Why do you still speak English?

[Vranac]

It always wondered me, why Ireland 90 years after her independace still use language of her occupier.

We Serbs and many other balkanian nationalities were for centuries occupied by Turks, but we have just few percents of their words, and their number is still declining.

So, I don't understand why is situation like it is in Ireland. I'm sure that 90 years ago many peasants were speaking Irish Gealic, and that it was posible to revive old Irish language.

Are there some attemps today for Irish revival?

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Maybe your comparsion isn't too good. Turks oppressed the peoples in SE Europe they had conquered, forced them to pay jizya (a tax on every non-Muslim), but didn't try to force their language. The English, on the contrary, forced their language upon the Irish, especially during the 19th century.

[Ederico]

Originally Posted by prometheus

Maybe your comparsion isn't too good. Turks oppressed the peoples in SE Europe they had conquered, forced them to pay jizya (a tax on every non-Muslim), but didn't try to force their language. The English, on the contrary, forced their language upon the Irish, especially during the 19th century.

And on the Maltese in the most manipulative of manners as well, in the same time period. That is referred to as the Imperialist policy of "deitalianisation" and "anglicisation" of Malta which was started after the creation of the Italian unitary state. The Italian language was being gradually removed and was removed as an official language in the 1930s with the convenient pretext of fascism, however truth is that that goal was aimed at since around the 1880s and this is all on official British documents.

We're still victims of such cultural infamy, but our elite do not dare move a finger to rectify such a historico-cultural injustice. When Dott. Scerri, president of the Partit Nazzjonalista publically asked Queen Elizabeth II for an official apology for certain historical Imperialist misdeeds, the current prime minister and party leader not only didn't support him but he had the guile to state that that is neither the government's nor the party's position. One more reason why I'm not voting for a party dominated by centre-left Christian Democrats who are barely Christian in most cases, and in many others are only a veneer of democracy.

I sympathise with the Irish, I know my people's history and I know what the English were capable of for their Rule Brittania oppression, infamy and racist drivel. Once their was "the Empire on which the sun never set" now there is (so to speak) what I term "the gloriously defunct empire". Many peoples of the world can say "good riddance...".

[Arthur Gordon Pym]

Originally Posted by Ederico

The Italian language was being gradually removed and was removed as an official language in the 1930s with the convenient pretext of fascism, however truth is that that goal was aimed at since around the 1880s and this is all on official British documents.

But don't you, as a Maltese nationalist, prefer your own, Maltese language, to both Italian and English?

[Ederico]

Originally Posted by prometheus

But don't you, as a Maltese nationalist, prefer your own, Maltese language, to both Italian and English?

Maltese and Italian are both my languages, and this was always the traditionalist nationalist thesis. Actually, Maltese was wilely used by the English to eliminate Italian. The English and their local serfs fueled populistic aspirations through discrimination against nationalist supporters in government posts (with the Empire then being practically the only or main employer for the masses) and the promotion of the Maltese language as the language of the nation being it the language of the masses. The Maltese language, which the nationalists didn't really want hindered, was a perfect bait for those that culturally-speaking couldn't really recognise what was going on.

The truth is that that only led to the centuries-established Italian language to be denigrated through the decades and eliminated from officialdom and culture in general. The status of the Maltese language nowadays is still not much improved, with the English language being culturally hegenomic.

The worst result was the English language dominion on Malta's cultural livelihood. We now have all our public instruction in English, apart from Maltese and Religion I believe (and languages obviously) from the kindergarten to University and beyond. We have much of our "educated" nationals who can't write proper Maltese and prefer to use English in writing (please go check most Maltese forums if you have the time, and you'll see the point), no successful independent (non-political party or Church) Maltese language newspaper (a new one was just released, a liberal leftist one though, certainly not a patriotic endeavour) and much else. It is very annoying for example, that in some institutions forms are not even available in Maltese but only in English (the University is a case in point, the excuse is foreign students). Maltese nationalists had warned against this, and I've read excellent articles by Enrico Mizzi warning of such a cultural linguistic hegemony which would only result in the populace adopting protestant and rationalistic biases which are imbued in most popular English literature. Unfortunately, the "cavaliere senza macchia e senza paura" seems to have also been a cultural prophet.

