Although some scholars believe that it is of Punic origin, the Maltese Language is in fact largely derived from Arabic and related very closely to dialects used in North African countries, especially Tunisian Arabic. The Maltese language is the only Semitic language which uses the Latin alphabet in its standard form.

Malta’s turbulent history witnessed the rule of many different and powerful domains, such as Carthaginian, Roman, Arab, Norman, Spanish, French and English. Although the vocabulary of the Maltese Language is mainly Semitic,the various dominations that governed Malta all left their lexical influence on the language - some strong, others barely noticeable. This marked an evolving enrichment of the Maltese language through the centuries of history into the still-developing language as we know it today. Hence, one can say that, although the language spoken by the Maltese people is predominantly Semitic in grammar, it is nevertheless richly bestrewn with words of Romance and Anglo-Saxon tradition.

If we were to resort to figures, we would say that Maltese vocabulary is approximately 55% Semitic and 45% Romance and Anglo-Saxon.
This influx of hundreds of romance words mostly comes from Sicily, with whom our Maltese ancestors for the past 600 years had important cultural and commercial ties. Italian, being the official language of the Knights of St. John during their 268 years rule, was also a major source. Later, Italian was spoken fluently by most of Maltese elite society and also enjoyed a widespread influence on cultural and political life of the island until 1930. Obviously, a considerable incursion of English words found its way in the language during the British rule that lasted 164 years. Words of French derivation are also spoken by Maltese due to the French presence during the dominance of the Knights of St. John and thereafter.

However, even though through these eras the Maltese Language experienced an amazing influx of Romance and Anglo-Saxon lexical element, and although more than 60% of Maltese surnames are of European origin, its basis nevertheless remains Arabic and the Maltese grammar is strongly Semitic.

Within the Ministry of Finances that is situated in St Christopher Street in Valletta there is also the Office of the Notarial Archive - an office of definitive depositary of collective memory, that houses thousands of notarial acts that go back to the fifteenth century.

In this collection there is the famous very first known document written in Maltese, the Cantilena  a poem written by Pietro Caxaro which was written around 1438. This particular document has been the subject of studies and debates by innumerable scholars, a continuous debate about its origin and meaning which is ongoing up until very recently.  However, the language had to undergo a long, arduous road before it finally attained legitimate recognition.

Although the first person to voice the rightful obligation of teaching Maltese at schools was Mikiel Anton Vassalli, respectfully known as the ‘Father of Maltese Language’ in 1795, the Maltese alphabet was not standardized until 1924, and another ten years had to pass before the language was officially acknowledged as the language of the Maltese.
A sample of few words and their derivations can illustrate to a certain extent the composition of the Maltese language.

For instance, all the words that begin or end with the letter “gh” (ghajn) are of Arabic origin. So are the words raġel (man), mara (woman), tifla (girl), sultan (king), tigiega (hen), tieg ( marriage), dar (house), sodda (bed) to give just a few examples of Maltese words having Arabic roots. Words like skola (school), nuccali (glasses), furnar (baker), re (king), natura (nature), karnival (carnival), pulizija (police), teatru (theater), are derived from Sicilian. The Italian Language gave Maltese hundred of words, like narratur (narrator), miljunarju (millionaire), metall ( metal), pranzu (dinner), and lanca (boat).

The Maltese language is still evolving by the continuous introduction of various new, technical and electronic words derived from the English language, words that often find their way in a transliterated form, such as strajk (strike), unjin (union). Other words are left untransliterated, like test, leave, and bonus. The ever-popular greeting words bongu and bonswa (good morning and good evening) are words corrupted from the French ‘bonjour’ and ‘bonsoir’.

When Malta became a member state of the European Union on the 1st of May 2004, its national language became one the official languages of the European Union. It was an unforgettable event in the extraordinary history of a language so rich in its cultural and linguistic diversities.

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