I like to think of Maltese as a Tunisian dialect. It's much closer to Tunisian than Lebanese though the common Phoenicians roots are obvious.
Maltese and Tunisian are so close that a Maltese kid on a bus in Valetta asked his mother how come we (a group of Tunisian tourists) spoke Maltese.
As a Tunisian I do not need any extra learning to read Maltese poetry or understand a political speech in Maltese or indeed have a sophisticated conversation with Maltese friends.
We even have the same proverbs like "Bla flous la t'annaq la tbous."
Among the funniest experience were reading the Bible in Maltese and reading legislation in Maltese.
The weird thing is that Maltese sounds very much like Tunisian language spoken by a 3-year old. I'm not trying to deprecate the Maltese. It's actually something I appreciate about their language. Indeed, they commonly use a lot of words that Tunisians
stop using when they grow up and become serious and dull; they shy from using some Tunisian words and rely on standard Arabic. For example, adult Maltese use "zizet el baqra" to say "cow udders". But "zizet" in Tunisian is the les formal "titties".
Names of places in Maltese are also like that. They have "Triq it-Turisti" in San Pawl il-Bahar or "Triq Tal-Handaq" or "Triq tal-Qattus". These could be typically Tunisian names, but we'd never call a street like that. The post-colonial Tunisian state has been deprecating
Tunisian language which is regarded as a vulgar dialect not fit as an administrative, legal, political, literary language. Our laws, our press, our constitution, political speech have been in standard Arabic which is as close to Tunisian as Latin is close
to French. Tunisians learn standard Arabic at school, as a foreign language that does not speak its name. It is only after the revolution of 2010-11 that Tunisian was somewhat rehabilitated as a political language, as politicians competed for the population's attention and needed
to be understood by the people rather than sound obscurely fancy. But we're not there yet. Most Tunisians do not regard their language as worthy. But the fact that the Maltese read the Bible in Maltese (i.e. almost in Tunisian), that they write their laws, poems, road signs in
Maltese is to me evidence that Tunisian could and should become our country's official language. There is nothing wrong or vulgar about it. It is our native language and we should not have to learn the foreign language of a past conqueror to fill out paperwork.
Here's an example. Note the use of the expressions "7add ma" "5lef 3ad-dawra nta3" and "ma 3andouch". Also interesting to see the verb "Jiccirkola." It sounds very much like Tunisian grammar that applies to Tunisian verbs of latin origin: yliki, ydaprem, ydasker... 
Ycirculi (Jiccirkoli) is actually a proper Tunisian word.
Another example: This sign says "Kun responsabli ghall-ambjent. Naddaf wara l-kelb tieghek" which is pronounced "Koun responsabli 3al ambient. Nadhaf wara l-kelb te3ek". It's 95% Tunisian, including the use of the typically tunisian pronoun Tieghek or "nte3ek".
Here a sign that says "Periklu ! TidHolx." We don't say "periklu" in Tunisian although we'd understand it because our language has strong Italian roots too. But the word TidHolx, pronounced "tid5olch" is typically Tunisian.
