In her “seksi artikil” it seems to have escaped Ms Caruana Galizia that when words are derived from English, they enter the Maltese language and do not exist independently, but combine with other morphemes to take on other forms.

According to Ms Caruana Galizia, we should write the word “garaxx” as “garage”, i.e. keeping the original English spelling. But how do we then write “iggaraxxjajt il-karozza”? Should we write it “iggaragejajt il-karozza”? And should we write “garageijiet”? Isn’t that even more grotesque?

What about words coming from Arabic? Should we write them in Arabic too? Should we write “bieb” in Arabic because it is derived from the Arabic word “bep” (I don’t know how to write in Arabic)? If we follow Daphne’s advice, writing Maltese would become an exercise in diachronic linguistics, i.e. showing where words came from.

It is the people who make the language. Language is very democratic. If the majority of Maltese native speakers use that word, that word is part of the Maltese language and nobody has any right to say that it is not.

Perhaps the Council could publish lists with the standard version of these words. However, these should follow the orthography system as is done at present. Making fun of our language is not “seksi”, it shows that some people still think that to show how educated they are, they try to ridicule their native language.

All this is sad, very sad. You do not love your mother because she is the most beautiful or most intelligent woman; you love her because she’s your mother. And if your mother is not that perfect, it is still immoral to ridicule her. This applies also to our mother-tongue.

Though the situation of the Maltese language is complicated, I think the current approach is the best possible in the circumstances.

Stephen Gatt

PAOLA