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Similar The wreck, Thought relics, Stray Birds | ||
Il-Kantilena is the oldest known literary text in the Maltese language. It dates from the 15th century (no later than 1485, the death of its author, and probably from the 1470s) but was not found until 1966 or 1968 by Prof. Godfrey Wettinger and Fr. M. Fsadni (OP). The poem is attributed to Pietru Caxaro, and was recorded by Caxaro's nephew, Brandano, in his notarial register (Dec. 1533–May 1563).
Although written in Maltese, in Latin script, it was a very early Maltese that had not yet been influenced much by Italian or English, and is thus an example of historic Maltese.
Notes
This text contains many sorts-Arabic morphemes (word-roots). The only Romance words are vintura "luck", sometimes translated into English as fate, and et, deriving from Latin which means "and".
In general, early Maltese texts contain very little non-Semitic vocabulary; even in later texts, poetry tends to use more Semitic vocabulary than general language use.