The languages of Malta

Abstract

The purpose of this publication is to present a snapshot of the state of the art of research on the languages of the Maltese islands, which include standard Maltese, Maltese English and Maltese Sign Language. Malta is a tiny but densely populated country, with over 422,000 inhabitants spread over only 316 square kilometers. It is a bilingual country, with Maltese and English as official languages. Maltese is a descendant of Arabic, but due to the history of the island, it has borrowed extensively from Sicilian, Italian and English. Furthermore, local dialects still coexist alongside the official standard variety. The status of English as a second language dates back to British colonial rule, and just as in other former British colonies, a characteristic Maltese variety of English has developed. To these languages must be added Maltese Sign Language (Lingwa tas-Sinjali Maltija; LSM), which is the language of the Maltese Deaf community. LSM was recenty recognised as Malta’s third official language by an Act of Parliament in 2016. While a volume such as the present one can hardly do justice to all aspects of a diverse and complex linguistic situation, even in a small community like that of Malta, our aim in editing this book was to shed light on the main strands of research being undertaken in the Maltese linguistic context.