Discord on the Maltese language
The 90 years of the Akkademja tal-Malti – founded as Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti on November 23, 1920 – were celebrated on November 23 by the Akkademja’s council members, members and established authors, together with the President of Malta, George Abela, with a musico-literary evening hosted at San Anton Palace in Attard.
The evening was compered by Marlene Abela who stated that San Anton Palace had a connection with Mikiel Anton Vassalli, “the father of the Maltese language”.
During his speech, Carmel Azzopardi, president of the Akkademja, stated that the body’s involvement in language affairs has now been passed on to the National Council for Maltese. He thanked President Abela for hosting the evening and expressed his joy that the meeting was a memorable one because it was the first time ever that the highest authority of the state was meeting Maltese authors.
Having reported this, I would like to make some observations:
It has long been pointed out that Mikiel Anton Vassalli was called “father of the Maltese nation” (not “of the Maltese language”) because of his preface Alla Nazione Maltese to his 1796 Lexicon. I had written about this, backed by quotations from poems by Ġorġ Pisani and Dun Karm, in The Times (April 24, 1996 and May 21, 1996).
Pietru Caxaro, Ignazio Saverio Mifsud, and De Soldanis wrote in Maltese before Vassalli published any of his grammars and dictionary. None of them was ever honoured as “father of the Maltese language”.
The late President of Malta, Anton Buttigieg, had several meetings with members of the Akkademja tal-Malti (vide Il-Malti, Year 62, Malta, 1986, pp. 33 and 49). He had also once invited Maltese authors to an official meeting and a reception at San Anton Palace. He did this with the appropriate ceremonial procedure. I remember the major-domo greeting me and my wife, then banging a staff on the floor to draw the attention of President Buttigieg before calling out our names to introduce us. This was the first official meeting of Maltese authors with the highest authority: the President of Malta.
I feel that young authors are unfortunately ignoring the past. I am afraid that this is the malady that is creating confusion and discord among Maltese authors, a malady among some academics who, since the passing away of Prof. Ġużè Aquilina, have made themselves the “executive” or rather the “undisputed” experts who can reshape our language and disrupt what had been established between 1924 and 2000, without taking into consideration what harm they are doing to the Maltese language and publications. This has brought about disagreement and disgruntlement between established mature Maltese authors and the young and not-so-young emerging, some even “presumptuous” scholars who believe they can bridle the language for one and all, but especially those who have been using it for these last 60 years at least.
The Akkademja tal-Malti did not pass on the “management” of the language to the National Council for Maltese; it was taken away from her by the legal establishment of the National Council for Maltese. What the Akkademja seems to have surrendered is its autonomy. I have a strong feeling that instead of serving as watchdog for what the National Council for Maltese may be planning to “decide”, the Akkademja council is seeing to it that no member ever criticises the council’s “decisions” (deċiżjonijiet). I know that the idea of a National Council for Maltese as conceived by the then Minister of Education Ugo Mifsud Bonnici was different.
I suggest that the Akkademja re-adopts its historical name, Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti. That is what it has been reduced to.
In the meantime Ad multos annos...
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Frans Sammut
Dec 29th 2010, 16:59
Now, finally, I am gratified to see that people like Mr Zammit Ciantar who can expect to find more than “solace” from the quarters I am not mentioning so as not to deviate from the main argument, are finally seeing the light. I wish him luck in seeking to rescue the dignity and respectability of the national language from those he has correctly branded “presumptuous scholars” in the immediate future. If he manages to do that, their ill-guided efforts will not be crowned with the legal notice they are looking forward to. If he does not, I repeat what I have said earlier on, I can only hope that a future government will do us all the favour of repealing the law that will wreak extensive, if not, irremediable, damage to the national language.
Frans Sammut
Dec 29th 2010, 16:57
Achille Mizzi persevered until the early years of the new millennium. After being relentlessly vilified in the press, he too resigned. The attacks he underwent had convinced him of the correctness of the advice I had been giving him, namely that the hidden agenda being secretly followed was devised by linguists who had no respect for the rules laid down by the Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti, presumed that their admittedly refined knowledge of modern linguistic sufficed for the preservation of Maltese (a contentious assumption under all circumstances) and , worst of all, who were ready to continue creating trouble for the Akkademja and consequently for the dignity the national language deserves. What happened after that is beyond my ken. I can only assert that when I was invited to take part in the newly fangled Council I declined the offer not of spite for its prime mover President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici, but for the same reason that the elements behind the so-called need for “innovation” and so forth would be banking on support from quarters where I could not expect to find solace.