The Maltese language was historically used by anglophile Imperialists as a horse of Troy to promote the English language and the elimination of the Italian language from Maltese culture. Unfortunately, most of those in favour of the Maltese language were shortsighted and easily duped and thus they fell for it. Even worse, many of them still carry over their anti-Italian bias to this day, preferring a Maltese language riper with Arabic vocabulary, something the English themselves sought to promote. Some Arabic-inspired words were introduced in the most artificial manners or awoken from their centuries long slumber, just in order to eliminate Sicilian/Italian words from Maltese parlance for example.

The accusation was always that Maltese nationalists were just elitists who opposed the Maltese language, but this was often mere deceitful propaganda as the nazionalisti always had widespread popular support. Actually, both Fortunato and Enrico Mizzi, greatest amongst Maltese nationalists in history, died in poverty even though they could have become rich if they exercised their profession. They chose their country and patriotism instead.

Truth is, their predictions related to the language question were materialised, so I doubt who was deceitful (sarcasm here, I don't doubt anything on the question).

The ugly truth is that the Maltese language was always the darling of Imperialists and Socialists in Malta, masquerading themselves for patriots. We all know how difficultly pro-British Imperialists and Socialists can be patriotic. They were populistic in the worse sense, they manipulated the masses through any means possible even though accusing implicitly the nazionalisti of doing so through labelling them "elitists" and constantly blathering against the Roman Catholic Church who supposedly sided with the latter (no wonder, you had pro-British Imperialists favouring an inherently protestant Empire with its anti-Catholic biases and Socialists (sic!) bandied together).

I guarantee that all ethnic Maltese will find some Sicilian/Italian ancestry in their family, I challenge anyone including the most ardent anglophile to provide me at least his grandparents' surname and I can guarantee that I would find some Italic surname. This reminds me of an episode from last summer, when two friends of mine, both of whom Maltese English football supporters (World Cup thing), were blathering against the Italians. The guys surnames are Portelli and Formosa respectively, Italian surnames themselves. Yes, I always support Italy unless they play against Malta.

As a concrete example, the most common ethnic Maltese surname is Camilleri for example, a Sicilian surname.There are other and many examples of this, not solely related to ancestry. This is such a huge question, that one day I'll definitely have to write a researched book on the question. This question has been dormant for way too much in Malta.

[Kernunnos]

Originally Posted by Ederico

Maltese and Italian are both my languages, and this was always the traditionalist nationalist thesis. Actually, Maltese was wilely used by the English to eliminate Italian. The English and their local serfs fueled populistic aspirations through discrimination against nationalist supporters in government posts (with the Empire then being practically the only or main employer for the masses) and the promotion of the Maltese language as the language of the nation being it the language of the masses. The Maltese language, which the nationalists didn't really want hindered, was a perfect bait for those that culturally-speaking couldn't really recognise what was going on.

The truth is that that only led to the centuries-established Italian language to be denigrated through the decades and eliminated from officialdom and culture in general. The status of the Maltese language nowadays is still not much improved, with the English language being culturally hegenomic.

The worst result was the English language dominion on Malta's cultural livelihood. We now have all our public instruction in English, apart from Maltese and Religion I believe (and languages obviously) from the kindergarten to University and beyond. We have much of our "educated" nationals who can't write proper Maltese and prefer to use English in writing (please go check most Maltese forums if you have the time, and you'll see the point), no successful independent (non-political party or Church) Maltese language newspaper (a new one was just released, a liberal leftist one though, certainly not a patriotic endeavour) and much else. It is very annoying for example, that in some institutions forms are not even available in Maltese but only in English (the University is a case in point, the excuse is foreign students). Maltese nationalists had warned against this, and I've read excellent articles by Enrico Mizzi warning of such a cultural linguistic hegemony which would only result in the populace adopting protestant and rationalistic biases which are imbued in most popular English literature. Unfortunately, the "cavaliere senza macchia e senza paura" seems to have also been a cultural prophet.

The Maltese language was historically used by anglophile Imperialists as a horse of Troy to promote the English language and the elimination of the Italian language from Maltese culture. Unfortunately, most of those in favour of the Maltese language were shortsighted and easily duped and thus they fell for it. Even worse, many of them still carry over their anti-Italian bias to this day, preferring a Maltese language riper with Arabic vocabulary, something the English themselves sought to promote. Some Arabic-inspired words were introduced in the most artificial manners or awoken from their centuries long slumber, just in order to eliminate Sicilian/Italian words from Maltese parlance for example.

The accusation was always that Maltese nationalists were just elitists who opposed the Maltese language, but this was often mere deceitful propaganda as the nazionalisti always had widespread popular support. Actually, both Fortunato and Enrico Mizzi, greatest amongst Maltese nationalists in history, died in poverty even though they could have become rich if they exercised their profession. They chose their country and patriotism instead.

