Maltese (IS IT ARABIC?!)

This video is about the Maltese language and how it descended from an Arabic dialect with a large importing of foreign vocabulary.

Special thanks to: Nicholas Shelokov, Brandon Gonzalez, 谷雨 穆, Adrian Zhang, Vadim Sobolev, Yixin Alfred Wong, Kaan Ergen, Sky, Romain Paulus, Panot, Erik Edelmann, Bennet, James Zavaleta, Justin Faistand, and Panthea Madjidi for their generous Patreon support.

Music:

Don`t copyright claim this, because it is unequivocally free for commercial use.

Intro music: “Phase 3” by Huma-Huma
Outro song: "Circular" by Gunnar Olsen.

[Langfocus]

I'm an active member on several Pod101 sites, and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do!

(Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, and the free account is pretty good on its own!)

[Lri]

I am Maltese. Once I got lost in a mall in France. The man who I asked for help spoke Arabic and no English. We communicated in Maltese/Arabic and found my mom :)

[Sheldam]

I am Italian and I've heard Maltese many times. It sounds weird because as an Italian speaker, you hear a totally different language but all of a sudden you hear Italian in a half of the sentence!
Once I tried to listen to a Maltese Tv News along with an Algerian friend. Well, she understood a half of what they were saying and I understood the other half, so that together we were able to understand the whole news. Funny, huh?

[Langfocus]

Wow, this video is at 57, 000+ views after just over a week! I never thought a video on Maltese would get this much attention. Thanks for watching!

[gh]

Am Tunisian and speak italian, just found out that i speak Maltese lol

[vanessasultana]

Hey everybody I'm Maltese! It's very lovely to see people showing interest in my language! Nice video ❤ insellmilkom mill-ghaziza Malta 🇲🇹

[paulinefalzon]

I am Maltese and i.understand.a lot of Arabic language

[nickportelli]

Im Maltese, living in Australia, and i never thought that there are so many people interested in the Maltese language, in your comments. Thanks for the video.

[SR-jxyu]

I am Maltese, studied Arabic at university and have worked in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia since 1997. I can say that Maltese is cemented in Arabic. I would also disagree with the figure of 30% of Maltese being Arabic. It is at least 65% Arabic .... whether identical to Arabic or slightly modified. Great video!

[konahrik]

Me: can you speak Arabic, Italian, French or English

The Maltese guy: Yesn't

[lelandgrover]

The mixture of Arabic and Italian just sounds beautiful.

[brazoj]

I have grown up in Australia with Maltese parents. While I am not great at speaking Maltese I understand regular conversation and later when I married into a Lebanese family they were constantly surprised by how much of their language I understood. There is definitely a great deal of similarity, just count 1 to 10 in both languages, barely a difference.

[rebmedina]

My father is Maltese. I am in Australia. I am fluent in Italian from 12yrs of school. I am learning Arabic as I find it easier then Maltese. I can read a little but my dad's family speak too fast. I know other European languages but after a while I decided to learn Arabic.

[raig]

I'm Maltese myself. It s astonishing how I never realised how much we sound Arabic while talking. When you talked in maltese, you did pronounce everything correctly and you sounded like an Arab haha :) Thank you for promoting the uniqueness of the Maltese language :)

[sandramacfie]

Thank you for your lesson. I lived on the island of Gozo for eight years and tried very hard to speak the language. Every time I went outside, whether in my village of Kercem or to Victoria I used the language. One day I met an elderly Englishman who invited me to an outside cafe for coffee and when I happened to greet someone in Maltese, he reprimanded me. "Don't waste your time learning Maltese. Learn something you can really use like Italian.". I looked at him and replied, "Tell me where else in the world would learning Maltese be more relevant than right here. This is where I live and this is the language they speak.".

[wydadi]

This man is a perfect analyst. Thank you for those informations.

[ConcettaSpiteri]

I am Maltese Canadian and probably the first of my family's generation to studies and use Maltese. My parents never Spock the language. But my mother tells me I'm quite fluent and I enunciate very well. I am teaching my 2/12 yr.old granddaughter our language. She's doing well.

[philipcurnow]

A revelation. I studiied Arabic, French and am fluent in Italian, yet Maltese never occured to me. Tne examples you gave were easy, so a trip to Malta is now in the planning stage. Tks for rhis.

[grande]

Very informative video! You know Maltese history more extensively than most Maltese people do. :)

[zakaria_almo]

As an Italian-Moroccan, I find Maltese very interesting, it’s a mix of Italian and Maghrebi Arabic basically. However it’s incredible how they were able to mix such profoundly different languages into one