ABSTRACT
Maltese is a Semitic language descended from a spoken form of Arabic akin to that of Algeria and Tunis brought to the island (and to Sicily) in the late ninth century as Arabs conquered what had previously been Roman, and then Vandal, territory. Romance linguistic influence on Maltese began in the late eleventh century, when the Arabs were ousted by Norman forces from Sicily. Angevin, Spanish and French invasions followed over the next 600 years. The Romance element (of which Italian is the primary source) is largely confined to the area of vocabulary, while phonology and morphology remain unmistakably Semitic. The island was part of the British Empire from the early nineteenth century on, and gained its independence in 1964. Since 1934 Maltese and English have been joint official languages of Malta.
