Maltese language

Maltese
Malti
Native to	Malta
Native speakers	(393,000 cited 1975)
Language family	Afro-Asiatic Semitic Central Semitic Arabic Maghrebi Arabic Siculo-Arabic Maltese
Writing system	Latin (Maltese alphabet) Maltese Braille
Official status
Official language in	Malta European Union
Regulated by	National Council for the Maltese Language Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti
Language codes
ISO 639-1	mt
ISO 639-2	mlt
ISO 639-3	mlt
Linguasphere	12-AAC-c

Maltese is the language of Malta, and a language of the European Union. Maltese sounds similar to the Phoenician language that was spoken in areas around the ancient Mediterranean. It is written in the Latin alphabet like English. Maltese descends from a dialect of Arabic called Siculo-Arabic. The language has borrowed many words from Sicilian, Italian, and English. Around 393,000 people speak Maltese. Most of them live in Malta.

History

Many people from Sicily settled in Malta after the Muslims conquered it in 870 AD. They spoke a Sicilian-Arabic language from the Maghreb. In later centuries their language changed into Maltese. The oldest known document in Maltese is "Il Cantilena," a poem from the 15th century written by Pietro Caxaro. For centuries, Maltese was mainly a spoken language.

Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English. Before that year, the only official language of Malta was Italian. Italian, however, is still used a lot in the media.

Today

Italian and English words are being taken in by the language more and more. This sometimes causes words to form that are not found in Maltese, Italian, or English, but instead are a mix of the three. At schools, English is taught as a second language. Maltese is usually used in the standardized jobs and when people talk to each other. Most of the television, radio, and literature in Malta is also in Maltese.