From Notary Dr M. A. Sammut

Daphne Caruana Galizia is wrong. Once again. (TMIS, 18 May)

Legislatura and legislature do not refer to the same thing. Legislature refers to the institutions or people composing such institutions, responsible to legislate. Legislatura in Maltese does not derive from English, as Mrs Caruana Galizia seems to infer, but from Italian.

Contrary to what your correspondent claims, legislatura (in both Maltese and Italian) does mean the five-year period, or any shorter period, in which a legislature operates. Had she looked it up in Il-Miklem Malti (Vol V), for instance, or in any Italian book on Constitutional Law, she would have avoided this.

Your correspondent’s remark on the rapid mysterious evolution of the Maltese language is therefore completely baseless, and serves only to misguide readers. Your correspondent should check her facts before rushing to share her factually incorrect prejudices with your readers.

Your correspondent’s penchant to portray prejudices for facts is a ludicrous exercise in the ignorantisation of the Maltese reading public. The case at hand, for instance, is a case of faux amis, and homonymy does not necessarily translate into synonymy: a similar sound does not mean a similar meaning.

For the record, on that same day, Minister Carm Mifsud Bonnici used the term legislatura correctly in his il-mument article (“Dan il-Parlament, f’din il-legislatura, nittama li jkun differenti minn ta’ qablu”). There can be no doubt on Dr Mifsud Bonnici’s knowledge of Maltese and correct legal terminology.

Mark A. Sammut