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79-472: The comune of Lampedusa e Linosa is part of the Sicilian province of Agrigento which also includes the smaller islands of Linosa and Lampione . It is the southernmost part of Italy and Italy's southernmost island. Tunisia , which is 113 kilometres (61 nautical miles) away, is the closest landfall to the islands. Sicily is farther at 205 kilometres ( 110 + 1 ⁄ 2 nautical miles), while Malta

158-470: A Polizia Comunale ( lit.   ' Communal Police ' ), which is responsible for public order duties. The comune also deal with the definition and compliance with the piano regolatore generale ( lit.   ' general regulator plan ' ), a document that regulates the building activity within the communal area. All communal structures or schools, sports and cultural structures such as communal libraries, theaters, etc. are managed by

237-672: A British protectorate . In 1803, the Royal Navy dropped the idea since the island's small harbour was not comparable to Malta's larger and well-fortified Grand Harbour . However, reports stated that the island could be useful in supplying Malta, especially with the threat of Sicily falling to the French. In 1810, Gatt leased the island to Alexander Fernandez of the Army Commissariat in the Mediterranean, who established

316-557: A Semitic language and share a common culture and Maltese history . Malta, an island country in the Mediterranean Sea , is an archipelago that also includes an island of the same name together with the islands of Gozo ( Maltese : Għawdex ) and Comino ( Maltese : Kemmuna ); people of Gozo, Gozitans ( Maltese : Għawdxin ) are considered a subgroup of the Maltese. The current Maltese people, characterised by

395-827: A comune as rione ( Italian: [riˈoːne] ; pl. : rioni ) or contrade . The term originated from the administrative divisions of Rome, and is derived from the Latin word regio ( pl. : regiones ), meaning "region". All currently extant rioni are located in Municipio I of Rome. The term has been adopted as a synonym of quartiere in the Italian comuni . Terzieri , quartieri , sestieri , rioni , and their analogues are usually no longer administrative divisions of these towns, but historical and traditional communities, seen especially in towns' annual Palio . A terziere ( pl. : terzieri )

474-421: A farm with cattle and sheep, and employed 28 workers to turn the island's surface into pasturage. A small detachment of 26 men of the 14th Regiment were sent to the island in 1811 to support Fernandez, who was planning to build a fort on the island. By 1813, the island had a population of almost 200 Maltese workers. A royal commission stated in an 1812 report that there would be considerable difficulties in turning

553-555: A few pelagic endemic species. The Isola dei Conigli (literally "Rabbit Island"), close to the south coast of Lampedusa, is one of the last remaining egg-laying sites in Italy for the loggerhead sea turtle , which is endangered throughout the Mediterranean . The beach and the neighbouring island are part of a nature reserve : here the singer-songwriter Domenico Modugno spent his vacations, and died in 1994. Next to Parise Cape

632-572: A few workers. A Neapolitan warship visited the island in 1841 as a show of force, but nothing changed until 11 September 1843, when two warships arrived and landed 400 soldiers on the island. They replaced the British flags on the island with Neapolitan flags. A royal decree was read out proclaiming the island as part of the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies . A few of the Maltese settlers remained on

711-527: A large portion of the holding facility on 19 February 2009. In 2011, many more immigrants moved to Lampedusa during the rebellions in Tunisia and Libya . By May 2011, more than 35,000 immigrants had arrived on the island from Tunisia and Libya. By the end of August, 48,000 had arrived. Most were young males in their 20s and 30s. The situation has caused division within the EU, the French government regarding most of

790-553: A motor launch, he was told that the island's garrison wished to surrender. Mussolini had given the garrison his permission to surrender because it lacked any water. The Governor's formal surrender was accepted in the island's underground command-post by a combined Army/Navy delegation sometime before 9:00 pm on 12 June 1943. During this process, the governor handed his sword to the Coldstream company commander, Major Bill Harris. A second unofficial claim has also been made regarding

869-616: A plant for the production of the prized fish sauce known as garum . In 812 (or 813), directed by the Aghlabids , the island was sacked by Saracens during the Arab–Byzantine wars . By the end of the medieval period, the island had become a dependency of the Kingdom of Sicily . In 1553, Barbary pirates from North Africa under the command of the Ottoman Empire raided Lampedusa and carried off 1,000 captives into slavery . As

