Culture and Language in Malta - Arabic, British, Italian?

Culture and language in Malta - Arabic, British or Italian? What is the language spoken in Malta and how did the culture develop? The country was under Arab rule for 400 years, which explains why the language spoken today is related to Arabic. After that, Malta lived under British rule for a long time, which explains the British influences.

Last but not least, the Maltese are Catholic, and their culture is similar to that of Italy in many ways. Today we'll try to explain how it all fits together. Read on to find out more about culture and language in Malta!

A country with a colourful history

Malta is a separate country that has been independent since 1964, although it remained part of the British Commonwealth into the 1970s. It also has its own language (Maltese) and largely its own culture.

The country has just over 400 000 inhabitants in an area of 316 square kilometres (less than a quarter of Öland) and is a member of the EU. Its history has been both colourful and bloody. We can't cover every turn, but here's the quick version:

5200 years BC - The first humans settle on the island. Between 3600 and 2500 B.C., the culture flourishes with large-scale prehistoric temples.
1000 years BC - Phoenicians colonise the island. A few hundred years later, the Greeks, then the Carthaginians, and then the Romans (218 BC).
4th century - Now it's time for the Vandals to take over, followed by the Ostrogoths. And then Malta becomes part of the Byzantine Empire...
870 - The Abbasadi Caliphate (i.e. the Arabs) conquers. In 1091 the Italians took over, but the Arab character remained until the 1240s, when the Muslims were driven out.
1280 - Suddenly, the kingdom became part of the Kingdom of Aragon and was under Spanish rule.
1530 - The Holy Roman Emperor Charles V gives Malta to the Order of St John. These Knights of Malta hold out for a few hundred years, despite very bloody attacks by the Turks.
1798 - Napoleon Bonaparte of France conquers the island, but the French leadership is disliked and after receiving help from the British, Malta becomes a British Crown Colony in 1814.
1940 - Malta is strategically important during World War II and the Axis powers decide to bomb it into submission. Malta suffers 3000 bombing raids over two years.
1964 - Malta becomes independent, but remains part of the British Commonwealth until 1974, and in 1979 the British military base closes.
2004 - Malta joins the EU.

READ MORE: 5 things to see and do in Valletta
READ MORE: Marsaxlokk in Malta - a picturesque fishing town

Culture and language in Malta - Arabic, British or Italian?

Malta has its own character, but is also a confusing mix of influences, which is not surprising given its history!

Language is fundamental ArabicAnd yes, it sounds almost Arabic when they speak their own language in Malta. The fact that they write in Latin letters and that the language is mixed with a lot of Italian doesn't help much. It's just completely incomprehensible.

The culture feels very much like Italian. The Maltese are Catholic, they live a traditional family life, they gesticulate wildly when they talk, the men flirt with every woman they see and they love pasta and olives and sun-dried tomatoes.

But then we have British Then. English (along with Maltese) is the official language and some even have British accents, there is left-hand traffic, the steering wheel is on the right-hand side of the car, there are plenty of British pubs and cricket is played.

Maltesiska - språk på Malta — There is an interesting language spoken in Malta! Maltese is basically an Arabic language, written in Latin letters.

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An exciting country - easy to visit

Malta is an exciting and interesting country. And it's a country that's easy to visit! It takes 3.5 hours to fly to Malta from Stockholm. You can fly directly with SAS from Arlanda or with Ryanair from Skavsta. I think there may also be flights from Gothenburg and possibly other places, but I don't have much information on that. Please tell us if you have flown with any other company or from any other place!

We end today's post with a picture from our meeting in Brussels. Sliema with Malta-based blogger Anita and her husband Lasse. If you haven't checked out Anita's blog so do it now! Awesome photos from Malta, Sweden and Borneo, where Anita and Lasse arrange trips through their travel agency Passport Travel. Soooo fun to meet!

Maltanita — Anita, Lasse and Peter in Sliema, Malta

READ MORE: What to do in Malta - 25 experiences and attractions

Helena

13 October 2016 6:00

Malta

history, language

Helena

Administrator

23 Comments

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åsa in åsele says:

An interesting country. Thanks for all the info.
Malta is a country I hardly knew existed... or that it existed, but not that it was its own country, as I thought it belonged to England or Spain 😉.

