The languages of Malta

317 Pages·2018·3.345 MB·Language Science Press

by  Patrizia Paggio, Albert Gatt (eds.)

The languages of
Malta
Edited by
Patrizia Paggio
Albert Gatt
language
Studies in Diversity Linguistics 18
science
press
StudiesinDiversityLinguistics
ChiefEditor:MartinHaspelmath
Inthisseries:
1. Handschuh,Corinna.Atypologyofmarked-Slanguages.
2. Rießler,Michael.Adjectiveattribution.
3. Klamer,Marian(ed.).TheAlor-Pantarlanguages:Historyandtypology.
4. Berghäll,Liisa.AgrammarofMauwake(PapuaNewGuinea).
5. Wilbur,Joshua.AgrammarofPiteSaami.
6. Dahl,Östen.GrammaticalizationintheNorth:NounphrasemorphosyntaxinScandinavian
vernaculars.
7. Schackow,Diana.AgrammarofYakkha.
8. Liljegren,Henrik.AgrammarofPalula.
9. Shimelman,Aviva.AgrammarofYauyosQuechua.
10. Rudin,Catherine&BryanJamesGordon(eds.).AdvancesinthestudyofSiouan
languagesandlinguistics.
11. Kluge,Angela.AgrammarofPapuanMalay.
12. Kieviet,Paulus.AgrammarofRapaNui.
13. Michaud,Alexis.ToneinYongningNa:Lexicaltonesandmorphotonology.
14. Enfield,N.J(ed.).Dependenciesinlanguage:Onthecausalontologyoflinguisticsystems.
15. Gutman,Ariel.AttributiveconstructionsinNorth-EasternNeo-Aramaic.
16. Bisang,Walter&AndrejMalchukov(eds.).Unityanddiversityingrammaticalization
scenarios.
17. Stenzel,Kristine&BrunaFranchetto(eds).Onthisandotherworlds:Voicesfrom
Amazonia.
18. Paggio,Patrizia&AlbertGatt(eds).ThelanguagesofMalta.
ISSN:2363-5568
The languages of
Malta
Edited by
Patrizia Paggio
Albert Gatt
language
science
press
PatriziaPaggio&AlbertGatt(eds.).2018.ThelanguagesofMalta(Studiesin
DiversityLinguistics18).Berlin:LanguageSciencePress.
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©2018,theauthors
PublishedundertheCreativeCommonsAttribution4.0Licence(CCBY4.0):
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ISBN:978-3-96110-070-5(Digital)
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ISSN:2363-5568
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1181783
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Contents
Acknowledgments iii
1 Introduction
PatriziaPaggio&AlbertGatt 1
2 Lossofemphaticandgutturalconsonants:Frommedievalto
contemporaryMaltese
GilbertPuech 7
3 Onsetclusters,syllablestructureandsyllabificationinMaltese
LukeGalea&AdamUssishkin 55
4 ProsodicandgesturalmarkingofcomplementfrontinginMaltese
PatriziaPaggio,LukeGalea&AlexandraVella 81
5 Conditionson/t/-insertioninMaltesenumeralphrases:A
reassessment
ChristopherLucas&MichaelSpagnol 117
6 Borrowedaffixesandmorphologicalproductivity:Acasestudyoftwo
Maltesenominalisations
AlbertGatt&RayFabri 143
7 OnraisingandcopyraisinginMaltese
MarisCamilleri 171
8 RhythminMalteseEnglish
SarahGrech&AlexandraVella 203
Contents
9 OnthecharacterisationofMalteseEnglish:Anerror-analysis
perspectivebasedonnominalstructuresinMalteseuniversitystudent
texts
NatalieSchembri 225
10 LanguagechangeinMalteseEnglish:Theinfluenceofageand
parentallanguages
ManfredKrug&LukasSönning 247
11 MalteseSignLanguage:ParallelinterwovenjourneysoftheDeaf
communityandtheresearchers
MarieAzzopardi-Alexander 271
Index 293
ii
Acknowledgments
ThehelpandsupportofMartinHaspelmathandSebastianNordhoffintheprepa-
rationofthisvolumeisgratefullyacknowledged.
We would also like to thank the authors of the chapters in this volume for
theircooperationduringtheeditingprocessandespeciallyfortheirinputtothe
reviewingofchaptersbytheirpeers.
We especially thank the following additional external reviewers, who con-
tributed their time and expertise to provide independent peer review for the
papers in this collection: Lisa Bonnici, Jason Brown, Elisabet Engdahl, Marieke
Hoetjes,BethHume,AnneO’Keefe,AdamSchembri,ThomasStolz,AndyWedel
andShulyWintner.

