Historically, the language question arose for political reasons. Today, the problem is different. It concerns the way one should deal with the large number of English words that are constantly being imported into Maltese. Although, at first sight, this may look like a purely technical matter, to be discussed and, possibly, resolved by linguists, it is one that can have serious repercussions in the field of education.

Every individual speaks a language that is very much his or her own

The question surfaced a couple of years ago when Maltese-language newspapers started to impose a Maltese phonetic spelling on words like diesel and showroom, changing them to dijżil and xowrum and making them virtually unrecognisable.

Many readers were confused, others thought it was a joke, until they discovered that it had become a habit. There is now an ongoing debate on what needs to be done to sort out the mess.

If one is to derive any benefit from the debate, three things need to be made absolutely clear from the start.

First, the problem does not concern the spoken but the written language. It is quite simply impossible to control the way people express themselves in ordinary, everyday conversation. Speech is always uttered by individuals who are members of different social groups.

In a very real sense, every individual speaks a language that is very much his or her own.

We recognise many different ways of speaking the same language and linguists spend most of their time studying the particular varieties and variations of language use, the structures and strategies adopted by the different groups as well as the historical, social and psychological factors that give rise to them.

So the problem concerns mainly the codified or written language as well as what one might call its ‘institutional’ use, for it is here that standards of correctness evolve.

Secondly, a living language grows and develops through its use. Which foreign words become part of the language cannot be decided by legislation. All attempts to interfere with the natural process of linguistic development in the name of some alleged, pristine ‘purity’ are bound to fail.

So one should have absolutely no qualms about using words like ‘traffic lights’, ‘airport’, ‘honeymoon’ or ‘boyfriend’ in Maltese. No Maltese couple nowadays would refer to their honeymoon as qamar il-għasel, unless they were taking part in a poetry competition or speaking in jest. And it is just as ridiculous to insist on using in-namrat for ‘boyfriend’ as it would be to invent Maltese words for ‘ashtray’, ‘bubblegum’, ‘jeans’, ‘vacuum cleaner’, ‘toothpaste’, ‘windscreen’, ‘disc jockey’, ‘windsurfer’, etc.

Thirdly, the rules governing Maltese orthography are clear and clearly stated. They provide unambiguous answers to most of the questions that may be asked by writers, teachers, journalists, politicians, broadcasters, students, and so on.

If we have a problem, then, it is one related to the spelling of English loan-words, mainly nouns. Verbs do not seem to present any special difficulty. Scores of English verbs have become an integral part of Maltese and they are spelled following the rules governing Maltese phonetics. It would be terribly cumbersome, not to say practically impossible, to spell them in any other way and equally absurd to try and find a Semitic or Italian equivalent to replace the English root.

Try doing that with words like ibbawnsja, ibbiddja, ibblaffja, ibboksja, ibbuwja, iddejtja, iddimmja, iddraftja, iffrejmja, iffansja, iffittja, ikkastja, ikkjuwja, ikklejmja, issettja, issortja, ittrejsja, ittrikkja, ittrimmja, ittrippja, iwweldja, ixxiftja and ixxortja and watch the result.

These words create absolutely no problem for pronunciation as their second syllable reproduces quite closely the phonetic sound of the English verb they are derived from.

So the main problem, as I see it, arises in connection with the transliteration of nouns that do not have cognate verbal derivations. New formations like dijżil, xowrum, bejking-pawder, pajnepil and likwidajżer create huge problems for the reader. They are like the invention of a new language, rather than the assimilation that occurs quite naturally in the case of internal inflections within verbs.

Readers should be able to read without having to make the slightest conscious effort to decipher what the new spelling stands for.

Any obstacle that slows down the process of reading should be discouraged.

In the local context, where children are expected to learn at least two languages, English and Maltese, and be able to read and write in both, the consequences of imposing a Maltese phonetic spelling on English words that become part of the language will be disastrous.

Common sense should prevail. They should be spelt as they would be in an English dictionary.

Joe Friggieri is a poet, playwright and theatre director

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