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Maltese

Maltese is a Central Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata. It is the only Semitic language officially written in the Latin script. It is spoken by the Maltese people and is a national language of Malta, and is the only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of the European Union. The pioneering Maltese linguists Canon Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis and Mikiel Anton Vassalli both mistakenly hypothesised that Maltese originated from the Punic language. Later scholars like John L. Hayes, considered it to be descended from a North African dialect of Colloquial Arabic which was introduced to Malta when the Aghlabids captured it in the 9th century. However, genetic studies and historical evidence have established that Malta was depopulated after that raid, and that the island was subsequently repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic, which had developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 an

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modern_languagenatural_languagexxx_gdb_LanguageAustraliaCanadaMaltaUnited KingdomUnited States
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Strings (6)

  • str_k__gdb_alternateName
    str.gdb:alternateName
    Il-lingwa Maltija|lingwa Maltija|Maltese language
  • str_k__gdb_image
    str.gdb:image
    https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/ba/Idioma_malt%C3%A9s.PNG?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org&utm_campaign=api&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled
  • str_k__gdb_languageCode
    str.gdb:languageCode
    mt
  • str_k__gdb_languageCode639_3
    str.gdb:languageCode639_3
    mlt
  • str_k__gdb_languageCodeAlpha3
    str.gdb:languageCodeAlpha3
    mlt
  • str_k__rdfs_comment
    str.rdfs:comment
    Maltese is a Central Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata. It is the only Semitic language officially written in the Latin script. It is spoken by the Maltese people and is a national language of Malta, and is the only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of the European Union. The pioneering Maltese linguists Canon Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis and Mikiel Anton Vassalli both mistakenly hypothesised that Maltese originated from the Punic language. Later scholars like John L. Hayes, considered it to be descended from a North African dialect of Colloquial Arabic which was introduced to Malta when the Aghlabids captured it in the 9th century. However, genetic studies and historical evidence have established that Malta was depopulated after that raid, and that the island was subsequently repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic, which had developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 an

URIs (8)