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60-660: Naxxar ( Maltese : In-Naxxar ) is a town and local council in the Northern Region of Malta . The population in March 2014 was 14,891. The Naxxar Church is dedicated to Our Lady of Victories . The annual village feast is celebrated on 8 September. It formerly hosted the Maltese International Trade Fair at Maltese International Trade Fair Grounds . Naxxar is spread over 11 square kilometres (4 sq mi). The whole locality comprises

120-416: A large number of borrowings from Romance sources ( Sicilian , Italian , and French ) and, more recently, Germanic ones (from English ). The historical source of modern Maltese vocabulary is 52% Italian/Sicilian, 32% Arabic/Siculo-Arabic, and 6% English, with some of the remainder being French. Today, most function words are Arabic, so despite only making up about a third of the vocabulary, they are

180-597: A painter), in Rome , where he became familiar with the techniques of Caravaggio and his school as well as with the work of Guercino , Rubens , Guido Reni , and Giovanni Lanfranco . In Rome, he painted fresco cycles in the churches of Sant'Andrea della Valle and San Carlo ai Catinari . Between 1644 and 1646, he may have spent time in Venice, but remained based in Rome until 1653, returning later in 1660–61. He painted frescoes for

240-974: A sample of 1,821 Quranic Arabic roots were found in Maltese, considerably lower than that found in Moroccan (58%) and Lebanese (72%) varieties of Arabic. An analysis of the etymology of the 41,000 words in Aquilina's Maltese–English Dictionary shows that 32% of the Maltese vocabulary is of Arabic origin, although another source claims 40%. Usually, words expressing basic concepts and ideas, such as raġel (man), mara (woman), tifel (boy), dar (house), xemx (sun), sajf (summer), are of Arabic origin. Moreover, belles-lettres in Maltese aim to maximise their use of vocabulary belonging to this group. Notes: * from Arabic استقصى ( istaqṣā ) "to investigate", ** from Arabic اشتاق ( ištāqa ) "to yearn for ". Mattia Preti Born in

300-469: A ḡ fir lanā ḏ unūbanā , kamā na ḡ firu na ḥ nu ʔ ay ḍ an lil-muḏnibīn ʔ ilaynā. wa lā tud ḵ ilna fī tajāriba , lākin najjinā min a š-š irrīr. ʔā mīn hab lan lahmo d-sunqonan yowmono washbuq lan hawbayn wahtohayn aykano doph hnan shbaqan l-hayobayn lo ta`lan l-nesyuno elo paso lan men bisho Amin Although the original vocabulary of Maltese was Siculo-Arabic , it has incorporated

360-462: Is twinned with: Official website [REDACTED] Maltese language Maltese (Maltese: Malti , also L-Ilsien Malti or Lingwa Maltija ) is a Semitic language derived from late medieval Sicilian Arabic with Romance superstrata . It is spoken by the Maltese people and is the national language of Malta , and the only official Semitic and Afroasiatic language of

420-447: Is also distinguished from Arabic and other Semitic languages since its morphology has been deeply influenced by Romance languages , namely Italian and Sicilian . The original Arabic base comprises around one-third of the Maltese vocabulary, especially words that denote basic ideas and the function words , but about half of the vocabulary is derived from standard Italian and Sicilian; and English words make up between 6% and 20% of

480-580: Is because in the vicinity the Arabs had formed a village that they called Hal Muselmiet, which means 'the village of the Muslims'. For this reason the Christians started another village – that of the Christians and so the name of Naxxar. Although it has never been clearly explained where the name Naxxar originated, it is a clear fact that there is a close tie with the tradition that the people of Naxxar were

540-425: Is built offers a natural shelter to its inhabitants. In fact, in early times the village was used to reconnoitre the movements of the enemy. Because this height has a plain which goes right down to the sea, we find that three forms of defence were built through the ages – those along the sea such as towers , entrenchments, batteries , redoubts and beachposts – as a physical resistance to those attempting to land from

