10 ms·

I read, write and speak Maltese, AMA if you are curious about the language.

barrell 1y ago
I recently discovered Maltese existed, and started learning it that day. I find it such an awesome language, and not just because of the letter Ħ I do wonder what natives think and feel about the longevity of their language? What is taught in schools at what ages (assuming English is in the mix somewhere). Is there enough media in Maltese for Malti to go about the moderns at fully in Maltese? It’s shockingly hard to find any information on Maltese, and even harder to find content. I’m not sure if’s dying out, or in danger thereof; if there are preservation efforts, or if there is no need.
- lullu57 1y ago
  Native Maltese speaker here. It is thought in schools alongside English, with both being official national languages. Most people locally, that are not foreign born or immigrants speak the language, and it is used in most households as the main language. But everyone grows up bilingual, as English is essential for most everything else that we do as a nation.
ebb_earl_co 1y ago
What is the name of Maltese in Maltese? Like “el español” in Spanish, it’s neat to know what languages call themselves
- kwk1 1y ago
  A term for that concept, by the way, is "endonym": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endonym_and_exonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endonym_and_exonym
- kridsdale3 1y ago
  'ish' is a pretty universal english suffix. So Spanish is just "españ-ish".
- ggsp 1y ago
  Wikipedia says it's "Malti"
  - arbuge 1y ago
    Il-Malti to be precise. Il- means "the" and changes its meaning to that of the language. Malti alone would mean a Maltese person. Source: I'm also Maltese.
    - jll29 1y ago
      The "Il" in Il-Malti is like "al" in Arabic, which Maltese is closely related to as was pointed out above. Arabic (language): al-‘arabiyyah (الْعَرَبِيَّة).
Raed667 1y ago
Tunisians claim they can understand Maltese with minimum effort, is it reciprocal? How close is Maltese to arabic / tunisian dialect ?
- arbuge 1y ago
  Not sure which Tunisians are claiming this but they'd definitely need a lot more than minimum effort. Maltese split off from Arabic around 1k years ago. The two languages sound pretty different, and are written with different alphabets.
  - cenamus 1y ago
    Also lots of influence from Italian and English.
  - findyoucef 1y ago
    As an Algerian, I can confirm that Maltese is surprisingly easy to understand. I was genuinely shocked the first time I heard it because the similarities are so obvious. Many Arabic dialects are also written using the Latin alphabet, especially online and on social media, so the different writing systems aren’t really a barrier at all.
    - deleted 1y ago
      [deleted]
    - arbuge 1y ago
      Calling BS on this one. I'll let ChatGPT handle it... it says it better than I could: can arabic people understand maltese? That’s a really interesting question — and the answer is: *partially, but not easily.* Here’s why: ### Linguistic roots Maltese is a *Semitic language*, and its *core grammar and basic vocabulary* come from *Arabic*, specifically from *Siculo-Arabic*, the dialect of Arabic spoken in Sicily and Malta about 1,000 years ago. Because of that, *many Maltese words sound familiar* to Arabic speakers — especially from the *Maghrebi (North African)* or *Levantine* dialects. For example: | Maltese | Meaning | Similar in Arabic | | ------- | ------- | ----------------- | | Dar | house | دار (dar) | | Kelb | dog | كلب (kalb) | | Seba | seven | سبعة (sabʿa) | | Xemx | sun | شمس (shams) | ### Influence from Italian and English However, over the centuries, Maltese absorbed *a lot of Italian (especially Sicilian)* and *English* vocabulary — so modern Maltese is *a hybrid*. Roughly: * 30–40% of its vocabulary is Semitic (Arabic origin), * 40–50% is Romance (mostly Italian/Sicilian), * and the rest is English and other sources. That means Arabic speakers might *recognize some words and structures*, but they’ll *struggle to understand full sentences*, especially because: * Pronunciation has changed, * Grammar evolved differently, * Many everyday words are not Arabic anymore. ### Summary So: * *Yes*, Maltese and Arabic share a deep connection — like cousins. * *No*, they’re *not mutually intelligible* today. An Arabic speaker might catch words here and there, but a real conversation would be hard without studying Maltese. The above is exactly my experience with Arabic speakers by the way. Again, not surprising after 1k years of divergence.
adzm 1y ago
I'm actually really curious about everyday usage of the language; is code switching between English and Maltese more common than Maltese on its own? I've seen a few online communities where the vocabulary switches between Maltese and English very often which is interesting but I wonder how much of that is just online / written versus everyday speech.
- purrcat259 1y ago
