Editorial
Which way forward for Maltese language?
When a language is spoken by a few hundred thousand people it is likely to be much more overpoweringly influenced more quickly by other languages and by media-induced verbal and idiomatic variants that soon become the spoken norm. This is because the filtering is so much less than it would be were there to be more users. This is all an essential result of the language being alive and in line with a society that is constantly developing, not least technologically.
It is quite the easy way out of any controversy to say that the language belongs to the people and that the people in their masses need to determine what language to use. The counter argument is that, again given the size, it is quite easy for valid, native words to be totally overwhelmed by loan words, converted to local language standards and used to the point of becoming themselves the norm. For many this is an abomination, sounding the death knell of a language that underscores the uniqueness as a nation and which is an integral part of the national identity.
So should some form of official control be exerted to safeguard the native word in the face of this persistent assault by loan words?
The Council for the Maltese Language, the body entrusted with making any necessary changes in the orthography of the Maltese language and deciding on spelling of, among others, loan words, has been prudent in its pronouncements on the use of loan words and has widely consulted with interested parties about the way forward. The opinions vary from the purist imposition of Maltese native words on the language to liberal acceptance of all that is said by the people. Any decisions that need to be made, if we are not to be left in a free-for-all situation that will be akin to a linguistic jungle, will not be easy ones.
In the introduction to the council's recently-published decisions on orthographic variants, it is stated categorically that Maltese orthography is and has always been a compromise among the different principles, each with its own importance, working together in an established hierarchy. And, if the quite non-controversial published document on variants is anything to go by as an indicator of decisions to be made, it seems that compromise seems to be the way forward. In a media-dominated society, in which very few media people are able to use the Maltese language well, it would be a daunting task to be categorical and control all incursions.
But final decisions, controversial though they may be, need to be made and the council has the expertise to be able to make informed, well-consulted decisions that, still, will most likely not please everyone, as with their resolution to emphasise the phonetic in the present document. The publication of the decisions in the Government Gazzette have made them final. The intention is primarily Maltese writing simplification.
But whether the changes made are accepted as the simple norm by the man and woman in the street, who, in the main, already find writing Maltese difficult, is another matter. Indeed, here lies the true test of any and all decisions made about the language, disheartening to the experts though that may be.
Popular Stories
Labour Party resorts to political...
Why calling an election now makes sense
Stamp out racism or suffer the...
Top businessman touches some raw nerves
If Libya is to accede to Refugee...
Smoke signals of the very worrying kind
Stemming the tide of migrants
Did justice prevail in the Lockerbie...
Frustration over fuel price increases
In Discussion
Stamp out racism or suffer the...
Stemming the tide of migrants
Labour Party resorts to political...
Does it really pay to use public...
Roadworks, traffic chaos and...
If Libya is to accede to Refugee...
This country must remain competitive
Frustration over fuel price increases
Shameful case of lack of accountability
9 Comments
Post comment
Please sign in or create your Account to post comments.
Frans Sammut
Sep 9th 2008, 17:10
Excuse me, Sir, I beg to differ. The decisions are not final as you allege. First of all, there is that three year moratorium, but more importantly, after those three years, we will be in for a surprise: the spelling of Anglo-Saxon loan words. I can't help saying this: you ain't seen nutin' yet. I, for one, dare not envisage the shape of things to come. It is already enough to have "Il-Vangelu skont San Mattew" with an implicit ad to buy a copy at Tal-Lira.
Jean Azzopardi
Sep 7th 2008, 02:10
Why should the words of a colonial governor have to do anything with this discussion? Should we call Italian bastardised Latin? Even English is "bastardised" as it has bits and pieces of many other languages.
And at the end of the day, should we be ashamed of a language because it is Arabic? If that is so, we might as well stop studying mathematics, given that the word "algebra" is also of Arabic origin, as well as Al-Khwarizmi, the man who coined the term in the first place.
Incidentally, he also contributed to mathematics, astronomy, astrology, geography and cartography, thus providing the foundations for our modern mathematics.
Joseph Mizzi
Sep 6th 2008, 17:22
@Franco Farrugia
To tell you the truth, 'skont' irked me too a little bit when the decisions were published.
Even those with a very limited knowledge of Maltese basics knew the difference between 'skond' and 'skont' and never had any difficulty in distinguishung between the meaning of 'according' and 'discount'!
However, I was convinced that this was a sound decision when it was explained to me that phonetically, Maltese tends to change the etimological consonant (d of 'secondo' in Italian to t of 'skont' in Maltese) when derived words change their consonant sound too.
