Language contact and Maltese intonation : some parallels with other language varieties

Abstract

Maltese is assumed by many, for example Alexander Borg (1994) and Wettinger (1993), to have developed in the late 9th century, probably from a medieval variety of Arabic. According to Alexander Borg (1994: 27): [. . .] the Arabic vernacular of the Maltese islands evolved in line with its own internal logic and drifted away from the norms of spoken Arabic with the result that Maltese and Arabic are today not mutually comprehensible. Influences on the evolution of Maltese, that of (Old) Sicilian in particular, as well as that of other Romance varieties, and more recently that of English, have been widely documented (cf. Brincat 2000). Alexander Borg (1994: 27) contends that it is precisely “the factor of language contact, first with Italian and later with English” which served as the “catalyst for independent linguistic development”. This paper seeks to throw new light on the way Maltese has evolved in a context of language contact, paying particular attention to an area which has to date been completely neglected by scholars in this field, namely the intonation of Maltese.