Maltese language

High school (ages 12+)
People & Society

Name:

Date:

Step 1 · Read the article

Open the article and read it at the level above. Then answer the questions below in your own words.

https://smallwhale.org/articles/maltese-language

Write what each word means, using the article.

Do not copy the article. Write two things you learned, the way you would explain them to a friend.

Answers below are taken from the article’s stored facts, so they match what the student read.

1. What is the language origin?Derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic, with North African Arabic dialect roots
2. What is the primary script?Latin script, used consistently since the late Middle Ages
3. Why does Maltese use the Latin alphabet instead of Arabic letters?When Europeans influenced Malta, people began writing Maltese with Latin letters, and this way of writing stayed in use ever since.
4. Where did Maltese come from?Maltese started as a North African Arabic dialect that arrived in Malta in the 9th century and later mixed with Italian and English.

Central Semitic languages: A subgroup of Semitic languages that includes Arabic, Hebrew, and Aramaic.
Sicilian Arabic: An extinct Arabic dialect spoken in Sicily and Malta from the 9th to the 13th centuries.
Diglossia: A situation where two distinct varieties of a language are used by a single language community.
Afroasiatic languages: A large language family originating in Northeast Africa and Southwest Asia, including Semitic, Berber, and Egyptian languages.