Maltese: now with an official dictionary!

There are many reasons why translating Maltese is just a little more difficult than other European languages. It's mostly spoken, it has vocabulary based on Arabic and Maltese includes some Arabic grammar as well. To strengthen the Maltese language, the Malta Communications Authority published a dictionary.

public domain

The first official dictionary. It recognises the words you type in. It even has an automatic panel to write the letters that are typically Maltese: the ħ, for example. However, no translation is given. So you need to know the word you're looking for. So it will function as a reference dictionary.

On the one hand, this new dictionary will help Maltese in the first place, to find the correct spelling online. On the other hand, foreigners wishing to translate are better helped with this dictionary or this one.

An interesting exercise is to translate Maltese news articles into English. And advanced students can always translate from English to Maltese. For instance on TVM, with this article in English and in Maltese. And TVM has an English and a Maltese version, so students can translate as much as they like!

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