Comparative Maltese and Arabic proverbs

Abstract

An article written by J. Aquilina who gives a comparable analysis on Maltese proverbs and Arabic proverbs. After the Arabs left the country, the Arab vocabulary which they left behind them began to serve social interests and ideas which reached our island from the European continent and especially through Sicily and later through Italy. The social impact of the European civilisation on the one-time Arabic-speaking island has been much profounder than the Arab domination. The present Maltese linguistic heritage is a matter of single words, phrases and idioms which no longer form part of the Arabic civilization which began in Malta and Gozo in the 9th century. Many Maltese proverbs, though couched in a completely Arabic vocabulary, are the translation of Italian, and generally Sicilian proverbs.