Thanks for your comments, Linda.

I did in fact look at the mirror this morning, and I asked.

‘Mirror mirror on the wall, who is the fairest of them all’

It was no surprise when the answer came. ‘Linda, who else, ask her’?

“The tolerance paradox arises from a problem that a tolerant person might be antagonistic toward intolerance, hence intolerant of it. The tolerant individual would then be by definition intolerant of intolerance.” (quoted from Wikipedia)

They will have heard English from teachers, parents and adults in general as children, who unfortunately spoke it with a Maltese accent.

The accent has now become ingrained and is just passed on from generation to generation. As others have stated, Italian was probably only heard on TV. Thus the accent that children would have heard would have been the correct one.

I agree that accent can and should be improved, but it is much easier to acquire when young.

It would be interesting to compare the accents (both Italian and English) of different generations. I suspect, the English accent may have slightly improved with more exposure to the language from TV (Satellite and Cable).

I also suspect that the Italian accent has not changed markedly, but the incidence of people who actually speak good Italian is way down.

Coming from you DCG, that’s pure gold.

[Daphne – I don’t try to impose my personal opinions on other people, Romualdo. I tell them about my opinions, which is different. This is I mean: you find it hard to understand the difference.]

Daphne, you’re clearly prejudiced.

Horrid verbs that don’t make any sense?

[Daphne – You quite obviously don’t speak English as a first language and so miss the the inherent subtleties, which is my essential point here. I don’t actually mean that the verbs are ‘horrid’ or that they don’t make any sense in themselves. I mean that they were horrid to me and didn’t make any sense to me, largely because I only ever had to memorise verb conjugations in Italian and French. And yes, I mentioned French too, so prejudice doesn’t enter into the equation. Later on at university I felt the same frustration and irritation when obliged to learn Latin. I can’t bear learning languages beyond what I actually need, that’s the problem. I couldn’t be bothered. Never could be.]

You’re an English language ____ (enthusiast / fan / learned user – fill in a noun of your approval that does not irritate you and divert any eventual response to something other than what I’m arguing about). Can you briefly explain where English fares on the making-sense-scale?

[Daphne – It is completely irregular and massively varied, but that is exactly why it is, so to speak, the industry standard for expression and functionality. It covers all eventualities and situations because it is so rich. You don’t feel you are wasting your time learning as much about it as you can. Also, it is beautifully concise and practical. One of the reasons I always found Italian culturally alien is because it is, literally, culturally alien. It reflects a different mindset. I become irritated within seconds of starting to read an Italian news report or an Italian magazine article. Whereas English is all about getting to the point, Italian writing is all about obscuring it. It is possible and acceptable to say nothing in Italian in five beautiful paragraphs. It is not possible or acceptable in English.]

When I argued several months ago that the Maltese language is more logical than English, you countered by saying that the need for logic in a language is a sign of laziness and lack of intelligence.

[Daphne – Yes, in fact. All that business with dotting the cs, zs and gs and crossing the hs is ridiculous. If speakers of English are able to distinguish between the pronunciation of thought, though and tough, then surely speakers of Maltese should be able to tell how zghazagh is pronounced without dotting zs and crossing hs. Also, Maltese is a very rudimentary language, so you can’t compare. Logic is not the height of desirability in a language: richness is. Anyway, we’re talking of regular versus irregular here, not logic.]

Stefania Rotolo? Ragazzi? Is that it? Is THAT Italian TV for you?

[Daphne – That’s roughly when I last tried to watch. It must have been around 1977. As I told you earlier, the Italian mindset is culturally alien to me. Really. I’m not saying it’s worse or better, just that I can’t relate to it at all. When I go to one particular hairdresser he’s always got the television on, tuned it to some Italian station or other, and I can’t wait to get out. I find it that off-putting. I feel the same about most American television and American voices and American English, so don’t get your knickers in a twist about it.]

If anyone’s prejudiced when it comes to languages and culture, it is you. And that is a fact that becomes more glaringly obvious with every argument about languages that you engage in.

[Daphne – No, not really. It’s probably just a factual assessment. British English is the Leonardo da Vinci of languages. It doesn’t mean that the Picasso of languages is interesting. It just means that there’s really no contest. And do please stop talking as though this is just something I’ve said due to prejudice, rather than an internationally acknowledged fact. The whole world studies Shakespeare (tragically, even in translation) but the whole world does not study Dante, lyrical though that might be.]

It sounds like I hit a nerve, Silvio. I don’t have a problem being referred to as a half-breed. In fact, I am very proud of my Anglo-Maltese heritage.

We muggles have both brains and beauty. My situation is far from unhappy and my brain functions just fine. I am a highly educated woman who has a had a very successful professional career.

It is interesting that you claim to be such a Maltese patriot and such a hater of the English. I goggled you and found that you have an account on the social media site, Netlog.

http://en.netlog.com/silvioloporto

Imagine my surprise, when under “Native Language,” I found that you had written “English.” Not “Maltese” nor “Maltese and English” but just “English!”

This from a man who claims to love his country so dearly and hate his former ” English masters ” so strongly, yet he identifies his native language as English and not Maltese. Explain that one, Mr Loporto.

I may be a half- breed but at least I’m not a hypocrite.

You are the one who needs to careful when you look in a mirror and see a two faced person staring back at you.

He called a spade a pig. Not very bright.

Oh FFS, Nationalism rearing its ugly head – we’re so damn good at it aren’t we?

Thanks for taking the time to reply. Fair point about Portugal and Barroso.

Let’s take former colonies then. Watch this video of the Indian PM addressing parliament.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VUlwlRW5Y34

Although the grammar is perfect, the accent is far from standard British English, surely.

Many Indian/Pakistani politicians have trouble with the English accent just like Maltese politicians, simply because although official, it is not their mother tongue. The video you uploaded in reply to an earlier comment was hardly fair, as the Indian in question is actually a British Indian and was educated in UK and lived there for many years.

Lastly, on Borg’s Italian: I wouldn’t say the accent is ‘near perfect’. Compare his to the journo before him who asked the question. His Italian has a significant Maltese accent. The logic behind this is the same as that behind his English accent.

A sponge soaked in vinegar and honey will do the trick. Nothing you can’t source from a supermarket.