The language of television broadcasters

Joe Xuereb

Dec 31st 2010, 01:28

@ Michael Cassar (respondent to the very first comment). I would go one further. One can not speak a foreign language, be it English or whatever, better than one's own language. In other words, a Maltese individual who appreciates the importance of his own language, and strives to speak and write it as it should be spoken and written, in my opinion that individual can go on to other languages. If his grasp of his own language and for some reason or other cannot grasp this fact or chooses to deny it, the sad news is that this person does not stand a chance of developing verbal skills in ANY language. For example: someone wrote 'can we afford a language we call our's?'. A sentence in English, no doubt. Yes, but what does it mean?!
Lawrence Gonzi PM's Maltese is the best I've heard in a long time even if not exactly seamless. Eight out of 10. A bit of a 'stallion among mules' situation, I'm afraid.
Linguistic indolence should not be called evolution. Therein lies the problem and that's with the ones who think, never mind Joe Bloggs on the street.I

Joe Xuereb

Dec 30th 2010, 23:44

3) This has to be reflected in writing although colloquially we say 'intremalbahar'. In the written language, the rules have to be known and respected It is called being passionate about one's heritage. Which also means, that the words to the National Anthem need revision like urgently - as they stand they are a mockery.
And finally, and most importantly, the basis of Maltese is Arabic, Semitic. There is no shame in that. Your culture and religion makes you European if that's what you're fretting about; so you can afford to accept a basic, undeniable truth that won't threaten your identity. So get over it. So embrace and celebrate your uniqueness.

Joe Xuereb

Dec 30th 2010, 23:38

2) But Maltese gets you nowhere in the world, they protest. English is the computer language. Fair enough. Problem is, with no real grasp of Maltese and even less of English,
you are going nowhere fast, anywhere. Unless you're happy to settle for a job where verbal skills are redundant. Like feeding monkeys in a zoo. And even then.....the chimps could end up highlighing your ignrance.
Nations that want to subdue an enemy subdue their culture and their language. We do it to ourselves.
I see that many seem to have this issue close to their heart. It would be nice once in a while to get some input from someone at the Akkademja. Or is it a case of 'hu l-fama u ntrema` il-bahar'? - fame, once attained, and the newly-famous can afford complacency and self-reward any license (or words to that effect) -(il-bahar because the previous word ends in a consonant (yes, we're told the gh - ghajn - is silent(misleading us) but linguistically it is a consonant and is treated accordingly. This has to be reflected in writing although colloquially we say 'intremalbahar'. In the written language, the rules have to be known and respected.
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Joe Xuereb

Dec 30th 2010, 23:23

1) Adrian Muscat. Can we afford a language we call OURS - please note.
Joseph Mizzi, I've lived in UK for 50 years and to me, product placement means nothing. It's this obsession with shorthand of language. It works in Engllish to some extent but not in Maltese. Summer School in English is perfectly acceptable. But use the same syntax flexibility to Maltese? and say Skola Sajf? Makes me laugh/weep!
I've noticed too when entering Maltese Chat rooms that a) spelling is atrocious and even more disturbing, it seems that the 'q' sound, so peculiarly and so common in Maltese, is being sidestepped. For instance, I've come across 'qabel'(beforehand or he concurred) written as 'abel'. I wonder what they'd make of 'tqiq'(flour). I guess they'd write 'flower' or some version of that.
I accessed a wonderful website of a famous band only yesterday, written in Maltese. Wonderful! Except that whoever wrote it up can not differentiate between the possessive ta
` plus the article of the thing possessed - ta` l- OR tal-. There are simple rules for this. Never heard of rules, Mister/Ms?
continued

Pule' Carmel

Dec 30th 2010, 19:02

Any value in " Dan il-program jinkludi prodotti" , " jinkludi prodott", " prodott inkluz" , instead "tqeghid tal-prodott" ?

Adrian Muscat

Dec 30th 2010, 17:49

Can we be a bit practical here?
can we afford a language we call our's? NO.

Paul Borg

Dec 30th 2010, 17:48

Very well written Anton. I enjoyed reading your letter. Many opinion leaders on this very newspaper amongst others, find it hard to use simple words to get a message through. Instead they complicate an article with bomastic and outdated phrases .

c. camilleri

Dec 30th 2010, 17:10

And the pity is most all these Broadcasters have come out of our University with BA honours and Master degrees. So we say that they are the result of our University's mass production.

J. Vella

Dec 30th 2010, 16:32

What about 'issejvja' and 'ittraduci' on the Maltese version of Google?
Aren't 'salva' and 'aqleb' good enough?

You'd think they'd have 'googled' reliable and experienced translators. : )

vince cachia

Dec 30th 2010, 15:42

All you bloggers below are forgetting one thing. NEVER TRANSLATE WORD FOR WORD. That was always the first rule at school whan translating. That is why we continually hear all these horribly sounding phrases in Maltese and also in English!! And one more thing, I think that PARSING is not taught any more in schools because most presenters do not know where to put such things as adjectives and adverbs and PUNCTUATIONS.....

Mike Farrugia

Dec 30th 2010, 13:34

What I find most appalling are the adverts in Maltese acted by children who cannot speak any Maltese! The heinz beans commercial makes me puke.
And what about the blood donation advert.... "id-demm ma ghandux valur" !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
(a poor translation of priceless perhaps?????)

