EvoMalt: The evolution of the Maltese language between English and Italian influences
How does the Maltese language develop under influences from different language families?
Malta has an unusual language situation: While synchronous use of two or more languages is nothing special for the languages of the world, excessive contact between languages from different strata (Germanic, Romanic, and Semitic) is rare. Malta is therefore a perfect laboratory to investigate how languages evolve and how their users adapt to that change.
While, historically, the study of language is considered to be a humanities endeavor, the last decades have seen the development of quantitative, experimental methods to investigate language, especially on the sound level. These methods, however, have mostly been applied in western, monolingual countries based on the relatively young idea of the nation state. Moreover, most of the work has been done on well-researched languages such as English and Dutch. Applying those methods to the Maltese language is therefore an outstanding opportunity, since the language situation in Malta, due to the excessive language contact, may be more typical for most of human history during which language developed.
EvoMalt focusses on the sound /r/ (called rhotic) as a marker of language change and variability. Between and even within languages, /r/ sounds are notoriously variable and it is still unresolved why such acoustically and articulatorily diverse sounds are considered a natural class of sounds. The Maltese language is currently described as containing a “trilled /r/” just as Italian, but it is blatantly obvious that this description is not sufficient. Speakers of Maltese also use the English “approximant /r/”. EvoMalt tracks the variation of /r/ by investigating which variants of /r/ speakers of different ages use in pre- and post-vocalic position (e.g., rabat vs. jorbot, Engl., ‘he tied’ vs. ‘he ties) to get a glimpse on the evolution of Maltese—and thereby the evolution of language as a phenomenon itself—and then investigate how listeners deal with the variation that exist in different generations.
Area of study: Social Science – Psychology, Social Science – Linguistics
Keywords: Language diversity, Language evolution, phonetics, rhotics
Project investigator at the ARI: Eva Reinisch
Project partners: Holger Mitterer, University of Malta (PI)
Duration: November 1st 2023 – April 30th 2025
Funded by the Malta Council for Science and Technology
