleon's army from our nation. ? At this point, it seemed natural to return the Islands to their formal rulers, the Knights of S.John, but as the people of Malta had had enough of the Order, the decision reached by the Treaty of Amiens (Article X) was most unwelcome. ? The Maltese people united against the return of their Islands to the despotic Order, and requested the status of Protectorate of the British Empire? And so, from the year 1800, when Sir Alexander Ball was made Britain's first Civil Commissioner (later to become Governor General) for Malta, till 1964 when Malta officially attained Independence, for a period of approximately 165 years the United Kingdom ruled over the Maltese Islands.

This was perhaps the coming of age of the Maltese Language, which hitherto was hardly ever written, except for a few attempts by some far-sighted Maltese patriots. ? For more on this subject and on the strange circumstances of Maltese Society during British Rule refer to Part 2, which also deals with some of the above topics in more detail.

Go to Part 2 now.

Steve Farrugia

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EXCERPTS FROM PART 2:

"The strange thing is that, during this period, the culture of the Maltese Islands was modelled on the Italian culture of the day, rather than on the British."

"There was even the "Language Issue" hotly debated in the early 1900's when the fashionable Italian was by far the more favoured, especially by the cultured classes and Maltese aristocracy; more than the English language and even the native Maltese tongue, they championed Italian as a "national" language of the Maltese Islands! ? And thus, the mother-language was shamefully shunned by the Maltese upper class, relegating it to the status of 'language of the kitchen'. This comes as no novelty to our own times, when English is preferred in many a posh household -- whose members often daren't utter one word of the lowly Maltese."

Street scene: Saint John Street -- Strada San Giovanni -- Valletta (1900's)

Go to Part 2 now.