This year the Akkademja tal-Malti celebrated its 100th anniversary. Originally set up to streamline the Maltese alphabet, over the years its role evolved and it now focuses on promoting the national language and Maltese literature. Secretary Joseph Borg tells us why this is important and relevant in preserving a nation’s history and defining its future – to ensure that Maltese does not become a foreign language to today’s natives.
The Maltese language is probably the only factor that today distinguishes us and gives us our identity.
It is the national language as entrenched in our Constitution, while both Maltese and English are official languages. It is the only semitic language that has reached such status and has a unique feature: Maltese is the only semitic language which is written in Latin script.