Eg: we pronounce 'larinċ' but write 'larinġ' because we have 'larinġa' pronounced with a 'ġ'. This does not happen when the consonant of the derived word retains the same sound as that of the original: we pronounce 'skontu' (according to him), 'skonthom' (according to them), etc, but never 'skondu, skondhom.
I hope this convinces you as much as it convinced me :)
Franco Farrugia
Sep 6th 2008, 15:52
@ Joseph Cauchi;
1. I simply have no idea how your 'point' somehow adds anything to our comments re' the Editorial.
2. I simply have no idea how a Maltese person can enjoy denigrating the Maltese language - even if he or she is merely repeating some silly comment that was said by a colonialist.
3. Many of us, Maltese, still have a colonialist mentality which we simply cannot shed off! It seems it is in the blood of such people to not realise what an asset we have, in Malta, to have a language - I was going to say 'an independent language' but no lang. is independent - which is an official language of the EU.
4. The time is soon coming when foreigners will respect our language more than we respect it ourselves.
@ Joseph Mizzi - Well done on your explanation, even though one must admit that some inaccuracies may have been seen to have taken place in the last 'improvements' made by the Kunsill tal-Lingwa Maltija. (E.g. 'skont'!!!!!)
Joseph Mizzi
Sep 6th 2008, 14:45
This is not a question of purists versus everybody-else. The committees entrusted with the making of the decisions aconsist of linguists and other experts of Maltese embracing the widest spectrum of opinions: ranging from the purist, to the most avant-garde. Any decision taken by such a committee would have been carefully studied and agreed upon by all members.
Maybe not many people know exaclty what's happening to the Maltese language in these days and times. The Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti is working hard to remove any inconsistency which exists regarding ORTHOGRAPHY. In a nutshell, no elements of Morphology or grammar are being touched. Hence the argument of Maltese being funamentally Semitic (> Arabic) does not hold ground. The exercise of removing uncertainties regarding orthographic variants has been recently finalised, and at the moment there is the ongoing study of the spelling of English loan-words in Maltese. In the near future, the Kunsill is resolved to settle also the problem of phonetic variants, an exercise which is going to be tackled at a later stage.
The statement that these programs are simplifying the Maltese language should be viewed primarily as that referring to the written word, and nothing else!
Joseph Cauchi
Sep 6th 2008, 14:44
With all due respect to the "purists" of the Maltese language; not long ago, a former British governor of Malta once remarked during the discussions ensuing at that time, that the Maltese language was a form of "BASTARDIZED ARABIC" (!).
What do you say?
Franco Farrugia
Sep 6th 2008, 13:44
@ Peter Sammut - Well, I don't think much of the respect you show for the purists you criticise if you, well .... address them as 'idiots', do you?
I think that an amount of 'purism' is in order if we are to protect the Maltese language. I feel that the middle of the road would be a wise solution: keeping an academic guard on our language in a way that we do not lose the beautiful characteristics of our language while at the same time taking a pragmatic approach which, by the way, does not mean facilitating the use of the language, because, try as you will to make it easier, you will never succeed.
Kindly remember that the Maltese language is a semitic language - hence, also, the common characteristics with Arabic.
At the end of the day, you speak the language you want. But whether you are speaking it correctly or not, is a different matter.
With all due respect, of course.
Peter Sammut
Sep 6th 2008, 11:37
With all due respect to the Maltese "pure" Language protagonists, may I ask " And what is the genesis of the Maltese Language? Where are its roots? Did the 200 plus years of Arab rule with its resulting population exchange,if not the resultant "intermingling" with the conqueror, have any effect?
One can still see the evidence of the Arab rule, in surnames,numbers,and words.Modern Maltese now reflects the influence of its modern ex rulers, in words like "bongu","komputer" "karru" "hallo" etc, etc, only shows up the ignorant intolerance of the sensitive reaction of idiots who insist upon shoving their idea of Maltese language "purity" down everybodies neck.
All this with all due respect of course.
Franco Farrugia
Sep 6th 2008, 10:52
Everyone will find every language difficult - if they don't study it well.
No language will be used well by anyone, automatically, even if it is one's native language. If you want to learn and know a language well, you have to sit down and learn it.
So, it does not make sense to take decisions on the basis of making the language easier for the people. Otherwise, we will have a hotch-potch of a language which will never be near the Maltese language, the real one!