Plus, would an Arab person be able to understand a person from Malta and if so, to what degree?
2006-11-26 12:25:28 · 5 answers · asked by Sapphire-by-the-sea 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Languages
When I say if it is " part of " Arabic, I mean, is it a dialect?
2006-11-26 13:07:11 · update #1
Maltese is a descendant of Classical Arabic as are all the other dozen or so languages that are often lumped together as "dialects" of Arabic, but which are all mutually unintelligible. Speakers of other Arabic languages would not be able to understand Maltese any better than they can understand each other. Maltese, however, has undergone some additional phonological levelling due to the influence of Italian and English over the centuries.
2006-11-26 13:17:10 · answer #1 · answered by Taivo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
maltese is not a part of arabic, but it is derived from it:
"Maltese is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. It is the national language of Malta, and an official language of the European Union. It is derived from, and most closely related to, Arabic. Apart from its phonology, Maltese bears considerable similarity to urban varieties of Tunisian Arabic. Maltese also shares similarities with other North African Arabic dialects; however in the course of Malta's recent history, the language has adopted many loanwords, and even phonetic and phonological features, from Southern Italian, Sicilian, and English." --wikipedia
arabic speakers from one country to another sometimes can barely understand each other (for example, egyptian and moroccan dialects). i've never run into anyone who speaks maltese,so i can't say for sure, but i would guess that an arabic speaker and a maltese speaker would be able to communicate about as much as anyone with related languages does, like french and spanish.
2006-11-26 12:43:29 · answer #2 · answered by radost 2 · 3⤊ 0⤋
Maltese is a very ancient language, some words do derive from Arabic and indeed Italian. Its a Semitic dialect.
2006-11-26 13:02:13 · answer #3 · answered by tiger 4 · 1⤊ 1⤋
no it's not part of arabic language..
2006-11-26 12:36:48 · answer #4 · answered by beauty mirna 3 · 1⤊ 1⤋
not it's not a part
and by the way if any language use the same letter pf another language it didn't mean that is the same language like english and french and latin..........etc
2006-11-26 23:28:44 · answer #5 · answered by alaa_cancer 3 · 0⤊ 2⤋