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| Languages of Malta1 | |
|---|---|
| Official language(s) | Maltese (100%) English (88%) |
| Significant unofficial language(s) | Italian (66%) |
| Main foreign language(s) | French (17%) |
The current national language of Malta is Maltese, which along with English, is one of the official languages.
Having been governed by many different countries in the past, the Maltese population carry linguistic imprints from many places. Almost 100% of Maltese people can speak Maltese, 88% of the Maltese people can speak English, 66% speak Italian, and 17% speak French.2 This shows an increase in the fluency of languages over time, since in 1995, only 98% of the population spoke Maltese, 76% English, 36% Italian, and 10% French. Surprisingly, it also shows an increase in fluency of Italian from the times when the language was actually official there.3
In addition to Italian, the third language of the country, French, German, Russian and Spanish, are the main other languages studied at secondary school.4
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Maltese
Maltese is the national language of the Maltese people, and one of the official languages of Malta and the European Union. It is a Semitic language, deriving from Siculo-Arabic, and the grammar of the language reflects this, but the majority of vocabulary comes from Sicilian and Italian. Malta holds the distinction of being the only country in Europe with a historically Semitic language. The Maltese language is written with a modified Latin Alphabet which includes the letters ż (also used in Polish), ċ, ġ, ħ, and għ. 52.46% of Maltese words are of Romance origin, a result of significant influence from Italy (in particular Sicily) and, to a lesser extent, France.
Some localities have accents and dialects; however, they are very similar and faithful to standard Maltese, and are mutually intelligible both with other dialects and standard Maltese. Over the years, however, there has been a decline in the number of dialectal speakers, mostly because of exposure to standard Maltese on television and the institutionalisation of education. These developments have led to dialect speakers being regarded as ignorant because they do not speak the standard language. The standard language also shows further Italicization and Anglicization of the language.4
English
Before independence in 1964, Malta was a British possession, and a result of this is that English is still an official language, with government business being carried out in both English and Maltese. Most Maltese learn English in school, this being obligatory in most cases. Secondary and tertiary education are given exclusively in English. Today, 88% of Malta's population speak English. Along with Maltese, English is the only other official language of the country.
Italian and Sicilian Italian
Before the 1930s, Italian was the official language of Malta. The Fascist Italians and Italian Maltese wanted to promote its use throughout Malta for plans to annex it to Italy. Although only the rich could speak Italian, with Maltese being generally spoken by those less well off, Italian was regarded as the official language.
Today, 66% of the Maltese population can speak Italian, and 2% of the population "prefers" to use it in day to day conversation.24 Although Italian has since been exchanged for English as the official language, it is still used and is spoken commonly in certain professional workplaces. The percentage of speakers today is in fact greater than when the language was actually official, in 1931, when only 14% spoke it.4
An interesting fact is that a large number of Maltese learn Italian through Italian television, mainly Mediaset and RAI, as their broadcasts reach the Maltese Islands.3 In addition to this, many products, services, and business that reach Malta are Italian, with Malta being too small on its own to produce some things, so many people learn Italian like this.
In addition to the Italian language itself being spoken in Malta, 52.46% of Maltese vocabulary is from Sicilian and Italian origin. This means that many words between Italian and Maltese are almost interchangeable, and a Maltese conversation typically includes much Italian vocabulary. In this way, the Italian language influences everyday speech all the time.
Preferences
Although many people are fluent in Maltese, English, and Italian, 86% of the population prefer to speak in Maltese, 12% English, and 2% Italian.4
Foreign languages
Because of the tourist industry and proximity to other European countries, in addition to Italian, many Maltese generally have some degree of proficiency in French, and quite a few understand or speak Spanish or German, although Russian and several other languages are studied too.
Media
Publications
There are equal numbers of newspapers written in English and Maltese, with none being written in Italian.
The vast majority of people preferred English as their choice of reading, with English being preferred by 61.13% of the population for books and 70.89% for magazines. Only 35.75% of the Maltese population preferred to read books in Maltese, and 22.65% of them preferred it for magazines.
Radio
Regarding Radio, Italian takes the place of English, with radio stations being predominantly in Maltese and Italian, with a few in English too.
82.41% of the population regularly listens to Maltese radio, 25.41% listens to Italian, and a smaller 14.69% listened to English radio.4
Television
Malta has a few television stations in Maltese, but the majority are in Italian and English.
Online usage of Maltese language
The use of the Maltese language on the internet is not altogether too common, with the majority of "Maltese" websites in fact being in other languages. Out of a survey conducted on 13 Maltese websites, 92% of them were only in English, and the remainder was bilingual, but not including Maltese anyway.5 This means that the numbers of Maltese websites which are written in Maltese are very few, with English taking preference.
Future
Possible scenarios for the future of the Maltese language are a subject of speculation among scholars. Dialectal variation of Maltese are in decline while towards a more standardized usage is one current trend. Another is a tendency to adopt influence from English and Italian. Amongst the population, a language shift towards English has begun, while the lexological and grammatical patterns of the Maltese language itself have also Anglified.4
The media is a large factor in influencing the language, since most media content received in Malta is in English or Italian. Also, online use of Maltese, being very limited, has not allowed for specific requirements of the language, meaning that when typing, 'ċ' is often replaced with 'c', and 'ħ' with 'h'. The undotted 'z' is often written as 'tz' to distinguish it from 'ż' which is written as 'z', while 'ġ' is written as english influenced 'dj' to distinguish it from undotted 'g'. The letter 'y' is also increasingly used to write the letter 'j', which has instead come to be more used for 'ġ', while there is also a tendency to leave out 'j' from situations such as "-ija".
See also
- Maltenglish – code switching between Maltese and English
References
- ^ http://ec.europa.eu/public_opinion/archives/ebs/ebs_243_en.pdf
- ^ a b eurobarometer; europa; [2006-02]; retrieved on [2007-04-11]
- ^ a b Country profile: Malta BBC News; [2008/01/10]; [2008/02/21]
- ^ a b c d e f g Ignasi Badia i Capdevila; A view of the linguistic situation in Malta; NovesSl; [2004]; retrieved on [2008-02-24]
- ^ Country report for MINERVA Plus in 2005; Multilingual issues in Malta; Retrieved on [2008-02-24]
This article contains material from the CIA World Factbook (2006 edition) which, as a US government publication, is in the public domain.
Wikipedia content modification information:
- This page was last modified on 17 November 2008, at 07:38.
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