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56-715: Corradino ( Maltese : Kordin ) is a large headland within the Grand Harbour , overlooking Senglea and Floriana . Corradino is on high ground compared to the surrounding area, and therefore was of great strategic importance. The site's importance was seen in the Great Siege of Malta in 1565, when Ottomans mounted cannons on high ground to bombard the Order of Saint John in Senglea and Birgu. Over 200 years later, new batteries were built on Corradino, this time by Maltese insurgents to bombard

112-416: A large number of borrowings from Romance sources ( Sicilian , Italian , and French ) and, more recently, Germanic ones (from English ). The historical source of modern Maltese vocabulary is 52% Italian/Sicilian, 32% Arabic/Siculo-Arabic, and 6% English, with some of the remainder being French. Today, most function words are Arabic, so despite only making up about a third of the vocabulary, they are

168-413: A number of reforms, notably the creation of a new administration with a Government Commission, the creation of twelve municipalities, the setting up of a public finance administration, the abolition of all feudal rights and privileges, the abolition of slavery and the granting of freedom to all Turkish slaves. On the judicial level, a family code was framed and twelve judges were nominated. Public education

224-1071: A sample of 1,821 Quranic Arabic roots were found in Maltese, considerably lower than that found in Moroccan (58%) and Lebanese (72%) varieties of Arabic. An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese–English Dictionary shows that 32% of the Maltese vocabulary is of Arabic origin, although another source claims 40%. Usually, words expressing basic concepts and ideas, such as raġel (man), mara (woman), tifel (boy), dar (house), xemx (sun), sajf (summer), are of Arabic origin. Moreover, belles-lettres in Maltese aim to maximise their use of vocabulary belonging to this group. Notes: * from Arabic استقصى ( istaqṣā ) "to investigate", ** from Arabic اشتاق ( ištāqa ) "to yearn for ". History of religion in Malta#Arrival of Christianity This article details

280-574: A substantial garrison in Malta. However when, within months, the French began closing convents and seizing church treasures the Maltese people rebelled, and the French garrison of General Claude-Henri Belgrand de Vaubois retreated into Valletta. After several failed attempts by the locals to retake Valletta, they asked the British for assistance. Rear Admiral Lord Horatio Nelson decided on a total blockade, and in 1800

336-610: A young priest named Don Pietro Pace, who would several years later serve as Bishop of Gozo, and Sir Adriano Dingli , Crown Advocate. The British Colonial Office signalled its approval in October 1860. In 1863, Archpriest Michele Francesco Buttigieg was elected Auxiliary Bishop of Malta with instructions to reside in Gozo. One year later, on September 16, 1864, the Pope issued a Bull entitled "Singulari Amore" (With remarkable Love), which decreed that

392-464: A ḡ fir lanā ḏ unūbanā , kamā na ḡ firu na ḥ nu ʔ ay ḍ an lil-muḏnibīn ʔ ilaynā. wa lā tud ḵ ilna fī tajāriba , lākin najjinā min a š-š irrīr. ʔā mīn hab lan lahmo d-sunqonan yowmono washbuq lan hawbayn wahtohayn aykano doph hnan shbaqan l-hayobayn lo ta`lan l-nesyuno elo paso lan men bisho Amin Although the original vocabulary of Maltese was Siculo-Arabic , it has incorporated

448-447: Is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages , namely Italian and Sicilian . The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words , but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian; and English words make up between 6% and 20% of

504-539: Is also one of the most densely populated countries worldwide. Catholicism is the official religion in Malta as declared by the Maltese constitution. Starting from around 3600 BC, Malta passed through a "temple period" which saw the construction of structures tied with religious beliefs such as the Ggantia temple Gozo (the "Ggantia phase" between 3600 and 3200 BC), the Hypogeum (the "Saflieni phase" between 3300 and 3000 BC) and

