American speech coach Andrea Caban.

The American speech coach criticised for her attempt to illustrate the “Maltese accent” has apologised to those she offended with her two-minute clip. In a video uploaded online last week, voice coach Andrea Caban said the accent from “Mwolta” had the oral posture of a smile – an observation she later admitted might have been far-fetched.

Adding fuel to the fire, in the video Ms Caban added in an East-European accent – which she insisted on passing off as a Maltese accent – that Malta was “right off the coast of Sicily”. The barrage of negative comments that followed flooded the social media until the video was pulled offline this week.

Replying to questions sent by the newspaper, Ms Caban said she was sincerely apologetic that she offended anyone.

Again, sincere apologies to the people from Malta whom I’ve offended

“That was never my intention, of course. I am an acting coach and a two-minute video is meant to be a broad stroke, not a detailed accent breakdown at all.”

She noted that for actors, accent acquisition was not always about absolute accuracy but about introducing a “flavour” of a place to an audience within the context of a play.

Asked whether she had met any Maltese people, the voice coach said she had interviewed two people from Malta “to get some sound features for the breakdown, and what I performed on the two-minute video is what their particular idiolect sounded like to me.

“But as I say in my videos, the accent on the video is just one accent. When you listen closely, there are as many accents in a particular place as there are people. And I also say ‘Don’t take my word for it’. Always listen to native speakers and break down an accent the way you hear it. That is the real point of the video... to get people to listen in a new way and to spark curiosity.”

Ms Caban said that when she performed the accent for the two people she had interviewed, they instantly recognised their accent.

“They were very friendly people who spoke about the Maltese people with such warmth and pride, I only felt it appropriate to include that somehow in the video. Perhaps folding that into the ‘oral posture’ was a stretch.”

She again reiterated her apologies: “I know that the way people speak is profoundly personal and I understand the huge reaction.

“Again, sincere apologies to the people from Malta whom I’ve offended.”

The reaction to the video was similar to the aggressive outburst when a Dutch company produced a clip in which it interviewed a young Maltese potato grower.

But following the initial reaction that picked on the young man for his broken accent, the comments changed to one of praise for doing Malta proud with his local produce.

Sociologist Albert Bell notes that the Maltese have a sense of pride about who they are and are increasingly intolerant of attempts that seem to merely replicate generalisations and uninformed stereotypes about the Maltese, as the video [about the Maltese accent] originally appeared to do.

“The Maltese are not comfortable with simple generalisations on factors that are crucial to our national identity and culture, including the Maltese language of course,” he said, adding that the video failed to take into account the uniqueness and complexity of the language and the island’s intricate socio-cultural heritage and mix.

“The strong reactions accompanying the video resist such oversimplification and banalisation of our language and identity, perhaps also underscoring the need the Maltese feel to be respected and taken more seriously, and for Maltese culture to be recognised for what it truly is with all its shades and hues and delicate idiosyncrasies.”

When contacted anthropologist Paul Clough said he did not think the Maltese were especially defensive about their language.

“Anthropologically speaking, they are proud of their language. But the many anthropological books on national identity show that all societies, in building up an identity, are very concerned about their language. In anthropology, discourse is an essential element in any human identity – and discourse is mainly through language.

Prof. Clough added that increasing numbers of anthropologists were researching the internet. “They are pointing out the real dangers of Internet when it can ‘misinform’ and completely mislead literally billions of people who seem to actually believe that internet is a source of real information.

“Luckily, human beings are prone to debate, so when people look at YouTube, they can also watch and read the counter-reactions.”