Malta: English-Speaking Mecca in the Mediterranean?

All pupils and students knows that language schools for learning English abound in Malta. We flew to the island expecting it to be English-speaking, with Maltese a minor phenomenon. To our surprise, we discovered that the language situation is much more complex than we had anticipated. Although everyone we met on the islands, even small children, spoke English readily and on the whole quite fluently, the language of communication among the inhabitants is definitely Maltese. Some families choose to speak English at home, which others tend to consider arrogant. Yet the schoolchildren prefer to read books in English, since written Maltese is very difficult.

Marco Vitt and Stephanie Hörth thus decided to present the Maltese language to the Market visitors. They worked hard trying to understand the basic grammar and vocabulary! The Market guests could test themselves with a quiz after looking through the posters - look through the material on this website under "excursion > projects > language" and test yourself too!

Test:

1. Try to say "please" and "thank you" in Malti.

2. If "my mother" is "l-omm-ja," what is "your mother"?

3. Is "M'ghandix zghar" a negative statement? In other words, does it mean "I have some change" or "I have no change"?

4. Can you pronounce the Maltese sound for "q"??

For more help, consult such websites as these:

www.aboutmalta.com/language/survival.htm
or
www.my-malta.com/interesting/MalteseLanguage.html