Chapter 1
Introduction
Patrizia Paggio
InstituteofLinguisticsandLanguageTechnology,UniversityofMalta;CST,Uni-
versityofCopenhagen
Albert Gatt
InstituteofLinguisticsandLanguageTechnology,UniversityofMalta
Thepurposeofthispublicationistopresentasnapshotofthestateoftheartof
researchonthelanguagesoftheMalteseislands,whichincludestandardMaltese,
MalteseEnglishandMalteseSignLanguage.
Malta is a tiny but densely populated country, with over 422,000 inhabitants
spread over only 316 square kilometers. It is a bilingual country, with Maltese
and English as official languages. Maltese is a descendant of Arabic, but due to
the history of the island, it has borrowed extensively from Sicilian, Italian and
English. Furthermore, local dialects still coexist alongside the official standard
variety.ThestatusofEnglishasasecondlanguagedatesbacktoBritishcolonial
rule, and just as in other former British colonies, a characteristic Maltese vari-
ety of English has developed. To these languages must be added Maltese Sign
Language(Lingwatas-SinjaliMaltija;LSM),whichisthelanguageoftheMaltese
Deafcommunity.LSMwasrecentyrecognisedasMalta’sthirdofficiallanguage
byanActofParliamentin2016.
Whileavolumesuchasthepresentonecanhardlydojusticetoallaspectsof
a diverse and complex linguistic situation, even in a small community like that
of Malta, our aim in editing this book was to shed light on the main strands of
researchbeingundertakenintheMalteselinguisticcontext.
Patrizia Paggio & Albert Gatt. Introduction. In Patrizia Paggio & Albert
Gatt (eds.), The languages of Malta, 1–6. Berlin: Language Science Press.
DOI:10.5281/zenodo.1181785
PatriziaPaggio&AlbertGatt
1 Overview of the volume
Ofthethreelanguages(or,inthecaseofMalteseEnglish,varieties)represented
in this collection, Maltese is perhaps the best-studied, with a rich tradition of
descriptiveandtheoreticalworkand,morerecently,experimentalandcomputa-
tionalstudies.Malteseisthefocusofsixofthecontributionsinthisbook.
Puech’spaperon“Lossofemphaticandgutturalconsonants”tracesthedevel-
opmentofemphaticobstruentsandgutturalsthatMalteseinheritedfromArabic,
butwhichunderwentsubstantialchangeinthetransitionfromMedievaltoCon-
temporary Maltese. Puech’s argument centres on evidence from documentary
and other sources in the history of Maltese which, while written, nevertheless
containvaluableinsightsandobservationsintoongoingchangesintheMaltese
soundsystem,enablingthecontemporarylinguisttomapsuchchangesoverthe
longterm.
Bycontrast,GaleaandUssishkin’spaperon“Onsetclusters,syllablestructure
and syllabification in Maltese” contributes to an already sizeable body of work
onthedescriptionofMaltesephonotacticconstraintsandsyllablestructure,here
couchedwithinanOnset-Rhymemodelandstressingtheroleofsonorityinde-
terminingpossibleonsetclustersinMaltesesyllables,yieldinganexhaustiveand
fine-grained description of possible clusters that will provide solid grounds for
futureworkonMaltesesyllabificationstrategiesandphonotactics.
The contribution by Paggio, Galea and Vella, entitled “Prosodic and gestural
marking of complement fronting in Maltese”, is also concerned with phonolog-
icalprocesses,butfocussesontheirinteractionwithgestureinspokenMaltese,
a topic which has received comparatively little attention. The authors rely on a
sampleofannotated,spontaneousconversationsinMaltese,identifyingasubset
of utterances that evince complement fronting, which is further broken down
into subtypes (topicalisation, focus movement and left dislocation). These in-
stances are further analysed according to gestural and prosodic characteristics,
showing that fronted complements have a strong tendency to be accompanied
by gestures and a falling pitch accent. At the same time, the phonological com-
plexityandthetendencytoco-occurwithgesturesisalsodependentonthetype
ofcomplementfrontinginquestion.Todate,thisstudyisoneofonlyahandful
ofstudiesongestureanditsinteractionwithotherlevelsoflinguisticanalysisin
Maltese.
Of the remaining three contributions on Maltese, two papers, one by Lucas
andSpagnolandanotherbyGattandFabri,focusonmorphology.Likethework
ofPaggioetal,bothhaveastrongempiricalorientation.
2