Frans Sammut
Dec 29th 2010, 16:55
I am forwarding the following comments mostly out of respect for Mr Farrugia who, I know, writes out of genuine concern for the national language, its history and, above all, its relevance to the national identity. First of all, I concur fully with his views regarding those authorities who employ the language in the most formal, and therefore, most important and relevant fashion in the national life. Prior to the setting up of the controversial National Council for Maltese, the Akkademja tal-Malti, as successor to the Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti had sought to safeguard the wealth of linguistic heritage it was heir to. In the early 1990s I was elected to the office of General Secretary of the Akkademja and some years later my friend and poet Achille Mizzi was elected President. From the very start we encountered difficulties emanating from a section of members who were immediately identified by the more perspicacious amongst us as driven by hidden agendas that could only lead to unnecessary and harmful arguments. In 1998 I resigned and Achille Mizzi continued “alone” to face the camouflaged attacks from these “unknown sources”.
l.theuma
Dec 29th 2010, 14:57
Prosit. An excellent article. The members of the National Council of Maltese can be deemed "dilettanti". They are ruening the standardization the members of the "Akkademja tal-Malti" gave to our languege. So they were acucrately followed. Who will follow ideots who do not even know to speak Maltese?
Ramon Casha
Dec 29th 2010, 17:06
I hope there are no children watching what you're doing to the English language. Perhaps your treatment of the Maltese language is a bit better.
You have no idea what you're talking about. The council operates through a number of technical subcommittees and these consist of qualified and experienced professionals in their respective fields.
Unfortunately there remain many who think that their personal methodology is the only correct one, and anybody who disagrees must therefore be amateurs. For a few this is simply a matter of who should lead the council - and they feel that the only acceptable choice is themselves. The latter problem almost tore the Akkademja apart a few years back.
Incidentally, if you find the work of the council to be lacking, did you offer your services to help with the workload? Of course, you'll have to work with others who might not always agree with you, but I'm sure you can manage that.
Dr Lillian Sciberras
Dec 29th 2010, 14:49
If my memory serves me right the first president of the republic to invite Maltese writers to San Anton was in fact the first president, Sir Anthony Mamo.
Frans Sammut
Dec 29th 2010, 19:02
You're absolutely right. Following that event President Anton Buttigieg held such meetings too. I clearly recall a similar meeting with President Emeritus Ugo Mifsud Bonnici.
Frans Sammut
Dec 29th 2010, 13:33
Mr Zammit Ciantar may be interested to know that during my tenure as secretary of the Akkademja during most of the Nineties this was exactly my "mission" - to keep the Akkademja away from the clutches of those he correctly defines as "presumptuous scholars". These people who work in the dark, away from the glare of the media and the gaze of the public eye, knew what my role was and stealthily did their damnedest to destroy the work my colleagues, and myself were doing. Unfortunately and unwittingly, President Emeritus Mifsud Bonnici fell for their ploy. Their occult actions will now be crowned with a legal notice next year. I can only hope a future Government will repeal the law that will turn the national language into a pidgin whatever.
Wenzu Vella
Dec 29th 2010, 13:31
We Maltese, must be the funniest people on earth to always argue or discuss problems about our beautiful Maltese language in a news paper published in English.
Alfred Farrugia
Dec 29th 2010, 13:07
Without going into the merits of the issues concerned between the Akkademja and the Council, I wish to suggest that the authorities concerned take a look at the efforts made in Iceland to preserve their language.
Our language is part of our identity and if we mess it up we shall be the losers. Instead of a blessing, the acceptance of the Maltese language as an official language of the EU could turn to be a curse, if those who are responsible for the translation of EU documents into Maltese are not qualified enough or have some other agenda.
With all due respect to the lawyers concerned, deriving "Maltese" versions of Italian words when the same words already exist in Maltese does not necessarily reflect their knowledge of Italian. If anything, it reflects their lack of knowledge of the Maltese vernacular which should be respected. The Department of Information and the Attorney General's Office, among others, should be manned by experts of the Maltese language to render a proper service and make sure that Maltese legislation, agreements and treaties, and other official documents are written in the proper Maltese language.
Ramon Casha
Dec 29th 2010, 11:44
I am no linguist, but from my humble observations, one of the big issues with the Maltese language was the idea that "there is no wrong answer". Words were being adopted and written in a variety of ways, with each method having its own, qualified and well-known linguistic experts behind it. This was not a good situation. The idea behind "deċiżjonijiet" was precisely that - to take all views into consideration then, where possible, come up with one single officially correct way to write a word. I myself have not agreed with all these decisions, but I do recognise the need for decisions to be made. Teachers need to have an authoritative source to turn to whenever something is in doubt. Newspapers, newsreaders and other professional users of the language can turn to the council to resolve a dispute.
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