I read Daphne Caruana Galizia’s contribution on this subject (TMID 14 August) and have discovered that Mrs Caruana Galizia, with all her pretensions, does not know the Italian language well. The Italians have two different words for “nephews” and “grandsons”.

For “nephew” the Italians have the word nipote and for “grandson” they have the word nipotino. But the Maltese, who do not know the proper Italian words, have corrupted the Maltese language with the wrong word that makes my stomach revolt every time I hear it, especially on the obituaries where it is not clear whether one left nephews or grandsons to bereave him or her. So one does not know whether the departed was an uncle or a grandfather.

The word for grandchildren in Maltese is tfal tat-tfal. This word was also used by the Maltese correspondent from Australia, a Mr Dimech, some time ago in one of his reports.

The Maltese language, like Hebrew and Aramaik, is a Semitic language and so has no names for relatives who are all called “brothers or relatives”. Hi or Qarib. The words ziju, kugin, neputi and nannu are all borrowed from Italian.

As the word nipotini is conflicting with nipoti it was not assumed and the Maltese kept tfal tat-tfal. However, this is a compound word. But are not “grandfather, grandson and so on” also compound words? Or are we to be ashamed only of the Maltese compound words?

Maltese is a real Semitic language and not a dialect, as some Maltese people like to adore. So, tfal tat-tfal is the proper Maltese Semitic word for “grandchildren”. Neputijiet is the most horrible word in Maltese use for “grandchildren”. They are massacring the Maltese language.

Joseph S. Ellul

Former teacher and archaeologist

Zurrieq