Maltesisch als abstandsprache

Abstract

The islanders of the Republic of Malta repeatedly emphasize that they have their own spoken language. On the other hand, one finds Maltese among Arabic dialects in handbooks on Semitic studies. What actually applies? Is Maltese a language of its own or is it an Arabic one? Is it an Arabic dialect? What criteria help us to distinguish between language and dialect? Heinz Kloss answered this question in his book "Die Entwicklung neuer germanischer Kultursprachen seit 1800". He introduced the two terms "Ausbausprache" and "Abstandsprache" i.e. an expanded language and distance language. The latter can be understood as a language whose distance to others is so great that no understanding is possible. Now speakers of a dialect can proceed to expand it for areas that go beyond the domestic sphere, i.e. in administration, in worship, in court, in parliament, in non-fiction, in mass media, as a means of teaching, etc., in short: in official, "higher" areas. This is exactly what happened with Maltese, which was written and standardized, and this is "Ausbausprache", or language expansion. But is Maltese also a distance language? Arabs convincingly say they understand the Maltese, while Maltese say they don't understand Arabs. Still, if understanding is possible in one direction, one can certainly speak of a distance language. This paper is concerned specifically with studying to what extent Maltese can or cannot understand Arabic, and in which language areas there are difficulties in understanding. To this aim, three Arabic tapes were played to Maltese, the first in standard Arabic, the second in Egyptian dialect, and the third in Algerian dialect. This study revealed that while Maltese should indeed be considered a separate language from Arabic and not an Arabic dialect, ( i.e. it is an expanded language), Maltese can also be considered a distance language.