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948-564: A priest and six Maltese men, who often traded with pirates. A structure known as marabuto , probably a mausoleum commemorating a member of the Marabouts , also existed on the island at this time, and it was visited by many Muslim devotees. On 25 June 1800, Prince Giulio Maria Tomasi leased Lampedusa in perpetual emphyteusis to Salvatore Gatt, a Maltese merchant, on the condition that the latter would build two coastal watchtowers at Cala della Galere and Cala della Madonna . Gatt settled

1027-591: A result of pirate attacks, the island became uninhabited. In 1565, Don García de Toledo made a brief stop at Lampedusa while leading a relief force to break the Great Siege of Malta . In subsequent centuries, the Hospitaller fleet which was based in Malta sometimes used Lampedusa's harbour as a shelter from bad weather or from corsairs. In 1667, the island was given to Ferdinand Tomasi of Palermo, who acquired

1106-484: A separate ruler, through the arbitration of Venice, which were known as sestieri . The island of Crete , a Venetian colony (the Kingdom of Candia ) from the Fourth Crusade , was also divided into six parts, named after the sestieri of Venice herself, while the capital Candia retained the status of a comune of Venice. The island of Burano north of Venice is also subdivided into sestieri . A variation of

1185-701: A structural member of the African continent , lying on a structural high called the Lampedusa Plateau . Lampedusa essentially is a tilted block of limestone , the highest point being on the NW coast and the lowest on the SE coast, the island being soft limestone, of a white to creamy-yellow. This area lies on a seismically active part of central Mediterranean , the Sicily Channel Rift Zone . From

1264-619: A structural point of view, Lampedusa belongs to the Pelagian Block, a foreland at the northern edge of the African Plate , and is inside the Sicily Channel . Lampedusa has a subtropical semi-arid climate ( Köppen : BSh ) characterized by very warm, almost rainless and humid summers, very mild and frost -free winters, a powerful seasonal lag and a small diurnal temperature range . The constant sea breezes moderate

1343-620: A synonymous of neighbourhood, and an Italian town can be now subdivided into a larger number of quartieri . The Swiss town of Lugano (in the Italian-speaking canton of Ticino) is also subdivided into quarters. The English word quarter to mean an urban neighbourhood (e.g. the French Quarter in New Orleans, Louisiana) is derived from the cognate old French word quartier . A sestiere ( pl. : sestieri )

1422-586: Is Predoi , the southernmost one Lampedusa e Linosa , the westernmost Bardonecchia and the easternmost Otranto . The comune with the longest name is San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore , while the comuni with the shortest name are Lu , Ro , Ne , Re and Vo' . The population density of the comuni varies widely by province and region . The province of Barletta-Andria-Trani , for example, has 381,091 inhabitants in 10 comuni , or over 39,000 inhabitants per comune ; whereas

1501-416: Is 176 kilometres (95 nautical miles) east of Lampedusa. Lampedusa has an area of 20.2 km ( 7 + 13 ⁄ 16  sq mi) and a population of about 6,000 people. Its main industries are fishing , agriculture , and tourism . A ferry service links the island with Porto Empedocle , near Agrigento , Sicily. There are also year-round flights from Lampedusa Airport to Palermo and Catania on

1580-470: Is a list of the largest comuni in Italy, in descending order of surface area, according to ISTAT data referring to 9 October 2011. The provincial capitals are highlighted in bold. The following is a list of the smallest comuni in Italy, in ascending order of surface area, according to ISTAT data referring to 9 October 2011. The following is a list of the first comuni by altitude, in descending order. The indicated altitude coincides with

1659-629: Is a reflection of various cultures that have come into contact with the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries, including neighbouring Mediterranean cultures, and the cultures of the nations that ruled Malta for long periods of time prior to its independence in 1964. The culture of modern Malta has been described as a "rich pattern of traditions, beliefs and practices," which is the result of "a long process of adaptation, assimilation and cross fertilisation of beliefs and usages drawn from various conflicting sources." It has been subjected to

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1738-417: Is a small beach accessible only by sea, through a low grotto . Other species living along the island's coast include mantas and smaller cetaceans such as dolphins and Risso's dolphins . Waters nearby Lampedusa are the only area in the Mediterranean with sightings of pregnant great white sharks and newly born individuals. Recent studies revealed that the waters of Lampedusa are a wintering feeding ground for

