Hi everyone! If you're currently learning Arabic, visit ArabicPod101 ( bit.ly/arabicpod101 ) for LOTS of Arabic lessons for students of all levels. A free account gives you access to hundreds of audio and video lessons with text transcripts. It's a great resource. There is also ItalianPod101: bit.ly/pod101italian. There's no course for Maltese. :( But for 33 other languages, check out my review! langfocus.com/innovative-language-podcasts/ I'm an active member on several Pod101 sites, and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do! (Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, and the free account is pretty good on its own!)
Langfocus I love Malta but there's one thing I don't get. They have such a fine cuisine but during my visit in 1999 it was _"full"_ of American fast food chains. KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King or Subway everywhere compared to my native country of Germany at that time _(we catch up)_ and definitely much more than Italy. Especially the variety was new to me. We mostly has McDonald's and I grew up in Heidelberg, the headquarters of the US Army in Germany. Our US population percentage was in the double digits. And they had plenty of influence on our culture _(German Hip-Hop started here)._ Why does a country with a fine Mediterranean cuisine have such an infrastructure for junk food. Not that I love to have a classic McDonald's Cheeseburger or Quarter Pounder/ Royal _(Käse/with Cheese)_ as we sincerely call him here but how could Pizza Hut, for example, get a hold on Malta? There's plenty of good pizzarias, owned by Italians _(check out Bianco's in Saint Julians/San Ġiljan)_ to enjoy "real pizza". Does any Maltese know the answer? I know this might be a weird question. But it's one that can't be answered by an Internet research.
I am Maltese. Once I got lost in a mall in France. The man who I asked for help spoke Arabic and no English. We communicated in Maltese/Arabic and found my mom :)
Just took this Ancestry test and now just learned for the first time in my life that I am also Maltese. I knew I had at least 2 main Italian blood lines inside of me with a few other things, but did not know I had 3 main Italian blood lines inside of me.
I am Italian and I've heard Maltese many times. It sounds weird because as an Italian speaker, you hear a totally different language but all of a sudden you hear Italian in a half of the sentence! Once I tried to listen to a Maltese Tv News along with an Algerian friend. Well, she understood a half of what they were saying and I understood the other half, so that together we were able to understand the whole news. Funny, huh?
مام انا هداوين شفت فيديو تع وحدة تهدر مالطية . حسيت كيلي راني فالدزاير هههه . Me too . I have watched a video of someone speaking in Maltese . I was astonished because I have noticed that many words are similar too Arabic . So , I felt that this language is an Arabic descent
I am Maltese, studied Arabic at university and have worked in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia since 1997. I can say that Maltese is cemented in Arabic. I would also disagree with the figure of 30% of Maltese being Arabic. It is at least 65% Arabic .... whether identical to Arabic or slightly modified. Great video!
Saudi and Kuwaiti Arabic is very different from North African Arabic. If you studied or worked in the Maghreb I am certain you would be shocked how much it sounds EXACTLY like Maltese. I'm half Moroccan and I literally had my mouth wide open in shock at how much it sounds like our dialect. It is literally like 80% close to ours but instead of having Italian influence we have French and Spanish influence but the Arabic parts are the exact same! It was really cool lol. You guys are our Christian cousins in a way I guess
The percentage is only about the overall vocabulary, it does not take into account the frequency of the words. Many frequent words will still be of Arabic origin while abstract and less frequent words or certain vocabulary thematic fields might be much more Italian, giving an average of 30% Arabic origin.
Maltese guy: Well as second language we got English so 90% speaks/understands it. As for Italian ,the maltese who are in age group of 30yrs to 60yrs in 2020 speak fluently Italian but because of following ITALIA UNO, RETE 4 and CANALE 5. Arabic: some had the opportunity including me to lean it at school but that is all. Just remember the alphabet and may read words ...which could be meaningless to me or else compare and understand due to Maltese similarity!
Pourquoi vous, les menteurs et voleurs tunisiens, voulez-vous oublier votre race, votre sang arabe et votre langue arabe ? Pourquoi les Tunisiens préfèrent-ils être associés ou comparés aux Maltais plutôt qu’aux Maghrébins ou aux Arabes ? Les Maltais parlent officiellement le maltais et l'italien. Les ancêtres des Maltais sont originaires de Sicile - Italie. Les Maltais font partie du sud de l'Europe, ils sont pour la plupart chrétiens ou catholiques et ils sont caucasiens. La culture, la nourriture, le mode de vie et la société maltais sont plus proches et similaires à ceux de la Sicile et du sud. Italie. La Tunisie est un pays arabe, alors vous, les rêveurs et trompeurs tunisiens, arrêtez de faire passer pour des Européens. Vous « les Tunisiens » êtes Arabes, arrêtez de chercher à cacher votre race arabe et votre langue arabe. Vive tous les Algériens, Libyens et Marocains d’Afrique du Nord et du monde 🇩🇿🇱🇾🇲🇦🇩🇿. 💓💓💓
Im Maltese, living in Australia, and i never thought that there are so many people interested in the Maltese language, in your comments. Thanks for the video.
Nick Portelli im also Australian and im arab originally from the levant (lebanon) i used to have maltese neibours and i lived near them for so many years but never knew there language was similar to arabic like this
well, I saw this video 4 years ago, before that I thought Malta spoke Italian. I am an Arab, currently learning some Tunisian Arabic, I think I might learn Maltese as a bridge language to learn Romance languages.
I have grown up in Australia with Maltese parents. While I am not great at speaking Maltese I understand regular conversation and later when I married into a Lebanese family they were constantly surprised by how much of their language I understood. There is definitely a great deal of similarity, just count 1 to 10 in both languages, barely a difference.
I'm Maltese myself. It s astonishing how I never realised how much we sound Arabic while talking. When you talked in maltese, you did pronounce everything correctly and you sounded like an Arab haha :) Thank you for promoting the uniqueness of the Maltese language :)
Translating in maltese :P ''Jiena Maltija. Huwa tal-blieh kif qatt ma rrealizzajt kemm ninstemghu bhall-Gharab meta nitkellmu. Meta tkellimt bil-Malti, instmajt tajjeb u nstmajt bhal xi Gharbi haha :) Nirringrazzjak talli qed tippromwovi l-awtenticita' tal-lingwa maltija."
+Yanis Elarbi could be. I don t know tunisian so I can t say as such :p But it is almost certain that maltese has arabian roots. That s at least what we have been studying in malta
+Rai G in tunisian is " Ena maltiya w jetni surprise qaddch netsam3u kif l 3arab mta netkalmou . Mta tkallamt bl malti , tprononci belgdé w tetsma3 ki l3arbi . merci lik qa3d t3amel promotion ll authenticité mta3 lsén l malti "
My father is Maltese. I am in Australia. I am fluent in Italian from 12yrs of school. I am learning Arabic as I find it easier then Maltese. I can read a little but my dad's family speak too fast. I know other European languages but after a while I decided to learn Arabic.
Thank you for your lesson. I lived on the island of Gozo for eight years and tried very hard to speak the language. Every time I went outside, whether in my village of Kercem or to Victoria I used the language. One day I met an elderly Englishman who invited me to an outside cafe for coffee and when I happened to greet someone in Maltese, he reprimanded me. "Don't waste your time learning Maltese. Learn something you can really use like Italian.". I looked at him and replied, "Tell me where else in the world would learning Maltese be more relevant than right here. This is where I live and this is the language they speak.".
As an Italian-Moroccan, I find Maltese very interesting, it’s a mix of Italian and Maghrebi Arabic basically. However it’s incredible how they were able to mix such profoundly different languages into one
A revelation. I studiied Arabic, French and am fluent in Italian, yet Maltese never occured to me. Tne examples you gave were easy, so a trip to Malta is now in the planning stage. Tks for rhis.
+Philip Curnow I encourage you to come to Malta. I am Maltese and I love my country. It is a very beautiful and a sunny country. It won't be a problem in Malta to communicate with people. Italian is also spoken in Malta by the majority of the population. That is also especially for English. Maltese is a very interesting language; as a Maltese speaking person I'd love to know that there are foreign people who are interested in our unique language.
Javier Degiorgio fantastic, tks. To let you know I was taught Arabic by a Maltese and I have a family member who was killed in WW2 and is buried on the island. I think an eventual visit is probable.
+Javier Degiorgio do you have couscous in malta or you only eat italian things ? by the way malta and italy are too cool towards tunisia : they never invaded us like france did. peace
I am Maltese Canadian and probably the first of my family's generation to studies and use Maltese. My parents never Spock the language. But my mother tells me I'm quite fluent and I enunciate very well. I am teaching my 2/12 yr.old granddaughter our language. She's doing well.
@@ConcettaSpiteri I'm tunisian so not sure but I understood this "thank you for your contribution to our language" or something like that (didn't understand "tant sabiha" but I know that Sabiha is an old females name in tunisia that means morning/beautiful morning )
As a Libyan ”from the west part of Libya” who can speak Libyan Maghreb Arabic which is mixed with some Italian and English, I can easily understand the Maltese language.
@@Nasri.shwehdy not the Maltese language, because berbers settled south whereas Arabs settled mostly in the coast. Therefore berber influence is pretty unlikely in maltese
Yes as a Libyan i can confirm that , but to make things more clearly Libyan Arabic dialect, don't have such large influence of Italian also English , but yes we have some words originally Italian and a to smaller amount of English words
I'm Tunisian and its amazing how much Maltese we can understand. They even have our accent! Yes there are plenty of Italian ( or Scilian) words in it too but still. Listening to Maltese is like listening to the children of Tunisian immigrants living in Italy. They are talking to their parents in (Tunisian dialect) Arabic but occasionally switching (or code switching) to Italian or using Italian words to express something they can't in Arabic. That's what it sounds like to me
Tunisian, Morrocans and Algerians are Berber not Arabs.. Stop twisting facts not just because these countries are predominantly Muslim that doesn't mean they are Arab! for Tunisians we are Carthagians and it's too damn hard for other Arab countries to understand the Tunisian Derja..
+S3id Sami 88% of Tunisians are Berbers, only 4% are Arabs these are the last national and international statistics if Tunisians are really Arabs then how come other arabs countries cannot understand the Tunisian dialect which has an amount of French, Spanish, Italians, Turkish and even Maltese words! I never identify as an Arab when my grandfathers are from Balkan origin.. Reading and learning Arabic since early age of elementary school does not make you an Arab! the National language spoken by Tunisians is Tunisian Darja which is very similar to the Maltese Lannguage. Stop fooling yourself.. W nik omek wahdek ya jéhel yali neker fi aslek kel kalb
+Belmokaddem Adil you can identify yourself as whatever you consider yourself to be but hate it or love Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco were never Arab they used to be Berber and always will be.. Other Arab countries find it hard to understand their dialects.. If you're Arabic can you go to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and any other gulf country speak with your own Algerian dialect without forcing yourself to speak with their accent/dialect so they can fully understand you?? come on dude stop deluding yourself you won't be able to make them understand your Algerian dialect unless they take lessons to learning the whole Darja language.
I'm Tunisian, and I never really knew much about Maltese. But WOW it's very similar to Tunisian Arabic! I essentially understood the first example sentence there even though I've never heard the language
Im a native Egyptian Arabic speaker and Maltese sounds to me exactly like Tunisian Arabic with some Latin words of Italian pronunciation. I love Maltese!
This is incorrect Maltese is mixture of Italian, Sicilian dialect and north African darija of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. North African darija is Arabic mixed with foreign words from Italy, Spain, France and Berber languages
I just returned from Malta this morning - what a nice trip! I am currently studying Arabic in university. I was excited that I understood so much of the Maltese language. It was easy to read and I could pick out many Arabic and Italian words that I already knew.
