dumb or with lack of awareness about.
It's the same silliness that to call "hispanic" in USA all people whose mother language is spanish.
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Not all the Maltese descend from these transplants. In Malta there are many surnames who are non-existent in Sicily and in the rest of Italy.
If Maltese are transplants from Sicily, Arabic is clearly not their native language.
Their language is not Arab, just Semitic first and foremost. They're European too so it makes no sense.
That is, Arab now is a concept based on linguistics.
Aha.
They used to be present in Sicily but the entire families were transplanted. Which surnames do you speak of? Most Maltese surnames -- Vella, Spiteri, Farruggia, Grech, etc. -- are Sicilian or have equivalents there.
Maltese is not called "Sicilian Arabic" for no reason. It originated in Sicily and got transplanted in Malta.Quote:
If Maltese are transplants from Sicily, Arabic is clearly not their native language.
If they are not Arabs then neither are Levantines. Since Levantine Arabic, especially the Lebanese variety, has more Aramaic influence than Maltese has Sicilian/Italian.