From fenkerija to the Ewro

Ittre, ewro, fenkerija… all words you may just about start using. Hopefully, says MANWEL MIFSUD, president of the national language council

In Genesis, God orders Adam to name all the plants and animals in the Garden of Eden, although there were no linguists around to help Adam. And neither was there any media, or foreign influences to coerce Adam’s pristine choices. Unlike Adam’s privilege, the recently-established National Council for the Maltese Language is not insulated from the rest of the world. And yet, like Adam, it strives to re-instil the same primordial sense of creativity in the Maltese people by naming the world around them through their own tongue.
Some months ago during a radio phone-in programme on RTK, a caller asked Professor Manwel Mifsud, the Council’s president, to suggest a Maltese equivalent for rabbitry, a new agricultural term used to describe a place where rabbits are raised in their hundreds. Mifsud suggested a new word: fenkerija, naturally derived from fenek. In order to test the ground for the new word, Mifsud asked a radio technician who had just entered the studio on whether he knew what a fenkerija is. Surprisingly, although Mifsud had just coined the word fenkerija, the technician guessed that a fenkerija must be a place where many rabbits are raised.
Since language is all about communicating and being understood, the word fenkerija has withstood its first test. But whether fenkerija will gain general acceptance depends on whether its use is transmitted by those who have the power to spread the word, namely, the media and the state apparatus.
The National Council aims at reactivating the creative potential of the Maltese language by setting in motion a network in society which helps it in gaining acceptance for new terms and phrases which it suggests.
But a lot depends on the prestige and respect enjoyed by the new council which has been around only for the past nine months. Mifsud acknowledges that the main hurdle facing the council is the reputation of the language’s staunch defenders as being ‘unforgiving’: “We were renowned for condemning everyone and everything.”
Mainly formed by academics, is this council risking that its members remain divorced from the daily realities of the business and media world? Mifsud claims that the balance is restored by the participation of a wider representation of society in the council’s five sub-committees which deal with IT, literature, terminology, media and linguistics. He mentions the participation of journalist Sandro Mangion and ex-Xarabank producer Abigail Mallia in the media committee as an example. Since their departure however, the committee has stopped delivering and is currently being re-organised. Quite a bad omen for someone who considers the media an indispensable tool in his bid to restore the creativity of the Maltese language – after all Mifsud himself states it is the media, and not the people, that is now creating the language.
So do the people in the media actually have a right to coin new words and phrases and write the language in any way they like? “Every speaker develops the language and coins new words,” Mifsud says, “but the problem with the media is that while normal individuals can influence the few people they meet in their everyday life, the words written or uttered by one single broadcaster can resonate in the minds of the entire population.”
But can PBS actually fulfil the role undertaken by the Italian state TV RAI, one of the main instruments for the diffusion of a properly spoken Italian language?
The Council is currently revising the code for the use of the Maltese language on the media, written by the Broadcasting Authority and the Akkademja tal-Malti some years ago. According to the code each TV station was required to have a consultant on the proper use of the Maltese language. “We are trying to find out why this did not take place,” explains Mifsud.
Mifsud believes in the power of persuasion. He does not want to dictate the media. Through direct contact with journalists he envisions a scenario where the National Council can pre-empt the introduction of new words.
Surely it has already missed the bus on several occasions during the past few months. No guidelines have been issued on the Maltese equivalent for avian flu. “Eventually we must be in a position to pre-empt the use of foreign phrases like avian flu. The committee dealing with terminology must work hand in hand with the media committee to explore different possibilities on the use of Maltese equivalents for new terms which arise from time to time.”
Ideally, it’s the journalists who would come up with their own creative solutions. “I would be more satisfied if instead of simply asking our advice on the correct Maltese term for avian flu, the journalist comes up with his or her suggestion.”
Mifsud is a stanch believer in the creativity of the people to mould their own language. In the absence of linguists, the Maltese people managed to combine the Arabic and the European components of the language in a healthy way. “This unique combination was not the work of linguists but the work of people in the shops and the streets.”
He cites recent examples of popular creativity when facing new inventions. Carbon paper, for example, coined as “karta sahhara”. Linguists, like Guze Aqulina, who coined the words “tisliba” (crossword) and “tertuqa” (film) are concrete examples. Other recent examples adopted from foreign languages are “bomba tal-hin” (time bomb) or “hasil tal-flus” (money laundering).
But there is evidence the language has shown less creativity than other languages, many finding the adoption of English words convenient. Mifsud says it’s the result of the defeat of progressive left-wing forces in the first 30 years of the 20th century and the subsequent triumph of traditionalist forces, when the language was being established as a national language, and was in need of an influx of new words.
“In the 1920s two proposals were presented to the Maltese. While the traditionalists opted to borrow foreign words into the language, Manwel Dimech’s school of thought sought to use the creative potential of the Maltese language to coin these new words.”
One of Dimech’s followers, the writer Juan Mamo, went as far as coining Maltese words for all parts of the anatomy in a book of medicine. Mifsud says the valid contribution of Dimech’s school of though was rejected for “a mixture of social, religious and political reasons,” but it’s still not too late to restore vitality to the Maltese language.
Others, the purists, feel the Semitic or Arabic component of the language should be reactivated. Mifsud disagrees: “words in a language are like members of a democratic organisation. Some words are founding members while others are new members. Words derived from Arabic have been around a thousand years. Words derived from Italian have been around for 300 years. Words derived from other languages might have been around for a few years. But just as all members of an organisation have one vote, all words in a language are equal.”
So who is the final arbiter in deciding which words are suitable or not? “The final arbiter is the speaker of the language. The speaker does not discriminate between words on the basis of origin.”