1817-454: Is a subdivision of certain Italian towns and cities. The word is from sesto ( lit.   ' sixth ' ), so it is thus used only for towns divided into six districts. The best-known example is the sestieri of Venice , but Ascoli Piceno , Genoa , Milan and Rapallo , for example, were also divided into sestieri . The medieval Lordship of Negroponte , on the island of Euboea , was also at times divided into six districts, each with

1896-609: Is a subdivision of several towns in Italy . The word derives from terzo ( lit.   ' third ' ) and is thus used only for towns divided into three neighborhoods. Terzieri are most commonly found in Umbria , for example in Trevi , Spello , Narni and Città della Pieve ; towns divided into terzieri in other regions include Lucca in Tuscany , and Ancona and Macerata in

1975-409: Is an administrative division of Italy , roughly equivalent to a township or municipality . It is the third-level administrative division of Italy, after regions ( regioni ) and provinces ( province ). The comune can also have the title of città ( lit.   ' city ' ). Formed praeter legem according to the principles consolidated in medieval municipalities ,

2054-417: Is both the southernmost point and the southernmost island of Italy. Politically and administratively, Lampedusa is part of Italy , but geologically it is part of Africa since the sea between the two is no deeper than 120 m (390 ft). Lampedusa is a semi-arid island, dominated by a garrigue landscape, with maquis shrubland in the west. It has no sources of water other than irregular rainfall. Overall

2133-413: Is chaired by the mayor, who appoints others members, called assessori , one of whom serves as deputy mayor ( vicesindaco ). The offices of the comune are housed in a building usually called the municipio , or palazzo comunale ( lit.   ' town hall ' ). As of January 2021, there were 7,904 comuni in Italy; they vary considerably in size and population. For example,

2212-724: Is granted to comuni that have been awarded it by decree of the King of Italy (until 1946) or of the provisional head of state (from 1946 to 1948) or, subsequently, of the President of the Republic (after 1948), on the proposal of the Ministry of the Interior , to which the comune concerned sends an application for a concession, by virtue of their historical, artistic, civic or demographic importance. The comuni endowed with

2291-497: Is that this word was also used by the Greeks for a kind of oyster and the island was called that, due to the abundance of this kind of oyster. Other scholars believe that the name derives from λαμπάς ( lampás ), which means 'torch', because of the lights which were placed on the island for sailors. Historically, Lampedusa was a landing place and a maritime base for the ancient Phoenicians , Greeks and Romans . The Romans established

2370-606: The comune is provided for by article 114 of the Constitution of Italy . It can be divided into frazioni , which in turn may have limited power due to special elective assemblies. In the autonomous region of the Aosta Valley , a comune is officially called a commune in French. The comune provides essential public services: registry of births and deaths, registry of deeds , and maintenance of local roads and public works. Many comuni have

2449-582: The comune of Rome , in Lazio , has an area of 1,287.36 km (497.05 sq mi) and a population of 2,758,454 inhabitants, and is both the largest and the most populated. Atrani in the province of Salerno ( Campania ) was the smallest comune by area, with only 0.1206 km (0.0466 sq mi), and Morterone ( Lombardy ) is the smallest by population. Many present-day comuni trace their roots along timescales spanning centuries and at times millennia. The northernmost comune

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2528-434: The comuni . Comuni must have their own communal statute and have a climatic and seismic classification of their territory for the purposes of hazard mitigation and civil protection . Comuni also deal with the waste management . It is headed by a mayor ( sindaco or sindaca ) assisted by a legislative body, the consiglio comunale ( lit.   ' communal council ' ), and an executive body,

2607-411: The frazioni , but the comune still retains the name of the capoluogo . In some cases, a comune might not have the same name of capoluogo . In these cases, it is a comune sparso ( lit.   ' dispersed comune ' ) and the frazione which hosts the town hall ( municipio ) is a sede municipale (compare county seat ). Some towns refer to neighborhoods within

2686-403: The giunta comunale ( lit.   ' communal committee ' ). The mayor and members of the consiglio comunale are elected together by resident citizens: the coalition of the elected mayor (who needs a relative majority or an absolute majority in the first or second round of voting, depending on the population) gains three fifths of the consiglio 's seats. The giunta comunale

