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Language on Malta

Maltese is spoken on the island of Malta. Its basis is Arabic, which was brought to the island by Moslem conquerors. In 1090, the Arabs were driven out by Normans from Sicily, who introduced a large number of Romance words into the vocabulary. There are about 400,000 speakers of Maltese.

Language family:
Family: Afro-Asiatic
Subgroup: Semitic
Branch: North Arabic

Alphabet:
- A as o in come
- B as in bell
- C as in cat
- D as in devil
- E as in fell
- F as in fall
- G as in gun
- G as j as in jam
- GH like the ne in "fine"
- H silent at the end of words
- H as gh in "Ugh"
- I as in till
- J as ye as in yellow
- K as in kettle
- L as in late
- M as in male
- N as in nose
- O as in pot
- P as in pen
- Q sounds like a silent cough!
- R as in rain
- S as in set
- T as in tell
- U as in pull
- V as in vessel
- W as in well
- X as sh as in shepherd
- Z as in zebra

Some important words and phrases:
Yes Iva
No Le
Thank you very much Grazzi hafna
Good-bye or cheers Sahha
Merry Christmas Il-Milied it-tajjeb
Happy New Year Is-Sena t-tajba
Please Jekk joghbok
Good night Il-lejl it-tajjeb

Definite article:
The definite article "the" in Maltese is "l", linked by a hyphen to the following noun or adjective. E.g. l-orizzont (the horizon).

Personal pronouns:
In Maltese, they also function as verbs, so:

Singular:
Jien I; I am
Int You; You are
Hu He; He is
Hi She; She is

Plural:
Ahna We; We are
Intom You; You are
Huma They; They are

Demonstrative Adjectives/ Pronouns:
Dan this Dawn these
Dak that Dawk those masculine

Din this Dawn these
Dik that Dawk those feminine

Pronominal Suffixes:
-i, -ja my
-ek, -ok, -k your Singular
-u, -h his
-ha her

-na our
-kom your Plural
-hom their
-hom their

Possessive Pronouns:
Tieghi my, mine
Tieghek your, yours Singular
Tieghu his, its
Taghha her, hers, its

Taghna our, ours
Taghkom your, yours Plural
Taghhom their

Negation:
The negative "not" in a statement is often translated in Maltese by the particle
"ma" used before a verb in the present or perfect.

Stephanie Hürth and Marco Vitt