Parliament yesterday started debating a bill for the setting up of a National Council for the Maltese Language, whose main purpose will be the promotion of the national language.

Education Minister Louis Galea said the council's role would be to promote the Maltese language in Malta and abroad, update the orthography of the Maltese language as necessary and establish the correct manner of writing words and phrases which enter the Maltese language from other tongues.

The council's chairman will be appointed by the prime minister from among persons who are established and qualified in the study of Maltese and who are recommended by the Akkademja tal-Malti and the Department of Maltese Studies at the university.

The council will also include three representatives of the Akkademja, the Department of Maltese Studies, the Institute of Linguistics of the university, and a representative of the Education Division, the Malta Council for Culture and the Arts, the Attorney General's Office, the Press Club and the committees of the Maltese Language Associations (L-Ghaqda tal-Malti (Università) L-Ghaqda Letterarja Maltija, L-Ghaqda tal-Poeti Maltin and L-Ghaqda ta l-Ghalliema tal-Malta).

Other responsibilities of the council will include the setting up of a national centre of the Maltese language which will serve as the office of the council and shall offer printed and audiovisual resources for Maltese language associations, institutions and other interested persons.

The council will appoint a technical commission to observe and evaluate the position of the Maltese language in the context of the language situation in Malta, draft the linguistic policy and recommend it to the council. The council would also appoint technical committees with specialisation in different sectors as may be necessary.

The bill also provides that once every three years the minister of education will convene a National Forum on the Maltese Language grouping the council and its organs and all other Maltese language associations, government departments and local councils and the media. The forum will discuss the national policy on the Maltese language and the state of the Maltese language generally.

The bill includes a clause on principles and duties which are not, however, enforceable in court. The clause says, among other things, that Maltese is the language of Malta, a fundamental element of the national identity of the Maltese people and an essential component of the national heritage.

The Maltese state recognises the Maltese language as a strong expression of the nationality of the Maltese, and, for that purpose, acknowledges its unique importance and protects it from deterioration and perdition, the clause says. The state shall make provision so that the study of the Maltese language will always be given primary importance in all schools from the first years of education.

Dr Galea said none of the principles listed in the bill in any way reduced the importance of English for the Maltese people. He wanted to stress that the Maltese needed to learn English as much as Maltese. Indeed, a critical analysis was currently under way on the teaching of English in Maltese schools. A collective effort was needed to ensure that the Maltese distinguished themselves in the English language. Malta had a comparative advantage in the use of the English language within Europe and it needed to keep it up. A four-day national conference on this subject would be held shortly.

For the Maltese, both the Maltese and the English languages were important. The Maltese language gave Malta its identity and uniqueness, while English was a better passport than one could get from the passport office. There could be no pique between Maltese and English. The constitution, after all, recognised Maltese as the national language of Malta and both Maltese and English as official languages of Malta.

In his address Dr Galea spoke on the significance of the fact that Malta, despite being such a small country, has its own unique language which had survived centuries of foreign domination. The Maltese language had even been recognised as one of the official languages of the EU. Such recognition should encourage the Maltese to ensure that their language was protected and continued to be developed in the information age.

Dr Galea said this bill has been widely discussed with associations involved in the Maltese language.

Back in July 1989 Dr Ugo Mifsud Bonnici had spoken in parliament on the need for regulation of orthography in view of imported words. A Commission on the Orthography of the Maltese Language was set up. A bill on the Maltese language was drafted, 12 years ago, but the debate was suspended when several problems cropped up. Education Minister Michael Falzon in 1994 set up a Board on the Maltese Language to discuss the problems which the Maltese language was facing and how they could be overcome. The board was retained by the Labour government and the subsequent PN government, which asked it to complete its work by May 2001. Its report was then tabled in parliament. Its recommendations were an important element on which this bill was drafted.

Dr Galea said the percentage of Maltese language books in public libraries was being raised since it had been found that 80 per cent of books were in English. The Maltese language content on television also went up in recent years.

A 2001 survey showed 98 per cent of respondents considered Maltese as their native language.

In 2002 the Malta Standards Authority adopted a standard on the Maltese language keyboard.

Dr Galea also spoke on the development of the Maltese language over the years since the works by Mikiel Anton Vassalli.

Opposition education spokesman Carmelo Abela also spoke on how the Maltese should be proud of their language and how they should preserve it.

He quoted remarks by Prof. Guzé Aquilina on the linkage between Malta's history and its language and noted that Malta's language went back some 1,000 years, when Malta was under the Arabs. There was an important development at the time when Malta was under the Normans and there was the first contact with the romance languages. The Maltese language grew under the knights, despite the foreign influence. The oldest documented reference to the Maltese language could be found in a document by Sicilian Benedictine monks in 1364. This was a long history which should make the Maltese even more proud of their language and those who had worked on its development, notably Mikiel Anton Vassalli, known as the father of the Maltese language, along with Agius De Soldanis, Dun Karm and many others.

Mr Abela also spoke on language disputes in Malta over the years, - involving the use of French, Italian and then English - and said that Maltese had always suffered as a result. There had also been an element of politics in language use, with some elements of the PN early in the last century being in favour of the greater use of Italian, until the use of Maltese prevailed. All in all, however, the Maltese parties had given a contribution for the development of Maltese.

Going briefly over more recent history, Mr Abela said that in 1921 the Constitutional Letters Patent allowed the use of Maltese in the Senate and the Legislative Assembly and, from 1927 Maltese was allowed in notarial acts. In 1933 the Colonial government recognised the use of the orthography established by the Ghaqda Kittieba tal-Malti.

The use of Maltese was substantially boosted when primary education became compulsory in 1946. The 1964 constitution established Maltese as the national language, and Maltese and English as the official languages of Malta.

Mr Abela said the opposition and Maltese language associations agreed with this bill and he hoped nominations for the bodies which this law would create would be based on competence, not politics.

Mr Abela too underlined the importance for the Maltese to learn English from the earliest years of schooling.

It was worrying that 22 per cent of Form V students did not sit for a SEC exam in Maltese or English and, in the case of those who did, only 49 per cent passed their Maltese exam and 51 per cent passed their English exam, according to the latest reports.

It was good that Maltese had been recognised as an official language of the EU but all must now ensure that it was used in practice. Unfortunately there were still problems on the recruitment of Maltese linguists as translators and interpreters.

Mr Abela said Maltese should remain a requisite for students to take up University courses.

He augured there would be more research on the Maltese language.

All in all, Mr Abela said, however important legislation was, the most important element for proper development of a language was education. It was also important that the media made proper use of the language. The government too, should increasingly use Maltese in its correspondence.

He said the proposed council should cooperate with publishers of Maltese literature. It should be active in the fields of advertising and dramatic productions, and also be active among Maltese migrants.

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