Resumen de From Language to Ethnolect: Maltese to Maltraljan

Roderick Bovingdon

• This paper outlines the influences that led to new ethnolect formation among an immigrant group, the Maltese, in Australia. Their sociolinguistic background and new linguistic environment brought about a divergence, particularly in terminology, from Standard Maltese, and necessitated the compilation of a glossary of the new ethnolect, Maltraljan. The newly emerged terminology has found acceptance by a government agency as a result of community-led rather than government-planned influence.