  Depends on where you live and how you were brought up, but for the most part code switching is default. There was a point about 7 years ago when the overton window shifted to "speak english to strangers first" because of a large influx of foreigners who did not know the language. Since then I've met foreigners who have better Maltese than some natives. Older folks & geriatrics will sometimes be surprised when they assume someone is foreign and they turn out to be Maltese. "int Malti??" is a statement I get often because I don't look Mediterranean despite being born here.
nxor 1y ago
How are loan words viewed? Do businesses work in Maltese? Are monolingual speakers of the language regarded differently than those fluent in English? Do young people in Malta listen to Maltese music?
- JAlexoid 1y ago
  Yes, there's plenty of Maltese spoken and listened to. I was surprised to hear Maltese radio stations played in taxis, while visiting Malta just a few weeks back
  - nxor 1y ago
    The point of my question was to ask someone who lives there, not someone who visited
    - JAlexoid 1y ago
      Nowhere did you specify that. I suggest being specific about your request
- purrcat259 1y ago
  Maltese has been loaded with loan words since forever. 5 points if you can guess where bonġu, bravu and mappa come from. At some point there was some literary council for the language that decided that any new loan words should just be spelled phonetically. Computer became kompjuter. Businesses do work in Maltese and English. Both are official languages. Its quite rare to encounter a business that deals near exclusively in Maltese. Many prefer Maltese but will fall back to english where necessary. Regarding monolignual speakers, I think theres a lot of stereotypes for maltese only, english only and code switchers. I think its all a bit silly... So as long as communication can happen I don't fuss. On Maltese music... There's a lot of low ish quality music then there's a few absolute gems. Look up The Travellers, Lapes, Jon Mallia on YouTube/Spotify.
  - lullu57 1y ago
    I can concur. All older words (think any word that was needed since the older generations), are Arabic based. All the numbers, all older verbs etc. 'Newer' words are latin based.
cm2012 1y ago
Can you communicate with Maltese dogs more effectively?
- purrcat259 1y ago
  Only if we have a few Maltesers first
Tade0 1y ago
How is "Marsaxlokk" really pronounced? I've heard that word a few times, but never from a native. Google translate can't help me here, as it doesn't seem to have Maltese text-to-speech.
- purrcat259 1y ago
  Read with English pronunciation, closest would be mar-sa-shlock.
  - cess11 1y ago
    From my experience it will be understood by locals when pronounced like that.
franklin_p_dyer 1y ago
Not a question, but - Tatoeba could use your help! It is an open source (both code and data) dataset of parallel sentences and their Maltese data is very lacking. Also it’s pretty fun to just translate a bunch of random sentences into a language you speak. :-) https://tatoeba.org/ https://tatoeba.org/
runarberg 1y ago
Is there any dialect of Arabic which you can understand without too much effort? How much do you consider Maltese its own language (as opposed to a dialect of Arabic)?
- purrcat259 1y ago
  From what I have heard, Lebanese Arabic is the closest, and still pretty far. Passable conversation is possible. Maltese is definitely its own language. Arabic roots are there (theres a Semitic joke in there ) but it isn't arabic anymore. Its written left to right with a variant of the english alphabet.
  - aprilthird2021 1y ago
    Writing RTL or LTR and alphabet alone don't make a language different. Hindi and Urdu are 90% the exact same language, and are mutually inteligible (Urdu speaker and Hindi speaker can have complete full conversation with each other) but each is written differently (one LTR the other RTL) and with different alphabets
    - runarberg 1y ago
      See also Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian. I also find Chinese to be interesting, e.g. Mandarin and (formal) Cantonese have a near identical written language, while the spoken language is completely different, views on whether or not those languages are different languages or dialects vary wildly. In my books, the distinction between languages and dialects are so arbitrary that the best method is simply to ask the people that speak those languages/dialects. If they consider them to be different language (which Maltese speakers seemingly do) I call them different languages.
      - aprilthird2021 1y ago
        Mandarin-Cantonese is very interesting and a unique (to my knowledge) example where the same written language can be completely different to two different people. I don't buy the argument of just asking the speakers. There are cultural, political, etc. reasons people may think things which don't conform with reality. Many Hindi-Urdu speakers get insulted by the reality that the languages are pretty much the same because they don't want to identify with people from another country their country is constantly at war with.

