The law that gives the National Council for the Maltese Language absolute power over Maltese is wrong, according to Roderick Bovingdon, who is active in the promotion of Maltese culture, language and literature in Australia.
For Mr Bovingdon, there should be no one, or no one entity, with such power. On one of his frequent visits to Malta, he spoke to The Sunday Times of Malta about his many concerns over the Maltese language, including what he perceives as increasing antagonism in upcoming generations.
Language, he insisted, reflects the history, culture, tensions and passions of the nation.
Mr Bovingdon, 75, said it was worrying that the Maltese Language Council imposed limitations on Maltese speakers.
“Before the council was set up, [author and linguist Joseph] Aquilina had left us an open-minded legacy, with his dictionary providing alternate ways of writing and pronouncing the same word,” said Mr Bovingdon, who is of Anglo-Maltese origin.
Imposing an edict on people immediately stimulated a negative reaction, he added, referring to the imposition of Arabic in secondary schools during the Mintoff years.
People objected to it, and only a minority eventually carried on studying that language.
For Maltese, why limit skond (according to) and skont (discount) to skont and change Għarabja (Arabia) to Arabja, he asked, referring to recent decisions taken by the council.
“Taking away the ‘għ’ from where it belongs in the Maltese language is like stripping a woman of her beauty.”
People created the language and it was not limited to the council, but rather included the council, the Prime Minister, the fishermen and the person in the street. Language, he insisted, reflects the history, culture, tensions and passions of the nation.
“Language is that human phenomenon that attempts to convey meaning between two people – as such, it is of, by, to and from the people… The spoken word always precedes the written form.
Taking away the ‘għ’ from where it belongs in the Maltese language is like stripping a woman of her beauty
“Over the centuries, in clever attempts to alleviate and diminish barriers to allow more efficient and effective communication, philosophers and ‘linguisticians’ have devised rules under the generic term ‘grammars’.
“Unfortunately, these grammars have been promoted through the centuries as the ultimate and final regulatory pattern to be adhered to by one and all, as if they are the infallible and unchangeable dictum. Grammars, and dictionaries, should only ever be intended as guidelines.”
Language, Mr Bovingdon observed, is in a constant state of development and change.
No single person or group has or should ever be given an absolute monopoly – or edict – over one’s language, which was, after all, the soul and most intimate property of the people who spoke it, he said.
He sees Maltese as facing the most trying moment in its battle for survival and questions whether Maltese people believe enough in their ancient mother tongue to ensure that it survives and develops.
“During my trip here, I heard two five-year-old children asking their parents, on separate occasions, to not talk to them in Maltese. This shows disdain towards their native language, indicating that the upcoming generation is going to speak English,” Mr Bovingdon said.
His concern is that Maltese could one day end up spoken only by academics – and this, he points out, is precisely what has happened in Wales and Scotland.
The other side of the coin
The Maltese language is alive and flourishing, according to Prof. Joe Friggieri, chairman of the National Council for the Maltese Language, who insists there is no controversy concerning spelling or syntax in general.
The council was set up by law to “promote the national language of Malta and to provide the necessary means to achieve its aims”, Prof. Friggieri said when contacted for a reaction to Mr Bovingdon’s concerns.
“The council is a democratic body made up of 15 members representing a very wide cross-section of institutions, whose duties are clearly defined by law.
“Decisions are reached democratically, following input by the various technical sub-committees, and there is absolutely no desire on the part of the council to ‘impose its edicts’ on anybody.”
Loanwords do create problems, but one need not follow Aquilina slavishly on this
Individual speakers develop their own way of speaking the language, and nobody can tell them what to say or how to say it. Amazingly, more often than not, they manage to make themselves understood. So it is hard to see how the council could ‘impose limitations on Maltese speakers’, even if it wanted to, Prof. Friggieri said.
When it comes to writing, Prof. Friggieri insisted that it was just not right to give the impression that there was any controversy concerning spelling or syntax in general.
“Loanwords do create problems, but one need not follow Aquilina slavishly on this. Of course, good writing, like all the virtues, comes from learning and is perfected by practice. There is no magic formula here.”
Meanwhile, the claim that in future the Maltese language will be spoken only by academics cannot be supported empirically. In reality, facts point in the opposite direction.
“The Maltese language is alive and flourishing, as demonstrated by the relatively large number of books published in Maltese over the last 20 years,” Prof. Friggieri said.