Neither does Mifsud engage in a crusade against the use of foreign words, which have found a place in the language. Words like “film” are here to stay. But when it comes to new phrases, language planning can be applied and the creativity of the language activated. Nor is he against adopting phrases derived from English, but they have to be adopted in the grammatical structure of the Maltese language.
Certain newspapers have been following the standard rule of phonetically writing English words into Maltese, including the verbs derived from these words which must be conjugated in the Maltese way. But Mifsud warns this could become an easy way out for writers who are too lazy to find an appropriate Maltese word or phrase for the foreign word.
But isn’t the terminology of the Maltese language simply too limited? Mifsud acknowledges this reality but he only sees this as an opportunity to set our minds thinking. “A serious lack in the Maltese language is that it lacks a noun for employer, a term required in many EU and ETC forms.” Mifsud suggests the noun “impjegatur” instead of the phrase “min ihaddem” which is not even a noun. Mifsud says it satisfies two basic rules, the first being that is formed of elements understood by the public, so in this case it is based on “impjegat” (employee), and that it also follows the same construction as words like “importatur” (importer).
But it also needs to satisfy the third basic rule: the wide acceptance of the new term. According to Mifsud this can only be fulfilled if the new term is accepted by agents who have this power to transmit the word, namely the media and the state. “One needs a wide network in the media to ensure that the suggested word is transmitted. One also needs the support of the state as happens in France where society automatically follows the guidelines of language authorities.”
Somehow this contrasts with Mifsud’s emphasis on persuasion: the French attitude is notorious for giving language academies draconian powers to dictate the proper use of the language on fellow citizens. “Although there were some attempts in France to impose fines on those using the language improperly, the strength of the Gallic language council and academy derives from the prestige it enjoys in French society. They enjoy such a great respect that their decrees are immediately accepted by the state bureaucracy and subsequently by the private sector.”
In fact the greatest challenge for linguistic authorities is to gain respect. “When people start to believe in us we will manage to persuade. When one simply imposes on the people, they will only obey when they are being watched while carrying on using the words they like in their private life.”
But does this emphasis on persuasion render the council toothless? For example what is the use of producing a professional report recommending the use of the term “ewro” when the steering committee responsible for the currency changeover has immediately declared that it does not share the language council’s view?
Mifsud insists that the steering committee’s opinion has been misinterpreted: “The steering committee is not saying that it is against using the term ewro. It is simply saying that the opinion expressed by the National Council is not their opinion.”
Mifsud is convinced that the arguments raised in the council’s report are valid and that the public will use its common sense and will follow the advice of the experts. Mifsud is also confident that ewro will also get the official blessing from the Maltese government which will than have to convince its European partners to allow the Maltese to coin their currency ewro. In discussions he had during the past days, it also emerged that both the government and the opposition agree with the use of the word Ewro.
“If the EU accepts unity in diversity, the EU should recognise that the term chosen for the European currency and follow Maltese orthographic rules.”
It’s the same like the eu in Europe and euthanasia and their Maltese equivalents, “Ewropa” and “ewtanazja”: “If people start using the term euro, it will be simply too late to coin a proper Maltese word. If we lose this opportunity we will be simply crying over dead spoils.”
The Ewro report is only the first in a series of reports the council is planning. It is working on a report on proper terminology for Maltese localities, which have been written incorrectly in the law on local councils. The Council also insists safety instructions on products should be also written in Maltese. Another challenge is that of the exigencies of political correctness. The National Council is currently discussing with the Commission for Gender Equality to find correctly written gender-neutral words and phrases. Mifsud has some interesting ideas on the subject, having coined an equivalent for Ms.
“The term Ms was created to replace the use of Mrs and Miss, which distinguished between married and unmarried women. No such distinction is made between married and unmarried men who are all referred as Mr. In Maltese we still obliged to use the terms Sinjura and Sinjorina,” Mifsud says, who suggests the term Sa. Traditionally, women too were also referred to with the prefix Sa, as Maltese literature shows in the form of Leli ta’ Haz-Zghir’s mother, Sa Marjan.
According to Mifsud the National Council is far from cut off from modern realities. It is even sensitive to the new reality of bloggers or “bloggin” who are making an effort to coin new Maltese words in the Internet. Mifsud himself takes credit for coining the word “ittre” for email, mimicking the terminology centres round the use of the letter e, as used in e-government. “I asked myself should we simply borrow these foreign terms?”
But the coining of new Maltese words is often met with laughter and derision. Mifsud considers this as a sign of lack of national pride. “When students do not know an English word they are ashamed and immediately go home to look it up in the dictionary, but when they do not know a Maltese word they flaunt their lack of knowledge.”
While it may be easy to laugh at the word ittre, few of us laugh at the words space shuttle or mouse. “Just imagine the reaction to someone referring to the shuttle as ‘mekkuk spazzjali’ or to the computer mouse as ‘gurdien’.”
As the Maltese language grapples with these new realities, it also faces the challenges brought on by EU membership, where translation of laws and resolutions means a new terminology has to be created. And coupled to this new challenge is the brain drain of linguists and technical experts who have flown out of the island to work as translators. The EU has become a double-edged sword for the Maltese language.
According to Mifsud EU membership is the third stage in the evolution of the Maltese language. First it was a spoken language addressing the daily and personal realities of the Maltese. When Malta became a nation, the Maltese language had to penetrate other spheres like the legal, scientific and economic spheres. But even before penetrating these spheres, the Maltese language found itself an official European language.
“Maltese translating official EU documents have ended up coping with concepts and ideas which are completely alien to Maltese realities. They are working on documents dealing with methods of transportation which are not even used in Malta.”
Mifsud says this is another chance for the Maltese language to grow. “We are only suffering the growing pains.”
And surely, it is quite a leap for a language which was once referred to as the kitchen’s language.