2765-485: The Marches . The medieval Lordship of Negroponte , on the island of Euboea , was also divided into three distinct rulerships, which were known as terzieri . A quartiere ( Italian: [kwarˈtjɛːre] ; pl. : quartieri ) is a territorial subdivision, properly used, for towns divided into four neighborhoods ( quarto ; lit.   ' fourth ' ) by the two main roads. It has been later used as

2844-619: The Middle East and North Africa . The study by Capelli et al. has concluded that the contemporary males of Malta most likely originated from Southern Italy and that there is a minuscule input from the Eastern Mediterranean with affinity to Lebanese Christians. The study also indicates that Malta was barely inhabited at the turn of the tenth century and was likely to have been repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic . These findings confirm

2923-586: The Riviera ), the United Kingdom or Australia. The Franco-Maltese are culturally distinct from the Maltese from Malta, in that the former have remained attached to the use of the Italian language (often, but not always, alongside Maltese) as well as speaking French. Although migration has ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance there are still important Maltese communities in Australia , Canada ,

3002-644: The province of Isernia has 81,415 inhabitants in 52  comuni , or 1,640 inhabitants per comune – roughly 24 times more communal units per inhabitant. The coats of arms of the comuni are assigned by decree of the Prime Minister of Italy by the Office of State Ceremonial and Honors, Honors and Heraldry Service (division of the Presidency of the Council born from the transformation of

3081-663: The 19th century, reaching its peak in the decades after World War II. Migration was initially to North African countries (particularly Algeria , Tunisia and Egypt ); later Maltese migrants headed towards the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and Australia. There is little trace left of the Franco-Maltese communities in North Africa, most of them having been displaced, after the rise of independence movements, to places like France (especially Marseille and

3160-720: The Apostle was shipwrecked on his way to Rome, awaiting trial. Freedom House and the World Factbook report that 98% of the Maltese are Roman Catholic (mostly Roman-Rite , with a Byzantine-Rite minority), making the nation one of the most Roman Catholic countries in the world in terms of total population. Malta has long been a country of emigration, with big Maltese communities in English-speaking countries abroad as well as in France . Mass emigration picked up in

3239-661: The Italian government to reception centres in mainland Italy. Many were then released because their deportation orders were not enforced. In 2009, the overcrowded conditions at the island's temporary immigrant reception centre came under criticism by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) . The unit, which was originally built for a maximum capacity of 850 people, was reported to be housing nearly 2,000 boat people . A significant number of people were sleeping outdoors under plastic sheeting. A fire that started during an inmate riot destroyed

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3318-626: The Libyan and Italian governments reached a secret agreement that obliged Libya to accept African immigrants deported from Italian territories. This resulted in the mass repatriation of many people from Lampedusa to Libya between 2004 and 2005, a move criticised by the European Parliament . By 2006, many African immigrants were paying people smugglers in Libya to help get them to Lampedusa by boat. On arrival, most were then transferred by

3397-401: The Maltese by foreigners from the Mediterranean , Western and Southern European countries that ruled Malta. The many demographic influences on the island include: Over time, the various rulers of Malta published their own view of the ethnicity of the population. The Knights of Malta downplayed the role of Islam in Malta and promoted the idea of a continuous Roman Catholic presence on

3476-558: The Mediterranean group of fin whales . Humpback whale , a species formerly considered as a vagrant species in the Mediterranean basin, has been seen around the island in recent years. Along with Linosa , Lampedusa once was a stronghold for endangered Mediterranean monk seals until the 1950s, and they are likely to be currently extirpated from the island. However, monk seals were sighted along Lampedusa in 2020. Comune A comune ( Italian: [koˈmuːne] ; pl. : comuni , Italian: [koˈmuːni] )

3555-500: The Royal Consulta Araldica , eliminated pursuant to the provisions final of the Constitution of Italy ). Administrative subdivisions within comuni vary according to their population size. Comuni with at least 250,000 residents are divided into circoscrizioni (roughly equivalent to French arrondissements or London boroughs ) to which the comune delegates administrative functions like