560-666: Is called lingua maltensi . The oldest known document in Maltese, Il-Kantilena ( Xidew il-Qada ) by Pietru Caxaro , dates from the 15th century. The earliest known Maltese dictionary was a 16th-century manuscript entitled "Maltese-Italiano"; it was included in the Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost. A list of Maltese words was included in both the Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and Propugnaculum Europae (1606) of Hieronymus Megiser , who had visited Malta in 1588–1589; Domenico Magri gave

616-558: Is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic. Maltese has always been written in the Latin script , the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages . It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script. The origins of the Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the 11th century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic

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672-849: Is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a stressed vowel. Stressed, word-final closed syllables with short vowels end in a long consonant, and those with a long vowel in a single consonant; the only exception is where historic *ʕ and *ɣ meant the compensatory lengthening of the succeeding vowel. Some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters. The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters. /t/ and /d/ are usually dental , whereas /t͡s d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not word-initial). /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e.g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ "newspaper" and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ "television". The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/

728-654: Is less distant from its Siculo-Arabic ancestor than is Standard Maltese. Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced. Voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters ; thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e.g. /niktbu/ is realised [ˈniɡdbu] "we write" (similar assimilation phenomena occur in languages like French or Czech). Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and word-final voiceless stops have no audible release , making voiceless–voiced pairs phonetically indistinguishable in word-final position. Gemination

784-531: Is one of the Berber languages (another language family within Afroasiatic). Less plausibly, Fascist Italy classified it as regional Italian . Urban varieties of Maltese are closer to Standard Maltese than rural varieties, which have some characteristics that distinguish them from Standard Maltese. They tend to show some archaic features such as the realisation of ⟨kh⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ and

840-404: Is part of the supercontinent of Eurasia'), while not understanding a single word of a basic sentence such as Ir-raġel qiegħed fid-dar ('The man is in the house'), which would be easily understood by any Arabic speaker. At that time Malta was thoroughly Arabized. The conquerors brought to the island the vulgar (colloquial) variation of Arabic, not the classical one (Classical Arabic), Therefore

896-856: Is the Lord's Prayer in Maltese compared to other Semitic languages ( Arabic and Syriac ) with cognates highlighted: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen Ħobżna ta' kuljum agħtina llum . Aħfrilna dnubietna , bħal ma naħfru lil min hu ħati għalina . U la ddaħħalniex fit-tiġrib , iżda eħlisna mid-deni. Ammen ʔabāna , alla ḏ i fī as-samāwāt , li- yataqaddas ismuka , li- yaʔti malakūtuka, li-takun ma šī ʔatuka, kamā fī as-samāʔi ka ḏ ālika ʕa lā al-ar ḍ . ḵ ubzana kafāfanā ʔaʕṭi nā alyawm , wa

952-425: Is velar ( [ x ] ), uvular ( [ χ ] ), or glottal ( [ h ] ) for some speakers. Maltese has five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/ , written a e i o u; six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː ɪː iː ɔː ʊː/ , written a, e, ie, i, o, u, all of which (with the exception of ie /ɪː/ ) can be known to represent long vowels in writing only if they are followed by an orthographic għ or h (otherwise, one needs to know

1008-629: The Alhambra Decree of 1492 forced all Jews to leave the country with only a few belongings. Several dozen Maltese Jews may have converted to Christianity in order to be able to remain in the country. A Jewish subculture re-emerged in Malta during the reign of the Knights Hospitaller . While the Maltese Islands were under the dominion of the Knights of Malta , from the 15th century through to

1064-637: The European Union . Maltese is considered a North African dialect of Colloquial Arabic that was brought to Malta by Arab and Berber ( Aghlabids ), who in 869/870 CE seized control of the island from the Byzantine Empire. It is also said that it descents from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091. As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and

1120-664: The French revolution . People from both inside the Order and outside appealed to Napoleon Bonaparte to oust the Knights. The Little Corporal did not hesitate. His fleet arrived in 1798, en route to his expedition of Egypt . As a ruse towards the Knights, Napoleon asked for safe harbour to resupply his ships, and then turned his guns against his hosts once safely inside Valletta . Grand Master Hompesch capitulated, and Napoleon entered Malta. During his very short stay (six days), he accomplished quite

