Bad Maltese

I was so pleased to notice on timesofmalta.com, following my letter Bad Maltese (December 2), that an increasing number of people are really concerned about the bad use of the Maltese language in our media, whether written or spoken. I can assure them...

I was so pleased to notice on timesofmalta.com, following my letter Bad Maltese (December 2), that an increasing number of people are really concerned about the bad use of the Maltese language in our media, whether written or spoken.

I can assure them that in my novels I never use such words as teacher, birthday, parents, bathroom, etc. as people do when they speak on TV when we have the equivalent in our language. And I certainly never dream of using such ugly words as bajsikil, woxmaxin and xelta when we have proper words for them. However, words like wiski and brandi are accepted as much as kejk and kowt since we don’t have the equivalent in Maltese.

I do agree with some correspondents that the Akkademja tal-Malti and/or the Broadcasting Authority should take things more seriously where our language is concerned and even penalise somehow those who don’t abide by their regulations.

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