Iam half Moroccan half Spanish & just came back from Malta 🇲🇹 reading it was easily understandable & listening to language I can understand pretty well if they speak it slowly. 😄 it’s so similar to maghrebi Arabic it’s like a hybrid of western Mediterranean culture it’s beautiful ❤️🇲🇦🇪🇸🇩🇿🇹🇳🇲🇹🇮🇹
I discovered this language few years ago, I was in an international conference and I was talking with my Tunisian friend, in Tunisian obviously, until a Maltese girl came to us and told us that she could understand what we have been saying, I didn't believe her until she started saying some random words in Maltese that were the same in Tunisian :D
@@marouanouanji We could easily say that you strayed from Christianity and must be brought back into the fold. It's however considered polite to do neither. You follow your religion, we follow ours, and those whom are interested in either can learn either and swap if they wish.
In Romania there is a city called Maltese. The former legend about the place is that in the Medieval times some Maltese merchans were traped in Romania on Danube due to a harsh winter. They decided to remain in Romania forever and they built the city Maltese. The funny thing is that because of that many people there look like arabs. It was a mistery untill historians realised that ethnically many people of Maltese were actualy arabs which came from Malta (algerians).
Maltese is the language of my dreams, because I love, really love italian language, and my native is arabic, so this makes this language beyond awesome for me.
@@HaiderAlZubaidi It's complicated. Many Italians call it a dialect of Italian (we call all languages on the peninsular 'i dialetti'- the dialects) but in reality it's a completely different language. In fact, Sicilian is actually older than standard Italian
reason Elach yhedro b north african dialect hitach kano mste3mrin mn taraf L Moors, lmgharba l9dam, so la source dyal loghathom hya Marocaine( matensawch bli l Moors kano 7akmin north Africa kamla fi w9ithoum. hada tarikh 9raw chwya...
I'm algerian, and after watching this video I decided to take a look at maltese, and guess what? It took me one day to complete an app to learn it and now I can understand it, and speak it a little. it's totally arabic at at list 80% if you ask me. we algerians have a lot of french words in our dialect and I feel that these same words are italian in maltese which means that they're basically the same. They even are more arabic than we are in some scenarios, they're almost too classical compared to us maghrebins. anywho as long as maltese isn't considered arabic, I can safely say I speak 4 languages now: french, english, arabic and maltese (since they're not the same haha)
Tu es un mytho la langue maltaise est un mélange de l'arabe darija maghrébin et nord-africain « Algérie, libye, Maroc et Tunisie » et de la langue italienne, notamment le dialecte sicilien. le pourcentage exact est le suivant : italien 54 % Arabe 41% Anglais 04 % autres. 1% si vous ne me croyez pas, faites des recherches.
Now I really wanna learn Maltese, I'm from Morocco, and I think I can understand like 50% of it already hahah it sounds so easy and beautiful, I think if I studied just the basics, I'll be able to speak it and understand like 90% of it in no time. Love you brother and sisters from Malta 💕
@@SeverityOne I agree with you comment, because Libyans speak Italian , Arabic and north African dialect . Maltese is a mixture of Italian, Sicilian and north African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
I had a Maltese friend in Canada 40 years ago. He taught me some words, but I remember only goodnight which is: Il leyla it tayba, clearly from Arabic (I live in Egypt now).
Awwww, thank you for giving us a glance. Hiya! *waves at you from the Mediterranean*. Your pronunciation, by the way, is almost correct! You speak it well, only putting the stresses on the wrong syllable. We have longer vowels and are a very phonetic language in general, but have retained the glottal stops and stresses related to the arabic origins.
I am from Morocco and my mind was blown when I could literally understand everything in the sentences so naturally without making even an effort. This is exactly like Maghrebi (North African) languages, the only difference is that instead of the italian words in some regions the mix is between french and maghrebi, and others like Northern Morocco spanish is more dominant. Keep up your work, it's serious research.
@@DeliaLange I agree with you Tunisians try to confuse people on this channel . Maltese is a mixture of Italian, Sicilian and north African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
Maltese person here :) Maltese and English are my native tongues and I can speak a bit of Italian too. Your video was quite informative and I'm intrigued by the in-depth analysis of the examples given. A couple of things that I would like to point out just for accuracy's sake: 1. The Maltese Islands are only about 80 km south of Sicily, not 200 km. In comparison, Malta is around 300 km east of Tunisia and 350 km north of Libya; 2. Malta was a British Protectorate between 1800-1813 after which it became a Crown Colony (1813-1964). Malta became an independent state in 1964 and a republic in 1974. Feel free to get in contact if you want to discuss all things Maltese :D I'd be more than happy to engage :) Maltese is not a popular choice at all among foreign language learners and is rarely in the spotlight, so a video like this is really appreciated :) Keep it up! Ibqa' sejjer hekk ;)
Wow I have A.D.D and understood everything and remember it, you are a great teacher! Explaining a lot of content in short and clear ways, the drawings help a lot, and the teaching was motivating, congrats!
+Langfocus I guess you can make a video in collaboration with AlternateHistoryHub about a hybrid language that would've been developed had Spain allowed the Moors to stay and influence their language and culture.
I learned that my great great grandfather is from Malta. John Thomas was his name. I think it's Tumas in Maltese. He ended up in Samoa and married a Samoan lady. They left Samoa to Tonga. He was a builder. I don't know where Malta is. I would love to go there someday before I end up in the nursing home or dead. Love the video. Thank you again
Paul, the first Arabic invasion was Aghlabid in 869-870. There may have been some settlement before the Fatimid caliphate. The 't' that you indicate in the sentences does not link to the previous vowel. In "għandha tinkludi...", it indicates the gender of the noun "riforma" ("she should include," as opposed to "għandu jinkludi", "he should include" ). The 't' in "tad-dinja" and "tas-solidarjeta" is the possessive " ta' " linked to the definite article (id-dinja and is-solidarjeta), to mean "of the world" and "of solidarity". Grazzi
I've just come back from a holiday in Malta and to me the language sounded just like you described it: an Arabic dialect with an Infusion of Italian and English. And I love it!
This was very interesting. I had no idea such an odd combination of languages existed, especially not in Europe. Maltese sounds quite intriguing. Arabic grammar and the basic Arabic vocabulary together with the more vast romance one make up a truly unique example of a linguistic delicacy. Great video Paul!
Maltese and the Italians are bound by the love of food. The art of cooking is the most sacred thing around here and is the main topic when a Maltese discusses with an Italian. It is no wonder some of us learned to speak in Italian fluently.
Saad Elf Thank you for complementing my country, I wish to one day come to Morocco some of my family went recently and I also want to go they say it’s beautiful. 🇲🇹❤️🇲🇦
The "Arabs" were only in Malta 200 years, one thousand years ago. The official language was Italian for about 700 years. The religion is Catholic, the cuisine akin to Italian. The Maltese language totally disconnected from anything Arabic since 1070 AD. In addition I understand that the North Africans are basically Imazighen and not Arabs
I'm so shocked ! This is basically another maghrebin dialect. As moroccans, our dialect is full of french and latin words in general. And this sounds a lot like a formaliazed north african dialect. Also I do agree that it sounds like tunisian. Thank you for making me discover this. I speak arabic, french, spanish, italian and english and you're telling me there is a language made of just that 😀
I lived in Malta from 1950 to 1951. I was 5 and loved it as we never went to school and I roamed the island free as a bird. The Maltese children showed me how to eat prickly pear,a cactus. Took a week to rid mye self of the prickles. A lifetime later here in Auckland NZ I foolishly stuck my fingers in one and suffered another bout of prickles. Took me years before Paul confirmed my suspicion that Maltese were Arabic speakers basically. When I was there it was super Catholic Archbishop Michael Gonzo? ruled seemed 10 % of the population were priests Nuns or Monks. All I can remember of the language was "Shitsi" get a move on. My but it was HOT! we swam at Marsa sirroco? Families on the street would promenade up and down the street at night. A religious procession and holiday every week it seemed. The children called me "English Pig" but we were friends. My Mother just laughed and said, "Tell them your Scottish" Best year of my life!
I am Maltese and the background image at 1:25 is my home village. It's called Marsaxlokk and is actually a fisherman village. it is the place where you used to swim, Marsa siroco :)
That 'Gonzo' bishop you referred to is reeling in hell as we speak for meddling in partisan politics. He excommunicated his brethren christians if they voted for the Labour Party and to suffer the wrath of god. Thanks to progressive governments that medieval mentality has no effect anymore on the Maltese electorate.
I’m Sicilian and after you translated the first sentences I was able to make out roughly the second. I love Sicilian language Bc of its mixture and Maltese is the same. Beautiful languages.
+Yunus Altintas Yeah i guess but the relationship between finnish and estonian is sort of interesting, in the way that finns can't understand even a bit of estonian but estonians understand finnish.
I am an Italian native speaker but don't know any arabic. Still I could grasp the meaning of the two examples you gave. That's really interesting, since I plan to learn arabic, I'm probably going to look Maltese up again later and maybe learn it.
I'm from Algeria . I've heard Maltese before that . and I can say it's about 80% of Tunisian dialect . I can understand very well Maltese as is too close to Algeria Arabic . thank you for your video
@SeverityOne I disagree with you comment, because Libyans speak Italian , Arabic and north African dialect . Maltese is a mixture of Italian, Sicilian and north African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
Anthony Mendiola That’s not the only method to write the Arabic Alphabet, didn’t you know about the Arabic calligraphy? It’s IMO the most beautiful calligraphy that I’ve ever seen Then being honest isn’t by being rude
Yo he estado aprendiendo a leer en árabe y logro detectar la mayoría de las letras pero aún no me queda claro como leer las vocales no escritas (básicamente la e y la o) pero muchas veces las demás vocales no las escriben. لقد تعلمت القراءة باللغة العربية وتمكنت من اكتشاف معظم الكلمات ولكن لا يزال من غير الواضح بالنسبة لي كيفية قراءة حروف العلة غير المكتوبة (أساسًا الحرفان e و o) ولكن في بعض الأحيان لا تكتب الحروف الساكنة الأخرى.
-The video could have been more fascinating if you had talked about the oldest literary text written in medieval Maltese: il- Kantilena, a poem whose words are entirely Arabic except for one word that comes from Sicillian or Italian (vintura). This text contains three words that do not exist in modern Maltese, but that still exist in the Arabic dialect spoken in Tunisia. So, as a Tunisian person, I strongly believe that learning Tunisian Arabic is indispensable for tracing the roots of the Maltese language. - In the video, you mentioned that about a third of the Maltese vocabulary is Arabic. Well, I think this rate may be an underestimate. - Another language that influenced Maltese vocabulary is Berber. Exapmles of Maltese words of Berber origin include: "fekruna" meaning "turtle", "lellux" which is commonly known in English as "pot marigold" (calendula officinalis), "awwissu" which is the month of August in Maltese, "gerżuma" i.e "throat", "Żebbuġ" which means "olive" or "olive tree", to name but a few. All the Berber words I have just mentioned are still used in Tunisian Arabic, except the last one i.e Żebbuġ, which is still used in some parts of Algeria to refer to huge olive trees. - It may be surprising to learn that the Maltese people make use of Islamic terms to refer to Christian concepts and beliefs. The name of God is Maltese is almost the same as in Arabic( Alla in Maltese and Allah in Arabic). The Maltese present themselves as "nsara" which is a purely Islamic term which means "Christians". In fact, many Muslim scholars and jurisprudents use the word "nasara" to refer to Christians and prefer it to the word "مسيحيون". "Randan" is another term that is borrowed from Arabic. "Randan" means "Lent" in English and is almost the same as the Arabic word "Ramadan", a holy month during which Muslims abstain from eating, drinking and having sexual intercourse from sunrise to sunset. - Most words related to religion in Maltese are derived from Arabic and are similarly used by Arab Christians. Examples are "raħeb" which means "monk" in English, "quddies" (Mass) "salib" (cross) etc..
