Whilst Malta’s population is relatively tiny, with around half a million inhabitants in total, it is the EU’s most densely populated country. The vast majority of its people are Maltese natives; people of Sicilian and Arabic descent. That said, over one in five people in Malta are not Maltese, with migration having played an important role over the previous decade.

Boy how long I’d been waiting to write this part. You see, I’m not the most patriotic of people when it comes to my home country. I loathe its politics and impunity, its lack of mountains and jungles, how tiny and limiting it is. But, there is one thing that I’ll forever adore about my country, and that is Maltese, our mother language. 

This language is the only surviving descendant of the otherwise extinct Siculo-Arabic language from which it originated some 800 years ago. Boasting of a Semitic foundation, Maltese has been Latinised over the years – a direct reflection of the country’s turbulent history. Apart from the Romance superstrata, the language is still evolving to this day, assimilating vocabulary from other tongues like English along the way. To any unsuspecting stranger, one single sentence might sound like it’s made up of a hodgepodge of words from different languages. For example, a simple greeting such as ‘good morning’ can take the form of “Bonġu”, which is literally a crude version of “Bonjour” from French, “Il-ġurnata t-tajba”, with the first word coming from the Italian “giorno”, or “L-ghodwa t-tajba”, the original Arabic base. 

In addition, it is the only Semitic-based language to be written using the Latin alphabet and the only one spoken in the European Union. It might also be surprising, given the tiny size of our country, that we also have various dialects. Also, with around 90% speaking English, code-switching is commonplace. Last fact – I promise. With the ever-increasing Westernisation going on, Maltese – along with countless other languages over the entire world – is an endangered one that risks being completely lost. This is exemplified by most parents foregoing teaching the useless-outside-of-the-country language to their kids.

The culture of Malta is pretty much yet another weird mix of all the civilisations that reigned over us. Whilst to most tourists our island is pretty much a haven for partying, enjoying the beach and connecting with people from all over the world, the country has so much more than that to offer – say incredible works of art and architecture, prehistoric temples and splendid cathedrals, and the most spectacular of events and feasts.

Central to most traditional Maltese households are family and Roman Catholic values that still have a strong influence to this very day. With its people renowned as some of the most hard-working in the world and the country being the most LGBTQI-friendly in all of Europe and ranking high in the World Happiness Report, I guess there are worse places to live in. It’s not all roses though – Malta’s the EU’s most obese country. That said, who the hell can blame us? It’s where pastizzi were born, after all!