The Basque language of the western Pyrenees is an isolate unrelated to any other group, while Maltese is the only Semitic language in Europe with national language status.

Maltese ( Malti ) is the national language of Malta, and a co-official language of the country alongside English,

The oldest reference to Maltese comes from the Benedictine monks of Catania, who were unable to open a monastery in Malta, in 1364, because they could not understand the native language.

In his Mundus Subterraneus he says of the Maltese, " they speak the purest form of Arabic, corrupted by neither Italian nor any other language.

" Other theories include those in Johann Friedrich Breithaupt's Christliche Helden Insel Malta (), published in 1632, where he calls Maltese a mixed ' barbaric ' language and John Dryden's description of the language as ' Berber ' on his visit to the islands ( the memoirs of those journeys appeared in 1776 ).

Maltese became an official language of Malta in 1934, alongside English, when Italian was dropped from official use.

Thousands of Maltese emigrants in Australia, Canada, Italy, United Kingdom, and the United States still speak the language, and in 2007 it was reported that Maltese is still spoken by descendants of Maltese immigrants in Tunisia.

Maltese is a Semitic language descended from Siculo-Arabic, that in the course of its history has been influenced by Sicilian and Italian, to a lesser extent French, and more recently English.

Due to the Sicilian influence on Siculo-Arabic, Maltese has many language contact features and is most commonly described as a language with a large number of loanwords.

Malta has two official languages -- Maltese ( a Semitic language derived from Siculo-Arabic and heavily influenced by Sicilian and Italian ), and English.

* the word used for feces in Maltese language

In the Maltese language, due to its Siculo-Arabic origin, Sunday is called " Il-Ħadd ," a corruption of " wieħed " meaning " one.

Works in the Maltese language are also displayed.

Of his many works, the earliest, published in 1810, entitled Versuch über die maltesische Sprache, was a successful refutation of the current opinion that the modern Maltese language was of Punic origin.

In 1950, Jones and Maltese began working on Rabbit Fire, a short that has changed Daffy Duck's personality forever.

:* Maltese uses a C, G, and Z with a dot over them ( Ċ, Ġ, Ż ), and also has an H with an extra horizontal bar.

Although migration has ceased to be a social phenomenon of significance there are still important Maltese communities in Australia, Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom.

The Maltese Government has pursued a policy of increased economic freedom and privatisation, taking some steps to shift from reliance on government intervention to allowing a greater role for free market mechanisms.

Carnival in Malta ( Maltese: il-Karnival ta ' Malta ) has had an important place on the Maltese cultural calendar for just under five centuries, having been introduced to the Islands by Grand Master Piero de Ponte in 1535.

The Maltese government has commissioned architect Renzo Piano to build a new Royal Opera House.

Now it equips the Maltese Falcon which has become the first proof-of-concept.

The Corto Maltese series has been translated into numerous languages.

The word has been borrowed into other languages, including Spanish, Portuguese, and Catalan cantautor, French chantauteur, Maltese kantawtur, Romanian cantautor, and Slovenian kantavtor.

An episode of Star Trek: The Next Generation called " The Big Goodbye " has holographic villain called Cyrus Redblock, played by Lawrence Tierney, whose surname is an obvious reference to Greenstreet's surname and whose character is a reference to Greenstreet's character Kasper Gutman ( The Fat Man ) in The Maltese Falcon.

She has a pink Maltese named Buddha.

It has the same proportions as the National Flag and consists of a blue field with the Emblem of Malta at its centre ; and a Maltese Cross in gold in each corner.

In Malta, the House of Representatives is known, in Maltese, as " Kamra tad-Deputati " ( although " Kamra tar-Rappreżentanti " has also been used ).

* The character Dr. Crippen in the spoof Maltese Falcon sequel The Black Bird has an office in the Palace.

Since the early 1920s, the area by Dundas and St. John's Road has been known as " Little Malta " ( getting signs to that effect in the 1990s ) with several Maltese-Canadian businesses present, as well as a distinctly Maltese church.

Maltese doctor and archaeologist Sir Themistocles Zammit earned a knighthood for identifying unpasteurized milk as the major source of the pathogen in 1905, and it has since become known as Malta Fever.

Djerba also has a sizeable minority of Maltese Catholics, who established themselves on the island as sponge-fishers.

In recent years, due to an agreement made by the Maltese Government with Sovereign Military Order of Malta, this Catholic Order of Knighthood has returned to the Island.

Also, the Maltese has hair, not fur.

The Maltese has lemon or brown markings along with the white hair.

There is little trace left of the Maltese communities in north Africa, most of them having been displaced, after the rise of independence movements, to places like Marseille, the United Kingdom or Australia.

Since the Order had also been growing unpopular with the local Maltese, the latter initially viewed the French with optimism.

Blue ( Maltese or grey ) cheetahs have variously been described as white cheetahs with grey-blue spots ( chinchilla ) or pale grey cheetahs with darker grey spots ( Maltese mutation ).

Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced.

Likewise, in continental Europe, both original book-length stories such as La rivolta dei racchi ( 1967 ) by Guido Buzzelli, and collections of comic strips have been commonly published in hardcover volumes, often called " albums ", since the end of the 19th century ( including Franco-Belgian comics series such as " The Adventures of Tintin " and " Lieutenant Blueberry ", and Italian series such as " Corto Maltese ").

Before he had left the colony, White had instructed them that if anything happened to them, they should carve a Maltese cross on a tree nearby, indicating that their disappearance had been forced.

The earliest inhabitants of the Maltese Islands are believed to have been Sicani from nearby Sicily who arrived on the island sometime before 5000 BC.

Phoenician origins have been suggested for the Maltese people and their customs since 1565.

The Jewish population of Malta had flourished throughout the period of Norman rule, such that one third of the population of Malta's ancient capital, Mdina, is said to have been Jewish. Alhambra DecreeIn 1492, in response to the Alhambra Decree the Royal Council had argued – unsuccessfully – that the expulsion of the Jews would radically reduce the total population of the Maltese Islands, and that Malta should therefore be treated as a special case within the Spanish Empire.

Since 1808 all bishops of Malta have been Maltese.

Several of the Grand Masters of the Knights of Malta had been French, and though some French customs and expressions had crept into common usage in Malta as a result ( such as the expressions " bonġu " for " good day ", and " bonswa " for " good evening ", still in use today ), Napoleon's garrison had a much deeper impact on Maltese culture.

Slavery was abolished, and the scions of Maltese nobility were ordered to burn their patents and other written evidence of their pedigrees before the arbre de la liberté that had been hastily erected in St. George's Square, at the centre of Valletta.

The Maltese is thought to have been descended from a Spitz-type dog found among the Swiss Lake Dwellers and was selectively bred to attain its small size.

The Maltese had been recognized as a FCI breed under the patronage of Italy in 1954, at the annual meeting in Interlaken, Switzerland.

As this condition is most commonly found in Westies and in Maltese, the condition was originally thought to be connected to the genes for white coats, however the same condition has since been found in other non-white breeds including the Yorkshire Terrier and the Dachshund.

Lawrence Gonzi ( born 1 July 1953 ) is a Maltese politician who has been Prime Minister of Malta and leader of the Nationalist Party since 2004.