Great comment and a great find regarding the Kantilena! I'm Maltese and I've widely researched the language and the history for application to music through my band Skorba. Here is a youtube I found about the Kantilena th-cam.com/video/9ZYuanofpVU/w-d-xo.html
Only, words such as "raħeb" are classified as archaic. Other words in this category include "ħatem" (ring) and "dafriet" (sweets). These words, including raħeb, can be found in the poem "Katrin tal-Imdina" by Dwardu Cachia. (It's a tragic poem relating to a woman who married the governor in medieval times and whose wedding was interrupted by an attack led by Muslim seaborne raiders, a common occurrence at the time. The raiders were fended off but not until the governor, who participated in the battle, was killed.)
Hahahaha that’s insanely interesting ! I really felt it was Arabic somehow, but a completely incomprehensible one! Yet you’re so right about the latinized and Anglicized part, that makes it easier to interpret the Maltese language.
super interesting! I live in Luxembourg, I understand modern standard arabic (I learnt it in university) and my mother language is French. I once overheard a conversation in a bar and I was totally disturbed by a couple sitting to a table nearby because sometimes I could understand some full phrases in Arabic but I had the feeling that they were Italians trying to speak in Arabic with each other. At a given moment I was even thinking "maybe that's Egyptian" not at all, there were actually speaking Maltese, I eventually asked them. One of the two worked in the European administration, the other one was visiting him.
Once i found out about Maltese, i was very surprised as a Tunisian ,it includes a lot of vocabulary from Tunisian dialect. love the video and keep up the good work Paul
يبدو ان قصة المالطيين مثل قصة الموريكسيين في الاندلس ، حيث انهم اجبرو على ترك دينهم و لغتهم و ثقافتهم بعد سقوط الاندلس ، شكراً لصاحب القناة على بحثة في ثقافات و تاريخ الامم السابقة ، و اعتقد اني لو كتبت كلامي هذا بالاحرف الانجليزية سيفهمني المالطيين ، شكراً مجدداً لصاحب القناة
Wow, I learned Moroccan Arabic as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I completely understood those sentences! Freaky! By the way, if you live in NYC, there is a Maltese/Egyptian bakery in Astoria, Queens, NY that is awesome. The staff are Maltese and Arab, and I always had coffee and sweets when I lived there in 2013 (I live in work in Istanbul, Turkey now). I hope its still there.
I'm Moroccan and understood it as well. But, you'll be more surprised if you got in touch with Tunisians and West Libyan speakers. Their dialects are more similar to the Maltese.
I'm sicilian and have studied Arabic (including some dialects) and speak English. Just started studying Maltese and was so surprised when I realised I could understand most of it.
rjg0483 I'm atheist Arab!! Duh Not all Arab are Muslims + not all Arabic speakers are Arab Muslim!! Arab Muslims are very small population in Muslims world
As a Tunisian, I understand most of it. I don't speak Italian, I only know the loan words we use, but I do speak French and Spanish which makes me recognize the words. The structure of the sentences is more like Tunisian Arabic than standard Arabic, I confirm :)
Also Libyan, Tripolitanian Libyan to be exact, also Lebanese to some extent. I used to work for the CIA in Algeria, I did some missions in Malta, the Libyan influence is definitely noticeable more than the Tunisian.
I am a native speaker of Arabic and I also speak Spanish and English very fluently, plus I have a very advanced level in French. I understood 95% of both sentences. I think I should read an article on Wikipedia in Maltese to see if I really speak that language. :D
+Princess arabella Yeah, I'm from Libya. By the way, I read an article about Malta in Maltese on Wikipedia and I understood about 85% of the first paragraph.
I have just a comment. I am tunisian, and i can understand Maltese. In the example with "Migration Reform must include the principle of Solidarity", you explained the T on "tinkludi", and you said this T is because of the voyle before... It is not because of that. On the tunisian dialect we conjugate verbs for "he/she/it" by adding a T on the beginning. Second remark, you translated "tad-dinja" with "In the world" but it is "of the world" , "taa" is the possessif article. Very goog video, i like your videos
Yes, I was just about to give the same explanation. "Tinkludi" means either "you (one person) include" or "she, it (feminine noun) includes". There is no infinitive in Maltese so instead of "I need to do" or "I want to do" you say "I need I do" or "I want I do", and similarly with other verbs. I used to learn Maltese but have forgotten most of it. And another thing: solidarjetà has accent on the final vowel.
This is one of the most coherent videos which purport to explain odd phenomena - and much of language fits that description, in my opinion - that I have seen. You have covered the history well, and your description of Maltese is to the point. I will look at a few other videos, and if your standard remains high, I will subscribe.
I really enjoyed this introduction to the Maltese language. In the late 1970's I lived in north London among many recent Maltese immigrants; I found them to be very warm-hearted, generous people, and I loved hearing their rather 'exotic' language - without learning Maltese, I could, nevertheless, pick out many recognizable words, such as il-negozjant (the businessman), il-pittur (the painter), il-gazzetta (the newspaper), and many others. Thanks for this very clear overview, Paul!
من القصص اللطيفة استاذي ... أن وفدا من مالطا ذهب للكويت للتفاوض على مع الكويتيين على قرض ... في الإجتماع. ... تساءل الكويتيون بالعربية -فيما يبنهم- ، هل تظنون أنهم قادرون على سداد القرض ... المفاجأة كانت ... أن المالطيين ... ردوا عليهم بالعربية ... نعم نستطيع ... ضحك الكويتيون لغرابة الموقف ... ثم وافقوا على القرض ... ^_^
That's because of your English knowledge. Many of the Maltese words borrowed from Italian include formal Latin-based words, which had already transferred into use in English in the second millenium, anyway, through biblical, French and then Renaissance-Reformation/Early Modern & Industrial & Modern & Postmodern word coinage mostly based on Latin.
@@bn56would he lies as a tunisian even a garbage worker understand 50% italian because we had in the past only two tv channels tunisian tv and rai uno and we speak french so italian is a cake for us
@@beastvader you are aboslutely an arab from the middle east who always feels a complex of inferiroty toward europeans;.in tunisia we do not have that complex at all since we have common history in the med sea .
In Spain I met someone and then he talked with he's friend, and I understand many of the words and when I asked him what this language Hebrew? he answer Why? I told him I understood some of the words I speak Arabic Then he anger and he said I speak Maltese and there's no relationship with Arabic !! i don't know Why he becaome anger but all languge loan from each other so i googled malltese and im here ( sorry 4 my bad english )
FA Im arabic native speaker. those two words are shown frist one content alot of arabic words. i could understand what word mean but not all the language because it isolated from arabic so you know what happen. .. hebrew or عبري and arabic or عربي are semintic language so you will find similarity anyway. it easy to me to learn. 😊
If the Arabs were what Europe or Western are now! That Maltese person would’ve been so proud of his Arabic influence! It just shows that the Arabs or Islamic civilization dominated the world in history!
I'm an italian native speaker and I can't get everything but generally can understand the topic. Some words are pretty much the same in italian. In fact it sounds like a really strange and curious language to me and, I believe, to all italians, because it seems like one's speaking arabic and suddenly starts speaking italian at certain moments! Great video as always!
+Trust I don't even speak arabic or italian, but that is what I feel too. (Although I can understand a fair bit of Italian for being a portuguese speaker)
I'm moroccan, with fluency in English and Italian and I have always been fascinated by how close Maltese is to Moroccan Arabic. Great video by the way you got a subscriber : Keep it up !
+TheLordHWotton As a precision for my Tunisian Friends: I never said that of all the north African dialects Maltese was closest to Moroccan. After lending my ear to a few Maltese podcasts, Tunisian seems to be the closest dialect to Maltese Arabic, but it doesn't make the fact any less amazing !
@@TheLordHWotton je ne suis pas d'accord avec toi Le maltais est un mélange d'italien, de dialecte sicilien et de darija nord-africaine d'Algérie, de Libye, de Tunisie et du Maroc. La darija nord-africaine est un arabe mélangé à des mots étrangers provenant d'Italie, d'Espagne, de France et de langues berbères.
@@magrebinoberbero C'est vrai, mais le commentaire d'origine ne disait pas qu'il s'agissait uniquement de dialect marocain, il disait simplement que cela ressemblait au marocain, c'est effectivement un mélange de dialectes.
si nous parlons de la langue maltaise moderne parlée aujourd'hui, la source historique du vocabulaire maltais moderne est de 52 % d'italien/sicilien, 32 % de siculo-arabe et 6 % d'anglais, une partie du reste étant du français.
Love this video cuz i love languages, im tunisian and yes its very similar to tunisian dialect, of course full of italian, word and mixes that makes it unique and funny, you makes me wanna visit Malta soon
as a tunisian from gafsa, north tunisian dialect sounds so different to me and I was shocked when I first heard it. we share a hybrid dialect from algerians next to us and from north tunisians
@@marioformosa4259 That's irrelevant to what I said. That Maltese has loanwords from other languages doesn't make it closer to those than English is to German. Arabic speakers can understand Maltese because many of the words are he same, the same can't be said for German and English at all.
I am Sicilian and I have always been curious to learn where Maltese language comes from. This the best explanation I've found so far, love the timeline!
@@العقيدمعمرالقذافي-ح4ف It really depends as a Sicilian myself. Usually not because the Arabic vocabulary is roughly taken while the Sicilian loanwords have had a vowel change so they might sound Italian (U coming back to an O for example or an I becoming an E)
Loved the video. And since you asked: during my teens I grew up speaking Italian in Egypt, even though I'm from Argentina. Having now heard a few samples of Maltese, I can say I mostly hear the following correlations: -verbs, pronouns, numbers, some adverbs, and some adjectives are Arabic. -most nouns some adverbs, and some adjectives are Italian-ish. -and a few words of French/English sprinkled here and there, mostly nouns. Let's say that I understand about 70% since my Arabic isn't as good as my Italian.
I was watching Malta's Got Talent, when I heard the language spoken , I definitely heard Arabic and Italian words. Then there were other words that I couldn't identify. I became interested to learn how 2 very divergent languages blended into such a hybrid. I appreciate your history lesson.🙏🏼👍
I am Sudanese and Arab, and this is my first day when I hear the Maltese language and I have understood many of its phrases ... and this is what made me surprised
I speak Arabic and i was able to understand the first sentence with almost no effort ! awesome , i never thought i knew Maltese ! totally adding it to my CV ;) thnks
+bilal green Yeah I wouldn't - in the UK my barbers are Arabs and when I spoke to them in Maltese they didn't understand enough to make a complete conversation. They did understand basic words.
+bilal green Libyans - they also knew were Malta was (obviously since they are our neighbours). When they spoke amongst themselves - I had no clue what they were saying.