600-683: Is called lingua maltensi . The oldest known document in Maltese, Il-Kantilena ( Xidew il-Qada ) by Pietru Caxaro , dates from the 15th century. The earliest known Maltese dictionary was a 16th-century manuscript entitled "Maltese-Italiano"; it was included in the Biblioteca Maltese of Mifsud in 1764, but is now lost. A list of Maltese words was included in both the Thesaurus Polyglottus (1603) and Propugnaculum Europae (1606) of Hieronymus Megiser , who had visited Malta in 1588–1589; Domenico Magri gave

660-566: Is considerably lower than the mutual intelligibility found between other varieties of Arabic. Maltese has always been written in the Latin script , the earliest surviving example dating from the late Middle Ages . It is the only standardised Semitic language written exclusively in the Latin script. The origins of the Maltese language are attributed to the arrival, early in the 11th century, of settlers from neighbouring Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic

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720-849: Is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a stressed vowel. Stressed, word-final closed syllables with short vowels end in a long consonant, and those with a long vowel in a single consonant; the only exception is where historic *ʕ and *ɣ meant the compensatory lengthening of the succeeding vowel. Some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters. The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters. /t/ and /d/ are usually dental , whereas /t͡s d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not word-initial). /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e.g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ "newspaper" and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ "television". The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/

780-452: Is in a dilapidated state. Villa Castro, formerly Palazzo Castro , is a Knights-period country residence which has been renovated and developed for modern housing in the 21st century. The outer gardens were demolished and developed into other surrounding buildings along the years. The head office of Quality Schools International , an international school organization, is in Naxxar. Naxxar

840-654: Is less distant from its Siculo-Arabic ancestor than is Standard Maltese. Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced. Voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters ; thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e.g. /niktbu/ is realised [ˈniɡdbu] "we write" (similar assimilation phenomena occur in languages like French or Czech). Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and word-final voiceless stops have no audible release , making voiceless–voiced pairs phonetically indistinguishable in word-final position. Gemination

900-465: Is made up of four main panels depicting the coat of arms of Our Lady, Patroness of Naxxar; the village coat of arms; the coat of arms of Pope Pius X and the coat of arms of the Zammit family who were the benefactors of this door. In 1952, this door was dismantled, renovated and cleaned by the blacksmith Mastru Lucens Agius. The expenses involved were once more paid for by the Zammit family. The statue of

960-541: Is one of the Berber languages (another language family within Afroasiatic). Less plausibly, Fascist Italy classified it as regional Italian . Urban varieties of Maltese are closer to Standard Maltese than rural varieties, which have some characteristics that distinguish them from Standard Maltese. They tend to show some archaic features such as the realisation of ⟨kh⟩ and ⟨gh⟩ and

1020-404: Is part of the supercontinent of Eurasia'), while not understanding a single word of a basic sentence such as Ir-raġel qiegħed fid-dar ('The man is in the house'), which would be easily understood by any Arabic speaker. At that time Malta was thoroughly Arabized. The conquerors brought to the island the vulgar (colloquial) variation of Arabic, not the classical one (Classical Arabic), Therefore

1080-860: Is the Lord's Prayer in Maltese compared to other Semitic languages ( Arabic and Syriac ) with cognates highlighted: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth, as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread and forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us; and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. Amen Ħobżna ta' kuljum agħtina llum . Aħfrilna dnubietna , bħal ma naħfru lil min hu ħati għalina . U la ddaħħalniex fit-tiġrib , iżda eħlisna mid-deni. Ammen ʔabāna , alla ḏ i fī as-samāwāt , li- yataqaddas ismuka , li- yaʔti malakūtuka, li-takun ma šī ʔatuka, kamā fī as-samāʔi ka ḏ ālika ʕa lā al-ar ḍ . ḵ ubzana kafāfanā ʔaʕṭi nā alyawm , wa

