‘Online spell-checker for Maltese long overdue’ - Minister

It is unacceptable that there is still no viable online spell-checker for the Maltese language, especially when online content in Maltese grows at a steady rate, according to education minister Evarist Bartolo.

He was speaking in parliament during a debate on the second reading of proposed amendments to the Maltese Language Act, which aim to update the composition of the National Council of the Maltese Language.

Amendments include recognising and including entities and associations that contribute to the Maltese language through their work in Malta and abroad.

Under the new amendments, the council will be composed of 13 members, two more from the current 11.

The Broadcasting Authority, the Department of Translation, Terminology and Interpretation Studies at the University of Malta, Maltese publishers and the National Book Council will be represented for the first time on the council.

Another amendment acknowledges the council’s responsibility to keep continuous contact with the Maltese communities living abroad and their representatives “with the purpose of keeping the Maltese language alive amongst them”.

Bartolo said that it was noteworthy that Maltese was being taught in a centre within Bremen University in Germany and in a prestigious university in Beijing, as well is in Australian schools – where fourth or fifth generation descendants of Maltese emigrants were learning Maltese for the first time.

Opposition spokesman George Pullicino expressed his party’s concern that the council’s autonomy be safeguarded and that it remain independent of government interference.

He said certain amendments proposed suggested that the government was trying to exert direct influence even in this case, as it had done on numerous other entities, committees and organisations.

Pullicino welcomed an amendment that makes it compulsory for the council’s secretary to keep the public informed of any decisions taken by the council, since this – he said – was one major shortcoming that had never been addressed before.