A proposed bulletin of Maltese linguistic studies in 1938

Abstract

The first number of the Journal of Maltese Studies came out in 1961. During the 37 years of its existence it has contributed in a positive way to the promotion and maintenance of a scholarly tradition in local academic circles. The need of such a publication had been felt since before the last War. It was considered at the time that a review of this nature would have clinched the various language reforms carried out in the Thirties, which raised Maltese to the status of an officiallangauge, together with English, in the Administration and in the Law Courts, introduced its teaching in the primary and secondary school and set up a Ch~r of Maltese and Oriental Languages at the University. There were in fact two unsuccessful efforts to issue a Maltese linguistic review in the Thirties. An attempt by P.P. Saydon and J. Aquilina, then an undergraduate, to plan the publication of a similar review in the mid-Thirties came to naught and it was never published. In 1938 another proposal to publish such a Bulletin recieved official financial backing and it had every prospect of succeeding, but the War intervened and Death prematurely snatched away the person who was the driving force behind the whole project. Details concerning this proposal are contained in the relevant Government file.