3634-510: The Sicilian mainland. In the summer, there are additional services to Rome and Milan , besides many other seasonal links with the Italian mainland. In 2013, Spiaggia dei Conigli ("Rabbit Beach"), located in the southern part of the island, was voted the world's best beach by travel site TripAdvisor . Since the early 2000s, the island has become a primary European entry point for migrants , mainly coming from Libya and Tunisia. In 2021,

3713-531: The area around the island was the scene of multiple attacks. On April 15, 1986, Libya fired two Scuds at the Lampedusa navigation station, in retaliation for the American bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi , and the alleged death of Colonel Gaddafi 's adopted daughter. However, the missiles passed over the island, landed in the sea, and caused no damage. On 4 January 1989 , U.S. Navy aircraft from

3792-413: The arrivals as economic migrants rather than refugees in fear of persecution. In July 2013, Pope Francis visited the island on his first official visit outside of Rome. He prayed for migrants, living and dead, and denounced their traffickers. In October 2013, the 2013 Lampedusa disaster occurred; a boat carrying over 500 migrants, mostly from Eritrea and Somalia , sank off the coast of Lampedusa with

3871-473: The ascendancy of English a language shift may begin; though a survey dating to 2005 suggested that the percentage speaking Maltese as their mother tongue within Malta remained at 97%. The Constitution of Malta provides for freedom of religion but establishes Roman Catholicism as the state religion . Malta is described in the Book of Acts ( Acts 27:39–42 and Acts 28:1–11 ) as the place where Saint Paul

3950-526: The capital of the province of Reggio Emilia , in the Emilia-Romagna region, and Reggio di Calabria , the capital of the homonymous metropolitan city , in the Calabria region. Many other towns or villages are likewise partial homonyms (e.g. Anzola dell'Emilia and Anzola d'Ossola , or Bagnara Calabra and Bagnara di Romagna ). The title of città ( lit.   ' city ' ) in Italy

4029-449: The capitulation of the island, when earlier that same day elements of the garrison had also attempted to surrender in unusual circumstances when Sergeant Sydney Cohen, the pilot of a Royal Air Force Fairey Swordfish aircraft landed having run low on fuel and suffering problems with his compass. Cohen's exploits were commemorated in a Yiddish play The King of Lampedusa that ran for six months. The first telephone connection with Sicily

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4108-463: The carrier USS John F. Kennedy shot down two Libyan fighters approximately 200 km (110 nmi) from the island. The NATO base was decommissioned in 1994 and transferred to Italian military control. Since the early 2000s, Lampedusa, the European territory closest to Libya, has become a prime transit point for migrants from Africa, the Middle East and Asia wanting to enter Europe. In 2004

4187-490: The conditions for the evolution of the Maltese language from the now extinct Siculo-Arabic dialect. The influences on the population after this have been fiercely debated among historians and geneticists. The origins question is complicated by numerous factors, including Malta's turbulent history of invasions and conquests, with long periods of depopulation followed by periods of immigration to Malta and intermarriage with

4266-479: The daytime summer temperatures. Lampedusa (along with coastal Pantelleria , Kasos , Karpathos , Kastellorizo and coastal Malta ) is one of the very few areas along the Mediterranean Sea coast, which have never recorded frost. The lowest temperature ever recorded in Lampedusa was 2.2 °C (36 °F) on February 1, 1999. The fauna and flora of Lampedusa are similar to those of North Africa, with

4345-618: The deaths of at least 300 people. From January to April 2015, about 1,600 migrants died on the route from Libya to Lampedusa, making it the deadliest migrant route in the world. The 2017 Oscar-nominated Italian documentary film Fire at Sea documented a part of this migrant crisis and was filmed entirely on the island in 2014 and 2015. The film also won the Golden Bear at the 66th Berlin Film Festival . In September 2023, over 120 boats, carrying roughly 7,000 migrants—more than

4424-467: The genetic makeup of most European populations is a mixture of three ancestral sources: Western Hunter-Gatherer , Ancient North Eurasian and Early European Farmer , but this model does not work for groups like the Maltese people and Sicilians. They have more Near Eastern-related ancestry than can be explained by EEF admixture. They "also cannot be jointly fit with other Europeans", as they are shifted towards Near Eastern populations. The culture of Malta

