Sicilian Arabic and Maltese : some remarks on their phonetic interrelations

Abstract

The long defunct branch of Arabic which was once spoken in Sicily does not seem to have aroused the same amount of systematic scholarly attention as did the Arabic formerly spoken in Spain (not to mention the living dialects of North African Arabic, or Maltese). Through a lot of research, it is now being accepted that the Arabic spoken in Sicily is very closely related to medieval Maltese. However, there is not enough evidence to verify this as data of the Maltese language is scanty before the 18th century. The author continues by stating that there needs to be a proper study of the relations between Sicilian, Arabic and Maltese. The author does however give a review of certain features concerning vowels and consonantal evidence.