1140-425: Is velar ( [ x ] ), uvular ( [ χ ] ), or glottal ( [ h ] ) for some speakers. Maltese has five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ ɪ ɔ ʊ/ , written a e i o u; six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː ɪː iː ɔː ʊː/ , written a, e, ie, i, o, u, all of which (with the exception of ie /ɪː/ ) can be known to represent long vowels in writing only if they are followed by an orthographic għ or h (otherwise, one needs to know

1200-661: The European Union . Maltese is considered a North African dialect of Colloquial Arabic that was brought to Malta by Arab and Berber ( Aghlabids ), who in 869/870 CE seized control of the island from the Byzantine Empire. It is also said that it descents 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

1260-614: The Italo-Normans ended Arab rule of the islands, a written form of the language was not developed for a long time after the Arabs' expulsion in the middle of the thirteenth century. Under the rule of the Knights Hospitaller , both French and Italian were used for official documents and correspondence. During the British colonial period , the use of English was encouraged through education, with Italian being regarded as

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1320-501: The imāla of Arabic ā into ē (or ī especially in Gozo), considered archaic because they are reminiscent of 15th-century transcriptions of this sound. Another archaic feature is the realisation of Standard Maltese ā as ō in rural dialects. There is also a tendency to diphthongise simple vowels, e.g., ū becomes eo or eu. Rural dialects also tend to employ more Semitic roots and broken plurals than Standard Maltese. In general, rural Maltese

1380-465: The 18th century. Numbering several thousand in the 19th century, it was reported to be only 100 to 200 people as of 2017. Maltese is descended from Siculo-Arabic, a Semitic language within the Afroasiatic family . In the course of its history , Maltese has been influenced by Sicilian, Italian, to a lesser extent by French , and more recently by English. Today, the core vocabulary (including both

1440-1008: The Baptist ; the chapel of St. James the Apostle ; Santa Maria tax-Xagħra; the Assumption of the Virgin in Magħtab which was built in the 18th century; the Annunciation of the Virgin at Salina which was built in the 16th century; the church of St. Michael the Archangel in Salina; that of St. John the Evangelist and that of St. Mary of the Angels in Baħar iċ-Ċagħaq. The actual area where Naxxar

1500-575: The Magi . Other paintings which show the Madonna and Child, St. Cajetan, St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Our Saviour and Our Lady of Sorrows are the works of the Maltese painter Franġisku Zahra . In the sacristy hangs the antique painting showing Our Lady of the Rosary which was painted on wood by Gio Maria Abela in 1595. The main door, which is made of bronze, is dated to 1913 and is the work of Pio Cellini. The door

1560-508: The Maltese language differs from Classical Arabic in the same way as the Arabic dialects differ from Classical Arabic. the Maltese language also comprises a considerable number of Maghrebi features, in other ways it can be closer to other Arabic dialects, or closer to Classical Arabic than to the other dialects as in the word ra ('to see'). Arabic supplies between 32% and 40% of the language's vocabulary. Żammit (2000) found that 40% of

1620-660: The Member States in a society in which pluralism, non-discrimination, tolerance, justice, solidarity and equality between women and men prevail. L-Unjoni hija bbażata fuq il-valuri tar-rispett għad-dinjità tal-bniedem, il-libertà, id-demokrazija, l-ugwaljanza, l-istat tad-dritt u r-rispett għad-drittijiet tal-bniedem, inklużi d-drittijiet ta' persuni li jagħmlu parti minn minoranzi. Dawn il-valuri huma komuni għall-Istati Membri f'soċjetà fejn jipprevalu l-pluraliżmu, in-non-diskriminazzjoni, it-tolleranza, il-ġustizzja, is-solidarjetà u l-ugwaljanza bejn in-nisa u l-irġiel. Below

1680-590: The Vitorja, whose feast is celebrated on 8 September, was imported from Rome whilst the statues of the Good Friday Procession are the work of a Maltese craftsman. Naxxar was one of the first villages which had the statues of the Passion of Our Lord and in fact it is believed that the procession started being held just after 1750. On 9 November 1787, the body of the martyr St. Vittorio was brought from

