Consonants[]
| Labial | Dental/ Alveolar |
Palatal | Velar | Pharyngeal | Glottal | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Nasal | m | n | ŋ | |||||||||
| Plosive | p | b | t | d | k | ɡ | ʔ | |||||
| Affricate | t͡s | d͡z | t͡ʃ | d͡ʒ | ||||||||
| Fricative | f | v | s | z | ʃ | ʒ | x | ɣ | ħ | ʕ | ||
| Trill | ʙ | r | ʜ | ʢ | ||||||||
| Approximant | ʋ | l | j | w | ||||||||
Voiceless stops are only lightly aspirated and voiced stops are fully voiced. Voicing is carried over from the last segment in obstruent clusters; thus, two- and three-obstruent clusters are either voiceless or voiced throughout, e.g. /niktbu/ is realised [ˈniɡdbu] "we write". Maltese has final-obstruent devoicing of voiced obstruents and voiceless stops have no audible release, making voiceless–voiced pairs phonetically indistinguishable.
Gemination is distinctive word-medially and word-finally in Maltese. The distinction is most rigid intervocalically after a stressed vowel. Stressed, word-final closed syllables with short vowels end in a long consonant, and those with a long vowel in a single consonant; the only exception is where historic *ʕ and *ɣ meant the compensatory lengthening of the succeeding vowel. Some speakers have lost length distinction in clusters.
The two nasals /m/ and /n/ assimilate for place of articulation in clusters. /t/ and /d/ are usually dental, whereas /t͡s d͡z s z n r l/ are all alveolar. /t͡s d͡z/ are found mostly in words of Italian origin, retaining length (if not word-initial). /d͡z/ and /ʒ/ are only found in loanwords, e.g. /ɡad͡zd͡zɛtta/ "newspaper" and /tɛlɛˈviʒin/ "television". The pharyngeal fricative /ħ/ is velar ([x]) or glottal ([h]) for some speakers.
Vowels[]
Maltese has five short vowels, /ɐ ɛ i ɔ ʊ/, written a e i o u; six long vowels, /ɐː ɛː iː ɪː ɔː ʊː/, written a e ie i o u; and seven diphthongs: /ɐɪ ɛɪ/ both written għi, /ɐʊ ɔʊ/ both written għu, and /ɛʊ ɪʊ ɔɪ/ written ew iw oj.
| Front | Central | Back | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Close | i | |||||
| Near-close | ɪ | ʊ | ||||
| Open-mid | ɛ | œ | ʌ | ɔ | ||
| Near-open | æ | ɐ | ||||
| Open | a | ɶ | ɑ | ɒ | ||
Stress[]
Stress is generally on the penultimate syllable, unless some other syllable is heavy (has a long vowel or final consonant), or unless a stress-shifting suffix is added. (Suffixes marking gender, possession, and verbal plurals do not cause the stress to shift.)
When two syllables are equally heavy, the penultimate takes the stress, but otherwise the heavier syllable does, e.g. bajjad [ˈbɐj.jɐt] 'he painted' vs bajjad [bɐj.ˈjɐːt] 'a painter'.
Historical phonology[]
Many Classical Arabic consonants underwent mergers and modifications in Maltese:
| Classical Arabic | ت /t/ | ث /θ/ | ط /tˤ/ | د /d/ | ض /dˤ/ | ذ /ð/ | ظ /ðˤ/ | س /s/ | ص /sˤ/ | ه /h/ | ح /ħ/ | خ /χ/ | ع /ʕ/ | غ /ɣ/ | ق /q/ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Maltese | /t/ | /d/ | /s/ | /ħ/ | /Vː/ | /ʔ~k/ | |||||||||