Maltese language – is it thriving or slowly disappearing?
As the only semitic language written in Latin alphabet, Maltese offers a rich blend between history, culture and identity. But in an increasingly bilingual nation, questions arise about its future.
For many people, Malta is just a Mediterranean Island in the middle of Europe. However, walking through the streets of Valletta, Sliema, or Victoria, you hear both familiar and unfamiliar language spoken by the locals. Maltese has over 450.000 native speakers and reflects centuries of cultural exchange between Europe, Africa, and the Mediterranean. Maltese is a Semitic language because it developed largely from Arabic, but it’s written in the Latin alphabet due to its influence from Italian and English.
Reading of an essay in Maltese by the writer Klara Vassallo. She talks about her personal journey and process after finding out about a feminicide in Malta.
In Malta, there are two official languages: English, which was established when the island was part of the UK in the 18th century, and the national and native language, Maltese. According to the European Language Knowledge statistics, Maltese is the first language of around 94% of the people living in Malta, but English is used for education and seen as the prestige language.
At the University of Malta, almost all of the five hundred courses are offered in English, those students who attend lectures in Maltese are studying something related to the language.
Nathan Pace and Martina Trapani are two students of Maltese Language and Literature. Both of them were raised with a mix of English and Maltese. However, they chose to take their bachelor in the language of their country, which they think is beautiful and unique.
They are aware that, among young people, the language is slowly being replaced by English.
We just choose to speak English and then speak Maltese when we consciously do it, because unconsciously we kind of speak English for some reason
He explains that sometimes Maltese is associated with some negative prejudices, like being considered a lower-class language. “Speaking outright in English makes people feel of more social status”, he says. For him, it is important to make “a conscious decision to lift Maltese from the prejudices it has even in its own country”.
Martina Trapani thinks that the “lack of respect” for the language is one of its main challenges right now. She believes that “there’s a possibility of Maltese being replaced by English in a few years or decades” and says that is important to embrace it because “it’s unique and it managed to survive despite many Colonizations.”
Trapani attributes the use of English to the consumption of media in this language: “Sometimes I end up speaking in English, because I find it easier to express myself, because I watch so much media in English”.
While most of the media remains primarily in Maltese, English also plays a significant role. The most consumed online news platform on the Island, Times of Malta, is written in English. Furthermore, according to all the interviewees, younger generations prefer to consume news, digital content, and entertainment in English, which can become a threat for the Maltese Language in the years that follow.
Pace and Trapani agree that there should be an effort from Maltese content creators to speak in Maltese and embrace the language. “Young people use a lot of social media, speaking Maltese on Reels and YouTube would probably help them speak the language. They would see Maltese being used in different contexts, and they would think, ‘Okay, it’s cool to speak Maltese, and there are fun things to watch in Maltese’,” says Nathan Pace.
Both students were encouraged to speak Maltese from a young age by their families and teachers. However, times have changed, and Pace and Trapani argue that now most children are encouraged to speak English at school and in public places, as it provides them more opportunities for the future.
Although Maltese should be the official language of the country, it seems that they are discouraged from speaking it in academic settings.
Klara Vassallo is a Maltese poet and writer. She also works as a teacher and has observed that her students speak less and less Maltese. She attributes that to English content in social media, as well as the intake of Maltese coming from their homes. “Parents are now seeing that their children cannot speak their native language, and that is where they start to panic”, she says. She believes that, if this situation doesn’t change, “Maltese speakers will become a few to none”.
Some non-governmental groups and organizations are working towards better protection of the language. The Department of Maltese at the University of Malta is trying to make the language reachable and standardized for everyone through the creation of an online dictionary.
“We are a small department working on a project that many other countries would have an army of researchers working on,” explains Adrian Grima, professor of Maltese and head of the Department of Maltese at the University of Malta.
This dictionary will not only be a good help for those interested in learning Maltese, but it will also be an investment in the country's education system, its identity, and the digital presence of the language.
Michael Spagnol, Bradley Cachia, and Dwayne Ellul are planning to put the first 50,000 words, pronunciation, recordings, and definitions online within 3 years, expecting to make it even larger in the future.
On the other hand, according to the creators of the project, this dictionary will also give job opportunities for people with degrees in Maltese Language and contribute to the technological development of the Island.
When finished, it will be the first online National Dictionary of Maltese, accessible from any device. The first version of the project will be presented on the 19th of this month in the University building in Valletta, where the linguists hope to find people to fund their project.
Nevertheless, Adrian Grima believes that this is not enough, and the language needs to be protected and promoted with a proper national language policy, which doesn’t exist in the country at the moment.
