Can Maltese Speakers Understand Arabic?

What is the degree of mutual intelligibility between Maltese and Arabic? Maltese is the only Semitic language in the European Union and it shares a lot in common with Arabic! There are many similarities between them due to the history of the region. Starting in the 9th century, following the Abbasid conquest of Sicily, for over two centuries, the islands of Sicily and Malta were under Muslim rule, known as the Emirate of Sicily. During this period a variety of Arabic, known as Sicilian Arabic (Siculo-Arabic), was formed. A series of battles eventually led to the fall of Muslim rule and the re-establishment of Christian control over Sicily and Malta. However, Sicilian Arabic continued to be spoken under the new state for a few ensuing centuries until it eventually went extinct. The Maltese language today is considered to be its sole surviving descendant. The North African dialects of Arabic are related to Sicilian Arabic since they are Maghrebi dialects with a lot of similarities. As a result, the degree of mutual intelligibility between them is very high. In this video, however, we'll take a look at how well Maltese speakers can understand Egyptians and Lebanese, with Rita from Lebanon and Haggag from Egypt both reading statements in their respective dialects, while Vicky, Noel, and Andrew, as the three Maltese speakers, will see how well they can understand.

Arabic is a Central Semitic language and has official/national status Algeria, Bahrain, Comoros, Chad, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libya, Mauritania, Morocco, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, SADR, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, Tanzania (Zanzibar), Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen.

The Maltese language (Malti) is the Latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect during the Emirate of Sicily. It is the national language of Malta and distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages due to the heavy influence from Romance languages on its morphology. In addition to that, Maltese is the only Semitic language written in the Latin script.

[letsmapdialects]

Thank you Bahador for hosting, I must say that it was great fun! :) It was really nice to meet the other participants as well :)

26.38 - for extra virgin olive oil, I checked with my uncle who I cited. He doesn't say "żejt taż-żebbuġa extra verġni", so apologies for that.
Although in common parlance we do not translate "extra virgin", if we had to translate it then it would be "żejt taż-żebbuġa tal-ewwel għasra" (first press as opposed to the second or third). Andrew's hunch was correct after all!

Noel

[seanfitzgerald]

They did much better than I thought because while Tunisian and Libyan dialects are close to Maltese, I thought they'd have a lot of trouble with Egyptian and Lebanese. Well done. Thank you for the great video!

[MiroAMalek]

So interesting and enjoyable to watch! The Maltese speakers did so well and the Egyptian was very knowledgeable and articulate 🇪🇬 🇱🇧 🇲🇹

[CriMarM]

Wow, I am Maltese and understood what the Maltese participants understood.
It's amazing, just a bit of time and explanation in such an interacting way goes a long way to join the dots in another language similar to yours!

[RoseRoseRoseRoseRoseRose]

What a wonderful coincidence that I will fly in a few months to Malta 🇲🇹 & caught this wonderful video. Grazzi hafna, grazie mille, shukran & siposi ziyod, Mr Alast 😊

[laurentsalomonoriginals]

That's great! I am French and I have a very limited experience with Maltese and Arabic, but i enjoyed the pleasure you had in understanding each other. I was also happy to recognize some words. My mother tongue Alsacian, is also a mixed language (between German and French), so I can relate to Maltese.

Thank you all, and thank you Bahador for organizing these Youtube gems.

[souheilsaliba]

Well done. This proves that the Mediterranean people are very close genetically and culturally. My family name (Saliba) is an example as it is very common in both Lebanon and Malta.

[younas]

Another good video . And it's impressive how they got many words. You can see all so the big influence of maghrebi and tunisian dialect like hout ( fish) .dar ( house) . Farhan ( happy) which is commonly used in tunisia for the same meaning but not in the middle Eastern Arabic dialects.

[samb]

Loved the Egyptian guy - representing us well! Only thing I disagreed with is that we do use Hashish for grass. Nigeela refers to a grassed area like a lawn or landscaped garden. 21:16

[nicolemagro]

Such an interesting video, i always love it when Maltese is mentioned.

[FifthCat]

Fascinating video! The Maltese speakers did really well!

[xCUBITUSx]

That was so much fun ^^ I love Maltese and Lebanese dialects

[naktakroom]

zebbugia for olive also exists in maghrebi arabic. in algeria at least, ive heard "zabbuj" used to refer to wild olive trees.
"narqod" for "i sleep" is also identical to the algerian word (نرقد), except the q would be pronounced as a regular arabic qaf or as a hard g.

maltese is so so so fascinating. since so many north african dialects also adopted tons of romance words from spanish, french and italian, it barely feels like a different language and more like a fancy version with a cute accent of what you'd hear spoken in northern tunisia. i like to imagine that if i went to malta or even somehow got sent back in time to medieval sicily it would take me a week at most to start understanding everything people say.

[Omroqurba]

16:10 it's because we in north Africa don't use the word mabsut only ferhanin as they said. But we obviously know it because we know Arabic. They just know the words of their dialect, if Maltese are again reconnected with the Arab world they could even maintain their dialect but understand every Arabic person.

[samb]

Always my favorite videos on YouTube. Thank you Bahador!

[MrCanada]

In southern Egypt, we say "arkod" for sleep, and "hashish" for grass; some say "dar" for house. In Arabic, we say "baldah or balad" for a city (it doesn't have to be a country). I think I would have understood the Maltese better than the guest, or I would have used more basic Arabic words for better understanding.

[zeyadyahya]

So cool ✨ yea it's a good idea and challenge to compare maltese wit other Arabic dialects except the magherbi. ones.

[squirrel]

In algeria we use the same words for happy and sleep ;)

[hassanalast]

Good to know about Maltese in the European Union and Arabic

[T-bbT]

Balad in classical arabic means city like in Maltese, and Bilad means country. But many strands of Arabic use balad as country, the same way Arabic Medina (city) and Hebrew Medina (State) are cognate😊