'''Malta''' ( ,  , ), officially known as the '''Republic of Malta''' ( ) and formerly '''Melita''', is a Southern European island country consisting of an archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. It lies  south of Sicily,  east of Tunisia, and  north of Libya. With a population of about 515,000 over an area of , Malta is the world's tenth smallest country in area and fourth most densely populated sovereign country. Its capital is Valletta, which is the smallest national capital in the European Union by area at . The official and national language is Maltese, which is descended from Sicilian Arabic that developed during the Emirate of Sicily, while English serves as the second official language. Italian and Sicilian also previously served as official and cultural languages on the island for centuries, with Italian being an official language in Malta until 1934 and a majority of the current Maltese population being at least conversational in the Italian language.