+ElKonjato I think it would take from me less than a week to learn your language .. I saw some videos of maltese songs for kids and I could understand more than 80% of the lyrics :D
Golden Phoenix Japan = Yaban in modern Arabic (middle east) But in classic standard Arabic it's Belad El waqwaq :) بلاد الوقواق اسم اليابان القديم بالعربية الفصحى
I was so scared that you wouldn't talk about the Tunisian - Maltese relationship. So from a Tunisian speaker: Yes we understand Maltese, because it sounds similar (the phonetic of course) due to the fact I never studied MSA (I live abroad) I can't understand middle eastern dialects and I tend to understand more Maltese. We have many Italian loan words but only Tunisian with Italian heritage like me can claim to understand some spoken Italian because we use more Italian words than a French descend Tunisian who tend to use french words instead. But yes we understand Maltese and I speak in Tunisian with my Maltese friends and they respond in Maltese and let's say we can understand each other 80% of the time. Thanks for talking about Tunisia and Tunisian :D ! PS: Moroccan would be a bad choice if you aim to understand Maltese, I barely understand them. Their language / dialect is very harsh with pronunciation
+Cosmo Aero V2 Ana meghribi w kanfhem la majorité del Maltiya w kanl9a ga3 chi properties mochatarakin bin Darija d-Lmaghrib w Lmaltiya bla maykounou f Dzayriya w Tounsiya; machi za3ma Moroccan Darija a9rab logha lel maltiya walakin 7it had lloghat ttewrou f nefss l-contexte géolinguistique w développaw des similarités m3a ba3diyathoum, momkin bezzaf tkon kathdar l-Maghribiya w b-jouhd sghir tfhem Lmaltiya khoussousan fel 7ala dyal lehjat d chamal d-Lmeghrib. Amma dik l9diya dyal "harsh pronounciation", hadak ghir dialecte li kaydouz bezzaf f les médias (li howa dyal Casablanca w nawa7i dyalha) w zid 3lih dialecte dyal char9 w chi w7din khrin. Netmenna tkoun fhamtini :P . Ta7iya l Tounes w nas Tounes a3az nass ! N7abkoum bezzaf w yasser w barcha :D
+Cosmo Aero V2 WoW. can you really not understand Mideastern dialects of Arabic?? I thought that we (middle easterners ) speak in a dialect very close to stander Arabic (Fuss-ha).
I speak fluent Arabic and multiple Arabic dialects and today I discovered That I speak Maltese and for 48 yeas I never no that until today. This reminds me of my kids who speak English with some Arabic vocabularies such as “ Say Wallah” meaning you swear to God “ or my father is Zaalan and he doesn’t yehep hada. Im going to akra with the Shaikh. Kefek brother . Maltese has Arabic Structure but some English, French and Italian vocabularies as well as Arabic. Thank you very much. grazzi hafna
Hello Paul, Nice Video. I would like to suggest you to make a video about the Pirahã language. They are a brazilian tribe from Amazonia, for what I have listen their language has no concept of time, fixed colors, numbers and even recursion (the concept of expressing things in terms of itself). I think it would make a good theme for a video.
dar gon Unfortunately there isnt a single similar thing between Japanese and Georgian. Georgian language has its own, Kartvelian family which makes it look like almost alien to everyone, both grammatically and in writing tex as well
I’m Maltese and I can tell you, we can’t understand arabic. Maybe a word here and there but not nearly enough to figure out what is being said. And yes we do use the latin alphabet. The arabic alphabet just looks like a bunch of lines put together to me, not like letters. I do however know that most arabs can understand us. It’s kinda freaky how they can understand us but we can’t.
@@some1156 i was once on a train in the netherlands and i saw a guy and a girl talking to each other it sounded like they where talking tunisian ..but then a again not.while leaving i had to ask them "are you maltese?" They said yes.
mahjoub Maltese is not spoken like the accent of the guy in the video. He pronounced the words in an arabic accent whilst Maltese is spoken in almost like an italian accent .
@@some1156 well hearing maltese as a tunisian it sounds so familiar to me but then again not.. its like italian pronounced with a tunisian flavour and finished of with a bit of english..as a tunisian i just watched some maltese soaps and i could understand some of it,a little but i really like the language
mahjoub I just watched a documentary in tunisian as well to see how you feel. Yea I understood some words here and there but overall their accents are too hard to grasp for me
Hi everyone! If you're currently learning Arabic, visit ArabicPod101 ( bit.ly/arabicpod101 ) for LOTS of Arabic lessons for students of all levels. A free account gives you access to hundreds of audio and video lessons with text transcripts. It's a great resource. There is also ItalianPod101: bit.ly/pod101italian.
There's no course for Maltese. :( But for 33 other languages, check out my review! langfocus.com/innovative-language-podcasts/
I'm an active member on several Pod101 sites, and I hope you'll enjoy them as much as I do!
(Full disclosure: if you sign up for a premium account, Langfocus receives a small referral fee. But if I didn't like it, I wouldn't recommend it, and the free account is pretty good on its own!)
Wonderful channel, Paul! Where are you from, and what is your mother tongue, if I may ask? :-)
parsuna
An old Arabic word' "par" means son
:
Langfocus I know all of these
But north african arabic is close to poanicians .. 🙂
Langfocus I love Malta but there's one thing I don't get.
They have such a fine cuisine but during my visit in 1999 it was _"full"_ of American fast food chains. KFC, McDonald's, Pizza Hut, Burger King or Subway everywhere compared to my native country of Germany at that time _(we catch up)_ and definitely much more than Italy. Especially the variety was new to me. We mostly has McDonald's and I grew up in Heidelberg, the headquarters of the US Army in Germany. Our US population percentage was in the double digits. And they had plenty of influence on our culture _(German Hip-Hop started here)._
Why does a country with a fine Mediterranean cuisine have such an infrastructure for junk food. Not that I love to have a classic McDonald's Cheeseburger or Quarter Pounder/ Royal _(Käse/with Cheese)_ as we sincerely call him here but how could Pizza Hut, for example, get a hold on Malta? There's plenty of good pizzarias, owned by Italians _(check out Bianco's in Saint Julians/San Ġiljan)_ to enjoy "real pizza".
Does any Maltese know the answer?
I know this might be a weird question. But it's one that can't be answered by an Internet research.
I am Maltese. Once I got lost in a mall in France. The man who I asked for help spoke Arabic and no English. We communicated in Maltese/Arabic and found my mom :)
I don't speak Arabic btw
@@Lri0
Yes , your language is very very close to our dialect , even though your culture had been separated from us for about 900 years !!
Just took this Ancestry test and now just learned for the first time in my life that I am also Maltese. I knew I had at least 2 main Italian blood lines inside of me with a few other things, but did not know I had 3 main Italian blood lines inside of me.
I speak arabic : kefak enti ya laura ?
That’s interesting
I am Italian and I've heard Maltese many times. It sounds weird because as an Italian speaker, you hear a totally different language but all of a sudden you hear Italian in a half of the sentence!
Once I tried to listen to a Maltese Tv News along with an Algerian friend. Well, she understood a half of what they were saying and I understood the other half, so that together we were able to understand the whole news. Funny, huh?
Sheldam 🤣🤣🤣
Sheldam so funny yeah 😂
The Algerian girlfriend is your wife or what!?
AeCream Rabahi Located DZ
Ne sois pas jaloux XD
Ha ha ha
Hey everybody I'm Maltese! It's very lovely to see people showing interest in my language! Nice video ❤ insellmilkom mill-ghaziza Malta 🇲🇹
Thank you in. In Arabic we say insellemalikom min - el Aziza Malta
I want to learn this language, it is beautiful!
I m Moroccan , and I m really interested in your language, in fact I would like to have a friend from Malta .
Really a beautiful language, I can easily understand it ! from an algerian
You said kisses from dear Malta or something like that ,right ?
Am Tunisian and speak italian , just found out that i speak Maltese lol
Same
😄👏
Same except I'm iraqi and self taught Italian
It's so cool شي حلو :)
مام انا هداوين شفت فيديو تع وحدة تهدر مالطية . حسيت كيلي راني فالدزاير هههه . Me too . I have watched a video of someone speaking in Maltese . I was astonished because I have noticed that many words are similar too Arabic . So , I felt that this language is an Arabic descent
I am Maltese, studied Arabic at university and have worked in Kuwait and Saudi Arabia since 1997. I can say that Maltese is cemented in Arabic. I would also disagree with the figure of 30% of Maltese being Arabic. It is at least 65% Arabic .... whether identical to Arabic or slightly modified. Great video!
Saudi and Kuwaiti Arabic is very different from North African Arabic. If you studied or worked in the Maghreb I am certain you would be shocked how much it sounds EXACTLY like Maltese. I'm half Moroccan and I literally had my mouth wide open in shock at how much it sounds like our dialect. It is literally like 80% close to ours but instead of having Italian influence we have French and Spanish influence but the Arabic parts are the exact same! It was really cool lol. You guys are our Christian cousins in a way I guess
@@mirandapillsbury7885 He means MSA arabic habibi
Maybe the 30% arabic do not count north african words but only standard arabic
The percentage is only about the overall vocabulary, it does not take into account the frequency of the words. Many frequent words will still be of Arabic origin while abstract and less frequent words or certain vocabulary thematic fields might be much more Italian, giving an average of 30% Arabic origin.
Ur 10
I am Maltese and i.understand.a lot of Arabic language
Good to know, I can easliy understand the maltese too, i(m algerian
@@TheTrooper182 u have a nice name
@@BB-xm8bu As you too exactly ^^
@קומפרסור יהודים متحشمش يا اخي عامل خط عبري وتقول فلسطيني كيفك هما لي رجعو فلسطين على ما هي عليه اليوم
@קומפרסור יהודים You are not from Palestina,because you wrote your name in Hebrew
The mixture of Arabic and Italian just sounds beautiful.
lmaoooo not really bru
Sicilian and Arabic.
@Devilikg Moronic comment
@Devilikg His pronunciation made it sound like that, but native speakers sound very different.
I agree, it sounds surprisingly beautiful, wouldnt have expected that.
Me: can you speak Arabic, Italian, French or English
The Maltese guy: Yesn't
Maltese guy: Well as second language we got English so 90% speaks/understands it.
As for Italian ,the maltese who are in age group of 30yrs to 60yrs in 2020 speak fluently Italian but because of following ITALIA UNO, RETE 4 and CANALE 5.
Arabic: some had the opportunity including me to lean it at school but that is all. Just remember the alphabet and may read words ...which could be meaningless to me or else compare and understand due to Maltese similarity!
Pourquoi vous, les menteurs et voleurs tunisiens, voulez-vous oublier votre race, votre sang arabe et votre langue arabe ?
Pourquoi les Tunisiens préfèrent-ils être associés ou comparés aux Maltais plutôt qu’aux Maghrébins ou aux Arabes ?
Les Maltais parlent officiellement le maltais et l'italien. Les ancêtres des Maltais sont originaires de Sicile - Italie.
Les Maltais font partie du sud de l'Europe, ils sont pour la plupart chrétiens ou catholiques et ils sont caucasiens.
La culture, la nourriture, le mode de vie et la société maltais sont plus proches et similaires à ceux de la Sicile et du sud. Italie.
La Tunisie est un pays arabe, alors vous, les rêveurs et trompeurs tunisiens, arrêtez de faire passer pour des Européens.
Vous « les Tunisiens » êtes Arabes, arrêtez de chercher à cacher votre race arabe et votre langue arabe.
Vive tous les Algériens, Libyens et Marocains d’Afrique du Nord et du monde
🇩🇿🇱🇾🇲🇦🇩🇿. 💓💓💓
Im Maltese, living in Australia, and i never thought that there are so many people interested in the Maltese language, in your comments. Thanks for the video.
Nick Portelli im also Australian and im arab originally from the levant (lebanon) i used to have maltese neibours and i lived near them for so many years but never knew there language was similar to arabic like this
QQ: why are there so many maltese in australia?
@@profilepicture828 many Maltese emigrated to Australia in 80s (I think not entirely sure) for better living I guess
Jerome Cachia ok thx
well, I saw this video 4 years ago, before that I thought Malta spoke Italian.
I am an Arab, currently learning some Tunisian Arabic, I think I might learn Maltese as a bridge language to learn Romance languages.
I have grown up in Australia with Maltese parents. While I am not great at speaking Maltese I understand regular conversation and later when I married into a Lebanese family they were constantly surprised by how much of their language I understood. There is definitely a great deal of similarity, just count 1 to 10 in both languages, barely a difference.
