AHC: Punic-speaking Malta

Historically, some considered the Maltese language to be derived from Punic. While this is false, it is very notable that Malta is an Arabic-speaking country that is part of the European world with a language derived from the otherwise extinct Sicilian Arabic language.

So the challenge is to make the old interpretation correct and have Malta still speaking Punic. This might not be too hard, since even in Late Antiquity Malta still had a vital Punic speaking community. It likely also had a community which spoke a language transitional between Sardinian and the Carthaginian dialect of African Romance.

Basically, the challenge is to have a Punic-speaking Malta into the age of nationalism at the very least--essentially, a language derived from that of Ancient Carthage. For additional difficulty, Islam must exist and Muslim armies must have made credible (if not successful) attempts to conquer North Africa. So are there any plausible PODs or scenarios for this?
 
It seems that the archipelago went largely depopulated early during the age of Muslim conquests, and then reoccupied by a primarily Sicilian Arab populace.
Avoiding that depopulation should likely preserve the Punic Maltese. A period of Muslim rule might be helpful in that it may weaken the Romance variety spoken in the islands. As the Norman rule and subsequent Frankish political regimes did not uproot Maltese Arabic IOTL, they would likely not damage Maltese Punic either.
I however expect an earlier codification. The script is anyone's guess (a variety of Hebrew would be fascinating) but I suppose that Latin script is still the most likely final choice.
 
It seems that the archipelago went largely depopulated early during the age of Muslim conquests, and then reoccupied by a primarily Sicilian Arab populace.
Avoiding that depopulation should likely preserve the Punic Maltese. A period of Muslim rule might be helpful in that it may weaken the Romance variety spoken in the islands. As the Norman rule and subsequent Frankish political regimes did not uproot Maltese Arabic IOTL, they would likely not damage Maltese Punic either.
I however expect an earlier codification. The script is anyone's guess (a variety of Hebrew would be fascinating) but I suppose that Latin script is still the most likely final choice.

Wait, wouldn't that basically require the Arab conquest of Sicily to fail or be extremely ephemeral? Because if the Sicilian Arabs settle there, then what might stop them from absorbing the Punic-speaking population as the Arabs did in North Africa?

The script would be Latin (Punic had been written in Latin for centuries then) unless for some reason it ended up being Arabic.
 
Wait, wouldn't that basically require the Arab conquest of Sicily to fail or be extremely ephemeral? Because if the Sicilian Arabs settle there, then what might stop them from absorbing the Punic-speaking population as the Arabs did in North Africa?

The script would be Latin (Punic had been written in Latin for centuries then) unless for some reason it ended up being Arabic.

If the islands are not emptied of the original, probably Punic-speaking population, there would not be large resettlement from Sicily, I suppose. The trick is to have linguistic Arabization to be so slow that it is not completed or entrenched by the time Arab Sicily falls. Odds remain against it, everything else being historical, but I think it is possible. For comparison, Coptic and Aramaic were still widely spoken, albeit in clear retreat, by the eleventh century (so, of course, were the Berber languages in North Africa and Romance both in Andalus and Sicily). Punic on the mainland had probably long disappeared, though.
 
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