Paul Konti

Dec 30th 2010, 13:23

I agree with Anton except for "tqegħid tal-prodott." At least I see some effort being put in here.
Adding to Wally's comments, it would be more appropriate to use mikrofonu and alkoħol. Translating a foreign word by simply spelling it in Maltese is awful.
The worst offenders are those 'merry chefs' on T.V. who use words like...
ibbojlja for boil; issimerja for simmer; immiksja for mix; and similar English words.
Many people are now accepting words like karrotti instead of zunnarija; lingwa Maltija instead of Ilsien Malti. Most of our youngsters are not aware that 'sieq' is the word for foot and that my leg is 'riġli' and not riġlejja. The list is endless.
"a living language is just that - it evolves" BUT... should we keep on replacing words we have been using since time immemorial? Why do we have to accept a foreign word simply because most people have become used to it? And - food for the thought - perhaps we should invent our own words rather than borrow from a foreign language. Originally, words have evolved from sounds, right?

Richard Muscat

Dec 30th 2010, 13:00

I agree with all those who criticize objectively and without political bias the (bad) use of the Maltese language especially in the media. Other examples of such gaffes and exaggerative descriptions are: "minkejja bahar ingazzat nizlu jghumu ghall-Istrina" made heroes (!) with 18 degrees temperature at sea, and compared with news of the horrible weather in all Europe and beyond; "sfidaw it-taqtir tax-xita u grew..."; even here heroism most creative giving a football result: "wara li qalghu it-tielet goal, Chelsea immedjatament ghamlu reazzjoni..!!!) immediately my foot!!! and we can go on citing such hilarious (!) news coverages. The sad fact is that many of our newscasters miserably fail to make basic distinctions of the meaning of the words. there is visible lack of cultural "software" in their intellect. This misery is widely spread, regretfully.

Joseph Mizzi

Dec 30th 2010, 11:42

I cannot understand why so many people are speaking out against the term "tqegħid tal-prodott". In my opinion, this is an adequate Maltese translation of the English term "product placement". In a similar vein, the French have "placement de produit", the Germans "Productplazierung" and the Spanish "emplazamiento de productos". I agree with those who maintain that the Maltese expression does not sound natural, but how natural does it sound in any of the languages mentioned above (including the English version)?

When I saw the term used on Maltese TV for the first time, I immediately associated it with the English "product placement". Having some marketing background, I had a good idea of what it meant. I am sure that all television viewers writing comments below, stating that they don't have the faintest idea about what the term in Maltese means, dont' know what the English "product placement" means in the first place!

Patrick Sacco

Dec 30th 2010, 11:32

I fully agree with most of the commentators here that the use of the Maltese language by TV stations and, I would add, people working in the media in general is horrible.

I also agree that the so-called Council of the Maltese Language has made a mess and should be sacked at once not sent touring schools to make the situation worse!

Finally, there should be no partisan politics in this issue as I would like you to hear the butchering of Maltese on ALL radio stations - please correct me if I'm wrong!

l.theuma

Dec 30th 2010, 11:32

Anton F. Attard is far more than right in his comments. It is time that all persons involved in the mass media and the Council of the Maltese Language go back and syncronize their Maltese with: "Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija. Xogħol maħruġ mill-għaqda tal-kittieba tal-Malti fis-sena 1924" and "Tagħrif fuq il-Kitba Maltija ta' A. Cremona. L-ewwel u t-Tieni ktieb." There lie the true basics of our Maltese language. Ignoring these basics means destroying our language and all efforts done by our respected and renowned Maltese linguistics.

Peppi grech

Dec 30th 2010, 10:58

POSSIBLE SOLUTION !!!

Since 90% or even more (this is my calculation) of the programmes transmitted on Maltese channels have advertisement inserted otherwise they can't cope financially, then we should do it the other way round ,meaning ,those programmes without advertisements inserted, practically only the News and Sunday Mass, should state ' DAN IL-PROGRAMM MA FIHX REKLAMAR!!! and this is simple undertsandable Maltese le?!!!
How about that as a solution?!!!!

Victor Cuschieri

Dec 30th 2010, 09:43

I agree with Anton F Attard. They are all bastardizing the Maltese language and the PN government whose previous leaders did not want the Maltese language and wanted Italian because they used to say that Maltese was the kitchen's and lower class language. The PN Government itself is helping to undermine the Maltese language through its support for the Council of Maltese Language which should be scrapped and the members kicked out.

p attard

Dec 30th 2010, 09:13

It's not only on TV and radios that this tragic comedy is happening. What about the local newspapers? There seems to be a competition between them who invents the next bombastic word, such as basslejn, randebawt etc. After creating these monsters they choose their plurals the English way, such as referis, penaltis etc. I am surely no expert in the Maltese language, but I have loved it for the past fifty four years and now I am sad to witness its continuous declining. It seems that those who should watch over its well being are just ignoring all appeals in its favour, adding such insuts as the amenn, Zvizzera/Zvezja, skont etc. And wonder why one newspaper writes Cile' instead of Cili?

Franco Farrugia

Dec 30th 2010, 09:12

I am but a humble user of the great Maltese language, that I love and appreciate so much.
However, I must point out to people like Mr Attard that a living language is just that - it evolves! I stand up to be counted in saying that I find nothing wrong and funny with 'tqeghid tal-prodotti', always depending, of course, on the context in which it is used.
With all due respect, what does 'reklamar hafif' mean? Or 'reklami fic-cokon'? The mind boggles.
Mr Attard also claims that 'they write in Maltese and think in English!' I am sorry: I beg to differ; nothing is further from the truth. The Maltese people are, in fact, shackled by the fact that they think in Maltese and then express themselves, in writing or orally, in English.
Mr Attard denounces Maltese journalists - the only point I agree where I agree with him and I would go one step further: Maltese journalists do not exist.