I know that the reverse understanding isn't too bad from chatting with a Saudi-born member of staff on holiday in Malta. I don't think anyone would seriously c

I know that the reverse understanding isn't too bad from chatting with a Saudi-born member of staff on holiday in Malta. I don't think anyone would seriously consider it a dialect of Arabic though with its completely different alphabet and half the vocabulary and morphology coming from Italian languages/dialects, even if Malta hadn't spent the best part of a millennium trying very hard not to become part of the Arab world