In his article on the current (mis)use of the Maltese language, carried in the special 80th Anniversary Times of Malta magazine on August 9, Laurence Grech, former editor of The Sunday Times of Malta justifiably complains about the frequent mistakes seen and heard in Maltese newspapers, on TV and radio. The types of mistakes he refers to should be given due consideration and, in my view, rectified.

What particularly irks me personally is the rampant erroneous use of the hard sound ‘ħ‘ instead of the silent ‘h’ in such words as ‘taraħħa’, ‘taraħħom’ instead of ‘taraha’, ‘tarahom’.

This mistake, committed particularly in speech, and very common especially in the case of loan words from English and Maltese, is being heard even on television and radio, sometimes by people who should know better.

I get the impression that the authorities of the Maltese language and, maybe, some teachers of Maltese are not doing enough to combat this linguistic virus. Or is it a case that they have given up on it and are letting matters take their course?

Another thing: why should children at school be taught to write in Maltese words like ‘mowbajl’ and ‘futbol’ when there exists an obvious risk that some of them, at least, might write such words the Maltese way when writing in English?

Whenever good Maltese substitutes for such words cannot be found, wouldn’t it be better to let schoolchildren write such words in English enclosed by inverted commas, namely ‘mobile’ and ‘football’?