that's some wierd stuff.

[Ibrahim]

They also have a lot of french loanwords, which of course makes it more complicated to understand.
BTW you can trace your linage to the middle ages?! You're a lucky one.

yes and no- yes, I can't understnd a word out of anyone west of Benghazi (and vice versa). and between the nile and Benghazi, its kinda hard to understand. Maltese is in fact easier to understand than western arabic dialects. but no, its not because of french; my dialect has many french words, as does Algerian (grafe/grafa, salon, telefon, tilfesion, taxi, beskalet*, balkone , etc, all came from french. yes, even taxi). its actually because of berber influence. in berber languages, they tend to shorten, or drop some vowels in arabic, so ikbeer (big) in leventine is kbir in moroccan. the results can be a bit messy...

as to my medieval origins: I believe them, but I lack the evidence to be certain. what they do say is however in line with the rest of my family history that I have evidence for: a religious/political role in Ottoman times, pro-caliphate/PLO pamphleteers (like my distant relative, abd al-qadeem zallum), the strong military ideals (chivalry, honor, etc), to today. but if I do have eivdence to confirm my family stories, I'm gonna be real impressed, for as you say, few people can trace their lineage 900 years back.

*from french for bicycle.

@ Hooahguy: woe, that's even stranger stuff.