Maltese is a unique language that intricately blends elements of Arabic, Italian, and English.

It’s the only Semitic language in the world that’s written entirely in the Latin alphabet.

Understanding how Maltese relates to Arabic and Italian helps explain why the language sounds so familiar yet entirely distinct.

This guide breaks down the exact similarities and differences between these three languages.

The roots of the Maltese language

Maltese evolved from Siculo-Arabic, an Arabic dialect spoken in Sicily and Malta hundreds of years ago.

Over time, Malta became physically and culturally isolated from the rest of the Arabic-speaking world.

The island was later ruled by various European powers, bringing a massive influx of Romance languages.

This historical timeline resulted in a base Semitic language heavily layered with Italian, Sicilian, and English words.

Because of this rich history, Maltese serves as a fascinating linguistic bridge between North Africa and Southern Europe.

Maltese vs Arabic: the grammar and core vocabulary

Maltese grammar is almost entirely Arabic in its structure.

If you study Maltese verb conjugations, you’ll instantly recognize the Semitic root system.

Core vocabulary words like numbers, body parts, family members, and basic verbs are heavily Arabic in origin.

For example, the Maltese word for “dog” is kelb, which is exactly the same as it is in Arabic.

Despite this structural similarity, Maltese completely abandoned the Arabic script.

Instead, it uses the Latin alphabet with a few special characters like ċ, ġ, ħ, and ż.

Here are a few basic Arabic-origin words in Maltese:

Maltese vs Italian: the modern vocabulary influence

While the grammatical structure is Arabic, a massive portion of Maltese vocabulary comes from Italian and Sicilian.

Linguistic estimates suggest that roughly half of the Maltese dictionary consists of Romance loanwords.

These Italian words are mostly used for modern concepts, education, art, law, and technology.

For example, the Maltese word for “school” is skola, coming directly from the Italian word scuola.

Maltese simply takes these Italian words and adapts them to fit its own spelling and pronunciation rules.

Here’s a look at some common Italian-origin words in Maltese:

Can Maltese, Arabic, and Italian speakers understand each other?

Mutual intelligibility between these three languages is actually quite low.

An Italian speaker listening to Maltese will quickly recognize many nouns and adjectives.

However, they’ll be completely lost when it comes to the grammar, verbs, and sentence structure.

An Arabic speaker, particularly from Tunisia or Libya, will have an easier time understanding basic spoken Maltese.

They’ll easily recognize the core sentence framework and basic action verbs.

As soon as the Maltese speaker starts using Italian or English loanwords, the Arabic speaker will struggle to keep up.

Maltese speakers generally can’t understand spoken Italian or Arabic unless they’ve explicitly studied those languages.

Let’s look at a simple phrase in Maltese to see this linguistic blend in action:

In this phrase, the greeting bonġu comes from the French or Italian word for good morning.

Meanwhile, the second half of the phrase kif int illum is purely Arabic in origin.

Best resources to learn Maltese

If you want to master this fascinating language, you need to use the right study tools.

Because Maltese is a smaller language, finding high-quality learning materials can be difficult.

Here’s a short list of the best resources available for learners today.

Talk In Maltese is the absolute best platform for learning the language.

Our platform provides comprehensive audio, vocabulary lists, and grammar guides specifically designed for beginners.

You’ll learn the natural, spoken language exactly as it’s used in Malta today.