# Maltese: Bil-flus taghmel triq il-bahar



## SofiaB

Malti(Maltese) Bil-flus taghmel triq il-bahar 
Money can make a road in the sea
gh= ع

بالفلوس تعمل طريق البحار
Since some people say Matese is Arabic and some say it is another language. Is this understood by most Arabic speakers.
It comes from this thread post#75


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## clevermizo

This would be understood, I think, as all the words are Arabic in origin. However, in general Maltese is difficult because so much of the lexicon in modern times is Italian in provenance, even though the grammar is still Arabic-derived.


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## WadiH

To me, Maltese just sounds like a Tunisian person who likes to use a lot of fancy European words.  The more mundane, every-day words (door, window, walk, do, eat, etc.) are still mostly Arabic I believe.


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## clevermizo

Yes, indeed. Maltese is not considered a dialect of Arabic due to political/national/cultural affiliations, and the fact that it is standardized using a different script. Although there are some clear different phonological features: notably, the merger of ع and ح in some positions, and the pronunciation of ع as just a vowel [a] or not at all.

There are some fringe, nationalistic legends about Maltese being directly descended from Phoenician, but that is patently absurd. Similar theories exist among groups in Lebanon about Lebanese Arabic.


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## djara

As a Tunisian who understands some Italian, I indeed had no problem communicating with the Maltese. 
As to the the expression, we have the same in Tunisia, with a few differences indicated in red: 
Bil-flus ta*3*mel triq *f*il-b*7*ar


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## dwardu

Actually the correct Maltese expression is:
Bil-flus tag*ħ*mel triq *f*il-ba*ħ*ar.​*għ* is how the *ع* (as well as the *غ*) is written in Maltese, although at the position such as the one it is at in the word ta*għ*mel, it is silent.

So from what _djara_ says, it seems that the only major difference between Maltese and Tunisian is that in Maltese it’s *baħar* (with the accent on the first *a*) whereas in Tunisian it’s *bħar* (Maltese spelling).


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## WadiH

dwardu said:


> So from what _djara_ says, it seems that the only major difference between Maltese and Tunisian is that in Maltese it’s *baħar* (with the accent on the first *a*) whereas in Tunisian it’s *bħar* (Maltese spelling).


That's actually very interesting.  Are there a lot of initial consonantal structures in Maltese similar to what you hear in North African Arabic?


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## dwardu

Unfortunately I won’t be able to answer that question… I’ve just started learning Arabic, and haven’t yet heard enough of it, neither North African nor any other, to be in a position to make such comparisons .

My observation is based solely on _djara_’s transcription of the proverb in Tunisian…


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## WadiH

What I mean by an initial consonantal cluster is something like _bhar _instead of _bahar_.


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## szammel

Wadi Hanifa said:


> That's actually very interesting.  Are there a lot of initial consonantal structures in Maltese similar to what you hear in North African Arabic?



It is important to mention, that some dialects in Maghreb like dialect of Sfax or women dialect of Tunis (you can here it in tunisian series) have more phonoligical similarity with maltese.

But what do you mean with " consonantal structuers in north Afirca"?


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