We are doing a huge disservice to both the Maltese and English languages, which are also our two official languages. We have reached rock-bottom, and nobody seems to care in the least.

A spate of English words, with which we have been familiar for years, are now being given a silly (and stupid) Maltese oral twist: tiffrajja (to fry, when the proper Maltese word is taqli), tibbejkja (to bake/taħmi), tibbojlja (to boil/tgħalli), tikkwesċinja (to ask/tistaqsi), tiddixxernja (to discern/ tagħraf ċar), timmersja (to immerse/tgħaddas), tiħħendilja (to handle/timmaniġġa), tittowja (to tow/tiġbed)… the list is endless. And many beautiful Maltese words are being mauled and killed in the process.

Furthermore, English words in phonetic Maltese are begetting an enormous number of monsters which are being churned out like the traditional pastizzi. Words like fajerekstingwixer (fire-extinguish­er), akkawntant (accountant), dresingawn (dressing-gown), batrum (bathroom), buz (boots), ajskrim (ice-cream), stafrum (staffroom), awtbord (outboard), mejkapp (make-up), ħendbegg (handbag), woterpruf (waterproof)… again, the list is endless.

Ġużè Aquilina, in his Maltese/English dictionary, was one of the perpetrators of such a ridiculous misuse of the English language, and his example caught on (and how!) to the detriment of both languages, which have now merged into one grotesque and tragi-comic hybrid of a language, which is neither Maltese nor English.

I pity the poor students who have to contend with such inanities, very often the pure whims of a small group of people who would like to project themselves as avant-garde and miles above the average intellectual mind.

I firmly believe that since we have two official languages, both should be respected (in written or spoken form); Maltese words should be used whenever available; when not, English words (with exceptions, of course) should be written in English. We are still in time to save face and our students.