All right. So we want to expand our language. I do not really object to kompjuter, websajt, emejl, and so on, seeing there is no body to update our language. But is there nothing we can say in Maltese for “wine experience”, or “body language”? Must we be so weak, and massacre our very own language, by having these foreign language expressions introduced into it.

Surely this is very unimaginative of us. Just as it is so unimaginative of Australians to call their states Western Australia, South Australia, New South Wales or Northern Territory. Their aboriginal language is beautiful. Can’t they find names from that?

I am not a church-goer, but I find that our religious Maltese is full of beautiful expressions and it is very flowery. Look at any prayer book. In this regard the Church has been at the forefront. It is a pity that our university people, the language experts, do not contribute at all to this. There is, of course, no money to be made in this work.

But while I do not object to kompjuter, and so on, I do object to kompjuters. As far as I know, the ‘s’ is not used in Maltese to indicate the plural. So why are we doing it?

C. GALEA

Rabat