1740-525: The back, converting it into a garden, between 1898 and 1906. Palazzo Nasciaro is an 18th-century palace built during the Order of St. John that saw different adaptive reuse throughout the years. It is a prime example of late baroque architecture in Naxxar. Throughout its history, it was the residence of architect Francesco Sammut and later of his son Giovanni Sammut, it was the Lieutenant's house in

1800-605: The cemetery of St. Calepodio of Rome and is found in the altar in the choir. Some of the sculptures and façades were made by Angelo Quatromanni. In the larger Naxxar area, there are various chapels. These include the chapel of the Immaculate Conception which was built in the 18th century; St Lucy's chapel; the chapel of the Shipwreck of St. Paul situated at San Pawl tat-Tarġa; Church of the Nativity of St. John

1860-582: The church of San Biagio at Modena (app. 1651–2) and participated in the fresco decoration of the Palazzo Pamphilj in Valmontone (documented 1660–61), where he worked along with Pier Francesco Mola , Gaspar Dughet , Francesco Cozza , Giovanni Battista Tassi ( il Cortonese ), and Guglielmo Cortese . During most of 1653–1660, he worked in Naples, starting with a Saint Nicholas . There he

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1920-407: The dying and their burial parties which envisions a Last Judgement presided over by a woman. Preti also won a commission to supervise the construction, carving, and gilding for the nave and transept of San Pietro a Maiella , along with producing a Judith and Holofernes and Saint John the Baptist , both still in Naples. Having been made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John , he visited

1980-578: The etymologies of some Maltese words in his Hierolexicon, sive sacrum dictionarium (1677). An early manuscript dictionary, Dizionario Italiano e Maltese , was discovered in the Biblioteca Vallicelliana in Rome in the 1980s, together with a grammar, the Regole per la Lingua Maltese , attributed to a French knight named Thezan. The first systematic lexicon is that of Giovanni Pietro Francesco Agius de Soldanis , who also wrote

2040-632: The first converts to Christianity. In fact, the parish of Naxxar was the first in the Maltese outskirts, after that of the cathedral (Mdina) and that of Vittoriosa . This is borne out and further evidenced by the village motto – Prior Credidi – meaning the First To Believe. It is not clear when Naxxar became a village, but human habitation in the area dates to the prehistoric era. This is evidenced by megalithic remains at Tal-Qadi and at Qaliet Marku. The cart ruts which start at Salina up to it-Targa and near Ghadira tal-Wej were probably first cut in

2100-623: The first systematic grammar of the language and proposed a standard orthography . Ethnologue reports a total of 530,000 Maltese speakers: 450,000 in Malta and 79,000 in the diaspora . Most speakers also use English. The largest diaspora community of Maltese speakers is in Australia , with 36,000 speakers reported in 2006 (down from 45,000 in 1996, and expected to decline further). The Maltese linguistic community in Tunisia originated in

2160-523: The following zones: According to legend and the Bible , the Naxxarin were amongst the first to help Saint Paul and his fellow shipwrecked passengers when their ship ran aground. For this reason many connect the name Naxxar with Nassar (Nasra) which means 'conversion to Christianity'. The name might alternatively be derived from the Maltese verb "Naxar", which means to hang up clothes. Others insist that

2220-561: The founder Toni Tanti in 1840 and cost. The façade of the church has two clocks, one showing the actual time whilst the other is a painting and shows the time as a quarter to eleven. The main painting shows the Birth of Our Lady which is attributed to the school of Mattia Preti whilst at the side there are two paintings by Stefano Erardi which show the Flight to Egypt and the Adoration of

2280-527: The increasing influence of Romance and English words. In 1992 the academy issued the Aġġornament tat-Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija , which updated the previous works. The National Council for the Maltese Language (KNM) is the main regulator of the Maltese language (see Maltese Language Act, below). However, the academy's orthography rules are still valid and official. Since Maltese evolved after

