Italienisches im Maltesischen, gezeigt an verschiedenen textsorten

Abstract

In this text, the Maltese language, especially its Italian elements, is discussed. Malta lies between Sicily, Tunisia and Libya. By 1530 Malta and Sicily had common history. It happened that Malta also came under Arab rule for over 200 years, and the large Arab population groups remained in the country for another 200 years after the conquest. From 1530 to 1793 Malta belonged to the Order of Saint John. From 1800 to 1964 it came under the British. Since then it has been independent. The two state official languages ​​are Maltese and English. Thus, Maltese can be defined as an originally Arabic dialect that developed into a language of its own, which was essentially determined by contact with the Sicilian Italian and later English. Of all Arabic dialects, Maltese has evolved the most removed from the source language. Important factors that contributed were mainly the parting from the Arab-Islamic world of culture and the isolated location of the island. After eliminating the Arab rule, Maltese was under constant influence of the Sicilian language. The spoken Sicilian also had an effect on the Sicilian standard language, which was only replaced by Tuscan Italian as a language of the civilised gradually and over many centuries. After coming under British rule, the English language also began to have an effect. But Italian was largely the language of the educated classes well into the 20th century. Malta was an archipelago of Italian culture with a non-Italian vernacular. It is characteristic of the predominance of Italian that it was only abolished as the language of the courts in 1932. Up until a few years ago, the administrative language in the Catholic Church was Italian, and those who wanted to prove their education decorated their speech with Italian elements.