Joanne Zarb Lebanese and Maltese are very similar
I'm Maltese myself. It s astonishing how I never realised how much we sound Arabic while talking. When you talked in maltese, you did pronounce everything correctly and you sounded like an Arab haha :) Thank you for promoting the uniqueness of the Maltese language :)
Translating in maltese :P ''Jiena Maltija. Huwa tal-blieh kif qatt ma rrealizzajt kemm ninstemghu bhall-Gharab meta nitkellmu. Meta tkellimt bil-Malti, instmajt tajjeb u nstmajt bhal xi Gharbi haha :) Nirringrazzjak talli qed tippromwovi l-awtenticita' tal-lingwa maltija."
+Rai G i think that is a Tunisian dialect hhhh
+Yanis Elarbi could be. I don t know tunisian so I can t say as such :p But it is almost certain that maltese has arabian roots. That s at least what we have been studying in malta
+Rai G in tunisian is " Ena maltiya w jetni surprise qaddch netsam3u kif l 3arab mta netkalmou . Mta tkallamt bl malti , tprononci belgdé w tetsma3 ki l3arbi . merci lik qa3d t3amel promotion ll authenticité mta3 lsén l malti "
+Dimitri Haddad Wow :o IT IS VERY SIMILAR!!
This man is a perfect analyst. Thank you for those informations.
Yes, he is. Paul is a real hyper polyglot I guess.
Yes
My father is Maltese. I am in Australia. I am fluent in Italian from 12yrs of school. I am learning Arabic as I find it easier then Maltese. I can read a little but my dad's family speak too fast. I know other European languages but after a while I decided to learn Arabic.
One of the best description about my language
I have ever heard. A very unique language and
we should be proud of it. Thanks for sharing.
Good job.
Noel Debono yes you could be the incarnation of the hope that should shape the right neighboring between both banks of the Mediterranean bassin
You have been forced to leave Islam, you must return to Islam
@@marouanouanji your people (Unless you are from Medina) were forced to believe in Islam, make your ancestors proud and leave Islam.
@@belalabusultan5911 no lol, they choose Islam cause it's the truth
@@marouanouanjiyeah like it wasnt forced on north africa 🤡 what a delusional clown
Thank you for your lesson. I lived on the island of Gozo for eight years and tried very hard to speak the language. Every time I went outside, whether in my village of Kercem or to Victoria I used the language. One day I met an elderly Englishman who invited me to an outside cafe for coffee and when I happened to greet someone in Maltese, he reprimanded me. "Don't waste your time learning Maltese. Learn something you can really use like Italian.". I looked at him and replied, "Tell me where else in the world would learning Maltese be more relevant than right here. This is where I live and this is the language they speak.".
As an Italian-Moroccan, I find Maltese very interesting, it’s a mix of Italian and Maghrebi Arabic basically. However it’s incredible how they were able to mix such profoundly different languages into one
Can you understand the language? Im a Dutch-Moroccan btw :D
A revelation. I studiied Arabic, French and am fluent in Italian, yet Maltese never occured to me. Tne examples you gave were easy, so a trip to Malta is now in the planning stage. Tks for rhis.
+Philip Curnow I encourage you to come to Malta. I am Maltese and I love my country. It is a very beautiful and a sunny country. It won't be a problem in Malta to communicate with people. Italian is also spoken in Malta by the majority of the population. That is also especially for English. Maltese is a very interesting language; as a Maltese speaking person I'd love to know that there are foreign people who are interested in our unique language.
Javier Degiorgio fantastic, tks. To let you know I was taught Arabic by a Maltese and I have a family member who was killed in WW2 and is buried on the island. I think an eventual visit is probable.
+Philip Curnow that is interesting. I encourage you to pay a visit! :)
+Javier Degiorgio do you have couscous in malta or you only eat italian things ? by the way malta and italy are too cool towards tunisia : they never invaded us like france did. peace
+Philip Curnow he surely taught you tuniisia accent loool
I am Maltese Canadian and probably the first of my family's generation to studies and use Maltese. My parents never Spock the language. But my mother tells me I'm quite fluent and I enunciate very well. I am teaching my 2/12 yr.old granddaughter our language. She's doing well.
Good for you, Maltese is a very unique language. It's an important linguistic link as well as a potentially cultural one between east and west!
Nixtieq nirringrazzjak tal-kontribut tighek lejn il-lingwa tant sabiha taghna 🇲🇹
Sorry I don't read Maltese. Can you add a translate botton
@@ConcettaSpiteri I'm tunisian so not sure but I understood this "thank you for your contribution to our language" or something like that (didn't understand "tant sabiha" but I know that Sabiha is an old females name in tunisia that means morning/beautiful morning )
Sabiha is beautiful so he is saying Maltese language is beautiful and thanking you for contributing
Very informative video! You know Maltese history more extensively than most Maltese people do. :)
+grande1899 Thanks Grande! And you've got a cool channel yourself!
wow my two faves!
Ayyyyyyy grandayyyyyyyyyy
Wow grande
On the contrary.The narrater was very inaccurate in Maltese History.Even basic recent ones
As a Libyan ”from the west part of Libya” who can speak Libyan Maghreb Arabic which is mixed with some Italian and English, I can easily understand the Maltese language.
Tripolitania?
julinaonYT also amazeghi language has its influence in Libyan spoken language and in the Maltese language
منور عمو
@@Nasri.shwehdy not the Maltese language, because berbers settled south whereas Arabs settled mostly in the coast. Therefore berber influence is pretty unlikely in maltese
Yes as a Libyan i can confirm that , but to make things more clearly Libyan Arabic dialect, don't have such large influence of Italian also English , but yes we have some words originally Italian and a to smaller amount of English words
I'm Tunisian and its amazing how much Maltese we can understand. They even have our accent! Yes there are plenty of Italian ( or Scilian) words in it too but still. Listening to Maltese is like listening to the children of Tunisian immigrants living in Italy. They are talking to their parents in (Tunisian dialect) Arabic but occasionally switching (or code switching) to Italian or using Italian words to express something they can't in Arabic. That's what it sounds like to me
+Sancho O'Dell That's really cool!
sihbi int et tifem xet nibatlek u btw jien malti lol
Tunisian, Morrocans and Algerians are Berber not Arabs.. Stop twisting facts not just because these countries are predominantly Muslim that doesn't mean they are Arab! for Tunisians we are Carthagians and it's too damn hard for other Arab countries to understand the Tunisian Derja..
+S3id Sami 88% of Tunisians are Berbers, only 4% are Arabs these are the last national and international statistics if Tunisians are really Arabs then how come other arabs countries cannot understand the Tunisian dialect which has an amount of French, Spanish, Italians, Turkish and even Maltese words! I never identify as an Arab when my grandfathers are from Balkan origin.. Reading and learning Arabic since early age of elementary school does not make you an Arab! the National language spoken by Tunisians is Tunisian Darja which is very similar to the Maltese Lannguage. Stop fooling yourself.. W nik omek wahdek ya jéhel yali neker fi aslek kel kalb
+Belmokaddem Adil you can identify yourself as whatever you consider yourself to be but hate it or love Tunisia, Algeria and Morocco were never Arab they used to be Berber and always will be.. Other Arab countries find it hard to understand their dialects.. If you're Arabic can you go to Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and any other gulf country speak with your own Algerian dialect without forcing yourself to speak with their accent/dialect so they can fully understand you?? come on dude stop deluding yourself you won't be able to make them understand your Algerian dialect unless they take lessons to learning the whole Darja language.
I'm Tunisian, and I never really knew much about Maltese. But WOW it's very similar to Tunisian Arabic! I essentially understood the first example sentence there even though I've never heard the language
kifék bedhabt wlh hhhh ;)
dumb hater
Ahmed Farah Are your parents siblings?
Alon Levy What?
Tunisian Arabic?? they speak normal Arabic not different
Im a native Egyptian Arabic speaker and Maltese sounds to me exactly like Tunisian Arabic with some Latin words of Italian pronunciation. I love Maltese!
Greetings for all Egyptian Copts
This is incorrect
Maltese is mixture of Italian, Sicilian dialect and north African darija of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
North African darija is Arabic mixed with foreign words from Italy, Spain, France and Berber languages
I just returned from Malta this morning - what a nice trip! I am currently studying Arabic in university. I was excited that I understood so much of the Maltese language. It was easy to read and I could pick out many Arabic and Italian words that I already knew.
Iam half Moroccan half Spanish & just came back from Malta 🇲🇹 reading it was easily understandable & listening to language I can understand pretty well if they speak it slowly. 😄 it’s so similar to maghrebi Arabic it’s like a hybrid of western Mediterranean culture it’s beautiful ❤️🇲🇦🇪🇸🇩🇿🇹🇳🇲🇹🇮🇹
salam khoya , i m interessing to travel to Malta , so where do u have been , the city , was it nice ? thanks
My name is Emir too
Emir Ayub
Ugh...
Emir Ayub
What is your religion ?
You mean darija ;) . because we don't speak arabic
I discovered this language few years ago, I was in an international conference and I was talking with my Tunisian friend, in Tunisian obviously, until a Maltese girl came to us and told us that she could understand what we have been saying, I didn't believe her until she started saying some random words in Maltese that were the same in Tunisian :D
You have been forced to leave Islam, you must return to Islam
did you call kuffar?
@@camilosittegassevol2944 lmao
@@marouanouanji We could easily say that you strayed from Christianity and must be brought back into the fold. It's however considered polite to do neither. You follow your religion, we follow ours, and those whom are interested in either can learn either and swap if they wish.
@@camilosittegassevol2944 Sorry?
In Romania there is a city called Maltese. The former legend about the place is that in the Medieval times some Maltese merchans were traped in Romania on Danube due to a harsh winter. They decided to remain in Romania forever and they built the city Maltese. The funny thing is that because of that many people there look like arabs. It was a mistery untill historians realised that ethnically many people of Maltese were actualy arabs which came from Malta (algerians).
+Haereticus Sacrilegum ...... wow!! I didn't even know this about my own country! How long ago did this happen?
Midorikonokami
In Evul Mediu.
+Haereticus Sacrilegum marre tarre frate , ca si tine eu nu intendo nu de mult, de Roman
unde e orasul asta ? poti sa spui macar cum se numeste in romana ca nu pot sa-l gasesc pe google maps
Vladimir Bajenaru
Maltezi, Ialomita.
Maltese is the language of my dreams, because I love, really love italian language, and my native is arabic, so this makes this language beyond awesome for me.
Maltese wasn't influenced by Italian at all, it was influenced by Sicilian
@@fanaticofmetal But to my understanding, sciliano is a dialect of Italian, correct?
@@HaiderAlZubaidi it's a language on its own, but yes it's kinda similar
@@HaiderAlZubaidi It's complicated. Many Italians call it a dialect of Italian (we call all languages on the peninsular 'i dialetti'- the dialects) but in reality it's a completely different language. In fact, Sicilian is actually older than standard Italian
You are very handsome!!!
I'm Algerian and I'm impressed about how the Maltese similar to the Algerian dialect .
it's just Tunisian Dialect even their insult it's the same as what u hear in tunisia xD
@@hamza-trabelsi روح تعطي باين عليك مرخس
لهجة تونسية يا حاج موش دزيرية و مالطة كانت تابعة لتونس لفترة طويلة في عهد الاغالبة و الحفصيين
7ata kinglizi 9ali9 bil a5as 9riba lil dialect tounsi be9i chedin s7i7 tichbah lil dziria hahahahahah
reason Elach yhedro b north african dialect hitach kano mste3mrin mn taraf L Moors, lmgharba l9dam, so la source dyal loghathom hya Marocaine( matensawch bli l Moors kano 7akmin north Africa kamla fi w9ithoum. hada tarikh 9raw chwya...
