"Let's make the best of the Maltese language in the EU". And "A country that does not respect the language of its people will, in turn, end up not being respected at all by other countries." - Arnold Cassola, The Times, February 19.
Our country will this year be faced with a novel situation, that of providing a sufficient number of translators and interpreters of an adequately high, if not very high, standard to cope with the volume of work issuing from Brussels and the European Union.
In this situation, Malta has been caught unprepared and wanting. This is an embarrassing situation which needs looking into with sufficient depth and seriousness by all Maltese and especially by the Maltese authorities, including the government, since it reflects a reality that has deep roots in our history and in the youthfulness of our island home country.
1. Will our language survive into the future? The answer is probably yes, the main reason being that we are an island country cut off from Sicily which is 58 miles away and Tunisia and Libya which are 180 and 190 miles distant respectively. Geographically we are, and can be, ourselves alone. For the last 1,000 years we have had a dialect of Middle Arabic which is a Semitic language - all languages originally started off as dialects - imported through recolonisation from Sicily and Tunisia. This was heavily interspersed in succeeding centuries with Sicilian and Italian under the Aragonese, Spanish and the Order of St John's rule. It has been influenced in its vocabulary by English for about 160 years since around 1840, when English made inroads into our psychology, government and language, and increasingly so in recent years.
Over 80 per cent of Malta and Gozo residents speak Maltese as their first language. However, and this is significant, a large percentage of the educated classes either speak English, or disdain anything smacking of Arabic in all likelihood, since English is perceived as the language of commerce and trade, education, mathematics and modern technology. In one word, English is the "in" language. And the Maltese language is at best incorrectly spoken and to some extent tolerated by many of the latter.
Many parents speak Maltese between themselves but English to their children - this is not a phenomenon unique to Malta, since it can be found in at least Italy and Germany, where the local dialect, like Low German or Sicilian is put aside to favour the national language, whether Italian or High German. The uneducated classes are hampered by a lack of linguistic professionalism and so are many among the educated classes.
2. Lying at the geographical and cultural end of the European continent, and having had European masters since time immemorial, we can only look north. It is unthinkable for cultural and religious reasons for us to look south to the North African and Arab world, when it comes to our national psychology, culture, language and identification. We cannot psychologically identify with the Semitic roots of our language, since that would be tantamount to denying or rejecting the European superstratum of our culture, or so it seems.
However, our written language is relatively young, having become official only around 1932; schooling in Maltese follows the same pattern, since 1932; habitual and large scale translating into Maltese since the advent of Malta Television in 1960. Interpreting into Maltese has only been adopted when meeting Arab leaders or delegations. All other translating is into English, or occasionally Italian. Hence, our small size or scale but especially our colonial history are unavoidable realities which we have to consider, understand and face bravely but realistically.
3. Luxembourg has about 457,700 people. Its language, Letzebuergesch, is basically a spoken and unwritten language. French has always been preferred instead. But Luxembourg is surrounded and hemmed in by far larger countries, being France, Belgian Wallonia, Belgian Flanders and Saarland in western Germany. Physically and psychologically it is engulfed, while being a much older nation than Malta.
4. Irish or Irish Gaelic was spoken by the majority of Irish people, being some eight million, into the 19th century. It was quashed by British colonial policy, by huge potato famines and wholesale emigration to the US between 1840 and 1860. English became the accepted language and Irish Gaelic was almost dead until recent years, being spoken by only 100,000 people out of a population of some four million. Its rebirth is an ongoing policy of successive Irish governments, fraught with serious psychological obstacles.
5. The situation of Sicilian is not very well known among us Maltese. That is how distant we remain psychologically from our sister or mother island. Sicilian is a Latin dialect, spoken in many parts of Sicily by the old generation and sometimes by the young. Yet, the modern official language of Sicily is Italian. Sicilian will probably survive on an island of five million people but it may also be under threat in the long term.
6. Is Maltese under threat? To some extent it is indeed. If one observes the persistent disuse of Maltese numbers among large sectors of our population in favour of English numbers, which are shorter, to quote just one example, then there is food for thought. If one observes how children are brought up by Maltese-speaking parents to speak good, fairly good or poor English, and fair to poor Maltese, then there is still food for thought. People naturally speak the language they choose to speak and make choices for their children. What choices are our state or governments making? One cannot force a language on anyone and coercion will not work but meet resistance. Yet, wise and informed and self-respecting persuasion and, above all, example, will reap results.
7. Professionalism requires rigorous training, up to four years in some cases at higher institutes for translators and interpreters. The European Union's institutions do not accept amateurism or lack of training and experience.
8. If Malta is going to require a steady flow of some 80 translators and interpreters in the European Union's decision-making bodies, then one would have to ask whether the university course which commenced last October is adequate to meet this requirement. Is the planning rigorous and serious enough to produce translators and interpreters of a high standard? Will Malta pass or fail this new test from 2004 onwards? The ball is in our court!
9. The main reason why Maltese has been recognised as an official language of the EU appears to be the fact that the Maltese parliament and lawcourts conduct their proceedings in Maltese. Hence, EU proceedings and legislation have to be intelligible to the legal Maltese bodies in our language and English would hence be an inadequate tool of functional operation. Precise translation of EU proceedings and decisions is no mean affair and requires a professional rendering into our language. This is not the case in Luxembourg, Ireland or Sicily, where French, English and Italian are the constitutional languages. It is unthinkable that the Maltese parliament and lawcourts would use any language other than Maltese in our day and age. Italian and English may have been used in the past but that mode of operation would be unacceptable today. Hence, the practice and requirement for Maltese.
10. Approximate rendering into Maltese may have been accepted until now in some cases. The EU reality requires precise and correct rendering into Maltese today; hence the need for trained and qualified translators and interpreters. The time for amateur performance is over and is a thing of the past. The new requirement is for rigorous professionalism. And time is short. Our psychology has to change to meet this new reality. We thought that the recognition of Maltese was a high compliment. It is. But it also constitutes a great challenge! Are we going to be equal to the task soon enough? This year will tell. And our self-respect is at stake.