Maltese chosen as language for Microsoft software development

Maltese has been chosen as one of the 100 languages Microsoft will be developing software in.

"It is indeed a privilege for Malta for Microsoft to have chosen Maltese to the exclusion of some 6,700 other languages, some of which are spoken by many more people than Maltese is spoken," Emanuel Delia said.

Mr Delia is the co-ordinator of the Maltese for Microsoft project and was speaking to The Sunday Times following a conference about the use of Maltese in information technology.

The aim of the conference was to create a forum in which those working with Maltese in the IT sector would identify the problems they were facing and to create an action plan to pave the way forward.

The ultimate aims are to have software in Maltese, to create a Maltese spell and grammar checker and an electronic Maltese dictionary, the devising of specialised terminology in Maltese and the drawing up of IT-related publications on Maltese that could be used by teachers and students.

Yesterday's conference was organised by the National Council for the Maltese Language.

Mr Delia said technology was a key, a tool to success and the Maltese language had to be enriched with new vocabulary to cater for new technology. He argued that a number of individuals had been instrumental in establishing standardised keyboards for Maltese fonts and the agreement government reached with Microsoft was central in this respect.

One of the biggest problems that existed was that there was still no style guide for the Maltese language. Nor was there a complete word list of undesirable idioms so that software could detect it.

This situation had to be redressed and yesterday's conference should help give a push in this direction too, Mr Delia said.