Maltese
Malti
Afro-Asiatic · Malta
Endangerment: Safe — Spoken by all generations and learned naturally by children.
Bonġu, għandi pjaċir niltaqa' miegħek.
The North Wind and the Sun
Ir-riħ tat-tramuntana u x-xemx kienu qed jiġġieldu dwar min minnhom kien l-aktar b'saħħtu. Dak il-ħin, vjaġġatur liebes mantell sħun kien ġej fit-triq. It-tnejn qablu li min l-ewwel jirnexxilu jneħħi l-mantell lill-vjaġġatur ikun meqjus l-aktar b'saħħtu. Ir-riħ tat-tramuntana nefaħ b'kull saħħtu, imma aktar ma kien jonfoħ qawwi, aktar il-vjaġġatur kien jagħfas il-mantell madwaru. Fl-aħħar, ir-riħ tat-tramuntana ċeda. Imbagħad ix-xemx bdiet tiddi bis-sħana, u l-vjaġġatur minnufih neħħa l-mantell. Għalhekk, ir-riħ tat-tramuntana kellu jammetti li x-xemx kienet aktar b'saħħitha minnu.
- It's the official language of Malta and the only Semitic language among the EU's official languages. It belongs to the same family as Arabic.
- It's the only Semitic language officially written in the Latin alphabet, with letters like 'ħ', 'ġ', 'ż', and 'ċ'.
- Words are built by fitting vowels into a root of a few consonants. From k-t-b come 'kiteb' (he wrote), 'ktieb' (book), and 'kittieb' (writer).
- It also has lots of words from Italian and English. 'Thank you' is 'grazzi'.