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Maltese language
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Alternative Title:Malti language
Maltese language, MalteseMalti,Semitic language of the Southern Central group spoken on the island ofMalta. Maltese developed from adialect ofArabic and is closely related to the western Arabicdialects ofAlgeria andTunisia. Strongly influenced by the Sicilian language (spoken inSicily), Maltese is the only form of Arabic to be written in theLatin alphabet.
Learn Morein these related Britannica articles:
Malta: LanguageMaltese and English are the official languages of Malta as well as official languages of the EU. Maltese resulted from the fusion of North African Arabic and a Sicilian dialect of Italian. It is the only Semitic language officially written in Latin script. English is…
Semitic languagesSemitic languages , languages that form a branch of the Afro-Asiatic language phylum. Members of the Semitic group are spread throughout North Africa and Southwest Asia and have played preeminent roles in the linguistic and cultural landscape of the Middle East for more than 4,000 years.…- Malta
Malta , island country located in the central Mediterranean Sea. A small but strategically important group of islands, the archipelago has through its long and turbulent history played a vital role in the struggles of a succession of powers for domination of the Mediterranean and in the interplay between emerging Europe…
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Maltese language
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