13 October 2016 - 7:15

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Henny says:

We were just discussing whether Malta was a separate country, based on its representation in the Eurovision Song Contest, and here is the answer. A very exciting country apparently. Thanks for all the information and nice pictures, I'm really looking forward to a visit.
And that's what it's all about 😉.

13 October 2016 - 8:49

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Anita Malta says:

Malta's history in a nutshell, nicely summarised and of course interesting 😀 A wonderful presentation of Malta's slightly special but so genuine character that hopefully can attract more Swedes to travel here, to the little pearl in the Mediterranean that many have not yet discovered.

Thank you so much for the links please nice you!!! It was very fun and much appreciated that you took the time to meet you both during the somewhat hectic but eventful days you were here in Malta.

13 October 2016 - 8:59

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Mr Steve says:

This is a very instructive quick introduction to Malta.
So glad you had time to meet Anita and her husband. I follow her blog and agree that the photos she offers are beautiful, sometimes magical.

13 October 2016 - 9:07

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Ama de casa says:

Of course Malta has to be its own country - they are making their own contributions to the Grand Slam! Haha! You learn a lot from that music competition 😀.

13 October 2016 - 9:11

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Comment by post author

admin says:

Åsa in Åsele, Malta is a small country and if you haven't been there, I can understand that it's not easy to keep track of what's going on 😉.

Henny, great that you just discussed this! Of course, we write exactly what we feel like when it comes to Malta, but we were very fond of it so if someone gets the urge to go sp, it just feels fun 🙂

Anita, how nice that you like our presentation of Malta's history and culture! 🙂 We are actually a bit surprised that more people don't go to Malta. It is easy to go there, nice climate and a lot to see! And so fun that we could meet you! Have a nice time now!!!

Steve, yes it felt great that we got the meeting with Anita! 🙂

Ama de casa, yes exactly! And they have a national football team as well, as Peter pointed out 😉.

13 October 2016 - 9:12

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Mia's Mix says:

So glad you got to meet Anita and Lasse! I had the privilege of meeting them here in Sweden recently. I have followed Anita for many years so it was really fun. Sometime in the future I plan to go to Malta, I have seen so many nice things on Anita's blog. And now that I've caught up with your posts, I get even more excited. Will probably have to aim for it next autumn. The only "problem" is that there is so much you want to see. We had actually planned to go to Malta already this year, but then we were invited to the wedding in Canada and the plans were changed 🙂 Iceland is very high on the wish list. And next year it will possibly be a bath and sun holiday, which was ages ago. Has almost only been hiking and experiences in recent years. But when we were in South America for 10 weeks in 2014, we had time to swim, hike and experience 🙂.
Thank you for great posts! Take care!

13 October 2016 - 9:32

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Casa Annika says:

Oooooh, I'm so excited to go to Malta after these posts!
What pictures!
You seem to have had a great week!

13 October 2016 - 9:32

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Maria's Memoirs says:

How interesting! I have not thought so much about Malta before and also not read about the country, but now I became seriously interested! 🙂

13 October 2016 - 10:40

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Anette says:

Lovely informative post.
I have not been to Malta but I understand that quite a few Swedes visit the island for a long weekend.

13 October 2016 - 10:58

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Ruth in Virginia says:

What a delicious story in a nutshell! And what twists and turns during
The long history of Malta! - Have always looked in on Anita and enjoyed the
of the nice pictures.

The film 'The Maltese Falcon' (1941) with Humphrey Bogart,
Peter Lorre, Sidney Greenstreet and Mary Astor, became a classical
so called film noir. Doubt it was filmed in Malta 🙂 .

13 October 2016 - 15:06

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Lena says:

Aha, a lot I didn't know about that island! Thanks for great interesting info! Now it will be a check on Anita's blog.

