Misplaced Pages

Floriana Lines

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

Carlos de Grunenbergh , also known as Carlo Grunenberg (died 1696), was a Flemish architect and military engineer active in the late 17th century. He mainly designed fortifications in Sicily and Malta . He was also a member of the Order of Saint John .

#191808

53-497: The Floriana Lines ( Maltese : Is-Swar tal-Furjana ) are a line of fortifications in Floriana , Malta , which surround the fortifications of Valletta and form the capital city's outer defences. Construction of the lines began in 1636 and they were named after the military engineer who designed them, Pietro Paolo Floriani . The Floriana Lines were modified throughout the course of the 17th and 18th centuries, and they saw use during

106-521: A Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091. As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and 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

159-416: 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

212-550: A number of alterations to San Salvatore Bastion on the western end of the lines, and constructing a faussebraye around the entire land front and a crowned hornwork near the eastern end. In the 1680s some minor modifications were made by the Flemish engineer Carlos de Grunenbergh . Work on Valperga's modifications to the lines progressed slowly, and by the beginning of the 18th century the outworks , glacis and enceinte facing Marsamxett were still unfinished. Works continued under

265-491: A number of improvements and modifications to the islands' fortifications . The improvements included the addition of batteries to the fortifications of Valletta and Senglea , and the construction of the Carafa Enceinte around Fort Saint Elmo . Grunenbergh came to Malta again in 1687, and designed and paid for the construction of batteries and other major alterations to Fort St Angelo . To honour his contribution, he

318-590: A number of other engineers, including Charles François de Mondion , and the lines were largely complete when Porte des Bombes was constructed in 1721. Further alterations were made over the following decades, such as the construction of the Northern Entrenchment in the 1730s. In 1724, the suburb of Floriana was founded in the area between the Floriana Lines and the Valletta Land Front. The suburb

371-963: 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 ". Carlos de Grunenbergh In

424-505: A second line of fortifications around the Valletta Land Front. Some members of the Order and a number of military engineers strongly opposed these plans, since the large garrison needed to man the lines was deemed too expensive. Eventually De Paule decided to construct the lines, since it would have been improper to disagree with the Pope's military engineer. The Bailiff Gattinara resigned from his post in

477-464: 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

530-576: 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 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

583-849: 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/

SECTION 10

#1732851232192

636-654: 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

689-737: 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 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

742-404: 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

795-502: Is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility 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

848-856: 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

901-405: Is thus classified separately from the 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage . Maltese 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

954-425: 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

1007-648: The French blockade of 1798–1800 . Today, the fortifications are still largely intact but rather dilapidated and in need of restoration. The Floriana Lines are considered to be among the most complicated and elaborate of the Hospitaller fortifications of Malta . Since 1998, they have been on the tentative list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites , as part of the Knights' Fortifications around the Harbours of Malta . The city of Valletta

1060-526: The Grand Harbour starts from St. Francis Bastion of the Floriana Land Front, and ends at St. Peter and St. Paul Counterguard of the Valletta Land Front. It consists of the following: 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

1113-641: 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

SECTION 20

#1732851232192

1166-586: The Maltese people and is the national language of Malta , and the only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of 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

1219-517: 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 the 18th century. Numbering several thousand in the 19th century, it was reported to be only 100 to 200 people as of 2017. Maltese

1272-569: 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 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

1325-494: 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 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

1378-667: The Antiquities List of 1925, and they are now also listed on the National Inventory of the Cultural Property of the Maltese Islands . In the 1970s, parts of the covertway and glacis were destroyed to make way for large storage tanks. Today, the lines are still more or less intact, but some parts are in a rather dilapidated state and in need of restoration. The Floriana Land Front is the large bastioned enceinte enclosing

1431-457: The Commission of Fortifications in protest. Work on the lines began in 1636, but no ceremony was carried out to commemorate laying the foundation stone due to controversy surrounding the construction. Since fortification was expensive, the new Grand Master Giovanni Paolo Lascaris imposed a new tax on immovable property. This tax created dispute between the Order and the clergy, who protested to

1484-595: The Levant. The Norman conquest in 1091 , followed by the expulsion of the Muslims , complete by 1249, permanently isolated 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

1537-500: The Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the 11th century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic 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

1590-504: 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

1643-477: The Maltese language is in a will of 1436, where it 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

