In recent days there has been an eruption of verbal language battles between the supporters of the Maltese language.

This paper, and others, have been involuntary bystanders in this war.

It would seem that what occasioned the war was a proposed extension of the committee which decides matters pertaining to the Maltese language to include members coming from a wider context than the areas from which the original members were selected, to include members coming from, for example, the publication houses, etc.

Now in our country, sudden controversies usually end in vituperative language and this was no exception. On the one hand there were claims that there are ‘language Talibans’ while on the other there were all sorts of claims of people wanting to hog power and principle.

Now when such language is used, we are all the losers, regardless of the subject matter of the issue. Matters should have been done better, perhaps a better consultation especially of the people involved, should have been in order. But even so, all sides in this issue should have kept back from using such vituperative language, regardless who was in the right or the wrong.

If anyone of the participants thinks that by such language he was fighting for the enhancement and protection of the Maltese language, he is sorely mistaken. On the other hand, such acrid controversies contribute to bring the Maltese language into disrepute, which it certainly does not deserve.

People in general are still at sea over the changes which have recently been brought in as to how certain words are written. There is also a wide discussion whether foreign loan words should be written in their original format or in a Maltesized manner.

And above all else, the number of those who speak Maltese at home and at work keeps decreasing. Parents speak to their children in a pidgin English since they seem unable to speak English as it should be spoken. So children are being brought up to speak a pidgin English and a smattering of Maltese, unsatisfactory at both ends.

We must all understand that the Maltese language is ever in danger. Barrack-room battles are certainly uncalled for especially on such a subject.

Fortunately, there are bright exceptions to this feud. We point at the regular programme on CampusFM by Celaine Buhagiar and Professor Charles Briffa on how Maltese words came into being. It is a fascinating programme which shows how the Maltese, over the centuries, adapted words derived from different languages and cultures and adapted them to everyday use in Malta so much that they became Maltese words.

It is a programme that deserves a far wider audience.

From another country, whose language is as beleaguered as ours, Israel, comes another example: every week on national TV there is a programme that encourages people how to use the proper Hebrew language: it is based on teaching how a better form of language could better express the thought.

This is something that is unhappily absent from our TV channels. It should not cost a lot and many of those who are now engaged in this language feud would be only too eager to contribute.

Better get together to do something positive about our precious national language that spend time in scurrilous feuding.