1176-580: The Italo-Normans ended Arab rule of the islands, a written form of the language was not developed for a long time after the Arabs' expulsion in the middle of the thirteenth century. Under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller , both French and Italian were used for official documents and correspondence. During the British colonial period , the use of English was encouraged through education, with Italian being regarded as

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1232-619: The Royal Engineers between 1871 and 1880, at a total cost of £17634. Part of the megalithic temple of Kordin II was destroyed to make way for the new line of fortification in 1871. The defensive line consisted of a V-shaped polygonal-style trace surrounded by a ditch, stretching all the way from the Cottonera Lines to the Ras Ħanżir polverista. The lines were also meant to protect the polverista, which

1288-600: The Tarxien temples , Hagar Qim and Mnajdra (the "Tarxien phase" between 3150 and 2500 BC). Fertility rites were probably the religious practices at these sites. Catacombs in Rabat testify to an early Christian community in Malta. The Acts of the Apostles tells the story of how Paul of Tarsus was shipwrecked in Malta on his way from Caesarea Maritima to Rome, sent by Porcius Festus , procurator of Judea , to stand trial before

1344-458: The history of religion in Malta . The Republic of Malta is a Southern European country consisting of an archipelago situated in the centre of the Mediterranean, 80 km south of Sicily, 284 km east of Tunisia and 333 km north of Libya, with Gibraltar 1,755 km to the west and Alexandria 1,508 km to the east. Malta covers just over 316 km2 in land area, making it one of the world's smallest states. It

1400-497: The imāla of Arabic ā into ē (or ī especially in Gozo), considered archaic because they are reminiscent of 15th-century transcriptions of this sound. Another archaic feature is the realisation of Standard Maltese ā as ō in rural dialects. There is also a tendency to diphthongise simple vowels, e.g., ū becomes eo or eu. Rural dialects also tend to employ more Semitic roots and broken plurals than Standard Maltese. In general, rural Maltese

1456-459: The 18th century. Numbering several thousand in the 19th century, it was reported to be only 100 to 200 people as of 2017. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family . In the course of its history , Maltese has been influenced by Sicilian, Italian, to a lesser extent by French , and more recently by English. Today, the core vocabulary (including both

1512-518: The Corradino Lines and turn them into a recreational park. Maltese language Maltese (Maltese: Malti , also L-Ilsien Malti or Lingwa Maltija ) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata . It is spoken by the Maltese people and is the national language of Malta , and the only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of

1568-549: The Corradino Lines were temporarily reestablished as an infantry entrenchment, and a defensive post containing a QF 4 inch Mk V naval gun turret was built. In the late 20th century, Corradino was converted into an industrial estate . The Corradino Lines were damaged during the course of development in the area. Despite this, most of the V-shaped enceinte and the ditch are still intact, although they are hidden from view amongst various factory buildings. Plans are being made to restore

1624-656: The Emperor. Paul ministered in Malta for three months ( Acts 28:1–11 ). According to tradition, Publius , the Roman Governor of Malta at the time, became the first Bishop of Malta following his conversion to Christianity. His episcopate is said to have lasted thirty-one years before facing martyrdom in Greece. There is scant information about the continuity of Christianity in Malta in subsequent years although tradition has it that there

1680-492: The French during the blockade of 1798–1800 . Although the Order of Saint John built extensive fortifications around most of the Grand Harbour area, Corradino was not fortified. A proposal to build a bastioned enceinte was made in the 1670s following the fall of Candia , but this was never built due to a lack of funds. The only military building on the headland was a polverista at Ras Ħanżir, which Pinto built in 1756. Malta

1736-870: The French garrison surrendered. In 1814, Malta became part of the British Empire in accordance with the Treaty of Paris . British rule lasted 150 years until 1964 when Malta gained independence and brought the first sizeable population of members of the Anglican church and other Protestant denominations. From 1815 to 1820, the Anglican missionary William Jowett of the Church Missionary Society based his Mediterranean Mission in Malta. British colonial administration, however, continued to show respect and deference towards Maltese Catholic customs. The situation also led to

