Almost ridiculous use of the language

I can assure Tony Barbaro-Sant (November 2) that he is not the only one living on this tiny rock in the centre of the Mediterranean called Malta (of which I assume we are all proud) to complain about certain banal changes introduced regarding English words written in Maltese.

A few months ago, I aired my view on the subject to Charles Briffa who was a guest on the daily programme Familja Waħda on Radio Malta. His reply was that by so doing we are enriching our language.

Lately, during a celebration marking the 50th anniversary since the passing away of national poet Dun Karm Psaila, who defended our language with all his might, I asked whether Dun Karm would have been pleased with or, rather, approved such changes. I got the same reply.

Incidentally, on that particular morning while going through one of our Maltese daily newspapers very quickly I came across the word bajsikils for “bicycles”. The reply from members of the National Book Council was that so far they had not yet seen this particular word printed. Rightly, one may ask if this is a case of anyone writing in Maltese as s/he feels like. Sometimes, I have difficulty deciphering certain words.

It looks as if we are bordering on the ridiculous.