I'm algerian, and after watching this video I decided to take a look at maltese, and guess what? It took me one day to complete an app to learn it and now I can understand it, and speak it a little. it's totally arabic at at list 80% if you ask me. we algerians have a lot of french words in our dialect and I feel that these same words are italian in maltese which means that they're basically the same. They even are more arabic than we are in some scenarios, they're almost too classical compared to us maghrebins. anywho as long as maltese isn't considered arabic, I can safely say I speak 4 languages now: french, english, arabic and maltese (since they're not the same haha)
Meanwhile here in 2019 waiting for bouteflika to quit xD
What is the app you used to learn maltese because i really want to learn it too
Yasmine Hafsi it sounds like how Algerians mix French with Arabic. Basically Arabic with Italian
Sah Tgoul darja T3na mkhalta b sum words menwalla 😂 I'll probably Try learning Maltese it's interesting
@@pacosmith3787 happy now?
The Maltese is similar to tunisian dialect, I am algerian and when I read Maltese I understand 80%.
Tu es un mytho
la langue maltaise est un mélange de l'arabe darija maghrébin et nord-africain « Algérie, libye, Maroc et Tunisie » et de la langue italienne, notamment le dialecte sicilien. le pourcentage exact est le suivant :
italien 54 %
Arabe 41%
Anglais 04 %
autres. 1%
si vous ne me croyez pas, faites des recherches.
Now I really wanna learn Maltese, I'm from Morocco, and I think I can understand like 50% of it already hahah it sounds so easy and beautiful, I think if I studied just the basics, I'll be able to speak it and understand like 90% of it in no time. Love you brother and sisters from Malta 💕
Arabs (for example, from Libya) usually find it easy to learn Maltese and speak it, although you will of course hear the accent.
@@SeverityOne
I agree with you comment, because Libyans speak Italian , Arabic and north African dialect .
Maltese is a mixture of Italian, Sicilian and north African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
I had a Maltese friend in Canada 40 years ago. He taught me some words, but I remember only goodnight which is: Il leyla it tayba, clearly from Arabic (I live in Egypt now).
il-lejl it-tajjeb /il-lejla it-tajba.
@@kooolkidninjamaster il-lejla t-tajba
Awwww, thank you for giving us a glance. Hiya! *waves at you from the Mediterranean*.
Your pronunciation, by the way, is almost correct! You speak it well, only putting the stresses on the wrong syllable. We have longer vowels and are a very phonetic language in general, but have retained the glottal stops and stresses related to the arabic origins.
The first phrase of Maltese national anthem is 100% arabic
لتلك الارض الحلوة الام التي اعطتني اسمها.
You are mixing french with english
Letelk alard alhlwa alom alti aatatni esmaha
لتلك الارض الحلوة الام التي أعطتني اسمها
For beautiful mother land that gave me her name
هذه فصحى حرة
Wow! This is amazing
@@leopold949 you can say phrase in english
I am from Morocco and my mind was blown when I could literally understand everything in the sentences so naturally without making even an effort. This is exactly like Maghrebi (North African) languages, the only difference is that instead of the italian words in some regions the mix is between french and maghrebi, and others like Northern Morocco spanish is more dominant. Keep up your work, it's serious research.
Exactly
How does everyone forget Libya exists and that it is a maghrebi country that was an italian colony?
@@DeliaLange
I agree with you
Tunisians try to confuse people on this channel .
Maltese is a mixture of Italian, Sicilian and north African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
Maltese person here :) Maltese and English are my native tongues and I can speak a bit of Italian too. Your video was quite informative and I'm intrigued by the in-depth analysis of the examples given. A couple of things that I would like to point out just for accuracy's sake:
1. The Maltese Islands are only about 80 km south of Sicily, not 200 km. In comparison, Malta is around 300 km east of Tunisia and 350 km north of Libya;
2. Malta was a British Protectorate between 1800-1813 after which it became a Crown Colony (1813-1964). Malta became an independent state in 1964 and a republic in 1974.
Feel free to get in contact if you want to discuss all things Maltese :D I'd be more than happy to engage :) Maltese is not a popular choice at all among foreign language learners and is rarely in the spotlight, so a video like this is really appreciated :) Keep it up! Ibqa' sejjer hekk ;)
Wow I have A.D.D and understood everything and remember it, you are a great teacher! Explaining a lot of content in short and clear ways, the drawings help a lot, and the teaching was motivating, congrats!
Wow, this video is at 57,000+ views after just over a week! I never thought a video on Maltese would get this much attention. Thanks for watching!
+Langfocus Great video :) ...seems kinda similar to how English is essentially a Germanic language but with a majority non-Germanic vocabulary.
+Mikhael Elijah Yes, that`s true. But I guess English is so ubiquitous now that we don`t usually think about it like that.
+Langfocus were are you from? how you done maltese language{very small} before others. i am maltese. thank you
+Langfocus
I guess you can make a video in collaboration with AlternateHistoryHub about a hybrid language that would've been developed had Spain allowed the Moors to stay and influence their language and culture.
+Mohammed Zaid That probably won't happen, but it's an interesting idea!
I learned that my great great grandfather is from Malta. John Thomas was his name. I think it's Tumas in Maltese. He ended up in Samoa and married a Samoan lady. They left Samoa to Tonga. He was a builder. I don't know where Malta is. I would love to go there someday before I end up in the nursing home or dead. Love the video. Thank you again
Paul, the first Arabic invasion was Aghlabid in 869-870. There may have been some settlement before the Fatimid caliphate. The 't' that you indicate in the sentences does not link to the previous vowel. In "għandha tinkludi...", it indicates the gender of the noun "riforma" ("she should include," as opposed to "għandu jinkludi", "he should include" ). The 't' in "tad-dinja" and "tas-solidarjeta" is the possessive " ta' " linked to the definite article (id-dinja and is-solidarjeta), to mean "of the world" and "of solidarity". Grazzi
I've just come back from a holiday in Malta and to me the language sounded just like you described it: an Arabic dialect with an Infusion of Italian and English. And I love it!
This was very interesting. I had no idea such an odd combination of languages existed, especially not in Europe. Maltese sounds quite intriguing. Arabic grammar and the basic Arabic vocabulary together with the more vast romance one make up a truly unique example of a linguistic delicacy. Great video Paul!
+Ennognósius
Agreed. Don't forget the Germanic or "Anglo" influence too. Maltese sounds like one mutt of a language.
I'm maltese and my country is very beautiful we have really clear seas you should visit
Where I grew up in San Francisco, the Italian and Maltese communities lived side by side, buddies as it were.
Maltese and the Italians are bound by the love of food. The art of cooking is the most sacred thing around here and is the main topic when a Maltese discusses with an Italian. It is no wonder some of us learned to speak in Italian fluently.
Maltese people are like the little cousin for southern italians.
Malta was part of Sicily million years ago
I am a arabic speaker from Morocco, when I visited Malta last Summer I felt the huge influence of the arabic culture in this beautiful Island ❤️🇲🇹
Saad Elf Thank you for complementing my country, I wish to one day come to Morocco some of my family went recently and I also want to go they say it’s beautiful. 🇲🇹❤️🇲🇦
@@samsaliba1532 you welcome in Morocco your second home, at least you not face big difficulties in the communication 😊❤️
@@samsaliba1532 I hope you enjoy your time in Morocco. I am half Moroccan and we really love all our Mediterranean brothers and sisters
The "Arabs" were only in Malta 200 years, one thousand years ago. The official language was Italian for about 700 years. The religion is Catholic, the cuisine akin to Italian. The Maltese language totally disconnected from anything Arabic since 1070 AD. In addition I understand that the North Africans are basically Imazighen and not Arabs
@@marioformosa4259 north africans speak Arabic, There are North Africa who are Arab and Who are not
I'm so shocked !
This is basically another maghrebin dialect. As moroccans, our dialect is full of french and latin words in general.
And this sounds a lot like a formaliazed north african dialect.
Also I do agree that it sounds like tunisian.
Thank you for making me discover this. I speak arabic, french, spanish, italian and english and you're telling me there is a language made of just that 😀
Where are you from??
@@sayandebhalder1618 Morocco !
Not exactly true
Maltese language is
North African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco mixed with Arabic and Sicilian and Italian .
I lived in Malta from 1950 to 1951. I was 5 and loved it as we never went to school and I roamed the island free as a bird. The Maltese children showed me how to eat prickly pear,a cactus. Took a week to rid mye self of the prickles. A lifetime later here in Auckland NZ I foolishly stuck my fingers in one and suffered another bout of prickles.
Took me years before Paul confirmed my suspicion that Maltese were Arabic speakers basically. When I was there it was super Catholic Archbishop Michael Gonzo? ruled seemed 10 % of the population were priests Nuns or Monks.
All I can remember of the language was "Shitsi" get a move on. My but it was HOT! we swam at Marsa sirroco? Families on the street would promenade up and down the street at night. A religious procession and holiday every week it seemed. The children called me "English Pig" but we were friends. My Mother just laughed and said, "Tell them your Scottish" Best year of my life!
That seemed just soooooooooooo beautyfull
‘...”English Pig” but we were friends.’ This killed me😂😂😂😂
I am Maltese and the background image at 1:25 is my home village. It's called Marsaxlokk and is actually a fisherman village. it is the place where you used to swim, Marsa siroco :)
marsa is an arabic word means port
That 'Gonzo' bishop you referred to is reeling in hell as we speak for meddling in partisan politics. He excommunicated his brethren christians if they voted for the Labour Party and to suffer the wrath of god. Thanks to progressive governments that medieval mentality has no effect anymore on the Maltese electorate.
I’m Sicilian and after you translated the first sentences I was able to make out roughly the second. I love Sicilian language Bc of its mixture and Maltese is the same. Beautiful languages.
This comment is amazing, as a Sicilian
Can you do a video on Finnish and Estonian? Or maybe the baltic languages like Lithuanian and Latvian?
YESSS
jah!
Jah! :-)
U mean the Uralic languages? Cuz Hungarian is interesting as well.
+Yunus Altintas Yeah i guess but the relationship between finnish and estonian is sort of interesting, in the way that finns can't understand even a bit of estonian but estonians understand finnish.
I am an Italian native speaker but don't know any arabic. Still I could grasp the meaning of the two examples you gave. That's really interesting, since I plan to learn arabic, I'm probably going to look Maltese up again later and maybe learn it.
Sergio Algoritmi holy shit I am an Arab I can understand the Arabic part of the sentence
Tell me your half I tell you mine 😂
Lol
Could you make a video about Basque? That'd be great. Btw greets from Turkey!
I've just discovered your channel now, and it's incredible because stories about languages have always interested me, it's the perfect channel!!
I'm from Algeria . I've heard Maltese before that . and I can say it's about 80% of Tunisian dialect . I can understand very well Maltese as is too close to Algeria Arabic . thank you for your video
@SeverityOne
I disagree with you comment, because Libyans speak Italian , Arabic and north African dialect .
Maltese is a mixture of Italian, Sicilian and north African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
انت رائع جدا. شرحك رهيب للغاية واحببته. عندك قدرة جميلة في الحفاظ على المشاهد. شكرا على المعلومات. حبيت اكتب بالعربية مش بالانجليزية علشان تقرأ.
ياسلام لما الواحد بيشوف لغته اديش بينسر.
Por supuesto, si obvio :v
Anthony Mendiola
That’s not the only method to write the Arabic Alphabet, didn’t you know about the Arabic calligraphy? It’s IMO the most beautiful calligraphy that I’ve ever seen
Then being honest isn’t by being rude
@Anthony Mendiola do you understand it though?