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1792-504: The Maltese language differs from Classical Arabic in the same way as the Arabic dialects differ from Classical Arabic. the Maltese language also comprises a considerable number of Maghrebi features, in other ways it can be closer to other Arabic dialects, or closer to Classical Arabic than to the other dialects as in the word ra ('to see'). Arabic supplies between 32% and 40% of the language's vocabulary. Żammit (2000) found that 40% of

1848-653: The Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail. L-Unjoni hija bbażata fuq il-valuri tar-rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, il-libertà, id-demokrazija, l-ugwaljanza, l-istat tad-dritt u r-rispett għad-drittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti minn minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà fejn jipprevalu l-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel. Below

1904-453: The emergence of a small population of Catholics of British and Irish origin in Malta. Historically part of the Diocese of Malta, Gozitans brought forward several petitions for the creation of an independent diocese, including in 1798, during the French occupation , and again in 1836. A third petition, brought directly to Pope Pius IX in 1855, met with success. Instrumental in this effort were

1960-611: The etymologies of some Maltese words in his Hierolexicon, sive sacrum dictionarium (1677). An early manuscript dictionary, Dizionario Italiano e Maltese , was discovered in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome in the 1980s, together with a grammar, the Regole per la Lingua Maltese , attributed to a French knight named Thezan. The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis , who also wrote

2016-561: The first systematic grammar of the language and proposed a standard orthography . Ethnologue reports a total of 530,000 Maltese speakers: 450,000 in Malta and 79,000 in the diaspora . Most speakers also use English. The largest diaspora community of Maltese speakers is in Australia , with 36,000 speakers reported in 2006 (down from 45,000 in 1996, and expected to decline further). The Maltese linguistic community in Tunisia originated in

2072-519: The increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the academy issued the Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija , which updated the previous works. The National Council for the Maltese Language (KNM) is the main regulator of the Maltese language (see Maltese Language Act, below). However, the academy's orthography rules are still valid and official. Since Maltese evolved after

2128-563: The late 18th century, the Grand Master had the status of a prince of the Catholic Church, and enjoyed a special relationship with the Pope , which occasionally led to a considerable amount of friction with the local Bishops. Over the years, the power of the Knights declined and the Order became unpopular. This was around the time when the universal values of freedom and liberty were incarnated by

2184-525: The most commonly used vocabulary and function words ) is Semitic, with a large number of loanwords . Due to the Sicilian influence on Siculo-Arabic, Maltese has many language contact features and is most commonly described as a language with a large number of loanwords. Maltese has historically been classified in various ways, with some claiming that it was derived from ancient Punic (another Semitic language) instead of Siculo-Arabic, and others claiming it

2240-466: The most used when speaking the language. In this way, Maltese is similar to English , a Germanic language that has been strongly influenced by Norman French and Latin (58% of English vocabulary). As a result of this, Romance language-speakers (and to a lesser extent English speakers) can often easily understand more technical ideas expressed in Maltese, such as Ġeografikament, l-Ewropa hi parti tas-superkontinent ta' l-Ewrasja ('Geographically, Europe

2296-502: The native Christians. The Jewish population of Malta reached a peak in the Middle Ages under Norman rule, which began in 1090, with 500 living on the main island and 350 on Gozo. The medieval Jewish kabbalist Abraham Abulafia escaped persecution in Sicily and fled to Malta. He died on the tiny island of Comino , in the 1290s. In 1479, Malta and Sicily came under Aragonese rule and

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2352-405: The next-most important language. In the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century, philologists and academics such as Mikiel Anton Vassalli made a concerted effort to standardise written Maltese. Many examples of written Maltese exist from before this period, always in the Latin alphabet, Il-Kantilena from the 15th century being the earliest example of written Maltese. In 1934, Maltese

2408-535: The other using Romance loanwords (from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe Archived 2015-12-29 at the Wayback Machine , see p. 17 Archived 2020-08-04 at the Wayback Machine ): The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to