Truth is, their predictions related to the language question were materialised, so I doubt who was deceitful (sarcasm here, I don't doubt anything on the question).

The ugly truth is that the Maltese language was always the darling of Imperialists and Socialists in Malta, masquerading themselves for patriots. We all know how difficultly pro-British Imperialists and Socialists can be patriotic. They were populistic in the worse sense, they manipulated the masses through any means possible even though accusing implicitly the nazionalisti of doing so through labelling them "elitists" and constantly blathering against the Roman Catholic Church who supposedly sided with the latter (no wonder, you had pro-British Imperialists favouring an inherently protestant Empire with its anti-Catholic biases and Socialists (sic!) bandied together).

I guarantee that all ethnic Maltese will find some Sicilian/Italian ancestry in their family, I challenge anyone including the most ardent anglophile to provide me at least his grandparents' surname and I can guarantee that I would find some Italic surname. This reminds me of an episode from last summer, when two friends of mine, both of whom Maltese English football supporters (World Cup thing), were blathering against the Italians. The guys surnames are Portelli and Formosa respectively, Italian surnames themselves. Yes, I always support Italy unless they play against Malta.

As a concrete example, the most common ethnic Maltese surname is Camilleri for example, a Sicilian surname.There are other and many examples of this, not solely related to ancestry. This is such a huge question, that one day I'll definitely have to write a researched book on the question. This question has been dormant for way too much in Malta.

Are you really so eager to be ruled by Rome (the present one, not the ancient that is sadly gone)? If the byzantines in Rome would agree I would happily fight for Malta to be reunited with Rome, to take our place. Enjoy your autonomy, just try to fight multiculturalism and british freemasonry. Well, just a suggestion, Rome is waiting for you to tax y ... err to give you a big warm hug.

[Ederico]

Originally Posted by Breha

Are you really so eager to be ruled by Rome (the present one, not the ancient that is sadly gone)? If the byzantines in Rome would agree I would happily fight for Malta to be reunited with Rome, to take our place. Enjoy your autonomy, just try to fight multiculturalism and british freemasonry. Well, just a suggestion, Rome is waiting for you to tax y ... err to give you a big warm hug.

Never ever, have I politically auspicated an end to Maltese autonomy in order for it to be transferred to Rome or even Brussels for that matter. Nor do I think I will ever do.

My struggle is primarily indigineous to Malta and does not really relate either to Britain or the Italian Republic nowadays. Unfortunately, it is when the British Empire and Fascist Italy were at loggerheads did Malta's indigineous Italian culture suffer. Notice the term in bold, please.

If the British did not start their policies of cultural deitalianisation in the 19th. century, the problem would not even exist. Fascist Italy actually caused more benefit to the pre-fascist British imperialistic cultural plans for Malta and more detriment to the cultural aspect of Maltese nationalism.

My nationalist struggle, is essentially a cultural struggle and any other potential effect would be due to cultural considerations. I certainly, like Maltese nationalists of the past, always favour greater autonomy for Malta and any transfer of power from Malta to any other centre of power is to be considered negative.

However, hypothetically speaking, since the majority of the Maltese actually voted to join the European Union with its deleterious liberal progressivist agenda, how would I for example oppose myself to an autonomous Malta in a federation of autonomous Italian regions? As far as I'm concerned, what I am referring to would actually give greater autonomy to Malta and other regions compared to the current European Union membership.

This notion, would actually tie in with my current view for a new and true Europe of the Nations, proper nations. A federal Europe united on lose terms for the common benefit and with the principle of subsidiarity and free association and disassociation according to popular will as the guiding light. I don't doubt that the EU's current mania of concrete centralisation, is the greatest cause for rising skepticism for this common European project. I see a federal Europe made up of heads of clusters of ethno-culturally related nations rather than a federal Europe of the current nation-states often themselves artificial and centralised in their own respect. The current EU nation-state arrangement going towards federalism, a false federalism I may add, is only a manner to allow the creation of a centralised European superstate and nothing more.

Given that this is not plausible for the immediate future, and I have my doubts about its implementation, I believe that Malta should maintain its independence and reassert its traditional Italic heritage. Fighting multiculturalism and the masonic liberal anti-Christian agenda is part of the struggle, incidently both feature prominently in the EU-wide propagandistic agenda.