Yo he estado aprendiendo a leer en árabe y logro detectar la mayoría de las letras pero aún no me queda claro como leer las vocales no escritas (básicamente la e y la o) pero muchas veces las demás vocales no las escriben.
لقد تعلمت القراءة باللغة العربية وتمكنت من اكتشاف معظم الكلمات ولكن لا يزال من غير الواضح بالنسبة لي كيفية قراءة حروف العلة غير المكتوبة (أساسًا الحرفان e و o) ولكن في بعض الأحيان لا تكتب الحروف الساكنة الأخرى.
-The video could have been more fascinating if you had talked about the oldest literary text written in medieval Maltese: il- Kantilena, a poem whose words are entirely Arabic except for one word that comes from Sicillian or Italian (vintura). This text contains three words that do not exist in modern Maltese, but that still exist in the Arabic dialect spoken in Tunisia. So, as a Tunisian person, I strongly believe that learning Tunisian Arabic is indispensable for tracing the roots of the Maltese language.
- In the video, you mentioned that about a third of the Maltese vocabulary is Arabic. Well, I think this rate may be an underestimate.
- Another language that influenced Maltese vocabulary is Berber. Exapmles of Maltese words of Berber origin include: "fekruna" meaning "turtle", "lellux" which is commonly known in English as "pot marigold" (calendula officinalis), "awwissu" which is the month of August in Maltese, "gerżuma" i.e "throat", "Żebbuġ" which means "olive" or "olive tree", to name but a few. All the Berber words I have just mentioned are still used in Tunisian Arabic, except the last one i.e Żebbuġ, which is still used in some parts of Algeria to refer to huge olive trees.
- It may be surprising to learn that the Maltese people make use of Islamic terms to refer to Christian concepts and beliefs. The name of God is Maltese is almost the same as in Arabic( Alla in Maltese and Allah in Arabic). The Maltese present themselves as "nsara" which is a purely Islamic term which means "Christians". In fact, many Muslim scholars and jurisprudents use the word "nasara" to refer to Christians and prefer it to the word "مسيحيون". "Randan" is another term that is borrowed from Arabic. "Randan" means "Lent" in English and is almost the same as the Arabic word "Ramadan", a holy month during which Muslims abstain from eating, drinking and having sexual intercourse from sunrise to sunset.
- Most words related to religion in Maltese are derived from Arabic and are similarly used by Arab Christians. Examples are "raħeb" which means "monk" in English, "quddies" (Mass) "salib" (cross) etc..
Great comment and a great find regarding the Kantilena! I'm Maltese and I've widely researched the language and the history for application to music through my band Skorba. Here is a youtube I found about the Kantilena th-cam.com/video/9ZYuanofpVU/w-d-xo.html
بوراوي المصمودي تحليل رائع
Extremely enlightening! Thank you for the great effort!
Only, words such as "raħeb" are classified as archaic. Other words in this category include "ħatem" (ring) and "dafriet" (sweets). These words, including raħeb, can be found in the poem "Katrin tal-Imdina" by Dwardu Cachia. (It's a tragic poem relating to a woman who married the governor in medieval times and whose wedding was interrupted by an attack led by Muslim seaborne raiders, a common occurrence at the time. The raiders were fended off but not until the governor, who participated in the battle, was killed.)
يا هلا بأخوي تونسي
Hahahaha that’s insanely interesting ! I really felt it was Arabic somehow, but a completely incomprehensible one! Yet you’re so right about the latinized and Anglicized part, that makes it easier to interpret the Maltese language.
I’m glad you found it interesting!
super interesting!
I live in Luxembourg, I understand modern standard arabic (I learnt it in university) and my mother language is French. I once overheard a conversation in a bar and I was totally disturbed by a couple sitting to a table nearby because sometimes I could understand some full phrases in Arabic but I had the feeling that they were Italians trying to speak in Arabic with each other. At a given moment I was even thinking "maybe that's Egyptian"
not at all, there were actually speaking Maltese, I eventually asked them. One of the two worked in the European administration, the other one was visiting him.
Once i found out about Maltese, i was very surprised as a Tunisian ,it includes a lot of vocabulary from Tunisian dialect. love the video and keep up the good work Paul
Thats right
Reading Maltese is actually fun for someone who speaks Italian and has some knowledge of Arabic.
Your videos are great Paul! Thank you very much.
يبدو ان قصة المالطيين مثل قصة الموريكسيين في الاندلس ، حيث انهم اجبرو على ترك دينهم و لغتهم و ثقافتهم بعد سقوط الاندلس ، شكراً لصاحب القناة على بحثة في ثقافات و تاريخ الامم السابقة ، و اعتقد اني لو كتبت كلامي هذا بالاحرف الانجليزية سيفهمني المالطيين ، شكراً مجدداً لصاحب القناة
Wow, I learned Moroccan Arabic as a Peace Corps Volunteer, and I completely understood those sentences! Freaky! By the way, if you live in NYC, there is a Maltese/Egyptian bakery in Astoria, Queens, NY that is awesome. The staff are Maltese and Arab, and I always had coffee and sweets when I lived there in 2013 (I live in work in Istanbul, Turkey now). I hope its still there.
I'm Moroccan and understood it as well. But, you'll be more surprised if you got in touch with Tunisians and West Libyan speakers. Their dialects are more similar to the Maltese.
I'm sicilian and have studied Arabic (including some dialects) and speak English. Just started studying Maltese and was so surprised when I realised I could understand most of it.
Why would you waste your time learning Arabic? Do you want to marry a Muslim !!
I'm an Energy Policy Analyst based in Istanbul and Dubai.
rjg0483 I'm atheist Arab!! Duh
Not all Arab are Muslims + not all Arabic speakers are Arab Muslim!!
Arab Muslims are very small population in Muslims world
As a Tunisian, I understand most of it. I don't speak Italian, I only know the loan words we use, but I do speak French and Spanish which makes me recognize the words. The structure of the sentences is more like Tunisian Arabic than standard Arabic, I confirm :)
+Haifa Bouajaja Hola, entonces...
+killerosito Entonces, I just shared my opinion on how well can a Tunisian understand Maltese. Did you expect anything else?
+Bettencourt Ahhh I see now :p Sorry Spanish is my 4th language, I didn't get to learn more about cultural things ;) Now I know, thank you ^^
Also Libyan, Tripolitanian Libyan to be exact, also Lebanese to some extent. I used to work for the CIA in Algeria, I did some missions in Malta, the Libyan influence is definitely noticeable more than the Tunisian.
اهلا انا سعودي وقاعد اتعلم فرنسي لاحظت كثير من المغرب العربي يعرفون اسباني ايش السبب وهي ماكانت مستعمره او شي ؟
Excellent video. Thanks. One of my friends that teaches me Arabic shared this video on Facebook!
+Reul McG Thanks! And say thanks to your friend for sharing!
close to 50.000 subscribers :) .. that's quite funny. Watching this in 2023 and you reached almost 1.5 Million subscribers! Nice job
I'm Arab from Kuwait & I can understand Maltese words & numbers easily
Rabat & al Mudina cities in Malta are Arabic names too
^_^
i had the same observation
Elegant منافقون تزعمون صعوبة فهم المغرب العربي و تصرحون بفهم لغة أجنبية
Imdina not Mudina.. x'illostja qed thawwad siehbi?
@@imedbenzahra5653
هههههخهههههههههههههههخاي
I am a native speaker of Arabic and I also speak Spanish and English very fluently, plus I have a very advanced level in French. I understood 95% of both sentences. I think I should read an article on Wikipedia in Maltese to see if I really speak that language. :D
That's cool same here! Are u from the Maghreb countries?
+Princess arabella Yeah, I'm from Libya. By the way, I read an article about Malta in Maltese on Wikipedia and I understood about 85% of the first paragraph.
Oh wow! I'm Libyan too😇✌🏽️
Princess arabella اهلا بك. غريب جدا ان ارى شخص ليبي مهتم بالغات و الثقافات الاوروبية. ضفني على الفيسبوك: Nas Kapkara
+GamelutioN اسفه ماعندي فيس بوك و شكرا لك😇
Thanks as a Maltese, I found this very interesting. :)
Pierre Portelli fuck il qhab ta Malta!!
بالصدفة وقعت على القناة
محتوى رائع جدا
اشكرك على هذا الشرح والمجهود
تحية لك من السعودية 🇸🇦
I have just a comment. I am tunisian, and i can understand Maltese. In the example with "Migration Reform must include the principle of Solidarity", you explained the T on "tinkludi", and you said this T is because of the voyle before... It is not because of that. On the tunisian dialect we conjugate verbs for "he/she/it" by adding a T on the beginning.
Second remark, you translated "tad-dinja" with "In the world" but it is "of the world" , "taa" is the possessif article.
Very goog video, i like your videos
Moudhafer Salhi we do that in morocco too
Yes, I was just about to give the same explanation. "Tinkludi" means either "you (one person) include" or "she, it (feminine noun) includes". There is no infinitive in Maltese so instead of "I need to do" or "I want to do" you say "I need I do" or "I want I do", and similarly with other verbs. I used to learn Maltese but have forgotten most of it. And another thing: solidarjetà has accent on the final vowel.
Presicely.
This is one of the most coherent videos which purport to explain odd phenomena - and much of language fits that description, in my opinion - that I have seen. You have covered the history well, and your description of Maltese is to the point. I will look at a few other videos, and if your standard remains high, I will subscribe.
As a Tunisian who spent quite some time in Malta, I find that your video makes perfect sense and is indeed very accurate. Thanks !
I really enjoyed this introduction to the Maltese language. In the late 1970's I lived in north London among many recent Maltese immigrants; I found them to be very warm-hearted, generous people, and I loved hearing their rather 'exotic' language - without learning Maltese, I could, nevertheless, pick out many recognizable words, such as il-negozjant (the businessman), il-pittur (the painter), il-gazzetta (the newspaper), and many others. Thanks for this very clear overview, Paul!
من القصص اللطيفة استاذي ...
أن وفدا من مالطا ذهب للكويت للتفاوض على مع الكويتيين على قرض ...
في الإجتماع. ... تساءل الكويتيون بالعربية -فيما يبنهم- ، هل تظنون أنهم قادرون على سداد القرض ...
المفاجأة كانت ... أن المالطيين ... ردوا عليهم بالعربية ... نعم نستطيع ...
ضحك الكويتيون لغرابة الموقف ... ثم وافقوا على القرض ... ^_^
..ادخلوا ع قناتي...
هههههههه
مارح يفهموك ترا .. حتى بترجمة مايصلح
شدخل الكويتيين
If you think us maltese understand what you just wrote, we do not. To us that just looks like a bunch of scribbles
Basically, I understood 100% of it. No Italian prior knowledge, just my mother tongue; tunisian arabic
That's because of your English knowledge. Many of the Maltese words borrowed from Italian include formal Latin-based words, which had already transferred into use in English in the second millenium, anyway, through biblical, French and then Renaissance-Reformation/Early Modern & Industrial & Modern & Postmodern word coinage mostly based on Latin.
@@bn56would he lies as a tunisian even a garbage worker understand 50% italian because we had in the past only two tv channels tunisian tv and rai uno and we speak french so italian is a cake for us
I think Arabic is one of the most beautiful language, anyway Maltese Langauage sounds very nice, thank you for this nice video.
Italian is very beautiful too
@@beastvader you are aboslutely an arab from the middle east who always feels a complex of inferiroty toward europeans;.in tunisia we do not have that complex at all since we have common history in the med sea .
@@chawquee tf!🤣
Amazing! I am Tunisian and I don't know Italian, but I can understand 80% of the language! Thanks for the good content!
Tu es un mytho
Maltese is a mixture of Italian, Sicilian and north African dialect of Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco.
