Albert Borg of the Kunsill tal-Malti has expressed the valid point that our Maltese language suffered a break with its mother Arabic tongue in 1249, when the Maltese Muslims were expelled from Malta by emperor Frederick II to southern Italy.

Arabic Maltese had flourished in our islands between at least 1048 and 1249. Hence the loss of the immediate link with Sicilian Arabic and Tunisian Arabic in Malta.

A keen result of this divide and break was the introduction of Romance Sicilian and Italian from 1249 onwards into spoken andwritten Maltese.

Notary Pietru Caxaro’s important poetic text retains Arabic vocabulary.

A diglossa or bilingual use evolved readily from that time onwards, first with Italian until 1932, then with our present and international English since then.

This is no excuse to use these very different languages carelessly. And correct English and equally correct Maltese are the ideal, and realistic, use of these languages, in the eminent Borg’s view and in mind, in conversation, on TV and in writing.

Any careless bilingual mixed use of these languages is lazy and linguistically incorrect.