1 Is Maltese Similar to Italian?

Maltese and Italian don’t belong to the same language family. Maltese (Malti in Maltese) is a Semitic language, which means that it is related to languages like Arabic and Hebrew. Italian is a Romance language derived from Latin, the same as Spanish, French and Portuguese.

Taking this into account, you won’t be able to transfer much of your knowledge of Italian grammar to start learning Maltese. Despite this grammatical hurdle, Maltese and Italian do share something important: vocabulary.

Due to Malta’s history and geographical location, Italian and Sicilian (a Romance language spoken on the island of Sicily) have historically influenced the Maltese language. As a result, a large proportion of words in Maltese derive from either Italian or Sicilian.

Your journey in learning Maltese will become easier when you learn how to turn an Italian word into Maltese. Just be aware that these methods don’t work all the time!

2 Understanding Maltese Orthography?

-Gn- and -gli- patterns

-Gn- can become either -nn or -nj- and -gli- can become either -ll or -lj-.

If the Maltese word drops the final consonant and you’re left with a -gn- or -gli- and nothing follows it, they will become -nn and -ll:

If -gn- and -gli- are between vowels they will become -nj- and -lj- in Maltese:

Soft -sc- patterns

Soft -sc- becomes -xx- between vowels and -x- at the beginning of words:

3 Check Your Endings

Taking into account the spelling changes above it would be useful for you to learn about how to turn Italian suffixes into Maltese. This will help you further increase your Maltese vocabulary.

4 Plurals In Maltese

When it comes to making a word plural in Italian you have to follow a set of rules. Maltese also has various ways of pluralising words.

If a Maltese word derives from Italian, you just change the last vowel to an -i, add an -i or -ijiet if the word ends in a consonant. Let’s see some examples:

In Italian, words that end in an accented vowel stay the same in the plural form. In Maltese, you add -jiet:

Some words change completely, becoming what is known as a broken plural, a common feature found in Semitic languages:

5 Romance Verbs In Maltese

Maltese has also borrowed many verbs from Italian. Still, conjugating a verb in Maltese is very different from Italian. In Maltese, you keep the stem of the verb, which is the verb in the past and the 3rd person. Then you add a prefix and/or suffix to the verb:

n-, t-, j-, t-, n- -u (or w if the verb ends in a vowel), t- -u (or w if the verb ends in a vowel), j- -u (or w if the verb ends in a vowel)

Present tense

Taking this into account, let’s learn how to conjugate a verb in the present tense:

Future tense

If you want to express the future you just add se before the verb in the present:

Past tense

The verb in the past will take the following verb endings: -jt, -jt, -, -t, -jna, -jtu, -w

So the process of conjugating the verb in the past is as follows.

6 Words From Romance Languages In Maltese

Maltese vocabulary is composed of words from different origins. The three main components are Semitic (words derived from Arabic), Romance (words derived from Italian, Sicilian and French) and Germanic (derived from English). Each of these lexical components of Maltese is more prominent in different areas of the spoken and written language.

You will notice that Romance vocabulary features more prominently in words belonging to politics, economy and society. Many terms are reminiscent of those used in Standard Italian:

Continents, countries and cities

Names of continents, countries and cities are usually derived directly from Italian as you can see below:

*cardinal points in Maltese are Semitic in origin

The periodic table

The same occurs with the periodic table which takes Italian as its linguistic reference: Here are the first ten elements:

Different origins, different synonyms

Due to the richness of Maltese vocabulary, you can at times find that certain terms have different synonyms coming from different linguistic origins. Here are some examples:

7 Immerse Yourself In Linguistic History

Maltese is a language with a rich history and is most certainly a clear reflection of its position between Europe and North Africa.

Despite their differences, you can still pick out specific linguistic patterns to be able to transfer your knowledge of Italian to start developing your Maltese language skills.

Learn Maltese to immerse yourself and experience the history of the Mediterranean!