Changes in the Maltese language -- It-tibdil fil-lingwa Maltija

 

Language is a very important aspect of culture in mankind, and reflects social, political, geographical, cultural and historic realities that occupy volumes.  It is also one of the most important aspects of a person's identity, and gives an idea of his or her origins as from the very first word uttered.

 

I had become conscious from an early age of language differences, dialects of this or that village in Malta or Gozo, or the use of different words which have the same meaning, or having a different accent while saying the same things.  I remember my parents remarking while walking on the side of the road and hearing someone speak “that person is from Sannat” or “I think she's from Xewkija” after having heard but half a sentence.

 

Language changes and develops with time, and reflects changes in technology in its wider sense, the exchange of ideas, mixing of races and peoples, the start of and morphing of activities of any type and so on.  In order that one might speak about all this, it's clear there need to be appropriate words.

 

What form these words take, in the spoken as well as the written language, there is a big debate.  It can be said that there are two philosophies that can be applied.  The first is prescriptive, where there is a decision by some authority on how words should or should not be construed.  The second is descriptive, where the authority sees its role as one of describing and defining the language as being utilised by the people.

 

With the Maltese language, the authority up till a few years ago was considered to be the Akkademja tal-Malti (Maltese Academy), which originally was named Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti (Maltese Writers Union).  In 2005 the National Council for the Maltese Language was set up by an act of law, and since then there have been two initiatives of significance.1

 

The first was called Deċiżjonijiet 1 (Decisions 1) which took place in 2008,2 which focused upon orthographic variants, which is when there are words which can be written in a number of ways.  The vast majority of decisions taken I agreed with, like filgħodu instead of fil-għodu (in the morning), and others where decisions might seem arbitrary (such as standardising the use of capital letters) with which at least one would know the established ways words would be written.

 

There were some other decisions which jarred I have to say.  An example is the removal of the apostrophe in the negative personal pronoun with a verbal function, such as mhux instead of m'hux (he/it is not) and mhix instead of m'hix (she/it is not) whereas other persons retain the apostrophe, such as m'jienx (I am not) and m'aħniex (we are not).  Wouldn't it have been simpler, one of the principles adopted by the Council, to retain the rule that when the negative operator ma is shortened, it should be written as m' always?

 

Two years ago, there was I would say a harder exercise by the Council, called Deċiżjonijiet 2 (Decisions 2),3 which dealt with the writing of words originating from English into Maltese.  The first principle espounded by the Council, a rather wise one, was that whenever an existing word in Maltese for a meaning or concept, we should be using this rather than some other coming from English, such as 'rigal' rather than 'present'.  Sacrosant.

There were then decisions on words that were grouped into three categories.  In the first category are words that have been well established into the Maltese grammar, which should continue to be written in Maltese.

 

In the second category are words being groups of two or more, which should be written in English, such as 'fire extinguisher'.

 

In the third category are words that can be written either in Maltese or in English, such as 'computer(s)' or 'kompjuter(s)'.

 

I have to say these last two categories raised by ire.  Why should we accept words with foreign characters, which don't follow Maltese phonetics?  It is frustrating enough when perhaps Maltese does not have a word that describes a word or concept, and therefore the need arises to assimilate a foreign word (rather than create a new one), but at least we might use the Maltese phonetics to have something of our own.

 

With this decision, there has been introduced the complication in the teaching of Maltese, where we used to say for example that in Maltese the letter 'c' does not exist, whereas another letter 'ċ' exists that sounds different, and now we also have the 'y'.  Also while we teach with difficulty that in Maltese, the letters 'sh' sound like the single letter 's' as the 'h' is silent, now we have to be careful whether the word is coming from English.

 

To compound the matter, there is another decision that words that are allowed to be spelt in English, would not have to be marked in inverted commas or in italics, except in books for young children.  What pride is this in the Maltese heritage?

 

We had a way of clearly demonstrating that a word is coming from English, and therefore was being written according to English language laws, and now we're incorporating these laws into Maltese.

 

I simply cannot stomach this last decision.

 

Maltese is already with its back against the wall, with many Maltese people asking themselves why to they need to learn it when they can get by completely in English.  The assimilation of English words without any adaptation into Maltese, not containing the slightest Maltese component and without even any marker of being alien, to me gives the message that English can push our own tongue aside.

