It is using the controversies about how we should write words like ‘skont’ for ‘according to’ (decided in 2008) to take over complete control of the Council which up to now has been an autonomous public institution.

The Council was set up in 2004 to decide on such things as the many variants we had in our orthography. Before, these decisions were taken by the Akkademja tal-Malti.

After accession to the EU and Maltese becoming an official language of the EU, Malta set up an official and public institution for language matters.

The Council’s members are mostly chosen by institutions such as the departments of Maltese and Linguistics at the University and several NGOs while government itself chooses two or three out of 11 or so members of the Council.

Furthermore, decisions are taken by a 4/5ths majority in sub-committees made up of language experts after they consult the public and before being approved by the Council which can only send back a draft decision if it disagrees with it and cannot alter it.

Decisions of the Council are binding and published in the Government Gazette without interference by the Minister of Education.

Minister Evarist Bartolo is now using the controversies about Maltese orthography and has set up a board to draft changes to the law so that all members of the Council will be chosen by the Minister of Education and the Council becomes just an advisory committee with decisions taken by the Minister and not autonomously by experts after the experts have consulted – as they actually did – the public on the changes.

I know many have very definite opinions about the way we should write English loan-words but this decision has NOT yet been taken.

The only decision taken by the Council was that in 2008, called ‘Deċiżjonijiet 1’ on the orthography of the many variants we have.

Precisely because we have no authoritative decision yet, it’s go-as-you-please for publishers who are deciding for themselves how to write – or butcher – English loan-words.

The point is that, like MEPA, Government is taking over any independent institution of the State it can take over while hobbling others it can’t, like the Ombudsman.

But go to the saints’ streeet names and there are several like St Johns St.

Funny.

I agree with you that the percentages quoted are way too optimistic as regards English and, I would add, Italian. Of course, it depends on what is meant by “speak English”.

Just knowing the meaning of some words and stringing together a few ungrammatical sentences hardly qualifies as speaking a language. I think the number of Maltese who speak Italian reasonably well or well is not large and may even be diminishing with the passing of the older generation.

This is evident, among other things, from the way Maltese use words of Italian origin when speaking Maltese.

As regards Mr. Saliba’s remarks on the language spoken in the 1st century AD, one may comment that the Acts of the Apostles is not a work of history but of theology and may not be historically accurate. As literature, it has some features typical of classical Greek epics such as the Odyssey: a voyage, shipwreck, narrow escapes, supernatural intervention and other literary devices.

The best book on language history in Malta is Joseph M. Brincat’s “Maltese and Other Languages: A Linguistic History of Malta”.

If one accepts the hypothesis that Malta remained uninhabited for many years following the Arab conquest in 869-870, Sicilian Arabic was introduced in Malta with the arrival of the new Arab-speaking settlers around 1050 AD. If the hypothesis is true (it is accepted by most modern historians), Arabic did not replace any language because there was no language to replace.

In fact, Maltese has no substratum, an indication that it was not superimposed on an earlier language.

The first television signals were received in Malta in 1957 when RAI built repeaters on Monte Lauro in Sicily and there were no television transmissions received in Malta other than RAI until 1962 when MTV was inaugurated.

Many, perhaps older and Valletta locals, still call it Strada San Paolo.

I remember once challenging my teacher about this in primary school – telling her that it should be ‘St’ and not ‘Str’ (I had noticed from the children’s books I read at the time), and she went ballistic, telling me that she doesn’t care what they do in England because in Malta we have saints and ‘St’ means a saint and not a street.

I have never heard anyone say ‘St Paul’s Street’.

My father’s side of the family lived in that parish for at least 300 years up to the 1980s, so I think I would know what the street is called.

Saints’ names don’t take the possessive form when used for street names: St Anne Street, St Trophimus Street, St Rita Street, St Helen Street.

The error is a common one, and comes from the ‘s’ sound in street. But when speaking English, and pronouncing ‘St Paul’s Street’, you do not let the two Ses run into each other, but must pause between the two words to pronounce them separately and distinctly and indicate the possessive form: St Paul’s PAUSE Street.

You will note that this never happens, precisely because the name is St Paul Street and not just because people are lazy speakers.