Linguist

Francis Xavier Caruana was born in Valletta and studied at the Lyceum. After joining the family business in 1928 he became the manager of the Empire Press (1928-1934). In 1934 he joined the civil service as translator and clerk interpreter of the superior courts (1934-1959). At the same time he was visiting master of Maltese at the Flores College and at the Lyceum.

Caruana started writing in Maltese in 1918 and he contributed several articles and poems to periodicals. He is best known, however, as the prime mover behind the establishment of a standard Maltese orthography. In 1920 he wrote a letter to Il-Ħabib inviting all Maltese writers to meet formally to decide on one method of writing the language. His appeal led to the foundation of the Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti (later the Akkademja tal-Malti) on 14 November 1920. A sub-committee was then formed and entrusted with the examination of existing systems and with the drawing up of the scientific rules for the Maltese alphabet. He was appointed secretary to this sub-committee. He published two booklets, Kif Tikteb Tajjeb bil-Malti (1932) and Grammatika u Ortografija tal-Malti fil-Qosor, (1932, 1934) which was for a while the standard text book in government secondary schools. He was employed as a clerk with the Government Civil Service.

Caruana was the first secretary of the Għaqda tal-Kittieba tal-Malti (1920-39) and sub-editor of Il-Malti (1925-39). One of his poems, ‘Lil Rosario Briffa’ (1928), was translated into French by Laurent Ropa in Poetes Maltais (1937).

This biography is part of the collection created by Michael Schiavone over a 30-year period. Read more about Schiavone and his initiative here.