 

To me, this was a step too far, unnecessary, and one I think that future generations will regret, if they still care.

 

The rot has well and truly begun.

 

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Il-lingwa hija aspett importanti ħafna fil-kultura tal-bniedem, u tirrifletti realtajiet soċjali, politiċi, ġeografiċi, kulturali u storiċi li jinkitbu l-volumi fuqhom.  Hija waħda mill-aspetti l-iktar importanti tal-identità ta' persuna, u tagħti idea tal-oriġni tiegħu jew tagħha mal-ewwel kellma li titnissel.

 

Kont ġejt konxju minn età żgħira ta' differenzi fil-lingwa, dawk ta' dijaletti ta' raħal jew ieħor f'Malta jew Għawdex, jew għax jużaw kelma differenti biex jirreferu għall-istess ħaġa, jew għax ikollhom aċċent differenti anke meta jgħidu l-istess affarijiet.  Niftakar lill-ġenituri jgħiduli waqt li jkunu għaddejjin minn xi triq u jisimgħu 'l xi ħadd jitkellem “Dak minn ta' Sannat”  jew “dik naħseb li mix-Xewkija” wara li jkunu lissnu biss nofs sentenza.

 

Il-lingwa tinbidel u tiżviluppa maż-żmien, u tirrifletti bidliet fit-teknoloġija fis-sens wiesgħa tagħha, il-qsim ta' ideat, it-taħlit tar-razez u popli, il-bidu jew tibdil ta' attivitajiet ta' kwalunkwe tip, u l-bqija.  Biex wieħed ikun jista' jitħaddet dwar dan kollu, huwa ċar li jrid ikun hemm kliem adattati.

 

X'forom dawn il-kliem għandhom jieħdu, fil-lingwa mitkellma kif ukoll dik miktuba, hawn dibattitu sħiħ.  Wieħed jista' jgħid li hawn żewġ filosofiji li jiġu applikati.  L-ewwel waħda hija dik preskrittiva, fejn ikun hemm deċiżjoni ta' xi awtorità fuq kif għandu jew m'għandux jissawwar il-kliem.  It-tieni hija dik deskrittiva, fejn l-awtorità tara r-rwol tagħha jkun li tiddeskrivi jew tiddefinixxi l-lingwa kif tkun qed tintuża mill-poplu.

 

Fil-Malti, l-awtorità sa ftit snin ilu kienet meqjusa li kienet l-Akkademja tal-Malti, li fil-bidu tagħha kienet tissejjaħ l-Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti.  Fl-2005 twaqqaf il-Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti b'att ta' liġi, u minn dakinhar kien hemm żewġ inizjattivi sinifikanti.1

 

L-ewwel waħda kienet imsemmija Deċiżjonijiet 1 li saret fl-2008,2 u kienet iffokata fuq il-varjanti ortografiċi, jiġifieri fejn ikun hemm kliem li jkun hemm iktar minn mod wieħed kif jinkitbu.  Kien hemm il-maġġoranza l-kbira tad-deċiżjonijiet meħuda li qbilt magħhom, bħal filgħodu minflok fil-għodu u oħrajn fejn deċiżjoni tidher arbitrarja (bħall-użu standard tal-ittri kapitali) imma talinqas tkun taf li hemm mod stabbilit kif għandhom jinkitbu.

 

Kien hemm deċiżjonijiet oħra li ngħidilkom id-dritt darrsuni xi ftit.  Eżempju kien it-tneħħija tal-appostrofu tan-negattiv tal-pronom personali fil-funzjoni verbali, bħal 'mhux' minflok 'm'hux', mhix minflok m'hix, filwaqt li għandhom jinkitbu m'jienx u m'aħniex.  Ma kienx iktar sempliċi, wieħed mill-prinċipji miżmuma mill-Kunsill, li tinżamm ir-regola li meta l-kelma 'ma' tan-negattiv titqassar, tinkiteb 'm'' dejjem?

