Gibt es reines Maltesisch?

Abstract

Even the unfamiliar with Maltese and Arabic will notice soon enough that Maltese is interspersed with words and expressions of Italian and Sicilian. Malta was under Arab rule from 870-1090. During this time, the inhabitants must have learned Arabic thoroughly. After reintegration into the Western world, Sicilian and Italian had a very strong influence on the Maltese language for centuries, including the period from 1530-1798 when Malta belonged to the Order of St. John. Italian remained in a favoured position well into the British rule of the islands, in spite of the influence of the English language. Indeed, the contention between Italian and English culminated into a decades-long language dispute. In the end, Italian lost, and Maltese and English were made the official languages in 1933, an outcome that persists to this day. What is Maltese then? Is it an Arabic-Italian hybrid? Or is it a Semitic language distinct from Italian, and any Italian elements should be cleansed? The concern of language purity has been a long concern in Malta. Using four translations of Matthew's Gospel into Maltese (Vassalli, Camilleri, Saydon and Sant), this paper demonstrates that Maltese translation went through stages of purism where Italian elements were avoided, then through stages where translation obviously stuck to the way Maltese was spoken, and again to purism, then followed once again to spoken Maltese. These stages suggest that the Maltese language fluctuated in terms of what was considered "pure" language and spoken language, or "beautiful" language and actual language.