Can A Sicilian Understand Maltese?

So considering the proximity between Sicily and Malta, can a native Sicilian understand Maltese?

Maltese (Maltese: Malti, also L-Ilsien Malti or Il-Lingwa Maltija) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta[2] and the only official Semitic and Afro-Asiatic language of the European Union. Maltese is a Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091.[3] As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-Christianisation of the islands, Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of latinisation.[4][5] It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic.[6] Maltese is thus classified separately from the 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage. Maltese is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages, namely Italian and Sicilian.[7]

The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words,[8] but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian;[9] and English words make up between 6% and 20% of the vocabulary.[10] A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic,[11] which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic,[12] whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese.[13] This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic.[14]

Maltese has always been written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages.[15] It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script.[16]

History
See also: History of Malta

Oldest Maltese text: Il-Kantilena by Pietru Caxaro, 15th century
The origins of the Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the 11th century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic was spoken, reversing the Fatimid Caliphate's conquest of the island at the end of the 9th century.[17] This claim has been corroborated by genetic studies, which show that contemporary Maltese people share common ancestry with Sicilians and Calabrians, with little genetic input from North Africa and the Levant.[18][19]

The Norman conquest in 1091, followed by the expulsion of the Muslims—complete by 1249—permanently isolated the vernacular from its Arabic source, creating the conditions for its evolution into a distinct language.[17] In contrast to Sicily—where Siculo-Arabic became extinct and was replaced by Sicilian—the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934 – alongside English.[17] The first written reference to the Maltese language is in a will of 1436, where it is called lingua maltensi. The oldest known document in Maltese, Il-Kantilena (Xidew il-Qada) by Pietru Caxaro, dates from the 15th century.[20]

The earliest known Maltese dictionary was a 16th-century manuscript entitled "Maltese-Italiano"; it was included in the Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost.[21] A list of Maltese words was included in both the Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and Propugnaculum Europae (1606) of Hieronymus Megiser, who had visited Malta in 1588–1589; Domenico Magri gave the etymologies of some Maltese words in his Hierolexicon, sive sacrum dictionarium (1677).[20]

An early manuscript dictionary, Dizionario Italiano e Maltese, was discovered in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome in the 1980s, together with a grammar, the Regole per la Lingua Maltese, attributed to a French Knight named Thezan.[21][22] The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, who also wrote the first systematic grammar of the language and proposed a standard orthography

#maltese #sicilian #italian

[AKnightofIslamicArabia]

As an Arab, this was absolutely wild to listen to. My brain recognizes it as an Arabic dialect (our dialects are like your Romance languages, except we still call most of them "Arabic"), but filled with words I know from either English or the very elementary knowledge I have of Romance. The structure sounds very Arabic, but where I would expect an Arabic word -- BAM, Latin word. It's kind of mind-boggling in some ways. I can kinda understand it though, but my brain has to straddle an imaginary Semitic-Indo European line.

[Unpainted_Huffhines]

The anticipation for Occitan just keeps building.

[a.s.]

As a Tunisian born and raised in Italy I understood her almost completely lol. Maltese it's a mix of mostly Tunisian derja/darija (Tunisian arabic dialect) and Italian, so fascinating. The Italian influence it's more on the accent rather than on the vocabulary. The vocabulary is mostly coming from Tunisian derja but with a heavy Italian accent/pronunciation.

[VABJMJ]

Malta is not of the Templars, but of the Knights of the Hospital.

Also, love this series! I suggest trying with Ecclesiastical Latin. (I suggested it in other videos but just in case you didn't see it lol)

[ds]

I'm a Maltese guy who has been following your videos for a while and I was delighted to come across this.

You might also notice that the "hair dye" girl was speaking more colloquial Maltese rather than the other more rehearsed videos. Colloquial Maltese often uses English words ... She used the word 'tone' to refer to colour tone. At one point she even switched conpletely to English as you might have noticed. Maltese people tend to be mostly fluently bilingual or trilingual (Maltese, English and many times also Italian with older generations) so the brain works in a very fluid way switching between languages.

You might want to check a list of common Sicilian and Maltese words online ... There's a lot more than you think!

