I refer to ‘Sound Bites’ (‘Sounds of Science’, The Sunday Times of Malta, April 24).

According to a section of this article the “Maltese come from a 12th century Sicilian Arabic origin”. I would like to make the following observations:

The population of Malta was always similar to that of Sicily, and had links with Calabria. The ethnic beginnings of the modern-day Maltese are prehistoric, and go back to the Bronze Age.

The inhabitants of Malta from the Bronze Age onwards never became extinct, nor did the Christian faith ever disappear from Malta. Its roots are Apostolic. The evidence is clear.

The 2005 DNA study on the Maltese people demonstrates the close association that exists with Sicily and Calabria. The link with North Africa is practically non-existent.

When one refers to a medieval Sicilian Arabic ‘origin’ of the Maltese – which is false – the allusion to Arabic is a reference to language, not genes.

To put it more clearly, the Sicilian Muslims who settled in Malta during the middle of the 11th century spoke Sicilian Arabic, and transmitted this language to the Maltese population, both Christian and Muslim. This must have happened because presumably they had a higher status than the local people.

Furthermore, one must emphasise that these settlers were ethnic Sicilians, not Arabs.

The Maltese are, and have always been, a genetically southern European people.