[Daphne – An anorak is somebody obsessed with the minutiae of computers, Lord of the Rings and latterly, computer games involving dark lords and warriors. ‘Lord of the Rings fan’ is a particular type of young/ish male.]

Now, now, that was an avoidable most cruel remark.

[Daphne – Even Lord of the Rings anoraks know how to laugh at themselves.]

That said, I also dislike reading official documents in convoluted Maltese that is nothing more than a pidgin dialect of English. The horror is actually finding these words in Maltese books. Niffollowjaw, nimaxxinganjaw. While Friggieri may have rather “pompous” prose, I found his Maltese impeccable. Trevor Zahra’s prose was both down-to-earth and perfect, in my opinion. We need more authors like these.

Given a choice, I prefer using English. I was raised in a bilingual household, and exposed to many books – of both languages, but inevitably, I had, and still have more English books. Not to mention my teenage fascination, nay, obsession with Tolkien’s literature, which contributed to my preference for the Anglo-Saxon tongue. That, and the fact that most of my reading and communication takes place on the Internet nowadays, firmly cements me in the English-speaking camp. I am fluent in both, but I think in English.

[Daphne – Oh my god, a Lord of the Rings anorak…..]

Another thing …

“English is read by word recognition, like Chinese characters. That means you only have to glance at a sentence to pick up its meaning instantly. Maltese, on the other hand, is read syllable by syllable, which takes much longer.”

This isn’t entirely true.

Consider these groups of letters:
LBS KSR RQD

Just by glancing at them, most people can easily decipher that they refer to the concept of clothing, breaking and sleeping respectively.
If you jumble the “LBS” combination into “SLB” you can again decipher that the association is now with crosses and no longer with clothing. We’re using the same letters; simply altering their sequence.

Maltese is in fact closer to English than it is to Italian in terms of word-recognition, and is not a phonetically-dependent as you’d think. Just by identifying the order of the three-consonant “gherq”, your brain immediately (and sub-consciously) works out the association with meaning. This obviously doesn’t work for that part of our vocabulary which was derived from non-Semitic sources.

[Daphne – I was referring to entire sentences and paragraphs, not to random words. The fact is that you can’t scan a Maltese sentence in the same way that you can scan an English one, and that’s what people mean when they say they find Maltese ‘tiring’ to read.]

I used to think this way until quite recently, until the topic came up at the dinner table, and I was convinced otherwise. It’s true that those who are actually reading EU texts (be they lawyers, bureaucrats etc …) find it easier to use the English texts, but if we believe in the fundamental right of every individual to be heard, and to be able to plead before a court in one’s mother tongue, then by consequence Maltese HAD to be made an official language of the EU. I rankle when I think of the huge dent this principle causes in our precious tax-money, but we either believe in fundamental principles of justice or we don’t. Cettina from Qrendi, who can speak and understand nothing but Maltese needs to have the same rights as Wojtek from Warsaw and Gunnhildur from Stockholm.

If we didn’t believe in this principle, then very possibly in Malta we would still be trying people before our Courts in Italian, as we used to do until the late 1930’s. Maltese lawyers (to this day) still speak an Italianate form of legalease, and would probably get things done more quickly if they weren’t hampered with the limitations of having to express themselves in Maltese – but it’s not the needs of the lawyers and the bureaucrats that count here. It’s the needs and rights of the individuals concerned.

It’s a costly principle, but a principle nonetheless.

[Daphne – Oh dear, who told you these things? Which court would that be before which we should have the right to plead in Maltese? If it’s the one in Valletta, then we have that right already. If it’s some sort of European court you’re thinking of, then stop right there: there is no such thing before which you go and actually plead. The stuff goes in writing, and is translated into a language which the judges understand. Please don’t be so gullible when listening to explanations of this nature. It was a pragmatic decision and not an idealistic one. And I find it interesting that an explanation for this crass waste of money hinges on an excuse which is an indirect admission of the failure of our education system, which is still churning out people who understand and speak no other language but Maltese. That’s the real tragedy.]

http://encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com/Through+the+Looking-Glass%2c+and+What+Alice+Found+There

“Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a work of children’s literature by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), generally categorized as literary nonsense. It is the sequel to Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, although it makes no reference to its events. In it, there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards, and so on.”

However, not content with that, he got got cocky and overstretched himself, pushing himself right off into the semantic abyss with the “putting glass to the Maltese language” in the title. If not caring about your native language is like looking at the world through “broken glass” then surely what you need to do is replace the broken glass around your native language, not “put glass” to it.

Why do you need any glass around your native language anyway? Can`t you look at it as it is without any glass covering? Is he afraid his native language is going to get cold or wet or something?

Oh well. I’m not exactly worried because I cannot make any sense of what Owen Bonnici says.