Everyone knows about such a beautiful and picturesque island – Malta. But what language is spoken in Malta? Let’s look at this issue in more detail.
Maltese is recognized as the official language of the island of Malta. English is also considered an additional official language. By the way, the Maltese language is included in the group of official languages of the European Union.
Maltese is the language of the Semitic family of the Afro-Asiatic (Semitic-Hamitic) micro-group of languages. It resembles the Arabic language in its lexical and phonetic sound, especially being very close to the Maghreb dialect.
Currently recognized as a separate language, which has its own syntactic, phonetic and lexical features.
The number of Maltese speakers is over 370,000.
In general, the status of the official language, the Maltese language acquired thanks to the corresponding article of the constitution of the island of Malta.
According to the state constitution, Maltese and English, as well as other languages that may be approved by the Parliament, must be recognized as the official languages of the island of Malta.
Therefore, in their work, the administration of the island can use them when drawing up any documents, but on condition that the administration received a request from a citizen. Therefore, the answer to a question from a resident of the country must be written in the same language in which the questioner addressed.
Maltese is the language of legal proceedings. But taking into account the fact that the country’s parliament will be able to create a resolution in which the court will use English.
Due to the fact that both English and Maltese are spoken on the island, the inhabitants of the island of Malta are bilingual.
The Maltese language is commonly used in everyday life, when working in parliament, in churches, as well as in the media and on the virtual network. In colloquial speech, there is a mixture of English with Maltese.
Due to the fact that Maltese is recognized as the official language of the European Union, all EU documents must be translated into it.
Also in the virtual network there is even a Maltese version of the official page of the European Union. Maltese is also spoken in Australia.
