Languages and language varieties in Malta

Abstract

Maltese, the national language of Malta, is, without doubt, the dominant language of most Maltese in most domains of language use in Malta. It however shares official status with English, which is also in regular use. Most Maltese can, in fact, be said to be bilingual to differing degrees. This article begins by providing some background information and a brief outline of the geographical and historical origins of Maltese. This separate ‘entity’ – one which also has its own dialects – has developed by melding elements from different sources. The internal heterogeneity of Maltese can be seen to be a reflection of the complex external situation of language use on the Islands. Official bilingualism in fact gives rise to a rich linguistic context of use within which Maltese speakers, bilingual and/or bidialectal to different degrees, operate. The notion of a continuum of use is employed as a means of explaining the complex linguistic behaviour of bilingual Maltese speakers. The effects of regular use of English alongside Maltese on the English of speakers of Maltese are also discussed briefly.

Keywords:

• bidialectal
• crosslinguistic influence
• domain
• status
• continuum

Notes

1. Maltese is also spoken by first, as well as, to a lesser extent, second and third-generation emigrants living in large expatriate communities such as those in Australia and New Zealand, Canada, the UK and the USA. It is also the home language, even if not always the dominant one, of smaller but linguistically interesting communities which have taken up residence, usually for professional reasons, in or around the two cities, Brussels and Luxembourg, in which the European Union institutions hold their seat (cf. Bonnici 2011 for interesting preliminary work on language use amongst children growing up in Luxembourg). Figures for the number of expatriates who use Maltese actively and/or have passive knowledge of it are not available, but cf. http://www.malteseabroad.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=category&layout=blog&id=47&Itemid=58 (accessed December 12, 2011) (Borg and Borg-Manché 2010).

2. Available at: http://www.nso.gov.mt/docs/Census2005_Vol1.pdf (accessed January 19, 2012).

3. Constitution of Malta, http://www.constitution.org/cons/malta/chapt0.pdf (accessed December 12, 2011).

4. References to work by Alexander Borg are made using his first name as well as his surname; those to work by Albert Borg are made using only his surname.

5. The Council of Europe's policy on pluriligualism is available at: http://www.coe.int/t/dg4/linguistic/division_EN.asp (accessed April 30, 2012).

6. Some of the details in this section are based on information provided in the European Journalism Centre's website entry on Malta at http://www.ejc.net/media_landscape/article/malta/ (accessed December 12, 2011).

7. A total of 31 hours per week of Campus FM transmission time consist of in-house productions (Celaine Buhagiar, Programmes Coordinator, personal communication).

8. Where provided, glosses are presented in italics.