2340-530: The most commonly used vocabulary and function words ) is Semitic, with a large number of loanwords . Due to the Sicilian influence on Siculo-Arabic, Maltese has many language contact features and is most commonly described as a language with a large number of loanwords. Maltese has historically been classified in various ways, with some claiming that it was derived from ancient Punic (another Semitic language) instead of Siculo-Arabic, and others claiming it

2400-466: The most used when speaking the language. In this way, Maltese is similar to English , a Germanic language that has been strongly influenced by Norman French and Latin (58% of English vocabulary). As a result of this, Romance language-speakers (and to a lesser extent English speakers) can often easily understand more technical ideas expressed in Maltese, such as Ġeografikament, l-Ewropa hi parti tas-superkontinent ta' l-Ewrasja ('Geographically, Europe

2460-490: The name comes from "Nsara" or "Nazaroei" which means 'those who believe in the teachings of Christ who came from Nazareth and thus "Nozri"'. Others say that the word Naxxar means 'one who saws, separates or cuts' – it might be worth mentioning that in Naxxar there are a lot of stonemasons. Magri, in his book says that the word naxar comes from "nazar" which in Hebrew means "chosen for him" or else "one who keeps to himself". This

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2520-405: The next-most important language. In the late 18th century and throughout the 19th century, philologists and academics such as Mikiel Anton Vassalli made a concerted effort to standardise written Maltese. Many examples of written Maltese exist from before this period, always in the Latin alphabet, Il-Kantilena from the 15th century being the earliest example of written Maltese. In 1934, Maltese

2580-440: The north of Malta, later served as the first public school in Naxxar, it was the police headquarters and until recently a police station, it served as a maternity underground hospital during World War II and provided shelter for the community from the war bombardments. Today, it is a private residence. Hompesch Hunting Lodge was a hunting lodge built by Grandmaster Hompesch close to Gauci Tower and Captain's Tower . Today it

2640-592: The order's headquarters in Malta in 1659 and spent most of the remainder of his life there. Preti transformed the interior of St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta with a huge series of paintings on the life and martyrdom of St. John the Baptist (1661–1666). In Malta one also can find many paintings of Preti in private collections and in parish churches. His increased reputation led to an expanded circle of patrons, and he received commissions from all over Europe. Preti

2700-486: The pronunciation; e.g. nar (fire) is pronounced /nɐːr/ ); and seven diphthongs , /ɐɪ ɐʊ ɛɪ ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ ɔʊ/ , written aj or għi, aw or għu, ej or għi, ew, iw, oj, and ow or għu. The original Arabic consonant system has undergone partial collapse under European influence, with many Classical Arabic consonants having undergone mergers and modifications in Maltese: The modern system of Maltese orthography

2760-400: The renowned Jubilate Deo choir under the direction of Christopher Muscat , its sister children's choir Pueri Cantores Jubilate Deo handled by Daniela Callus and Kor Gaudete In Domino directed by Mario Attard. The church also has two transepts and a nave and is 130 feet (40 m) long. The width of the transept is 94 feet (29 m) and the nave 30 feet (9.1 m). The large bell was made by

2820-399: The same period. The Giovanni Curmi Higher Secondary School , a post-secondary state school, is located in Naxxar. GCHSS is offering academic courses at advanced, intermediate and ordinary levels. Located right next to the post-secondary school is Naxxar Middle School, a secondary school. The Naxxar parish church was one of the ten parishes found to be existing by Bishop De Mello in 1436 and

2880-521: The sea; inland defences like pillboxes – to hinder the advance of the enemy if they were successful in landing; and the fortifications on high ground. Some fortifications around Naxxar include: Palazzo Parisio in Naxxar was built by Grandmaster Manoel de Vilhena in the 18th century. The palace was used by the Jesuit community as a university. After buying the property in 1898, Marquis Scicluna altered it into its present state and purchased more land at

