IT MAY seem surprising that a dialect of Arabic is an official language of the European Union. But travel 90km south of Sicily and the odd-sounding language of the EU’s smallest state, Malta, is exactly that. With some 450,000 native speakers, Maltese was granted official status in 2004 after the country joined the EU. Malta also belongs to the Commonwealth. Its language is the sole survivor of the Arabic dialects spoken in Spain and Sicily in the Middle Ages and the only Semitic language written in the Latin script. When spoken, Maltese sounds like Arabic with a sprinkling of English phrases. When written it looks like Italian with a blend of some peculiar symbols. So where does modern Maltese come from?
Much like its society, Malta’s language is the result of centuries of cultural mingling. From as early as the ninth century until 1964, when the country became independent, a series of conquerors left their mark on all aspects of Maltese life, from architecture and the arts to the island's colourful cuisine. The main linguistic transformation came in around 1050, when the ruling Arabs absorbed the existing community and, through force of numbers, replaced the local tongue with their own. The Sicilians and the Knights of Malta followed. Sicilian, Latin and Italian, which was later declared the country's official language, enjoyed high status for centuries—but Arabic persisted. In 1800 Malta became a British colony, and English, which joined the existing Babel of languages, gradually prevailed over its linguistic rivals.