Yes, I have to write in English. The only newspapers available locally that are widely read are published in English. The popular ones published in Maltese are far too biased politically. This is not being written in Parliament by one of the backbenchers, just to find something useful for “him” to do. We have to write to “him” and not “her” because the too few females we have in Parliament are too busy trying to keep their seat in this male-dominated country.

Now we have a big issue with the EU about the fishery of bluefin tuna – it seems that this fish is becoming extinct. We make a big issue about a fish, yet we do not give a hoot about our national language becoming extinct, or so crossbred that it is becoming senseless. We do not have to become fundamentalists or extremists to protect our language. It is really very important that everybody in the world becomes bi-lingual, but let us not invent a senseless and non-understandable language. Our history is rich with Maltese people who dedicated their lives to improving the Maltese language. It is good that they are now dead – otherwise we could be seriously accused of manslaughter, killing them with our ignorance and disrespect for our national language.

The media is very important in our life and we still have a lot to learn, as does the media, especially TV. Unfortunately, there are programmes on (supposedly) Maltese stations during which commentators speak 25 per cent Maltese, 25 per cent English, 25 per cent Italian, and 25 per cent a new (?) language; and they are actually paid a salary. An example – (if you want to watch something dirty, watch the World Cup Football*) – some of our Maltese commentators do not know how to speak Maltese. They use cannibalised foreign expressions to tell us what we can easily see for ourselves. One of them, if not more, has never referred to a football match as a (loghba), a match. He or they always refer to it as a ‘confront’, which is a corruption of the Italian word ‘confronto’, or the rarely used English word ‘confrontation’, with regard to a football match. A football match in Maltese has always been referred to as a ‘loghba’, so why pay somebody to influence us and corrupt our language?   

* World Cup Football – Some sport-orientated people played football till the age of 63, because it was a sport. Now it is just money. Some people would be pleased to see both Italy and England eliminated from the World Cup; not because they hold a grudge against any of those countries; probably only because they are tired of the noisy and questionable celebrations, and the negative linguistic influence it is having on our language. These people are not afraid to learn and speak Italian and English – what they are afraid of is forgetting Maltese. 

Please pardon our language?

Why should we beg pardon?

Reggie DeBono

ATTARD