2940-605: The small town of Taverna in Calabria , Preti was called Il Cavalier Calabrese (the Calabrian Knight) after appointment as a Knight of the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1660. His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the " Caravaggist " Giovanni Battista Caracciolo , which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of Caravaggio . Probably before 1630, Preti joined his brother Gregorio (also

3000-479: The structure of the Maltese language are recorded in the official guidebook Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija (English: Knowledge on Writing in Maltese ) issued by the Akkademja tal-Malti (Academy of the Maltese language). The first edition of this book was printed in 1924 by the Maltese government's printing press. The rules were further expanded in the 1984 book, iż-Żieda mat-Tagħrif , which focused mainly on

3060-406: The subsequent re-Christianization 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

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3120-540: The using Romance loanwords (from the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe Archived 2015-12-29 at the Wayback Machine , see p. 17 Archived 2020-08-04 at the Wayback Machine ): The Union is founded on the values of respect for human dignity, freedom, democracy, equality, the rule of law and respect for human rights, including the rights of persons belonging to minorities. These values are common to

3180-418: The vernacular from its Arabic source, creating the conditions for its evolution into a distinct language. In contrast to Sicily, where Siculo-Arabic became extinct and was replaced by Sicilian , the vernacular in Malta continued to develop alongside Italian, eventually replacing it as official language in 1934, alongside English. The first written reference to the Maltese language is in a will of 1436, where it

3240-627: The villages of Mosta and Għargħur were subject to it. De Mello listed it as one of the ten parishes of Malta and it was the first parish dedicated to Our Lady after that of the old cathedral in Mdina . In 1575, the parish of Naxxar had under its control a total of 36 churches – 14 in Naxxar, 5 in Għargħur, 12 in Mosta and 5 in the neighbourhood of these villages. The present church was built between 1616 and 1630 when there were 1,200 inhabitants in Naxxar and it

3300-504: The vocabulary. A 2016 study shows that, in terms of basic everyday language, speakers of Maltese are able to understand around a third of what is said to them in Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic , which are Maghrebi Arabic dialects related to Siculo-Arabic, whereas speakers of Tunisian Arabic and Libyan Arabic are able to understand about 40% of what is said to them in Maltese. This reported level of asymmetric intelligibility

3360-437: Was felt that a larger church was needed. The design was made by Tumas Dingli , one of the best architects of the time. The parish priest was Father Gakbu Pace . The choir and the area around it was redesigned in 1691 to the design of Lorenzo Gafà , the same architect who had designed the Mdina cathedral . The parish church was solemnly consecrated by Bishop Alpheran de Bussan on 11 December 1732. The church has three choirs:

3420-519: Was influenced by another prominent painter of his era, Luca Giordano . Preti's major works include a series of large fresco ex-votos depicting the Virgin or saints delivering people from the plague, which were painted on seven city gates and are now lost - two sketches for them are in the Capodimonte Museum in Naples, including a bozzetto of the Virgin with the baby Jesus looming over

3480-404: Was introduced in 1924. Below is the Maltese alphabet, with IPA symbols and approximate English pronunciation: Final vowels with grave accents (à, è, ì, ò, ù) are also found in some Maltese words of Italian origin, such as libertà ' freedom ' , sigurtà (old Italian: sicurtà ' security ' ), or soċjetà (Italian: società ' society ' ). The official rules governing

3540-500: Was recognised as an official language. Maltese has both Semitic vocabulary and words derived from Romance languages , primarily Italian . Words such as tweġiba (Arabic origin) and risposta (Italian origin) have the same meaning ('answer') but are both used in Maltese (rather like 'answer' and 'response' in English. Below are two versions of the same translations, one with vocabulary mostly derived from Semitic root words and

3600-554: Was spoken, reversing the Fatimid Caliphate 's conquest of the island at the end of the 9th century. This claim has been corroborated by genetic studies, which show that contemporary Maltese people share common ancestry with Sicilians and Calabrians , with little genetic input from North Africa and the Levant. The Norman conquest in 1091 , followed by the expulsion of the Muslims , complete by 1249, permanently isolated

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