Re: Merhaba (was: Re: Icelandic)

Quoting Thomas Leigh <thomas@...>:

> > 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.
A book on Semitic langs I read a while ago - think the title was simply "The
Semitic Languages", and I cannot recall the name of the editor - stated that
Matlese is "normally" considered a separate language, but that is was no more
divergent from the central modern varieties than a number of other varieties
usually considered to be mere dialects. Of the examples of such I only recall
Chadic Arabic.

                                                             Andreas