I recently discovered Maltese existed, and started learning it that day. I find it such an awesome language, and not just because of the letter Ħ I do wonder what natives think and feel about the longevity of their language? What is taught in schools at what ages (assuming English is in the mix somewhere). Is there enough media in Maltese for Malti to go about the moderns at fully in Maltese? It’s shockingly hard to find any information on Maltese, and even harder to find content. I’m not sure if’s dying out, or in danger thereof; if there are preservation efforts, or if there is no need.

lullu57 1y ago
Native Maltese speaker here. It is thought in schools alongside English, with both being official national languages. Most people locally, that are not foreign born or immigrants speak the language, and it is used in most households as the main language. But everyone grows up bilingual, as English is essential for most everything else that we do as a nation.

ebb_earl_co 1y ago

What is the name of Maltese in Maltese? Like “el español” in Spanish, it’s neat to know what languages call themselves

kwk1 1y ago
A term for that concept, by the way, is "endonym": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endonym_and_exonym https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Endonym_and_exonym
kridsdale3 1y ago
'ish' is a pretty universal english suffix. So Spanish is just "españ-ish".
ggsp 1y ago
Wikipedia says it's "Malti"
- arbuge 1y ago
  Il-Malti to be precise. Il- means "the" and changes its meaning to that of the language. Malti alone would mean a Maltese person. Source: I'm also Maltese.
  - jll29 1y ago
    The "Il" in Il-Malti is like "al" in Arabic, which Maltese is closely related to as was pointed out above. Arabic (language): al-‘arabiyyah (الْعَرَبِيَّة).

Raed667 1y ago

Tunisians claim they can understand Maltese with minimum effort, is it reciprocal? How close is Maltese to arabic / tunisian dialect ?

arbuge 1y ago
Not sure which Tunisians are claiming this but they'd definitely need a lot more than minimum effort. Maltese split off from Arabic around 1k years ago. The two languages sound pretty different, and are written with different alphabets.
- cenamus 1y ago
  Also lots of influence from Italian and English.
- findyoucef 1y ago
  As an Algerian, I can confirm that Maltese is surprisingly easy to understand. I was genuinely shocked the first time I heard it because the similarities are so obvious. Many Arabic dialects are also written using the Latin alphabet, especially online and on social media, so the different writing systems aren’t really a barrier at all.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
  - arbuge 1y ago
    Calling BS on this one. I'll let ChatGPT handle it... it says it better than I could: can arabic people understand maltese? That’s a really interesting question — and the answer is: *partially, but not easily.* Here’s why: ### Linguistic roots Maltese is a *Semitic language*, and its *core grammar and basic vocabulary* come from *Arabic*, specifically from *Siculo-Arabic*, the dialect of Arabic spoken in Sicily and Malta about 1,000 years ago. Because of that, *many Maltese words sound familiar* to Arabic speakers — especially from the *Maghrebi (North African)* or *Levantine* dialects. For example: | Maltese | Meaning | Similar in Arabic | | ------- | ------- | ----------------- | | Dar | house | دار (dar) | | Kelb | dog | كلب (kalb) | | Seba | seven | سبعة (sabʿa) | | Xemx | sun | شمس (shams) | ### Influence from Italian and English However, over the centuries, Maltese absorbed *a lot of Italian (especially Sicilian)* and *English* vocabulary — so modern Maltese is *a hybrid*. Roughly: * 30–40% of its vocabulary is Semitic (Arabic origin), * 40–50% is Romance (mostly Italian/Sicilian), * and the rest is English and other sources. That means Arabic speakers might *recognize some words and structures*, but they’ll *struggle to understand full sentences*, especially because: * Pronunciation has changed, * Grammar evolved differently, * Many everyday words are not Arabic anymore. ### Summary So: * *Yes*, Maltese and Arabic share a deep connection — like cousins. * *No*, they’re *not mutually intelligible* today. An Arabic speaker might catch words here and there, but a real conversation would be hard without studying Maltese. The above is exactly my experience with Arabic speakers by the way. Again, not surprising after 1k years of divergence.

adzm 1y ago

I'm actually really curious about everyday usage of the language; is code switching between English and Maltese more common than Maltese on its own? I've seen a few online communities where the vocabulary switches between Maltese and English very often which is interesting but I wonder how much of that is just online / written versus everyday speech.

