Re: Merhaba (was: Re: Icelandic)

> Maltese is _not_ a dialect of Arabic
> - it's a separate language! That's like
> saying Estonian and Finnish are dialects...
>
> I just can't believe this... Maltese a
> dialect of Arabic (or anything else)?
> Just totally unbelievable...
The linguistic literature I've seen (such as Routledge's volume
on the Semitic languages) does indeed classify Maltese as a
dialect or variant of Arabic.

It is, essentially, a north African variant of Arabic which has
absorbed a huge number of loanwords from Romance languages
(Italian, Venetian, etc., and French too) and English.

Regards,

Thomas

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