Professor Albert Borg has been awarded the gold medal of the ‘Ġieħ l-Akkademja tal-Malti’ for his outstanding work in the development of the Maltese language. 

In a statement on Tuesday, President George Vella, who presided over the investiture ceremony, said the Maltese language is an issue close to his heart. 

“Professor Borg truly deserves to be included in this esteemed company of Honoured Maltese Scholars, even more so when one bears in mind that over the years he has worked and strived without much fanfare, in the silence of his study, with his students and colleagues, researching, educating, and spreading knowledge and teachings,” President Vella said. 

Borg had first proposed a scientific review of Maltese orthography, later obtaining a doctorate with a thesis examining the relationship between the tense and aspect categories as expressed in the inflectional morphology of the Maltese verb. 

Together with other colleagues, Borg founded and managed the Institute of Linguistics at the University of Malta. 

He was one of the first members of AIDA (International Association of Arabic Dialectology), helped to establish the International Association of Maltese Linguistics, and also served as President of the l Akkademja tal-Malti from August 2018 to July 2019. 

The ‘Ġieħ l-Akkademja tal-Malti’ gold medal is awarded to those deemed to have made an exceptional contribution throughout their lives to increasing both academic and literary interest in the Maltese language. 

In the previous editions, this honour was awarded to Professor Oliver Friggieri, Monsignor Lawrenz Cachia, Trevor Zahra, Victor Fenech, Lina Brockdorff, and Professor Manwel Mifsud.