 

Sentejn ilu, kien hemm eżerċizzju naħseb iktar inkrepattiv mill-Kunsill, imsejjaħ Deċiżjonijiet 2,3 li ttratta l-kitba ta' kliem mill-Ingliż fil-Malti.  L-ewwel prinċipju li saħaq il-Kunsill, wieħed għaqli ħafna, huwa dak li jekk teżisti kelma fil-Malti għal xi tifsira jew kunċett, għandna nużawha minflok nużaw waħda li ġejja mill-Ingliż, bħal 'rigal' minflok 'present'.  Prinċipju sagrosant.

 

Imbagħad kien hemm deċiżjonijiet fuq kliem li jistgħu jinqasmu fi tliet kategoriji.  Fl-ewwel kategorija hemm kliem li daħlu sew fil-grammatika Maltija, u jibqgħu jinkitbu bil-Malti.

 

Fit-tieni kategorija, kliem magħmula minn żewġ kelmiet jew iktar għandu jinkiteb bl-Ingliż, bħal 'fire extinguisher'.

 

Fit-tielet kategorija hemm kliem li jista' jinkiteb jew la Maltija jew bl-Ingliż, bħal 'kompjuter(s)' jew 'computer(s)'.

 

Dawn l-aħħar kategoriji tellgħuli l-mirra jkolli ngħid.  Għalfejn għandna naċċettaw il-kitba bil-karattri barranin, li ma jsegwux il-fonetika Maltija?  Paċenzja li forsi l-Malti ma kellux kelma biex ifisser oġġett jew ħsieb, u għalhekk nassimilaw kelma barranija, imma talinqas stajna nużaw il-fonetika Maltija biex ikollna xi ħaġa tagħna.

 

B'din id-deċiżjoni, iddaħlet il-kumplikazzjoni fit-tagħlim tal-Malti, fejn konna ngħidu per eżempju li l-ittra 'c' fil-Malti ma teżistix, u teżisti oħra 'ċ' bit-tikka li tinħass differenti, u issa għandna wkoll il-'y'.  Ukoll waqt li ngħallmu b'diffikultà li fil-Malti, l-ittri 'sh' jinstemu qishom 's' waħedha minħabba li l-'h' m'għandhiex ħoss, issa rridu noqgħodu attenti li l-kelma ma' tkunx ġejja mill-Ingliż.

 

Biex tagħqad, hemm deċiżjoni oħra li l-kliem li jitħalla li jinkiteb bl-Ingliż, ma jiġix immarkat bilfors bil-virgoletti (inverted commas) jew il-korsiv (italics) ħlief f'kotba għat-tfal żgħar.  Din xi kburija fil-wirt tal-Malti hi?

 

Kellna mod ċar kif nuru li kelma ġejja mill-Ingliż, u għalhekk qed tinkiteb skont liġijiet tal-Ingliż, u issa qed ninkorporaw dawn il-liġijiet fil-Malti.

 

Din l-aħħar deċiżjoni ma tista' tinżilli b'xejn.

 

Il-lingwa Maltija diġà b'daharha mal-ħajt, b'ħafna Maltin jistaqsu lilhom infushom għalfejn għandhom jitgħallmuha meta jistgħu jinqdew kompletament bl-Ingliż.  L-assimilazzjoni ta' kliem Ingliż mingħajr mittiefsa fil-Malti, u mingħajr l-iċken komponent Malti fih, u l-anqas l-immarkar li huwa barrani, għalija jagħti l-messaġġ li l-Ingliż jista' jagħti fil-ġenb lil ilsienna.

 

Jien għalija dan kien pass żejjed, bla bżonn, u li għad jagħti sogħba lil ġenerazzjonijiet ta' warajna, jekk ikun għadu jimpurtahom.

 

It-taħsir beda ġmielu.

 

 

1http://www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt/news-details?nwid=166&ctid=17&ctref=ortografija, retrieved 9/6/2020

2http://www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt/file.aspx?f=203, retrieved 9/6/2020

3http://www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt/filebank/documents/filebank/documents/decizjonijiet2/dec2shih.pdf, retrieved 9/6/2020

1http://www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt/news-details?nwid=166&ctid=17&ctref=ortografija, retrieved 9/6/2020

2http://www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt/file.aspx?f=203, retrieved 9/6/2020

3http://www.kunsilltalmalti.gov.mt/filebank/documents/filebank/documents/decizjonijiet2/dec2shih.pdf, retrieved 9/6/2020