Editing Punic language (section)

===Legacy===
The idea that Punic was the origin of [[Maltese language|Maltese]] was first raised in 1565.<ref>{{cite web |title=L-Istorja tal-Ilsien Malti |trans-title=The History of the Maltese language |url=http://www.akkademjatalmalti.com/page.asp?p=9023 |first=Mario |last=Cassar |publisher=[[Akkademja tal-Malti]] |language=mt |url-status=usurped |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150923054701/http://www.akkademjatalmalti.com/page.asp?p=9023 |archive-date=2015-09-23 }}</ref> Modern linguistics has proved that Maltese is in fact derived from [[Arabic]], probably [[Siculo-Arabic]] specifically, with a large number of [[loanword]]s from [[Italian language|Italian]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Aspects of Multilingualism in European Language History |url=https://archive.org/details/aspectsmultiling00brau |url-access=limited |last=Vella |first=Alexandra |editor-first1=Kurt |editor-last1=Braunmüller |editor-first2=Gisella |editor-last2=Ferraresi |series=Hamburg Studies on Multiculturalism |year=2004 |publisher=John Benjamins Publishing Company |isbn=978-90-272-1922-0 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/aspectsmultiling00brau/page/n271 263] |chapter=Language contact and Maltese intonation: Some parallels with other language varieties }}</ref> However, Punic was indeed spoken on the island of [[Malta]] at some point in its history, as evidenced by both the [[Cippi of Melqart]], which is integral to the decipherment of Punic after its extinction, and other inscriptions that were found on the islands. Punic itself, being Canaanite, was more similar to [[Modern Hebrew]] than to Arabic.

Today there are a number of common Berber roots that descend from Punic, including the word for "learn" (''*almid'', ''*yulmad''; compare Hebrew [[wikt:למד|למד]]).<ref>Blažek, Václav (2014), [https://journals.pan.pl/Content/85572/mainfile.pdf "Phoenician/Punic Loans in Berber Languages and Their Role in Chronology of Berber"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190622145406/https://journals.pan.pl/Content/85572/mainfile.pdf |date=2019-06-22 }}, ''Folia Orientalia'', Vol. 51, Masaryk University, Brno, Czech Republic.</ref>