Great channel by the way! Oh and if you've never visited, next time you're in Sicily you should! We are only a short ferry or plane ride away. :)

[languagegirl]

As someone who speaks Moroccan Arabic, this was fascinating as it sounded to me so similar to the more Western varieties (Moroccan, Algerian, Tunesian) of Arabic but where we use French or Spanish words, they have Italian words

[frederickbowman]

Just one correction, not about the language (I am Maltese, by the way) but about the introduction where you said "Malta is the Island of the Templars". Malta is the island connected to the Order of Knights Hospitaller of St John, not the Templars. You are usually more precise in your historical facts, which in a way, surprised me.

[BlackCrowRider]

Its a shame you have strayed from making videos about languages...it is evident that this is what you like best and you should keep at this, you can see the joy in your eyes!

As a Maltese with Sicilian descent, I appreciate this very much! Thank you Raf!

[ironiccookies]

I think next you should try the remaining Mediterranean island languages of Sardinian and Corsican. And perhaps the other unknown languages like Gallo-Italic of Sicily and Sassarese.

[la_joya]

As a Maltese person I understood 90%, you should do a video of the sister island’s dialect gozo ! There’s more influence from Arabic and Sicilian.

[deadnextdoor]

Love this video and this series your doing! Since you did Maltese Im gonna suggest Calabrian Greek. I think it would fit nicely with this language series your doing. Keep it up!

[AKnightofIslamicArabia]

3:50 I do want to mention something that Western linguists get wrong. Classical Arabic is an amalgamation of various Saudi dialects from the 7th century. It has not really developed since then, beyond adding words for modern concepts. Just like Luke Ranieri speaks the same Latin as Caesar and Cicero, so do we speak the same Classical Arabic as the early Muslims. Modern Standard Arabic and Classical Arabic are in fact the same thing, and I disagree vehemently with linguists that try to delineate a difference between them. The modern dialects are largely descended from Classical Arabic (even though a lot of the Arab world spoke other dialects of Arabic before the Islamic conquests). It's fairly analogous to Romance languages and their relationship to Classical Latin.

[javierortiz]

Ladino would be an interesting one for you to try and understand. It is essentially Medieval Spanish mixed with Hebrew, Arabic, Greek, and Turkish (depending on which region of the Mediterranean the speaker lives in), but the words and pronunciation of Spanish are a bit different. It’s more archaic compared to modern Castilian.

[rimelmlika]

As a tunisian who speaks French i almost understand 99% of it actually it's closer to tunisian dialect than classical arabic and of course tunisian dialect is full of words coming from Italian and French...

[Philoglossos]

You should go to Malta to see the ancient temples (up to 5, 000 years old) built by people who boated over from Sicily. Absolutely incredible stuff to see.

[gemmafollows]

Very cool. One favourite YouTuber doing a video featuring another favourite YouTuber. Not what I was expecting when I started the video. Love it!

[maxitmcore]

Interesting video. There are more Italian (rooted) words than you might guess on first listen. The conjugations makes them sound different but you’d understand if someone pointed it out to you

[deaconjamesbrincat]

Hello, I am in fact Maltese and a big fan of you're videos by the way. So Maltese is formed from mainly 3 languages Mostly Arabic, Italian and English. The Semitic side of the language definitely is most prominent although the newer generations use more English especially since a lot of words are now being directly translated from English. Also although its a small Island its worth a visit especially the Old City of Medina and the capitol city of Valletta along side the 3 cities' these places are Mostly adorned with Baroque architecture. In Malta we also have the temples which are some of the oldest buildings in the world pre dating even the pyramids of Giza.

[hglundahl]

9:28 djudezmo?

Like the Spanish spoken in Istanbul and Saloniki?

[Meli]

This seems to be literally the only video I could find comparing Maltese and Sicilian, so thanks for that. Given that Maltese is supposed to be a genetic descendant of Siculo-Arabic I imagine it sounds something like what used to be spoken in Sicily, which shows how much things have changed on the larger island. I am told that there are place names on Lampedusa and Pantelleria that are the same as words in Maltese and that they would have had a similar language too, back in the day. Fascinating stuff!