In Spain I met someone and then he talked with he's friend, and I understand many of the words and when I asked him what this language Hebrew?
he answer Why? I told him I understood some of the words I speak Arabic
Then he anger and he said I speak Maltese and there's no relationship with Arabic !!
i don't know Why he becaome anger but all languge loan from each other
so i googled malltese and im here
( sorry 4 my bad english )
FA
Im arabic native speaker.
those two words are shown frist one content alot of arabic words.
i could understand what word mean but not all the language because it isolated from arabic so you know what happen.
..
hebrew or عبري and arabic or عربي
are semintic language so you will find similarity anyway.
it easy to me to learn.
😊
If the Arabs were what Europe or Western are now! That Maltese person would’ve been so proud of his Arabic influence! It just shows that the Arabs or Islamic civilization dominated the world in history!
We actually are from arabic descent. Irrelevant if that angry bastard was angry. The truth is Arabs occupied Malta.
Maybe he was angry because he had to fart but found no empty place to do it . So he just farted silently and went out fast
I'm an italian native speaker and I can't get everything but generally can understand the topic. Some words are pretty much the same in italian. In fact it sounds like a really strange and curious language to me and, I believe, to all italians, because it seems like one's speaking arabic and suddenly starts speaking italian at certain moments! Great video as always!
ha ha ... i am Arabian from Syria , and i feel like you!
ha ha ... i am Arabian from Syria , and i feel like you!
+Trust totally agree with u..I understand Arabic and suddenly Italian words appears ..it's so interesting .italian language is beautiful still
+Trust I don't even speak arabic or italian, but that is what I feel too. (Although I can understand a fair bit of Italian for being a portuguese speaker)
I'm moroccan, with fluency in English and Italian and I have always been fascinated by how close Maltese is to Moroccan Arabic. Great video by the way you got a subscriber : Keep it up !
+TheLordHWotton As a precision for my Tunisian Friends: I never said that of all the north African dialects Maltese was closest to Moroccan. After lending my ear to a few Maltese podcasts, Tunisian seems to be the closest dialect to Maltese Arabic, but it doesn't make the fact any less amazing !
Nacer Your mother
@@TheLordHWotton
je ne suis pas d'accord avec toi Le maltais est un mélange d'italien, de dialecte sicilien et de darija nord-africaine d'Algérie, de Libye, de Tunisie et du Maroc.
La darija nord-africaine est un arabe mélangé à des mots étrangers provenant d'Italie, d'Espagne, de France et de langues berbères.
@@magrebinoberbero C'est vrai, mais le commentaire d'origine ne disait pas qu'il s'agissait uniquement de dialect marocain, il disait simplement que cela ressemblait au marocain, c'est effectivement un mélange de dialectes.
si nous parlons de la langue maltaise moderne parlée aujourd'hui, la source historique du vocabulaire maltais moderne est de 52 % d'italien/sicilien, 32 % de siculo-arabe et 6 % d'anglais, une partie du reste étant du français.
Love this video cuz i love languages, im tunisian and yes its very similar to tunisian dialect, of course full of italian, word and mixes that makes it unique and funny, you makes me wanna visit Malta soon
as a tunisian from gafsa, north tunisian dialect sounds so different to me and I was shocked when I first heard it. we share a hybrid dialect from algerians next to us and from north tunisians
So basically Maltese is a Semitic language in the same way that English is a Germanic language.
Wow that's accurate
Maltese is probably closer to Arabic itself than English is to German, no?
Yeah except English and German isn’t as close and it’s harder to understand
@@mbh4575 No it's not. Pretty much , all the words introduced after AD 1070 were of mostly Sicilian and of other European origin.
@@marioformosa4259 That's irrelevant to what I said. That Maltese has loanwords from other languages doesn't make it closer to those than English is to German. Arabic speakers can understand Maltese because many of the words are he same, the same can't be said for German and English at all.
Wow! I had no idea. I thought it was a dialect of Italian. Cool! A Semitic-Indo-European hybrid? Cool I now want it to be added to Duolingo ^_^
It wasn't the fatimids who conquered Sicily. It was conquered previously by the Aghlabids. The Fatimids conquered it from them later on.
Its true.its aghaliba
I am Sicilian and I have always been curious to learn where Maltese language comes from. This the best explanation I've found so far, love the timeline!
as a sicilian do you understand some degree of maltese ?
@@العقيدمعمرالقذافي-ح4ف It really depends as a Sicilian myself. Usually not because the Arabic vocabulary is roughly taken while the Sicilian loanwords have had a vowel change so they might sound Italian (U coming back to an O for example or an I becoming an E)
Loved the video.
And since you asked: during my teens I grew up speaking Italian in Egypt, even though I'm from Argentina. Having now heard a few samples of Maltese, I can say I mostly hear the following correlations:
-verbs, pronouns, numbers, some adverbs, and some adjectives are Arabic.
-most nouns some adverbs, and some adjectives are Italian-ish.
-and a few words of French/English sprinkled here and there, mostly nouns.
Let's say that I understand about 70% since my Arabic isn't as good as my Italian.
very great presentation you have the knowledge of history and dynamics of evolving languages
a friend sent me a video from your channel and I'm instantly hooked... thanks so much! very interesting! I speak 3 languages BTW
Cool! Thanks for coming to have a look! :)
I was watching Malta's Got Talent, when I heard the language spoken , I definitely heard Arabic and Italian words. Then there were other words that I couldn't identify. I became interested to learn how 2 very divergent languages blended into such a hybrid. I appreciate your history lesson.🙏🏼👍
So close to Algerian dialect, I could pretty much understand everything before you even translated it!
I am Sudanese and Arab, and this is my first day when I hear the Maltese language and I have understood many of its phrases ... and this is what made me surprised
I speak Arabic and i was able to understand the first sentence with almost no effort ! awesome , i never thought i knew Maltese ! totally adding it to my CV ;) thnks
+bilal green Yeah I wouldn't - in the UK my barbers are Arabs and when I spoke to them in Maltese they didn't understand enough to make a complete conversation. They did understand basic words.
+ElKonjato were your barbers north Africans or middle eastern Arabs ? because that makes a great difference, as said in the video.
+bilal green Libyans - they also knew were Malta was (obviously since they are our neighbours). When they spoke amongst themselves - I had no clue what they were saying.
+ElKonjato I think it would take from me less than a week to learn your language .. I saw some videos of maltese songs for kids and I could understand more than 80% of the lyrics :D
ElKonjato even your nickname is Arabic 😂
El Konyato الكنية which means in Arabic the title ✌🏼😁
Love it I’m from KSA
I never would believe such a smart people like you. Thank you sir you are amazing
I think "Gappun" might be an Italian loan word, based on "Giappone"; the Arabic word for Japan is "Yaban"
Close to French as well Japon
Imtinan Haddad close to romanian as Well "Japonia"
in tunisia we say "jappoun" for the country and "jappouni" for the person or object
Golden Phoenix Japan = Yaban in modern Arabic (middle east)
But in classic standard Arabic it's Belad El waqwaq :) بلاد الوقواق اسم اليابان القديم بالعربية الفصحى
Im maltese and it is
I was so scared that you wouldn't talk about the Tunisian - Maltese relationship. So from a Tunisian speaker: Yes we understand Maltese, because it sounds similar (the phonetic of course) due to the fact I never studied MSA (I live abroad) I can't understand middle eastern dialects and I tend to understand more Maltese. We have many Italian loan words but only Tunisian with Italian heritage like me can claim to understand some spoken Italian because we use more Italian words than a French descend Tunisian who tend to use french words instead. But yes we understand Maltese and I speak in Tunisian with my Maltese friends and they respond in Maltese and let's say we can understand each other 80% of the time. Thanks for talking about Tunisia and Tunisian :D !
PS: Moroccan would be a bad choice if you aim to understand Maltese, I barely understand them. Their language / dialect is very harsh with pronunciation
+Cosmo Aero V2 Ana meghribi w kanfhem la majorité del Maltiya w kanl9a ga3 chi properties mochatarakin bin Darija d-Lmaghrib w Lmaltiya bla maykounou f Dzayriya w Tounsiya; machi za3ma Moroccan Darija a9rab logha lel maltiya walakin 7it had lloghat ttewrou f nefss l-contexte géolinguistique w développaw des similarités m3a ba3diyathoum, momkin bezzaf tkon kathdar l-Maghribiya w b-jouhd sghir tfhem Lmaltiya khoussousan fel 7ala dyal lehjat d chamal d-Lmeghrib. Amma dik l9diya dyal "harsh pronounciation", hadak ghir dialecte li kaydouz bezzaf f les médias (li howa dyal Casablanca w nawa7i dyalha) w zid 3lih dialecte dyal char9 w chi w7din khrin.
Netmenna tkoun fhamtini :P . Ta7iya l Tounes w nas Tounes a3az nass ! N7abkoum bezzaf w yasser w barcha :D
+Cosmo Aero V2 WoW. can you really not understand Mideastern dialects of Arabic?? I thought that we (middle easterners ) speak in a dialect very close to stander Arabic (Fuss-ha).
Hani bek No I can't, it is really hard
Even Egyptian or Lebanese?
Are there a lot of italian descendents in Tunisia?
Nice vídeo, as Always! I suggest you to make a vídeo about ameridian languages (quéchua,navajo,guarani,nheengatu,cheroqee,aymara etc)
I speak fluent Arabic and multiple Arabic dialects and today I discovered That I speak Maltese and for 48 yeas I never no that until today.
This reminds me of my kids who speak English with some Arabic vocabularies such as “ Say Wallah” meaning you swear to God “ or my father is Zaalan and he doesn’t yehep hada. Im going to akra with the Shaikh. Kefek brother . Maltese has Arabic Structure but some English, French and Italian vocabularies as well as Arabic. Thank you very much. grazzi hafna
Hello Paul, Nice Video.
I would like to suggest you to make a video about the Pirahã language. They are a brazilian tribe from Amazonia, for what I have listen their language has no concept of time, fixed colors, numbers and even recursion (the concept of expressing things in terms of itself). I think it would make a good theme for a video.
This is such an interesting language. I'm Georgian myself and hope to one day learn Maltese, as daunting as it might seem
ნაკოტო შაჰონ what language do you speak
Other than Georgian I speak Russian, English and kinda Japanese as well.
ნაკოტო შაჰონ Japanese is very similar to Georgian grammatically or not?
dar gon Unfortunately there isnt a single similar thing between Japanese and Georgian. Georgian language has its own, Kartvelian family which makes it look like almost alien to everyone, both grammatically and in writing tex as well
If I one day learn Georgian, could I then easily learn Swanetian and Mingrelian??
Maltese is the only Semitic language that uses Latin alphabet.
I’m Maltese and I can tell you, we can’t understand arabic. Maybe a word here and there but not nearly enough to figure out what is being said. And yes we do use the latin alphabet. The arabic alphabet just looks like a bunch of lines put together to me, not like letters.
I do however know that most arabs can understand us. It’s kinda freaky how they can understand us but we can’t.
@@some1156 i was once on a train in the netherlands and i saw a guy and a girl talking to each other it sounded like they where talking tunisian ..but then a again not.while leaving i had to ask them "are you maltese?" They said yes.
mahjoub Maltese is not spoken like the accent of the guy in the video. He pronounced the words in an arabic accent whilst Maltese is spoken in almost like an italian accent .
@@some1156 well hearing maltese as a tunisian it sounds so familiar to me but then again not.. its like italian pronounced with a tunisian flavour and finished of with a bit of english..as a tunisian i just watched some maltese soaps and i could understand some of it,a little but i really like the language
mahjoub I just watched a documentary in tunisian as well to see how you feel. Yea I understood some words here and there but overall their accents are too hard to grasp for me