Despite Maltese being spoken by almost everyone on the Island as their first language, there are just four laws or dispositions protecting it in the Maltese Constitution or other types of regulatory documents. From 2005, there has been a Maltese Language Council to promote the development of Maltese, but Grima explains that it has been inactive for one year and “the government has done nothing to make sure it works again”.
According to Vassallo, a lot of the funds the government uses work “at face value”, to create this image of protection, but don’t have a real effect in the use of the language: “we see all these book festivals and funds coming out, but if books are mostly in English, how is that promoting Maltese literature?”, she says. “At this point, we don’t have the resources to do our job, we need much more”, explains Vassallo.
She also remarks that people who don’t know anything about the language cannot make a Maltese language policy and emphasizes that “respect” is the most important to the organizations that are working towards protecting Maltese.
If we compare it with the five main minority languages in Europe, Maltese is the one with the highest percentage of speakers in its region, but with almost the fewest rules that regulate it.
For Professor Grima, small policies and changes in the day-to-day life can have a greater repercussion on the use and status of the language. For example, changing the signs on the streets or public places.
We have been keeping an eye on the signs on the streets and roads. We have seen that usually there’s a mix of languages. Some streets are named only in Maltese, especially in less touristic places. Others, in some smaller towns, include both languages on the sign.
On the other hand, in the main roads or bigger cities, the traffic signs or indications are generally in English. Since there isn’t a National Language Policy, there are no guidelines or uniformity on the language of the signs on the streets.
The UN Immigration Stock of 2024 counted over 30% of foreign population living in Malta. According to Grima, many people attribute the arrival of immigrants to the possible threat for the Maltese, but he doesn’t think that the arrival of foreigners is a problem for the survival of the language.
He believes that Maltese is still strong and, in any case of threat, it is the Maltese people who must stand up for their own language.
Nathan Pace has the same opinion as his professor, Adrian Grima.
Klara Vassallo creates her art in Maltese, as for her it’s the most natural thing to do: “I think in Maltese, so the natural process is just writing my thoughts in Maltese”.
On the other hand, she believes that if her audience is from Malta and understands the language, it’s important to express what she has to say in Maltese.
My audience is people who live on the island, and my writings are about things that affect them and their society, so I need to write in Maltese, because that’s our language
Not switching into English means that she will have a smaller audience, just people on the island. However, she has never felt the pressure to give up artistic authenticity just to be read by a wider audience.
She remarks that being a full-time artist is impossible in Malta, and they always must combine it with another job: “I work as a teacher until 2pm, and then with the time I have left I need to do everything else related to work, or to my house or family. And then it’s difficult to have time left to create”.
But Vassallo is not going to stop writing despite the difficulties. She explains that, at a certain point, she feels the “responsibility” to write about important or taboo topics for a Maltese audience. “The only way we’re going to speak about it is if we read about it”, she says.
The archipelago of Malta is composed of three islands: Malta, Gozo, and Comino, a very small island between the two. As we explored each location, we could see the big differences between Gozo and Malta in terms of the people who live on each island and how often you can come across the Maltese language while on the street.
Although both islands are part of the same country, the differences can be noticed even if you are not an expert in linguistics. In Valletta and the towns around the capital, people are used to speaking English without any problems, while Gozo feels more familiar to most Maltese speakers. For example, in Gozo, we met some locals who told us that the language they speak on a daily basis is Maltese. Some of them even seemed surprised by our question about the disappearance of the Maltese language, and they tried to make clear that Gozo is not the same as Malta. Even in Gozo, people are trying to protect what is theirs, the Maltese language.
Ema Vella lives in Gozo but studies at the University of Malta. At home, she speaks a Gozitan dialect of Maltese, but as soon as she started her studies, she had to adapt to speaking standard Maltese or English, as her classmates did. She also observed that English is much more common in Malta.
“In Malta, especially among younger generations, it has become increasingly common to use English in everyday conversations. In Gozo, however, this is much less common. Most people speak their local dialect in daily life, while English is generally reserved for more specific contexts, such as writing emails or when speaking to foreigners only,” she says.
Although Malta has been shaped by different cultures and civilizations through the years, Maltese Language is still one of a kind and remains as a symbol of cultural heritage and national identity. Maltese is not yet considered endangered, but the country can become monolingual in the future if the situation doesn’t change, especially among young generations.
There are many people on the island with good ideas and projects to promote Maltese, like the National Dictionary created by the university, or artists who choose to create in Maltese, like Klara Vassallo. However, as Vassallo explains, “it’s only when the rest of the population starts to recognize these projects that things will actually change”.
