A Eurostat study, published last week, ranked EU countries with regard to fluency, language acquisition and bi-lingualism. This study was carried out to mark the European Day of Language. The results showed that Maltese students are the EU’s most proficient English speakers outside Britain.

That is certainly a feather in our cap and is due to the fact that despite the occasional rumbles about nationalism, colonialism, imperialism and other -isms, we should, as Maltese, thank our lucky stars that for almost two centuries we had had English ‘thrust upon us’! English is our international passport to the world and as the Minister of Education declared, “We cannot afford to limit ourselves when it comes to communication.”

We Maltese have a generally ambivalent approach to English. We all aware that, while English is not our national language, it certainly is one of our two official languages. Notwithstanding this, over the last 50 years the popularity of English as a spoken language has undergone several experiences totally unrelated to its intrinsic value. All too often spoken English has suffered as speaking English in public was considered to be affected.

This is tragic because we have stifled the public voice of those who because of their education find it difficult to express themselves academically in Maltese. At best these people have expressed themselves through the English language newspapers which, ironically, throughout remained seemingly unaffected by any prejudice, political, social or otherwise. We may speak English abominably but we write it beautifully.

Since Independence, we have issued every single bit of legislation in both languages and had every document emanating from the government in both languages too.

Therefore while there seems to be no problem regarding the written language the burning question remains ‘De Inglish as she is spoke’!

To have 40 students from St Ignatius College reciting poems and songs in different languages was indeed a most welcome image especially when they “exhibited their multilingual skills by swapping between different languages mid sentence in a short play about learning languages in the classroom”(sic) To be honest this sentence rather floored me but moving swiftly on...

There are two points I would like to put forward in this regard which the Ministry of Education may care to address. The first concerns bilingualism. While it is fine to speak two languages concurrently it is not good to speak them simultaneously which is all too often what happens here. The grammatical syntax of the languages must not be muddled either, as they are radically different and the result is either Maltese with English syntax or English with a Maltese syntax.

To add insult to injury, when, in conversation, Maltese and English words are used with abandon and, worst of all, Maltese words are eliminated and substituted by Maltese-ified English ones, the result is sheer Manglish. Manglish is ridiculous but it is what we Maltese unconsciously speak most of the time especially when we speak to one other. While this patois, for patois it is, is fully understood by all of us native Maltese, the acid test for us all is speaking pure unadulterated Maltese or pure unadulterated English. That is when the stuttering starts. Most of us are incapable of separating English and Maltese.

Most of us are incapable of separating English and Maltese. This is where we slip up

My concern about Maltese is that is a minority language in danger of being debased by too many interpolations. Before we know it Maltese will be on the ‘endangered species list’ and therefore we have to take emergency measures to ensure that it is spoken properly. The only people who can actively make a difference here are members of the media especially TV and radio. These people must be sent to language school and be taught the correct way of expressing themselves in Maltese .

One alarming trait I have been told owes its existence to a slip of the tongue from a TV announcer is the strange and inexplicable transformation, or transmogrification, of “l-ewwel nett” into “l-ewwel nies”! What on earth does one mean by “l-ewwel nies”? Adam and Eve? And then I have also heard “it-tieni nies” too! Cain and Abel perhaps? Nett is a word of Latin origin that emphasises the absolute of being first. Bringing our remote ancestors into the picture, with or without fig-leaves, is utterly absurd.

This is where the Akkademja and the Għaqda tal-Malti should be brought in. If it is their aim to preserve the purity of the Maltese language I strongly feel that further concessions to English would be lethal and that all present and aspiring TV and radio journalists should be coached and encouraged to speak Maltese like the pros.

The impeccable Maltese of the late Charles Arrigo, is the ideal to which each presenter should aspire. Those who remember him like I do will surely agree that he was a joy to listen to but then his background was highly literary and it showed.

While saving Maltese from itself is doable, the damage control for spoken English very much depends on the inimical attitude towards it being relaxed. I see this as a bit of a pie in the sky at the moment. Can any of you envisage a discussion programme on TV being conducted in both languages?

Have we yet reached a stage in our academic development that the rank and file of Maltese are equally facile in both languages to the extent that translation from English to Maltese and Maltese to English is unnecessary? I don’t think so.

Yet English is undeniably our lifeline to the rest of the world. It is the lingua franca of the Indian subcontinent which has I believe 15 official languages. A Tamil can communicate easily with a Rajasthani in English. Add that fact to the one where the international language of IT is English and there you have it: eschew the English language and prepare yourself to choose your essential selection for Desert Island Discs.