How Do You Say ‘Welcome to Europe’ in Maltese? Check an Arabic Dictionary
▻http://www.nytimes.com/2016/07/02/world/what-in-the-world/maltese-european-union-arabic-language.html
Over the centuries, other languages and dialects have been layered on top of Maltese’s Arabic core, to the point that Sicilian and Italian words account for about half the vocabulary today, and English, Malta’s other official language, around 10 percent.
Since 1934, Maltese has been written in a Latinate alphabet; before then, no standard existed, and people sometimes wrote in a mix of Latin and Arabic letters.
Some phrases in Maltese use all Arabic-based words, like “il-foqra ssibuhum dejjem maghkom” (pronounced il-FO-ra ssibu-hom DEY-yem MAA-kom), which means “the poor will always be with you.”
