![]() The oldest known document in Maltese, Il-Kantilena ( Xidew il-Qada) by Pietru Caxaro, dates from the 15th century. ![]() The first written reference to the Maltese language is in a will of 1436, where it is called lingua maltensi. In contrast to Sicily-where Siculo-Arabic became extinct and was replaced by Sicilian-the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934 – alongside English. The Norman conquest in 1091, followed by the expulsion of the Muslims-complete by 1249-permanently isolated the vernacular from its Arabic source, creating the conditions for its evolution into a distinct language. This claim has been corroborated by genetic studies, which show that contemporary Maltese people share common ancestry with Sicilians and Calabrians, with little genetic input from North Africa and the Levant. The origins of the Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the 11th century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic was spoken, reversing the Fatimid Caliphate's conquest of the island at the end of the 9th century. See also: History of Malta Oldest Maltese text: Il-Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro, 15th century It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script. Maltese has always been written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic. A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic, which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese. The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words, but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian and English words make up between 6% and 20% of the vocabulary. Maltese is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages, namely Italian and Sicilian. Maltese is thus classified separately from the 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage. ![]() It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic. ![]() As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-Christianisation of the islands, Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of latinisation. Maltese is a Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 8. It is the national language of Malta and the only official Semitic and Afro-Asiatic language of the European Union. Maltese (Maltese: Malti, also L-Ilsien Malti or Il-Lingwa Maltija) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. For an introductory guide on IPA symbols, see Help:IPA. Without proper rendering support, you may see question marks, boxes, or other symbols instead of Unicode characters. This article contains IPA phonetic symbols. National Council for the Maltese Language ![]()
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