purrcat259 1y ago
Depends on where you live and how you were brought up, but for the most part code switching is default. There was a point about 7 years ago when the overton window shifted to "speak english to strangers first" because of a large influx of foreigners who did not know the language. Since then I've met foreigners who have better Maltese than some natives. Older folks & geriatrics will sometimes be surprised when they assume someone is foreign and they turn out to be Maltese. "int Malti??" is a statement I get often because I don't look Mediterranean despite being born here.

nxor 1y ago

How are loan words viewed? Do businesses work in Maltese? Are monolingual speakers of the language regarded differently than those fluent in English? Do young people in Malta listen to Maltese music?

JAlexoid 1y ago
Yes, there's plenty of Maltese spoken and listened to. I was surprised to hear Maltese radio stations played in taxis, while visiting Malta just a few weeks back
- nxor 1y ago
  The point of my question was to ask someone who lives there, not someone who visited
  - JAlexoid 1y ago
    Nowhere did you specify that. I suggest being specific about your request
purrcat259 1y ago
Maltese has been loaded with loan words since forever. 5 points if you can guess where bonġu, bravu and mappa come from. At some point there was some literary council for the language that decided that any new loan words should just be spelled phonetically. Computer became kompjuter. Businesses do work in Maltese and English. Both are official languages. Its quite rare to encounter a business that deals near exclusively in Maltese. Many prefer Maltese but will fall back to english where necessary. Regarding monolignual speakers, I think theres a lot of stereotypes for maltese only, english only and code switchers. I think its all a bit silly... So as long as communication can happen I don't fuss. On Maltese music... There's a lot of low ish quality music then there's a few absolute gems. Look up The Travellers, Lapes, Jon Mallia on YouTube/Spotify.
- lullu57 1y ago
  I can concur. All older words (think any word that was needed since the older generations), are Arabic based. All the numbers, all older verbs etc. 'Newer' words are latin based.

cm2012 1y ago

Can you communicate with Maltese dogs more effectively?

purrcat259 1y ago
Only if we have a few Maltesers first

Tade0 1y ago

How is "Marsaxlokk" really pronounced? I've heard that word a few times, but never from a native. Google translate can't help me here, as it doesn't seem to have Maltese text-to-speech.

purrcat259 1y ago
Read with English pronunciation, closest would be mar-sa-shlock.
- cess11 1y ago
  From my experience it will be understood by locals when pronounced like that.

franklin_p_dyer 1y ago

Not a question, but - Tatoeba could use your help! It is an open source (both code and data) dataset of parallel sentences and their Maltese data is very lacking. Also it’s pretty fun to just translate a bunch of random sentences into a language you speak. :-) https://tatoeba.org/ https://tatoeba.org/

runarberg 1y ago

Is there any dialect of Arabic which you can understand without too much effort? How much do you consider Maltese its own language (as opposed to a dialect of Arabic)?

purrcat259 1y ago
From what I have heard, Lebanese Arabic is the closest, and still pretty far. Passable conversation is possible. Maltese is definitely its own language. Arabic roots are there (theres a Semitic joke in there ) but it isn't arabic anymore. Its written left to right with a variant of the english alphabet.
- aprilthird2021 1y ago
  Writing RTL or LTR and alphabet alone don't make a language different. Hindi and Urdu are 90% the exact same language, and are mutually inteligible (Urdu speaker and Hindi speaker can have complete full conversation with each other) but each is written differently (one LTR the other RTL) and with different alphabets
  - runarberg 1y ago
    See also Croatian, Serbian, and Bosnian. I also find Chinese to be interesting, e.g. Mandarin and (formal) Cantonese have a near identical written language, while the spoken language is completely different, views on whether or not those languages are different languages or dialects vary wildly. In my books, the distinction between languages and dialects are so arbitrary that the best method is simply to ask the people that speak those languages/dialects. If they consider them to be different language (which Maltese speakers seemingly do) I call them different languages.
    - aprilthird2021 1y ago
      Mandarin-Cantonese is very interesting and a unique (to my knowledge) example where the same written language can be completely different to two different people. I don't buy the argument of just asking the speakers. There are cultural, political, etc. reasons people may think things which don't conform with reality. Many Hindi-Urdu speakers get insulted by the reality that the languages are pretty much the same because they don't want to identify with people from another country their country is constantly at war with.