Former chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, John Simpson. Photo: Darrin Zammit Lupi

While the Maltese have borrowed plenty of words from the British, they have also lent them a handful – ‘spitchered’ is one of them.

Derived from the Maltese word spiċċa, the 1920 naval slang entry means “rendered inoperative, ruined”, according to the Oxford English Dictionary.

Likewise, sahha, lampuki and dghaisa were probably imported into the English language thanks to the thousands of British servicemen and tourists who came into regular contact with them.

The word dghaisa even crowned Syamantak Payra the 2012 champion of the South Asian Spelling Bee.

“These words made it in the dictionary because we had evidence that they were well attested in English language sources,” former chief editor of the Oxford English Dictionary, John Simpson, told this newspaper.

Prof. Simpson is in Malta to give three public talks organised by the university’s Department of Maltese and the Kunsill Nazzjonali tal-Ilsien Malti.

He had joined the team in 1976 and saw the dictionary develop from index cards to the online version.

Chief editor from 1993 to 2013, Prof. Simpson presided over a major programme of change from the print version of the OED to electronic and online formats.

Computerising the 16 volume dictionary started in 1983 and the dictionary’s second edition was published in 20 volumes in 1989 from a computer.

Royal Navy ship entering Marsamxett Harbour in Malta during WWII

Launched in 2000, around 40 per cent of the dictionary is now online. In some 15 years there will be the equivalent of 40 volumes online, not just because of the inclusion of new words but also because the entries have more information. The process of compiling a dictionary is an ongoing one, so there is no completion date.

Going online not only made the dictionary more accessible for readers but also more feasible for the editors as they could slip in new words or information whenever these became available and did not have to wait for the publication of a print edition.

“When I first introduced the idea to some of my senior colleagues, they could not see a future for it, while others saw the importance straight away.

“Going online in 2000 was a very risky business as we didn’t know if it would pick up. However, our marketing department at the time said selling the idea to university libraries was the easiest job they ever had because people really wanted it,” Prof. Simspon said.

“It’s difficult to collect all the data, edit it, and convince people, but whatever the issues, it’s worth carrying on with because in the end people will see the benefit.”

Dghaisa and lampuki were probably imported into the English language thanks to the thousands of British servicemen and tourists who came into regular contact with them.

The former editor’s visit coincides with the development of a Maltese online dictionary and an ongoing discussion within the Kunsill tal-Malti about how to write words borrowed from English. This discussion is not unique to Malta.

“Colleagues in Holland have the same issue,” Prof. Simpson said. “Every 10 years they produce an updated spelling guide and each time they have to decide whether to accommodate American and English words by changing the spelling or accepting them as a foreign word embedded in the language.”

While he could not presume to tell the Maltese what to do, Prof. Simpson said respelling words in the Maltese manner would be more satisfactory for Maltese speakers.

Over the past century, English has borrowed fewer words from other languages than before but hundreds of years ago English was in a similar position to Maltese today.

“English has never been against the idea of absorbing other words into itself. It has always been a sort of patchwork language – it took in words from French, Scandinavian, German and others, and made those words part of the language.”

Prof. Simpson’s talks are being held free of charge at Dar l-Ewropa in Valletta between 6.30pm to 8pm.

The first was held yesterday, an overview of the history of the Oxford English Dictionary. The second will take place tomorrow, titled ‘From paper to electronic dictionaries: is it merely a change of media?’.

The last talk on Friday will be about ‘A new dictionary of Maltese: what are the issues?’