Arabic origins, Sicilian and Italian vocabulary and a strong influence of English are the characteristics of an original European language with a long history: Maltese. Situated in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, Malta and Gozo present an intriguing linguistic picture. Although they are nearer to Sicily (93 km) than to Tunisia (288 km) and Libya (355 km), the Catholic, culturally and genetically European inhabitants still speak a language that is basically a variety of Arabic spoken in (.)
Saverio Laferla, the first Maltese to have produced complete statues of kartapesta (papier-mâché), was born on this day 325 years ago. This signifi
During the two-year (1962-64) teachers’ training course at St Michael’s College of Education, my special subjects were Italian and Maltese. Lecturin
On the first day of 1759, a Monday, Rev Dr Ignazio Saverio Mifsud – an erudite preacher who left all the sermons and panegyrics he wrote to our National Library in Valletta [see Joe Zammit Ciantar, Il-Priedki bil-Malti ta’ Ignazio Saverio Mifsud, Malta 2008] – starts his Giornale Maltese [a sort of a diary, National Library of Malta, MS 13, pp. 1 and 2] by giving details on how much money he used to give to relatives, neighbours and friends on the occasion of L-Istrina.
He writes: “Il solito tributo delle mancie, detto La Strena. .tari trenta. scudo uno. dieci .; alla serva della Sig.ra Teresa. quattro; al figlio di un cugino… tari due; alla serva della Sig.ra Rosa. tari otto; alla figliola.”. [‘The usual donation of tips, called La Strena. . tarì 30 . scudo one . 10 .; to Mrs Teresa’s servant. four; to the son of a cousin… tarì two; to Mrs Rosa’s servant . tarì eight; to the daughter of.’]