language did the 16th and 17th Century Maltese common person speak?
What did Medieval Maltese sound like?
The broader the social gap grew between rulers and subjects, the less likely it became for Maltese citizens of poor or limited means to join the ranks of the educated classes. This further inhibited the literal development of the Maltese language, which slipped into a deep limbo -- championed mainly by the common people; the uncultured, the illiterate, peasants, women of low repute (prostitutes). Up to this time, the people's language was only an oral means of communication, i.e. it was still an unwritten language.
In fact, we have but a few specimens of the early attempts to write the Maltese language; the oldest, a poem attributed to Petrus Caxaro entitled 'Cantilena', is dated to pre-1485. It was recorded by Caxaro's nephew, Brandano, in his notarial register (Dec.1533 -- May 1563) and, taken at face value, speaks of a collapsed edifice, but who knows, he may have been speaking at a deeper level; a failed romance or an ill-fated homeland perhaps? This early work resonates an enduring Arabic influence in local parlance prior to the arrival of the Order, despite the contemporary Latinization under Castillian rule.
The second-oldest, surviving work written in Maltese is separated from its predecessor by some 187 years. Taking us to the 17th century, this sonetto by Giovanni Francesco Bonamico, entitled 'Mejju gie bil-Ward u Zahar' (May came, with its flowers and blossoms), is a song of praise to Grand Master Cottoner. Here, the poet's words are quite easily decipherable to modern day Maltese persons, though they still reverberate that unrelenting Arabic sound (notwithstanding some 120 years into the Order's reign and a lapse of around 580 years after Count Roger's reconquest of Malta from the Arabs).
But aside from poetry, we have other written sources that -- although not written in Maltese -- cite words from the people's native language. As we can see from numerous placenames (phonetically) recorded by the Maltese chronicler, G.F.Abela, the Semetic element of the Maltese language in the mid-1600s was extremely strong, making it strikingly Arabic-sounding. An even earlier example of everyday Maltese diction is found in the 1588 work of visiting German scholar, Hieronymus Megiser,
"Propugnaculum Europae" (publ. 1606), wherein he gives a Maltese word list; spelling each of them as best he could comprehend the native sounds.
Another very important source that enables us to peek at everyday life, including the Maltese spoken word, in Baroque Malta are the records of the Holy Roman Inquisition, between the years 1542 and 1798. Judicial proceedings recorded Maltese testimony transcribed into Italian. We do have, however, charms and incantations of the accused recorded in the native tongue, and it is hard to ignore the difference between their phoenetics and our modern-day Maltese pronunciation.
New Events ... New Beginnings
The Order's aristocratic rule over Malta came to an unexpected end in 1798 when Napoleon's forces took over the Islands. Under this new dominion, the Inquisitor too was driven out; the Republican precepts of Liberty, Equality and Fraternity would not tolerate any of the former ruling classes. Although the Bishop was allowed to stay, even his authority was challenged.
Contrary to all expectations, this new order did not better the standard of living of the low and the miserable as many thought would happen. The French garrison rapidly became unpopular, their greatest error having been the pillaging of Malta's much prized churches! This was the last straw. The revolt that followed forced the French troops behind the safety of city walls and similar fortifications, besieged by the Maltese until Nelson's Mediterranean fleet was summoned, compelling the French to capitulate. And thus, on September 5th, 1800, Malta's French occupation ended.
The 'direct' influence of this short episode in Maltese history may have been minimal in respect of the Maltese language, but the 'indirect' implications of this break with history could not have been bigger in respect of the Maltese Islands' destiny.
The French and, subsequently, the British occupation of Malta and its dependencies meant that they would cease to form part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies, itself subject to the Spanish Crown. Therefore, the Maltese Islands -- whose fate (including their history, culture and language) walked hand in hand with those of Sicily since pre-historic times -- would now take a different road; a harsh and bumpy road towards complete independence and a separate identity.
This realization may safely be made today, in the comfort of hindsight, for it was far from evident when the Napoleon's troops executed the priest Dun Mikiel Xerri and other leaders of the revolt against them, or during the 1919 Bread Riots when British Troops shot at an angry (and hungry) crowd in Valletta. Nor was it evident during the post-WW2 lay-offs when the Maltese worker claimed his fundamental human rights which were being denied to him by the British Crown. But all this was, in fact, the stormy preamble towards Malta's independence.
Malta sought the status of a British Protectorate, but on May 30th, 1814, at the Treaty of Paris, it was decided that Malta and her dependencies would thereafter become a Crown Colony under the British Empire.
British reign over Malta lasted over 150 years and its military presence lasted even longer. 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.
The Twentieth Century ... Change is Born
Political forces that emerged in the 1920's were largely antagonistic of the British Government and, as if by elimination, the people's representatives appeared to be pro-Italian, to say the least. Some of these leaders of the people were actually fanatically obsessed with the notion that Malta was actually the southern extreme of the Italian shore. The socio-economic gap in the Maltese population was immense. Little had changed since the days of the Inquistion, when few were very rich and cultured, while most were very poor and uneducated.
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. But the persistent efforts of a chain of Maltese patriots, starting with Mikiel Anton Vassalli in the 1800s, developing the Maltese Grammar and compiling a Lexicon, using literature to stimulte interest in the written Maltese language, gave meaning to Malta's national identity.
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conquered by the Romans around 218 B.C. As we have seen in 'Part 1', the Maltese people are held on 
the Maltese Islands of their population -- a claim which some people still find hard to stomach from a purely 'practical' point of view. As mentioned in 'Part 1', Malta's Arab rule was ended by the 
but most predominantly Siculo-Italian, stealthily wove their way into the Maltese language, giving it a character of its own, diverse from Arabic and all the other languages and dialects of the Mediterranean basin. And so the Maltese language continued to develop throughout the reign of the Order of Saint John, while Latin and Italian became the official languages of the Court and the scholarly caste.
