Malteg = Cymraeg?

[Sion Jobbins]

Rhywbeth difyr a ddarllenais peth amser yn ol. Dwi ddim yn gwbod beth neu bwy yw Wenzu w Rozi - cymeriad Sali Maliaidd o bosib?


The Times (Malta) 16 Mawrth 2004

Don't make Maltese the language of Wenzu w Rozi, MP pleads

The Maltese language should not be regarded as the language of Wenzu w Rozi, Labour MP Evarist Bartolo told parliament yesterday.

"A lot of literature in our schools is reinforcing the view that our language is old and this is sending bad signals to Malta's young," Mr Bartolo said during the debate on the Maltese Language Bill.

He said there was need for total reform in the way Maltese was taught in schools, including a change in primary school books which depicted Maltese as the language of Wenzu w Rozi and other folk characters.
In secondary schools, too, students needed to be exposed to recent literary works and not just to works written in a different epoch and in an old style, however important the authors were to the development of the language.

The language was something which needed to be kept alive and Malta's young needed to be encouraged to be creative in its use, Mr Bartolo said.
He also underlined the importance of Maltese at university level, saying that was the only way to ensure that Maltese was also used in the areas of the economy, finance and science. One needed to encourage the development of Maltese in the context of modern times including the areas of technological development.

There was no denying that Malta had fallen back in the area of interpretation and translation, to the extent that Malta was the least prepared among the EU countries whose language was an official language of the EU.

Malta's needs to have good translators did not stem just from the EU's demands. Malta had many top level writers who were not finding suitable translators to translate their works to other languages.

The issue of translation should be given more importance in the bill than it was actually being given.

Mr Bartolo said it was important for the Maltese to be fluent not just in Maltese and English but in as many languages as possible, such as Spanish, which was slowly becoming the second world language but which was, unfortunately, given little importance in Malta. More importance should also be given to Arabic.

One could certainly not be satisfied that nearly half of Malta's adolescents did not pass the SEC examination in Maltese. Education research showed that children who did not master their own language from a young age, would have a problem in their development.

Mr Bartolo said that it was also important to strengthen the use of Maltese not just in Malta but also abroad, particularly among emigrants.
There was need for more educational material to support the teaching of Maltese to foreigners. And Maltese communities abroad needed to find greater assistance to keep their mother tongue alive.

Earlier in the debate yesterday, Opposition education spokesman Carmelo Abela, resuming his speech from Wednesday's sitting, referred to the declaration of principles in the first part of the bill and said that although the principles were not enforceable in court, they should be given top importance. He also insisted that politicians should not interfere in the National Council for the Maltese Language, which this law would set up, leaving that to the experts.

Mr Abela asked what would happen if there were disagreement between the council and the Technical Commission, which the law would also set up.

He also asked why judges and magistrates could not serve on the council or its organs when this was not a matter which would harm the way the judges performed their duties.

He asked how many employees the council would employ.

Labour MP Joe Brincat insisted on the proper use of Maltese language by the media.

He suggested that the council should certify the competence of broadcasting journalists in the Maltese language. Far too many journalists lacked proper skills in the Maltese language, and this was negatively influencing the way Maltese was spoken. Preserving Maltese was a way how the Maltese could preserve their own identity.

Dr Jose' Herrera (MLP) spoke on the political history of the Maltese language, particularly over the last two centuries when it was frequently at the core of political issues.

When Sir Thomas Maitland was governor in the 1800s, the language question was debated seriously for the first time. The British colonial government wanted legal texts to be rewritten in the English language when at the time, Italian was the language that was most widespread.
At the end of the 19th century between 1896-1897, Sigismondo Savona, leader of the Reform Party insisted that laws should be debated in Maltese. Nerik Mizzi, leader of the anti-reformist party was against this. Many political parties were formed during this period, with the language question very much a hot issue.

In 1922, the Unione Politica Maltese approached the Labour Party to form a coalition. The Labour Party had set a condition whereby Maltese was to be taught in schools. However, this condition was not accepted by the other party and the idea fell through.

The most important development for the promotion of Maltese as an official language was the formation of the 'compact' between the Labour Party and the Constitutional Party headed by Gerald Strickland. This progressive movement brought about the first defeat of the conservative Nationalist Party which favoured the Italian language.

The 'compact' parties won the elections of 1927, bringing about the official recognition of Maltese as the national language. In this context one needed to give recognition to Sir Gerald Strickland for his contribution for the promotion of Maltese as the official language, Dr Herrera said.
While the Labour Party, along with the Constitutional Party, worked for the promotion of Maltese, one also needed to acknowledge the contribution of other figures, such as Sir Arturo Mercieca who also fought relentlessly to promote Maltese.

Labour MP John Attard Montalto also spoke on the history of the Maltese language, noting that the minutes of the administrative council in 1530 insisted that tax collectors and magistrates had to know Maltese. If Maltese was the monopoly of the common people, the rulers were conscious that through it, they could exclude foreign administrators from running the country.

The predominant language of the administration of the order was Italian. When, for a short period, Malta was ruled by the French, the first thing Napoleon did was issue a number of decrees to introduce French at primary school level, send Maltese students to France to study French and teach French at university level.

Italian was used in courts so as not to allow the British to impose British magistrates. Language in Malta, Dr Attard Montalto said, had been an important political tool for the Maltese not to allow those colonising them to enter into certain fundamental sectors.

The debate continues next week.