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The National Council for the Maltese Language (Maltese : Il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti) was founded in April 2005 with the enactment of the Maltese Language Act (Att dwar l-Ilsien Malti) (Chap. 470) in the Maltese Parliament. Its work is to regulate new words coming into Maltese and promote the standard Maltese language in education and other new sectors. The council consists of five committees which are: Media, Education, Language Research, Translations and Terminology and the Development of Maltese in the Information and Technology Sector. The council's aim is the language planning and promotion of the Maltese language, and thus to improve it by modernising its structures.
The National Council for the Maltese Language is a member of the EFNIL (European Federation of National Institutions for Language) in the EU.
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Maltese is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata spoken by the Maltese people. It is the national language of Malta and the only official Semitic and Afro-Asiatic language of the European Union. Maltese is a latinised variety of spoken historical Arabic through its descent from Siculo-Arabic, which developed as a Maghrebi Arabic dialect in the Emirate of Sicily between 831 and 1091. As a result of the Norman invasion of Malta and the subsequent re-Christianisation of the islands, Maltese evolved independently of Classical Arabic in a gradual process of latinisation. It is therefore exceptional as a variety of historical Arabic that has no diglossic relationship with Classical or Modern Standard Arabic. Maltese is thus classified separately from the 30 varieties constituting the modern Arabic macrolanguage. Maltese is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages, namely Italian and Sicilian.
Valletta is an administrative unit and the capital of Malta. Located on the main island, between Marsamxett Harbour to the west and the Grand Harbour to the east, its population within administrative limits in 2014 was 6,444. According to the data from 2020 by Eurostat, the Functional Urban Area and metropolitan region covered the whole island and has a population of 480,134. Valletta is the southernmost capital of Europe, and at just 0.61 square kilometres (0.24 sq mi), it is the European Union's smallest capital city.
"L-Innu Malti" is the national anthem of Malta. It is written in the form of a prayer to God. Officially adopted in 1964 upon independence from the United Kingdom, it was composed by Robert Samut, and the lyrics were written by Dun Karm Psaila.
The Maltese alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet with the addition of some letters with diacritic marks and digraphs. It is used to write the Maltese language, which evolved from the otherwise extinct Siculo-Arabic dialect, as a result of 800 years independent development. It contains 30 letters: 24 consonants and 6 vowels.
Carmelo Psaila, better known as Dun Karm was a Maltese priest, writer and poet, sometimes called 'the bard of Malta'. He is widely recognised as the Maltese national poet.
KNM may refer to:
The Akkademja tal-Malti was the prime regulatory body responsible for the Maltese language from the early 20th century up to the end of the millennium, when a government-sponsored law was passed to protect issues related to the national language. On joining the European Union, Maltese became one of the recognised languages of the EU.
Iklin is a village in the Central Region of Malta, with a population of 3,247 as at 2021. Iklin was established in the mid-20th century; however some archaeological sites and a medieval chapel, named as St. Michael Chapel, are proof to earlier settlements. Until recently, the town was considered to form part of the Three villages of Malta, as part of Lija. With the separation of Iklin from Lija, Iklin is no longer part of the three villages. It is bordered by Għargħur, San Ġwann, Birkirkara, Balzan and Naxxar.
May Butcher was an English-born Maltese writer who translated several works from the Maltese language into English.
Mikiel Anton Vassalli was a Maltese writer, a philosopher, and a linguist who published important Maltese language books, including a Maltese-Italian dictionary, a Maltese grammar book, the first Protestant Gospels in Maltese, and towards the end of his life, a book on Maltese proverbs.
Ninu "Anthony" Cremona, colloquially known as Is-Sur Nin, was a Maltese writer and health inspector.
Republic Square is a piazza in Valletta, Malta. The square was originally called Piazza Tesoreria or Piazza dei Cavallieri, since the treasury of the Order of Saint John was located in the square. After a statue of Queen Victoria was installed in the square in the 19th century, it became known as Queen's Square or Piazza Regina. Although its official name is Republic Square, it is still commonly referred to as Piazza Regina.
Maltese literature is any literature originating from Malta or by Maltese writers or literature written in the Maltese language.
Oliver Friggieri was a Maltese poet, novelist, literary critic, and philosopher. He led the establishment of literary history and criticism in Maltese while teaching at the University of Malta, studying the works of Dun Karm, Rużar Briffa, and others. A prolific writer himself, Friggieri explored new genres to advocate the Maltese language, writing the libretti for the first oratorio and the first cantata in Maltese. His work aimed to promote the Maltese cultural identity, while not shying from criticism: one of his most famous novels, Fil-Parlament Ma Jikbrux Fjuri, attacked the tribalistic divisions of society caused by politics. From philosophy, he was mostly interested in epistemology and existentialism.
Canon Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis, often called de Soldanis, was a Maltese linguist, historian and cleric from the island of Gozo. He wrote the first lexicon and systematic grammar of the Maltese language, and he was the first librarian of the Bibliotheca Publica, the precursor of the National Library of Malta.
Doreen Micallef was a Maltese poet and playwright. She has been cited as an example of Malta's post World War II emergence of female authors and poets. Micallef's work has also been noted for introducing poetry into Maltese plays. In 2011, Micallef's home in Valletta was restored by the Maltese Academy, an organization that promotes the use of the Maltese language in Malta. Upon the completion of the restoration, the home became the organization's headquarters.
Pietru Pawl Saydon, was a Roman Catholic priest and scholar of the Maltese language, other semitic languages and the Bible. He was President of the Maltese Language Society (Ghaqda tal-Malti) at the University of Malta. He is most noteworthy for his contributions to the Maltese language, and the translation of the Bible from the original Hebrew to Maltese.
The Malta Government Gazette is a government gazette published by the Department of Information of the Government of Malta. It was first published in 1813 when the islands were a British colony and it continued to be published after Malta became independent in 1964. Since then, the newspaper has been published in Maltese and English; previous editions were in Italian or a combination of some or all of the three languages. Since 2015 the gazette has been published in a digital-only format, and only a limited number of copies are printed for archival purposes.
Lina Brockdorff is a Maltese author, playwright and radio broadcaster.
One of the dialects of the Maltese language is the Cottonera dialect, known to locals as Kottoneran. Many inhabitants of the Three Cities speak the local dialect, and thus roughly amount to 10,000 speakers.