Floriana Lines - Misplaced Pages Continue

1696-653: 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

1749-399: The Pope. Some priests also influenced the population to take part in a national protest, but plans leaked out to authorities and the leaders were arrested. The fortifications were named the Floriana Lines after their architect. By June 1640, the lines were considered partially defensible, although still incomplete. Fears of an Ottoman attack rose again after the fall of Candia in 1669, and

1802-498: The blockade, and the Maltese built Tas-Samra Battery and a battery on Corradino in order to bombard them. After the British took over Malta in 1800, the lines remained a functional military establishment. A number of minor alterations were made, including the enlargement of Porte des Bombes , the demolition of a lunette and some other gates, and the addition of gunpowder magazines and traverses. The fortifications were included on

1855-471: The early 17th century they were not strong enough to resist a large attack due to new technological developments which increased the range of artillery. In 1634, there were fears that the Ottomans would attack Malta. Grand Master Antoine de Paule asked Pope Urban VIII for help in improving the island's fortifications. The Pope sent Pietro Paolo Floriani to examine the defences, who in 1635 proposed building

1908-454: The following year Grand Master Nicolas Cotoner invited the military engineer Antonio Maurizio Valperga to improve the fortifications. At the time the Floriana Lines were still under construction, and a number of weak points had been identified in their original design, especially since the demi-bastions forming the two extremities of the land front were too acute and could not be well defended. Valperga attempted to correct these flaws by making

1961-519: 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

2014-457: The landward approach to the Floriana. It consists of the following: The land front is surrounded by a ditch, which contains the following outworks : The outworks are surrounded by a faussebraye , advanced ditch, covertway , and glacis . In the 1720s, a gate known as Porta dei Cannoni was built in the faussebraye. The gate was enlarged by the British, and became known as Porte des Bombes . It

2067-631: The mid-17th century, Grunenbergh worked in Spain with his brother Ferdinand. He was eventually appointed as the military engineer of the Viceroy of Sicily , and he designed or modified various fortifications in the last few decades of the century, including the walls of Augusta , Messina and Catania . In 1681, Grunenbergh was invited to Malta by Gregorio Carafa , the Grand Master of the Order of Saint John . He made

2120-466: 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

2173-405: 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

Floriana Lines - Misplaced Pages Continue

2226-535: 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

2279-480: 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

2332-566: The realisation of ⟨kh⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ and 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

2385-525: The side facing Marsamxett Harbour starts from San Salvatore Bastion of the Floriana Land Front, and originally ended at St. Michael's Counterguard of the Valletta Land Front . It consists of the following: In addition, a bastioned enceinte known as the North Entrenchment is located behind the entire Marsamxett enceinte, acting as a secondary line of defence. The enceinte along the side facing

2438-474: 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

2491-471: Was eventually detached from the faussebraye to facilitate the flow of traffic, and it now looks like a triumphal arch . A crowned hornwork consisting of an inner hornwork with two demi-bastions and an outer crownwork with one full bastion and two demi-bastions is located near St. Francis Ravelin. The crownwork was protected by a musketry gallery overlooking Marsa and by two lunettes , one near its land front and another near its flank. The enceinte along

2544-539: Was founded on 28 March 1566 by Jean de Valette , the Grand Master of the Order of St. John . The city occupied about half the Sciberras Peninsula, a large promontory separating the Grand Harbour from Marsamxett Harbour , and was protected by tracce italiane fortifications , including a land front with four bastions , two cavaliers and a deep ditch . Although these fortifications were well designed, by

2597-583: 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 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

2650-404: 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

2703-504: Was made a Knight of Devotion of the Order of St. John. His coat of arms and a commemorative inscription are also located at the fort's main gate. Grunenbergh directed the reconstruction of various fortifications in Sicily following the devastating earthquake of 1693 , including the walls of Augusta and Syracuse . He also dealt with the urban reconstruction of the city of Catania . Grunenbergh died in 1696. Only one portrait of Grunenbergh

SECTION 50

#1732851232192

2756-543: Was named Borgo Vilhena after Grand Master António Manoel de Vilhena , but it was commonly known as Floriana. It is now a town in its own right. French forces invaded Malta in June 1798, and the Order capitulated after a couple of days. The French occupied the island by September, when the Maltese rebelled and blockaded the French forces in the harbour area with foreign help. The Floriana Lines remained under French control throughout

2809-495: 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

#191808