13 October 2016 - 15:52

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Comment by post author

admin says:

Mia's Mix, yes I know you met Anita in Stockholm a while ago. Great fun that we also managed to get a meeting! 🙂 Fun with plans for Malta! But Canada was a really cool trip too!!! And Iceland is a nice destination 🙂

Casa Annika, Malta is a really nice and interesting destination. We can recommend it!

Maria's memoirs, Malta is worth thinking about! 🙂

Anette, maybe some people go for a long weekend? But I would even prefer to recommend a week 🙂.

Ruth in Virginia, nice to hear about the film! Now I also learnt something new 😉.

Lena, glad you appreciated the post and you are absolutely right to check out Anita!

13 October 2016 - 17:09

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Lennart says:

Exciting and interesting island/country!

13 October 2016 - 18:06

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Husis blog says:

Seems like a very interesting island, but it clashes a bit with the motorhome season in terms of weather?

13 October 2016 - 19:51

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BP says:

What a troubled past for that little island. Great summary as usual with you:-)

I knew that Malta was a separate country. As Peter points out, the country has its own football team, so...

So much fun that you also got to meet Anita. Mia and I met her here in Stockholm a few weeks ago. The world's nicest and most sympathetic person, I think. It was nice that her husband also came to the meeting and that he posed for a picture. It was a bit unexpected actually. Great fun and the picture is superb! Send a copy to Anita;-)

Hope you post many more posts about Malta. The island is really worth one or more visits!

13 October 2016 - 20:34

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Matts Torebring says:

When I went to school sixty years ago, I had the highest possible grade in geography. But the history book, what good would it be, I have no use for it? I thought at the time. How wrong I was. Time to study again!

13 October 2016 - 20:35

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BP says:

Me again: "messy" should of course be "messy". I hate my spelling mistakes;-)

13 October 2016 - 20:36

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Comment by post author

admin says:

Husisblog, not sure what you're thinking, but maybe that's the case? Malta has a fairly long season. I think you can go there pretty much all year except maybe January and February.

BP, the story is really varied ... although you could almost say that it is noisy too 😉 We also thought that Anita and Lasse were incredibly nice, and we also got to see their nice apartment, fun! You never know who will agree to photos and to be on the blog, but I think, after all, that most people usually answer yes when asked 🙂 There will be several more posts about Malta, but first a little break with Happy Friday, Guest of the Week and then a little about the weekend's excursion 😉.

Matts, I wasn't interested in history at school either. But there were so many kings being talked about back then... Today I find history very interesting!

13 October 2016 - 21:21

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nils-åke says:

Interesting report about Malta these days. Have heard a lot about Malta from an acquaintance (in geocaching) who has his sister there.

13 October 2016 - 22:57

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Lena - good for the soul says:

Nice to have some more facts. Facts that I had no idea about.

Hug Lena

14 October 2016 - 6:53

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Ditte says:

What a great summary of Malta's colourful history. Thank you!
Some of it I knew, being interested in history, and some of it was new to me.
I've been to Malta a couple of times, but my memory is not always up to date on the history of different countries and needs to be refreshed.
So much you experienced during the days in Malta! Can imagine that it takes a while to now digest it all. Looking forward to more posts from here.

14 October 2016 - 12:10

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Comment by post author

admin says:

Nils-Åke, understand that you have heard a lot when you have an acquaintance there! 😉

Lena, there are always lots of new things to learn when travelling! 😉

Ditte, Malta's history is not so easy to keep track of 😉.

14 October 2016 - 20:42

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7 things you can (also) do in Malta | FREEDOMtravel

Culture and Language in Malta - Arabic, British, Italian?

A country with a colourful history

Culture and language in Malta - Arabic, British or Italian?

An exciting country - easy to visit

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23 Comments

åsa in åsele says:

Henny says:

Anita Malta says:

Mr Steve says:

Ama de casa says:

admin says:

Mia's Mix says:

Casa Annika says:

Maria's Memoirs says:

Anette says:

Ruth in Virginia says:

Lena says:

admin says:

Lennart says:

Husis blog says:

BP says:

Matts Torebring says:

BP says:

admin says:

nils-åke says:

Lena - good for the soul says:

Ditte says:

admin says:

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