The Maltese language, casually spoken | Elena speaking Maltese | Wikitongues

Maltese is spoken by over 500,000 people, primarily in Malta. It is one of the Semitic languages alongside Arabic, Hebrew, Amharic, and Aramaic.

More from Wikipedia: "Maltese (Maltese: Malti) is a Semitic language spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta and also serves as an official language of the European Union, the only Semitic language so distinguished. Maltese is a Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect during the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091. As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-Christianisation of the island, Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of Latinisation. It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic. 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. The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words, but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian; and English words make up between 6% and 20% of the vocabulary. 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, which is a Maghrebi Arabic related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic. Maltese has always been written in the Latin script, the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages. It continues to be the only standardized Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script."

[Brillemeister]

Bizarre and beautiful -- sounds kind of like a Europeanized Arabic. Thanks for sharing. God bless

[leaucamouille]

I visited Malta 15 years ago, I've been to countless countries since then, yet Malta is still #1 on my list of unforgettable and unique places.
Their language is as special as they are. Arriving at night by ferry to
Valletta was a sight I'll never forget.
🇲🇹

[zedisdead]

As a north african algerian arabic speaker, i can guess a bit of what she said. But the pronunciation and the fact that there is many words from europeans languages makes it diffixult to understand properly.

When written though it's easier than spoken

[a.s.]

as a Tunisian born and raised in Italy I can understand almost everything lol

[katyafan]

As someone who is half italian half Moroccan, I understand what she's saying perfectly! Such a beautiful language <3

[tim..indeed]

Kind of like how Romanian sounds like a mix between a Romance and a Slavic language, this is like a mix between a Romance and an Arabic language. Beautiful.

[pedrosegundo]

As a Portuguese speaker, Maltese is in the same situation as English. Today English is my second language but when I was still learning it sometimes it was almost pure Romance vocabulary, so I could understand 100%, but some basic sentences like "The man ran" were completly foreign for me. The same happens with Maltese, and other languages that have lots of Romance Vocabulary, like Chamorro and Tetum. Fascinating.

[abid]

As an Arab from Saudi Arabia, I understood absolutely nothing. 😜
It sounds awesome though. It flows beautifully just like Tunisian Arabic, and it has a very calming accent too.
Absolutely love it!

[rw]

Having the Armenian alphabet in the background was confusing, I kept on having to remind myself that I was listening to Maltese

[michaelfvt]

So cool. You can definitely hear a lot of European derived vocabulary. I thought it was cool when I heard what sounded like “anche” (Italian for “too”, “even”, “as well”, etc.) and looked it up and found “anke”

[Kannn]

I don't know why, but I just love maltese :D it's a beautiful language, I wish I could learn it

[PalWebTV]

Maltese is my favorite language !! it's not just completely unique in terms of its history but its cadence is so distinctive. i've been to Malta twice & i would go again just to hear the people speak !! <3

[danielleboschetti]

Thank you for sharing. My paternal grandmother, who just passed away last month, was born and raised in Malta. While her dialect was slightly different from yours, this still reminded me so much of hearing her speak to her family in Maltese. Thank you again for sharing…

[stellakeinath]

Wow you can clearly hear the Mix
of italian and arabic words.sounds incredibly beautiful 🥳❤
Greetings from germany

[pablosebastian]

Beautiful language!!! Loved it. Greetings from Argentina

[jeanaccoh]

This is great. In spite of all the Romance influence, Maltese still sounds Arabic!

[__________k]

An algerian listening to maltese for the first time. Surprisingly, I can understand it somehow. WOW

[مرحبابك-ضن]

A lot of it is a very soft Arabic dialect, like a blend of Tunisian and levantine, with lots of dropped sounds that throw you off... I didn't catch much but I can tell what's Italian and what's going to be an aha moment when written down. The way it's spoken is very familiar and pleasant

[MrAllmightyCornholioz]

Sounds like an Italian speaking Arabic.

[SirSidi]

as an Arabic speaker, trying to make sense of her speaking hurts my brain as the sounds are familiar but in the same time totally different from it's used to.