Re: Maltese Question (was Re: Il-Progett ta' Ranma)

> I have a question about Maltese.  I think I remember reading that it was
> descended from a dialect of Arabic.  Is that true, or is it merely a
> cousin of Arabic?
A wise man once said that Maltese is essentially Arabic as spoken by an
Italian lving in England.

Seriously, Malta was an 'Arab' (probably Tunisian) possession until about
870 AD, and it is known that a dialect of Arabic was spoken there at the
time. It is from this dialect that Maltese is ultimately descended. After
that, you have Normans (870-c1100), Spaniards (c1100-1565), Knights
(1565-1798), French(1798-1800), and British(1800-1964) influences. It was
sometime during teh Knight's influence that the language was given a Roman
script. Before that, Arabic script was used.

The grammar is essentially Arabic. The vocabulary is about 50% arabic, the
rest being Italian (sicilian dialect) or English (British dialect).

Maltese began to diverge from it's parent Arabic in c870AD. It is an
impossible question as to how far this parent dialect had diverged from
Classical Arabic. At least, I dont think any local written records survive
from that period.

I suppose it is a brother to Arabic, which makes it a cousin to Hebrew.

---
Fabian
If a flying horse ye see, mock ye not if it stays up not.