4503-428: The height above sea level of the town hall. List of the first comuni by population in descending order, according to ISTAT data updated to 28 February 2022. The regional capitals are in bold. The data is updated as of 1 January 2021. The data is updated as of 1 January 2021. Maltese people The Maltese ( Maltese : Maltin ) people are an ethnic group native to Malta who speak Maltese ,

4582-416: The island (together with Linosa and Pantelleria ) into a supply base for Malta. The commission found Fernandez's situation to be very strange, and the treasury demanded an explanation of his conduct. In November 1813, the sloop HMS Partridge was infected with yellow fever, and was sent to Lampedusa until convalescence. This caused most of the population to flee back to Malta, leaving only 50 to 60 people on

4661-651: The island did not see any military engagements until June 1943 when, as a precursor to the Allied invasion of Sicily , the island was secured without resistance in Operation Corkscrew by the Royal Navy destroyer HMS Lookout and ninety-five men of the 2nd Battalion the Coldstream Guards . White flags had been sighted in the port, and when Lieutenant Corbett of Lookout approached the port in

4740-436: The island has two slopes, from west to east, and from north to south of the island. The south-western side is dominated by deep gorges, while the southeastern part is dominated by shallow valleys and sandy beaches. The entire northern coast is dominated by cliffs: gently sloping cliffs on the east coast, and vertical sheer cliffs on the west coast. Lampedusa geologically is part of the " Pelagian Province " ( USGS definition),

4819-482: The island received the Jan Karski Eagle Award , as the first and only time that the award was given out three times in a year. The name Lampedusa derives from the ancient Greek name of the island, Λοπαδούσσα or Λαπαδούσσα ( Lopadoússa/Lapadoússa ). It has been suggested that the name derives from the word λέπας ( lépas ), which means 'rock', due to the rocky landscape of the island; another story

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4898-466: The island with some Maltese workers, and he imported livestock and began cultivating the land. The old castle was reconstructed, and a windmill was also built. Gatt hoisted the British flag for protection. On 27 June 1804, the prince conceded the island to Giuseppe Bugeja, another Maltese, although Gatt remained in control of the island. At the time, the British were considering taking over Lampedusa, possibly as an alternative to Malta, which had just become

4977-473: The island, but what happened in subsequent years is unclear. Salvatore Gatt is believed to have died or disappeared sometime between 1813 and 1821, and the island was taken over by Fortunato Frendo, who had murdered Giacoma Gatt, Salvatore's wife. An official expedition was sent to the island from Naples in 1828, and the island was found to be inhabited by members of the Frendo, Gatt, and Molinos families along with

5056-630: The island, while others returned to Malta or went to Tunisia. In the 1840s, the Tomasi family formally sold the island to the Kingdom of Naples. In 1861, the island became part of the Kingdom of Italy , but the new Italian government limited its activities there to building a penal colony . During the Second World War , the island was Axis territory, held by a small Italian garrison. Despite its proximity to Allied-held Malta and North Africa,

5135-831: The island. The Governor of Malta, Sir Thomas Maitland , visited Lampedusa and found that Fernandez was running a business venture, so on 15 September 1814 he announced the withdrawal of British troops stationed on the island. The same notice also stated that "it is not the intention of [the British] Government to have any further concern or connection with [Lampedusa]". At this point, Greek privateers deposited provisions and took refuge at Lampedusa while being pursued by Tunisian vessels. Fernandez had left for Gibraltar in 1813, but he continued to make claims on his title in Lampedusa. The British Government refused to compensate him in 1818, and Sicilian courts deprived him of his title soon afterwards. The Gatt family retook possession of

5214-495: The islands. According to Capelli et al. (2005), Y-DNA haplogroups are found at the following frequencies in Malta: R1 (35.55% including 32.2% R1b), J (28.90% including 21.10% J2 and 7.8% J1), I (12.20%), E (11.10% including 8.9% E1b1b), F (6.70%), K (4.40%), P (1.10%). Haplogroup R1 and I are typical in European populations and E, K, F and J haplogroups consist of lineages with differential distribution mostly in

5293-421: The language, with statistics citing that 100% of the people are able to speak Maltese, 88% English, 66% Italian and 17% French, showing a greater degree of linguistic capabilities than most other European countries. In fact multilingualism is a common phenomenon in Malta, with English, Maltese and on occasion Italian, used in everyday life. Whilst Maltese is the national language , it has been suggested that with

