| Also Known As: Malti,Maltese
Description:
Maltese (Maltese: Malti) is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English, while also serving as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic (the Arabic dialect that developed in Sicily, Malta and the rest of Southern Italy). About half of the vocabulary is borrowed from Italian and Sicilian, and the English words make up to 20% of the Maltese vocabulary. It is the only Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form.
Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped from official use. The oldest reference to Maltese comes from the Benedictine Monks of Catania, who were unable to open a monastery in Malta, in 1364, because they could not understand the native language. In 1436, in the will of a certain Pawlu Peregrino, Maltese is first identified as lingua maltensi. The oldest known document in Maltese is "Il Cantilena" (Maltese:Xidew il-Qada) a poem from the 15th century, written by Pietro Caxaro and the first known Maltese dictionary was written by the French Knight Francois de Vion..... full article at Wikipedia |
