I am a native in this world And think in it as a native thinks

Saturday, April 9, 2011

Maltese


The Malti language is mostly descended from Arabic, with a lot of Italian and a little English thrown into the mix, and since it has the distinction of being the only Semitic language written with the Roman alphabet, its beautiful incomprehensibility is right there in your face. Of course, if I understood more than 10 words in Arabic, it might not be so incomprehensible, but even then I think the dotted c's and g's and the jaunty little dashes sported by some of the h's, not to mention the overfondness for the letter x, would just look wrong to a native English speaker.

Which of course is what makes it so fun.


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