2464-480: The pronunciation; e.g. nar (fire) is pronounced /nɐːr/ ); and seven diphthongs , /ɐɪ ɐʊ ɛɪ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ ɔʊ/ , written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu. The original Arabic consonant system has undergone partial collapse under European influence, with many Classical Arabic consonants having undergone mergers and modifications in Maltese: The modern system of Maltese orthography

2520-474: The structure of the Maltese language are recorded in the official guidebook Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija (English: Knowledge on Writing in Maltese ) issued by the Akkademja tal-Malti (Academy of the Maltese language). The first edition of this book was printed in 1924 by the Maltese government's printing press. The rules were further expanded in the 1984 book, iż-Żieda mat-Tagħrif , which focused mainly on

2576-406: The subsequent re-Christianization of the islands , Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of latinisation. It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic . Maltese is thus classified separately from the 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage . Maltese

2632-418: The vernacular from its Arabic source, creating the conditions for its evolution into a distinct language. In contrast to Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic became extinct and was replaced by Sicilian , the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934, alongside English. The first written reference to the Maltese language is in a will of 1436, where it

2688-497: The vocabulary. A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic , which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility

2744-649: Was a continuous line of bishops from Publius to the time of Emperor Constantine . The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon record that, in 451 AD, a certain Acacius was Bishop of Malta ( Melitenus Episcopus ) and in 501 AD, a certain Constantinus, Episcopus Melitenensis , was present at the Second Council of Constantinople . In 588 Tucillus, Miletinae civitatis episcopus , was deposed by Pope Gregory I and his successor, Trajan,

2800-574: Was elected by the clergy and people of Malta in 599 AD. The last recorded Bishop of Malta before the Arab invasion was a Greek by the name of Manas, who was subsequently incarcerated in Palermo . Under the Arab occupation, the native Christians were allowed freedom of religion but had to pay jizya . The Normans relieved Sicily and the Maltese Islands in 1091 and Roger I of Sicily was warmly welcomed by

2856-552: Was eventually taken over by the British, and the island became the Royal Navy 's main base in the Mediterranean. In the 1860s, it was decided that the Malta Dockyard be expanded into French Creek, the inlet between Senglea and Corradino. In the following years, the necessity to fortify Corradino was highlighted, since if an enemy took over the headland, the dockyard could be easily attacked. The Corradino Lines were therefore built by

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2912-404: Was introduced in 1924. Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation: Final vowels with grave accents (à, è, ì, ò, ù) are also found in some Maltese words of Italian origin, such as libertà ' freedom ' , sigurtà (old Italian: sicurtà ' security ' ), or soċjetà (Italian: società ' society ' ). The official rules governing

2968-407: Was modified by the addition of an enclosure pierced by musketry loopholes. The lines were armed with two RML 64-pound guns . A proposal was made to build a new town within the Corradino Lines, but this was rejected and the area was converted into a naval prison. The lines soon lost their military value, and were abandoned by the end of the 19th or beginning of the 20th centuries. In World War II ,

3024-436: Was organised along principles laid down by Bonaparte himself, providing for primary and secondary education. Fifteen primary schools were founded and the university was replaced by an ’Ecole centrale’ in which there were eight chairs, all very scientific in outlook: notably, arithmetic and stereometry, algebra and stereotomy, geometry and astronomy, mechanics and physics, navigation, chemistry, etc. He then sailed for Egypt leaving

3080-495: Was recognised as an official language. Maltese has both Semitic vocabulary and words derived from Romance languages , primarily Italian . Words such as tweġiba (Arabic origin) and risposta (Italian origin) have the same meaning ('answer') but are both used in Maltese (rather like 'answer' and 'response' in English. Below are two versions of the same translations, one with vocabulary mostly derived from Semitic root words and

3136-592: Was spoken, reversing the Fatimid Caliphate 's conquest of the island at the end of the 9th century. This claim has been corroborated by genetic studies, which show that contemporary Maltese people share common ancestry with Sicilians and Calabrians , with little genetic input from North Africa and the Levant. The Norman conquest in 1091 , followed by the expulsion of the Muslims , complete by 1249, permanently isolated

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