Maltese people

The Maltese people are a Southern European nation and ethnic group native to
Malta, an island nation consisting of an archipelago of seven islands in the
middle of the Mediterranean Sea.

The Maltese people are a Southern European nation and ethnic group native to Malta.

The Maltese are a welcoming nation, and with their prior occupations have a
grasp for accepting and adapting to different languages and cultures.

They are greatly interested in global news and are often knowledgeable about
their Islands as well as global politics and beliefs. This makes it an ideal
location for people from a variety of nations, as the Maltese can cater for
almost anyone’s tastes and beliefs.

Culture of Malta

The culture of Malta is a reflection of various cultures that have come into
contact with the Maltese Islands throughout the centuries, including
neighbouring Mediterranean cultures, and the cultures of the nations that ruled
Malta for long periods of time prior to its independence in 1964.

The earliest inhabitants of the Maltese Islands are believed to have crossed
over from nearby Sicily sometime before 5000 BCE. The culture of modern Malta
has been described as a "rich pattern of traditions, beliefs and practices,"
which is the result of "a long process of adaptation, assimilation and cross
fertilization of beliefs and usages drawn from various conflicting sources." It
has been subjected to the same complex, historic processes that gave rise to the
linguistic and ethnic admixture that defines who the people of Malta and Gozo
are today.

Maltese culture has both Semitic and Latin European origins; however, the
Latin European element is more readily apparent in modern Malta for two key
reasons: the fact that Latin European cultures have had more recent, and
virtually continuous impact on Malta over the past eight centuries through
political control; and the fact that Malta shares the religious beliefs,
traditions and ceremonies of its Sicilian neighbor.

Languages of Malta and Maltese language

Maltese people speak the Maltese language, a Semitic language written in the Latin alphabet in its standard form. The language is descended from Siculo-Arabic, a dialect spoken in Sicily and surrounding Southern Italy from the ninth century. In the course of Malta's history, the language has adopted large amounts of vocabulary from Sicilian, Italian, English, and to a smaller degree, French. The official languages of Malta are English and Maltese, with Italian also widely spoken.

Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, replacing Italian, and joining English, to give co-official status. There are an estimated 371,900 speakers in Malta of the language, with statistics citing that 100% of the people are able to speak Maltese, 88% English, 66% Italian, and 17% French, showing a greater degree of linguistic capabilities than most other European countries. In fact multilingualism is a common phenomenon in Malta, with English, Maltese, and Italian, often used in everyday life and increasingly interchanged. Whilst Maltese is the national language, the ascending use of English is often limiting, during a time described as a language shift.

Religion in Malta

The Constitution of Malta provides for freedom of religion but establishes Roman Catholicism as the state religion.

The Church in Malta is described in the Book of Acts (Acts 27:39-42; Acts 28:1-11) to have been founded by its patrons Saint Paul the Apostle and Saint Publius, who was its first bishop. The Islands of St. Paul (or St. Paul's Islets), are traditionally believed to be the site where Saint Paul was shipwrecked in the year 60 CE, on his way to trial and eventual martyrdom in Rome.

Freedom House and the World Factbook report that 98% of the Maltese religion is Roman Catholic, making the nation one of the most Catholic countries in the world.