Maltese (Malti)
Maltese is spoken by virtually all the inhabitants of the Maltese islands (almost 400,000 speakers). In addition, there are thousands of Maltese migrants who still speak the language in various places around the world, especially in Australia, with some 85,000 speakers who also have magazines and radio programmes in Maltese.
Although influenced by Romance, Maltese grammar is still strongly Semitic. 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, but this rule does not apply to nouns and adjectives of Romance origin. What is unusual about the Maltese verb system is that it incorporates Romance verbs and adds Arabic suffixes and prefixes to them, e.g., iddeċidejna - we decided = (i)ddeċieda (Romance verb) + -ejna (Arabic 1st person plural perfect). Thus, Maltese grammar generally shows two patterns: a Semitic pattern and a Romance pattern. It is like two grammars in one.
Maltese vocabulary is a 50%-50% hybrid of Arabic Semitic roots and Sicilian Italian (rather than Tuscan Italian) words. In this respect it is similar to English (Germanic-Romance mix) and Persian (Indo-Iranian/Arabic mix).
Usually words expressing basic concepts and ideas are of Arabic origin, whereas more learned' words, having to do with new ideas, objects, government, law, education, art, literature, and general learning, are derived from Sicilian. Thus words like raġel man, mara woman, tifel child are of Arabic origin, while words like skola school, gvern government, repubblika republic are derived from Sicilian.
Tu learn more about Maltese, read A View of the Linguistic Situation in Malta http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/noves/hm04primavera-estiu/docs/a_badia.pdf
Maltese is spoken by virtually all the inhabitants of the Maltese islands (almost 400,000 speakers). In addition, there are thousands of Maltese migrants who still speak the language in various places around the world, especially in Australia, with some 85,000 speakers who also have magazines and radio programmes in Maltese.
Although influenced by Romance, Maltese grammar is still strongly Semitic. 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, but this rule does not apply to nouns and adjectives of Romance origin. What is unusual about the Maltese verb system is that it incorporates Romance verbs and adds Arabic suffixes and prefixes to them, e.g., iddeċidejna - we decided = (i)ddeċieda (Romance verb) + -ejna (Arabic 1st person plural perfect). Thus, Maltese grammar generally shows two patterns: a Semitic pattern and a Romance pattern. It is like two grammars in one.
Maltese vocabulary is a 50%-50% hybrid of Arabic Semitic roots and Sicilian Italian (rather than Tuscan Italian) words. In this respect it is similar to English (Germanic-Romance mix) and Persian (Indo-Iranian/Arabic mix).
Usually words expressing basic concepts and ideas are of Arabic origin, whereas more learned' words, having to do with new ideas, objects, government, law, education, art, literature, and general learning, are derived from Sicilian. Thus words like raġel man, mara woman, tifel child are of Arabic origin, while words like skola school, gvern government, repubblika republic are derived from Sicilian.
Tu learn more about Maltese, read A View of the Linguistic Situation in Malta http://www6.gencat.net/llengcat/noves/hm04primavera-estiu/docs/a_badia.pdf