Phoenician language
The development of native, Maltese literary works has historically been disrupted by diglossia. For many centuries, Maltese was considered "the language of the kitchen and the workshop", while Italian was the language of literature, law and commerce. Until the early 20th century, the vast majority of literary works by the Maltese were written in Italian, although examples of written Maltese from as far back as the 16th century exist. In early Maltese history, diglossia manifested itself in the co-existence of an ancient Phoenician language and the language of a series of rulers, most notably, Latin, Greek, Arabic, Sicilian, French, Spanish and Italian, and from 1800 onwards, English. The Maltese language today is heavily overlaid with Romance and English influences as a result.