I felt empathy with Henry Frendo, history professor and director of the Institute of Maltse Studies, when he wrote that “for the first time in my life I am feeling uncomfortable writing in Maltese” (‘Maltese language: what future?’, The Sunday Times of Malta, July 12).

Albert Borg, professor of Maltese linguistics and chairman of the Institute of Linguistics, University of Malta, informs us that the author of a consultation document recently published (and later withdrawn) by the Education Ministry contained no less than 40 spelling mistakes in two-and-a-half pages.

One cannot help coming to the obvious conclusion that the paper had not been presented to any of the 309 certified proof readers that Karl Scicluna boasts are now available in Malta. This is very welcome news and I assume these are members of his Għaqda Qarrejja tal-Provi tal-Malti.

Scicluna assures us that the knowledge of ‘good’ Maltese orthography is spreading through Maltese society as never before. This is a big statement to make. Considering the National Council for Maltese has not yet identified the correct method of writing in Maltese loan words from the English language, I wonder if we can be illuminated as to what constitutes good Maltese ortography. To my mind, we now seem to be on a rudderless boat whose captain has been swept overboard in the midst of a storm.

How is the council spreading its gospel? Perhaps somebody should take heed of what Joseph Borg , secretary of the Akkademja tal-Malti is advocating: to have the work of the Council of Maltese advertised adequately so that public support for the council will not be very different from that displayed by the Akkademja towards the same council – whatever that means to people needing to know how to spell Maltese translations of words like ‘mobile’ and thousands more.

I cannot help but agree with Doris Camilleri (The Sunday Times of Malta, July 19) that we should treasure our knowledge of English as a second language. This assumes that our other treasure, the Maltese language, is respected as the national one.

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