Thank you for the explanation, I appreciate comments like these.

But then this is a country that says “pojjim” and “studyent”. SO I GIVE UP.

Am I the only one not to pronounce it “EwropeYa”? Do you, Ciccio? There’s no JA sound after the e. And if the Akkademja says there is, it’s only because they have provincial accents.

May I please use your blog space to explain the following:

“Ewropea” is correct. There is and never was a rule in Maltese orthography that it is incorrect to have two vowels next to each other either in the same word or in successive words. Teachers told students not to put two vowels next to each other to avoid explaining a rule which they thought was difficult to explain.

The rule is that you cannot have two vowels next to each other if one of them is a euphonic vowel — vokali tal-lehen. The logic is clear — if you already have a vowel, you do not need another vowel– vokali tal-lehen — which is inserted when it is impossible to pronounce a word or phrase unless you insert a vowel, the euphonic vowel.

Hence “il-bieba infethet” is wrong as the “I” in infethet is a euphonic vowel: should be it-tieqa nfethet. “Mara isbah” is correct because neither of the two successive vowels is a euphonic vowel.

Therefore, poeta, reali, neologizmu etc are correct. Similarly, one must never drop an initial vowel which is etymologically part of a word: kotba interessanti and not kotba nteressanti.

Why not Europea then?

Le, Ewropea. Ghax hekk nippronunzjawha. Europæa. Ma narabizzawx kollox, please.

Someone who is not so keen on being in the EU.

Ma niktbux “Ewropei” iżda “Ewropej”, mela “Ewropeja” għandha tkun miktuba.

Ewropea is spelt correctly.