5372-410: The literary language), and a few dozen French loanwords. A large number of superficially Arabic words and idioms are actually loan translations (calques) from Sicilian and Italian which would make little or no sense to speakers of other Arabic-derived languages. Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, replacing Italian and joining English. There are an estimated 371,900 speakers in Malta of

5451-487: The onomastic and linguistic evidence presented in 1993 by Geoffrey Hull, who traced the oldest Maltese surnames to southern and south-eastern Sicily, especially the Agrigento district. Another study carried out by geneticists Spencer Wells and Pierre Zalloua et al. in 2008 claimed that more than 50% of Y-chromosomes from Maltese men could have Phoenician origins. According to a 2014 study by Iosif Lazaridis et al.,

5530-443: The running of schools, social services and waste collection; the delegated functions vary from comune to comune . These bodies are headed by an elected president and a local council. Smaller comuni usually comprise: Sometimes a frazione might be more populated than the capoluogo ; and rarely, owing to unusual circumstances (like depopulation), the town hall and its administrative functions can be moved to one of

5609-424: The same complex, historic processes that gave rise to the linguistic and ethnic admixture that defines who the people of Malta and Gozo are today. Maltese people speak the Maltese language , a Semitic language with a substantial Romance (Italian) superstratum and morphology, and written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form. The language is descended from Siculo-Arabic , an extinct dialect of Arabic that

5688-429: The title of città usually carry the golden crown above their coat of arms, except with different provisions in the decree approving the coat of arms or in the presence). "The crown of the city ([...]) is formed by a golden circle opened by eight city gates (five visible) with two cordoned walls on the margins, supporting eight towers (five visible) joined by curtain walls, all in gold and black walled." The following

5767-510: The title of Prince of Lampedusa from King Charles II of Spain . Tomasi was the ancestor of the writer Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa . A century after acquiring the island, the Tomasi family began a program of resettlement. In the late 18th century, the Order of St. John maintained a small establishment on Lampedusa, which included a chapel dedicated to the Virgin Mary . This was manned by

5846-686: The total population of Lampedusa—arrived on the island within the span of 24 hours. Some of the migrants were relocated to Germany . According to the Irish Examiner , the majority of the September 2023 migrants arrived from Tunisia and were "young men or unaccompanied minors." Reasons for migration varied, but the Irish Examiner listed a worsening of the "socioeconomic situation in Tunisia" and fleeing danger or persecution. Lampedusa

5925-534: The use of the Maltese language and by Roman Catholicism , are the descendants – through much mixing and hybridisation – of colonists from Sicily and Calabria who repopulated the Maltese islands in the beginning of the second millennium after a two-century lapse of depopulation that followed the Ifriqiyian conquest by the Aghlabids in AD 870. A genetic study by Capelli et al. indicates that Malta

6004-427: The word is occasionally found: the comune of Leonessa , for example, is divided into sesti or sixths. There are not many perfect homonymous comuni . There are only six cases in 12 comuni : This is mostly due to the fact the name of the province or region was appended to the name of the comune in order to avoid the confusion. Two provincial capitals share the name Reggio : Reggio nell'Emilia ,

6083-435: Was barely inhabited at the turn of the tenth century and was likely to have been repopulated by settlers from Sicily and Calabria who spoke Siculo-Arabic . Previous inhabitants of the islands – Phoenicians, Romans, Byzantines – did not leave many traces, as most nameplaces were lost and replaced. The Normans conquered the island in 1091 and completely re-Christianised them by 1249. This re-Christianisation created

6162-477: Was installed only in the 1960s. In the same decade an electric power station was built. In 1972, part of the western side of the island became a United States Coast Guard LORAN-C transmitter station . In 1979, Lt. Kay Hartzell took command of the Coast Guard base, becoming "the first female commanding officer of an isolated duty station". The 1980s, and especially 1985–1986, saw an increase in tensions and

6241-482: Was spoken in Sicily by indigenous people who were at that time divided in religion into continuing Greek-rite Christians and Muslims whose recent ancestors were Sicilian converts from Christianity. In the course of Malta's history, the language has adopted massive amounts of vocabulary from Sicilian and Italian , to a much lesser degree, borrowings from English (anglicisms being more common in colloquial Maltese than in

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