The Maltese language : some undisputed facts about this language

Abstract

Of the various political dominations in the history of Malta, the most important for the study of Maltese are the Arab domination from 869 to 1090, and ~he Norman domination from 1090 to 1940, which linguistically merges with the rule of the cosmopolitan Order of St John (1530- 1798). As the Arabs who conquered Malta were largely drawn from North Africa, Maltese bears a strong resemblance to the North African group. Especially distinctive in this sense is the verbal N attached to the first person singular of the Imperfect and the many peculiar words that can be matched in North African Arabic only, though a few can be matched in Syrian Arabic and a smaller number from Spanish Arabic. Though Maltese has been cut off from its parent for more than 700 years, its morphology is still basically Semitic. Under the Normans and successive dominations, Maltese borrowed a large number of words from Sicilian and under the Knights, a large number of words from Italian.